Official Top 75 Rush songs Thread!!! (Top 2 revealed!!)

[Stadler]

I have one album that is wholly represented.  I have three albums that are represented by all but one song.  Two albums are not represented at all. 

[romdrums]

I have one album that is wholly represented.

Let me guess...Grace Under Pressure?

[HOF]

The debut, Feedback, and Snakes and Arrows are the three that are not represented on my list (haven’t filed yet, but don’t think that will change).

[Stadler]

I have one album that is wholly represented.

Let me guess...Grace Under Pressure?

Believe it or not.... no.  Two songs from GUP made the list.

In all fairness, I didn't listen to every song again before doing this list.  I went off memory for most of it, and I feel like one of the two albums - T4E - would have done a lot better had I just listened to it.  I always say that album blows, but when I listen it's not THAT bad.   Then I forget, and it doesn't make the list. 

[TAC]

I did some listening, especially on some of the tough head to head battles.

[Setlist Scotty]

The debut, Feedback, and Snakes and Arrows are the three that are not represented on my list (haven’t filed yet, but don’t think that will change).

Well, I would hope Feedback wouldn't be represented, seeing as it's just covers and no covers are permitted.   

[wolfking]

I may break the record for the number of albums not represented.  Only slowly worked out a top 10 but can see where it's going. 

I have always been funny with Rush.  A number of albums I absolutely love but a number I also don't resonate with at all.  We have a funny relationship.

[Stadler]

I'm pretty sure I can name three songs right now that I will get stick for not including on my top 75, and one that didn't make the top 50.

I love my Top 10, though.  May go and make a playlist........

[pg1067]

I wonder if it could be something like Closer to the Heart.

That's my guess.

[wolfking]

I have one album that is wholly represented.

Let me guess...Grace Under Pressure?

Believe it or not.... no.  Two songs from GUP made the list.

In all fairness, I didn't listen to every song again before doing this list.  I went off memory for most of it, and I feel like one of the two albums - T4E - would have done a lot better had I just listened to it.  I always say that album blows, but when I listen it's not THAT bad.   Then I forget, and it doesn't make the list. 

I don't know, but my thinking for the most part with these sorts of rankings, it should be done by memory and gut feel, some a little sprinkled listening here and there.

[425]

I feel the same way, after having tried to do rankings in the past by listening through all the songs. I find that it can actually distort the ranking if I'm listening to every song trying to find things to like or dislike.

[HOF]

The debut, Feedback, and Snakes and Arrows are the three that are not represented on my list (haven’t filed yet, but don’t think that will change).

Well, I would hope Feedback wouldn't be represented, seeing as it's just covers and no covers are permitted.   

Ah, well, wouldn’t have anyway!

[wolfking]

I feel the same way, after having tried to do rankings in the past by listening through all the songs. I find that it can actually distort the ranking if I'm listening to every song trying to find things to like or dislike.

Yep.  I think the best representation for yourself is to not overthink it all.

[KevShmev]

The only album to not get represented on my list is Vapor Trails, although Freeze, Nocturne and Earthshine were all not far behind.

Test for Echo, which I do treat like the band's red-headed step child , did squeeze one in at 74. 

[devieira73]

I feel the same way, after having tried to do rankings in the past by listening through all the songs. I find that it can actually distort the ranking if I'm listening to every song trying to find things to like or dislike.

Interesting thought! Yes, also my approach is like wolfking's, I think it works more faithfully.
By the way, every Rush album is represented in my list! Even the first one, although I must admit I always hear the song in its amazing ATWsAS live version.

[devieira73]

Yesterday I was listening on Spotify the good sounding bootleg "The First US Tours" and 2 things:
- It is really incredible to hear Neil Peart playing like a maniac, overplaying all the John Rutsey songs!
- I never knew that a By-Tor instrumental section originated from the jams of Working Man live. Really cool to hear!

[TAC]

My list is sent!


Here is how the list is spread across the albums..

Rush....3
Fly By Night....4
Caress Of Steel....2
2112....3
A Farewell To Kings....4
Hemispheres....4
Permanent Waves....5
Moving Pictures....7
Signals....7
Grace Under Pressure....5
Power Windows....4
Hold Your Fire....3
Presto....5
Roll The Bones....4
Counterparts....6
Test For Echo....3
Vapor Trails....3
Clockwork Angels....3
Snakes & Arrows....0

[wolfking]

My list is sent!


