Ok....family drama prevented me from doing my post last weekend. Studying for an certification exam at work kept me busy all week. In short...my plate is so full. But here we go. My take on the sweet 16!!
16. The Analog Kid - Me #20
Excellent ranking for an excellent song. This just serves to remind me what a brilliantly deep album Signals is. I do think it could use a slightly more "punchy" remix, but it is what it is now. Alex's guitar riff on this one in particular deserves to be a bit higher in the mix, but man what an incredible song. Great riff. And the part where Neil speeds up the tempo underneath the "...and the boy pulls down his baseball cap and covers up his eyes." part is pure goosebumps.
15. Jacob's Ladder - Me #6
This is the best example of a story being told through the music than almost anything in rock music. If there were NO lyrics to this song at all, I would still know that it's about a thunder and lightning storm, and its aftermath. The clapping sound (a vibra slap maybe?) on the one beat of "looming low and ominous" line is a perfect addition to symbolize a lightning strike. And while some consider the middle section to be a slog, I consider it to be very gloomy and brooding...just like being in the storm. Just a perfect song. One thing that was never fully captured in the R40 video was the light show during the sunbeam section. When they played it live (and if you had a second floor view looking down on the audience) there were "sunbeam" lights that came in from one side and made it look exactly like clouds had parted and the sun was breaking through on that part of the crowd. It was amazing.
14. Hemispheres - Me #1
For SHAME!!!! This low ranking truly bums me out. I was hoping for #1, but I figured the odds were about 50/50. But if you had told me that it wouldn't even make the top 10? I would have said you were crazy. This is quite possibly the greatest piece of rock music ever written by anyone period. The message of balance was very appealing to a young mind that had a tendency to be an extremist, and saw the problems it sometimes caused. So it's been something of guide for me in my life outlook. Everything else I could say was probably already touched on in my earlier post. But in short, it was a HUGE step up in songwriting from the largely patchworked 2112. Hemispheres is the only side long that they ever did that truly sounded like a complete and cohesive "SONG".
13. Between the Wheels - Me #38
With this one, I'm actually a bit disappointed with my ranking...but the song does have a lot of competition. Absolutely the best song on GUP. And the mood is perfectly in harmony with the mood of the whole album. Most of their album closers are very positive sounding songs. This one is very dark and bleak, but that's GUP in a nutshell, so it works.
12. YYZ - Me #12
Hey! I think this is the first song that I nailed the final ranking on! Their second best instrumental of all time. And the ESL version with the drum solo is the definitive version. I think that's the only drum solo that I actually memorized note for note in my entire life. Neil always talked about have a musicality to his drum solos and that one was probably the perfect example. It wasn't until almost 20 years after the fact that I discovered (via an older interview) that the intro beat was morse code for YYZ. I felt especially stupid because my dad was a ham radio and morse code nut...I probably could have won some points with my rock music if I had shown him that.
11. Freewill - Me #11
Hey! Two in a row!! I'm on a roll!
This and TSOR are probably the main reason I consider PeW to be a better introduction to what Rush is all about than MP. Even though Tom Sawyer is certainly career defining (and certainly hooked me on the first listen) I just think that the one two punch of TSOR and Freewill to be a bit more happy and accessible and yet still very much musically complex. The instrumental bridge is pretty much Rush encapsulated.
10. Marathon - Me #10
Ok...three in a row? Now it's just funny!
My 2nd favorite from Power Windows. Very worthy of the top 10 showing. And it's true what has been said previously...the studio version is excellent, but it absolutely goes to another level live.
9. 2112 - Me #25
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the top 10 showing. It's classic, and I love the individual bits, but on the whole, it really doesn't feel like a complete song the way Hemispheres does. The stop/starts are similar to TFOL and it takes away from the pace of the "song" quite a bit. But definitely the opening 2 parts and the ending 2 parts are phenomenal.
8. Limelight - Me #19
Another one that I wish I had ranked a bit higher. But it's also the perfect example of how impossible it is to come up with even a top 20 for such an amazing catalog. Absolutely one of Alex's finest solos and the lyrics being Neil's "love letter" of a sort to his audience is really something. It's just seemed to say, "I understand...but I don't know you. So please understand me."
7. Natural Science - Me #2
This song actually has a pretty big following around these parts, so I'm a bit surprised it didn't make the top 5. As much as I enjoyed seeing it live on a couple of occasions, I've always been slightly bummed by the altered version. I really enjoy all 3 verses of the Permanent Waves section of the song, and I think the lyrics flow into each other really well. It always feels like something is missing when they leave one out. But the original is about as perfect as it gets.
6. Tom Sawyer - Me #14
Ah yes. The one that started it all. I heard this for the first time when someone brought a copy to the last day of school (a free day) in the 6th grade. That opening synth intro hit me like a lead brick that I still feel to this very day. I was in love immediately, and I begged my parents to get me the album. My parents were very conservative, and monitored my music habits closely, but they were unable to find anything particularly objectionable about these three nice boys from Canada, so Moving Pictures became the very first album I ever bought that summer. Still one of the best albums in all classic rock. Usually, the most popular album by a band is often considered to be not really their artistic best. But there were a few rare moments when the public "got it right". Moving Pictures is among those rare "lightning in a bottle" albums.
5. La Villa Strangiato - Me #3
This is the song that I ever so reluctantly bumped Territories down to #4 for. It was extremely difficult, but in the end, I do feel it was the correct decision. This is Rush at their instrumental zenith. I don't think I've ever tired of this song. Peak performance by all 3 of them.
4. Red Barchetta - Me #7
My favorite and highest ranking MP track makes the top 5. Niiiiiiice. Another great example of the music telling as much of the story as the lyrics do. And the story really drives it. I believe it was Neil's last point blank narrative story until Clockwork Angels. My favorite part part is immediately after the guitar solo when they go back into the main driving riff just before the last verse. On one tour (don't remember which one off the top of my head) they took it waaaaaayyyy down and lengthened it up and I thought the "tension building" of that was so perfect for the song. Not sure it would have worked on the studio version proper, but I always remember thinking that in a live setting it felt like an improvement.
3. The Spirit of Radio - Me #9
Stadler...I never questioned your tastes...not ever....until now. Seriously? I just do not get how any Rush fan cannot have this in their top 20 at a bare minimum. And even if it were in the upper teens I'd be shocked. This song might be one of the "happiest" prog rock songs ever. Right up there with Turn It On by Genesis (and I think TSOR is superior in that department). That's probably why I think that it's a better "first song" for someone who hasn't heard Rush than even Tom Sawyer. This song is so much fun. And it's great when you're driving.