Here is how the list is spread across the albums..

Rush....3
Fly By Night....4
Caress Of Steel....2
2112....3
A Farewell To Kings....4
Hemispheres....4
Permanent Waves....5
Moving Pictures....7
Signals....7
Grace Under Pressure....5
Power Windows....4
Hold Your Fire....3
Presto....5
Roll The Bones....4
Counterparts....6
Test For Echo....3
Vapor Trails....3
Clockwork Angels....3
Snakes & Arrows....0

Yeah, Power Windows sucks alright.   

[TAC]

But those 4 songs occupy spots 72-75.

[wolfking]

But those 4 songs occupy spots 72-75.

 

[wolfking]

Looks like some Rush CDs are coming out of the rack.

I have one album that is wholly represented.

Let me guess...Grace Under Pressure?

Believe it or not.... no.  Two songs from GUP made the list.

In all fairness, I didn't listen to every song again before doing this list.  I went off memory for most of it, and I feel like one of the two albums - T4E - would have done a lot better had I just listened to it.  I always say that album blows, but when I listen it's not THAT bad.   Then I forget, and it doesn't make the list. 

I don't know, but my thinking for the most part with these sorts of rankings, it should be done by memory and gut feel, some a little sprinkled listening here and there.

I guess I should call myself out here.  To clarify (not that anyone cares) but the contradiction between these two comments fall in line with this comment;

I may break the record for the number of albums not represented.  Only slowly worked out a top 10 but can see where it's going. 

I have always been funny with Rush.  A number of albums I absolutely love but a number I also don't resonate with at all.  We have a funny relationship.

Felt obliged to maybe check out the albums I neglect to try and be fair but I'm just finding myself reaching for my favs.  I'm enjoying listening through some albums but I don't think it's going to impact my intuitive approach to this.

[jammindude]

I just did a check on my first list and discovered that all 19 albums are represented within my top 51. And I’m not necessarily happy with where 51 ended up. I’m definitely going to take a second crack at this over the weekend

[Cool Chris]

I may break the record for the number of albums not represented.  Only slowly worked out a top 10 but can see where it's going. 

I have always been funny with Rush.  A number of albums I absolutely love but a number I also don't resonate with at all.  We have a funny relationship.

Let's compare notes at some point. This describes me as well, so much so I wasn't sure I was "qualified" enough to participate in this.

[The Realm]

I may break the record for the number of albums not represented.  Only slowly worked out a top 10 but can see where it's going. 

I have always been funny with Rush.  A number of albums I absolutely love but a number I also don't resonate with at all.  We have a funny relationship.

Let's compare notes at some point. This describes me as well, so much so I wasn't sure I was "qualified" enough to participate in this.

Yes, I also feel exactly the same way. I've worked on a list, probably just about there and in the end it is much more varied than I thought. Even though there are a couple of Rush albums I pretty much never listen to I have every album represented in my list. I'm feeling something can't be right...

[Cool Chris]

If anything this is giving me the impetus to listen to those albums I would otherwise never listen to, and probably haven't more than a couple times many years ago.

[wolfking]

If anything this is giving me the impetus to listen to those albums I would otherwise never listen to, and probably haven't more than a couple times many years ago.

Which was what I was aiming to do.  However, I don't see anything changing my thoughts or rankings too much on a whole.

I'll be finalising my list down to the wire but I will post some notes on how it's shaping up.

I understand your 'not qualified' take also.  I briefly had that thought with a few albums....BUT...I think if you can safely enough rank 75 songs with credibility, I don't see an issue ignoring albums you are not very familiar with.  Me personally, I'm not that familiar with some albums for a reason, so therefore they would rank low anyway.

[Cool Chris]

I initially did a quick scan of the full list on my spreadsheet and tagged all songs that had to make my Top 75, and I got over 50, so I felt it would be a reasonable exercise for me. I know what my #1 is (as I list it as one of my all time favorite songs) and I could easily pull out the Top 10. I am curious how the ranking engine sorts everything after that.

[HOF]

Sent my list off. Here are numbers of songs for each album on it:

Rush - 0
Fly By Night - 2
Caress of Steel - 1
2112 - 1
A Farewell To Kings - 2
Hemispheres - 2
Permanent Waves - 4
Moving Pictures - 4
Signals - 7
Grace Under Pressure - 7
Power Windows - 8
Hold Your Fire - 4
Presto - 9
Roll the Bones - 4
Counterparts - 7
Test for Echo - 6
Vapor Trails - 6
Snakes & Arrows - 0
Clockwork Angels - 1

It's distorted a bit by the later albums having more tracks, but it still tracks well with what I consider to be my favorite albums. Although I will say if we had gone out to 100 Caress of Steel and Clockwork Angels would have gotten at least 2 more, and Snakes and Arrows would have had two at least.

I kind off think in the future we should submit larger lists than how ever many get counted down. So if we do 75, everyone submits a list of 100. I think that would give a better picture of the consensus as someone might have had a song at 80 that didn’t make their 75 but made some higher lists. If you rank 100, that song still gets 20 points, etc. It would also make just getting on someone’s top 75 more valuable off the bat (25 points instead of 1). It might all be a wash though since the songs at the top would be more valuable too, dunno.

[romdrums]

Here’s my breakdown per album:

Rush - 1/8
Fly By Night - 1/8
Caress of Steel - 0/5
2112 - 1/6
A Farewell to Kings - 2/6
Hemispheres - 2/4
Permanent Waves - 5/6
Moving Pictures - 6/7
Signals - 6/8
Grace Under Pressure - 4/8
Power Windows - 7/8
Hold Your Fire - 4/10
Presto -  6/11
Roll the Bones - 4/10
Counterparts - 6/11
Test For Echo - 4/11
Vapor Trails - 5/13
Snakes and Arrows - 3/13
Clockwork Angels - 8/13

[nick_z]

I'm enjoying this...

Here's my top 75 breakdown:

Rush: 0/8
Fly by Night: 0/8 (two were real close, though)
Caress of Steel: 1/5
2112: 1/6
A Farewell to Kings: 3/6
Hemispheres: 4/4
Permanent Waves: 5/6
Moving Pictures: 7/7
Signals: 4/8
Grace Under Pressure: 6/8
Power Windows: 7/8
Hold Your Fire: 6/10
Presto: 3/11
Roll the Bones: 4/10
Counterparts: 10/11
Test for Echo: 3/11
Vapor Trails: 5/13
Snakes and Arrows: 2/13
Clockwork Angels: 4/12

[HOF]

Counterparts was a tough one. Almost everything on it was in consideration for me, but I just ran out of room. Would have gotten at least two more in a top 100.

[Stadler]

Rush....3/8  (Same as TAC)
Fly By Night....4/8  (Same as TAC)
Caress Of Steel....2/5  (Same as TAC)
2112....3/6  (Same as TAC)
A Farewell To Kings....5/6  (One more than TAC)
Hemispheres....4/4 (Same as TAC)
Permanent Waves....4/6  (One less than TAC)
Moving Pictures....6/7  (One less than TAC)
Signals....7/8  (Same as TAC)
Grace Under Pressure....2/8
Power Windows....3/8  (TAC has more PW songs than I do!!)
Hold Your Fire....7/10
Presto....9/11
Roll The Bones....2/10
Counterparts....6/11  (Same as TAC)
Test For Echo....0/11
Vapor Trails....0/13
Snakes & Arrows....6/13
Clockwork Angels....2/12

[Stadler]

Counterparts was a tough one. Almost everything on it was in consideration for me, but I just ran out of room. Would have gotten at least two more in a top 100.

I know I must like Counterparts more than my conscious brain realizes, because so many of those songs brought fond feelings when they came up.   Couple clunkers, but some good tunes on that record. 

[nick_z]

Counterparts was a tough one. Almost everything on it was in consideration for me, but I just ran out of room. Would have gotten at least two more in a top 100.

I know I must like Counterparts more than my conscious brain realizes, because so many of those songs brought fond feelings when they came up.   Couple clunkers, but some good tunes on that record.

Counterparts is a top 3 Rush record for me

[HOF]

Counterparts was a tough one. Almost everything on it was in consideration for me, but I just ran out of room. Would have gotten at least two more in a top 100.

I know I must like Counterparts more than my conscious brain realizes, because so many of those songs brought fond feelings when they came up.   Couple clunkers, but some good tunes on that record.

There is one song in particular that I made a point to rank that I expect is a bit divisive, but I listened to it again last night after submitting my list, and I really think it is just really great track. Neil and Geddy are really locked in for that particular sound and for the whole album really (though when were they not!).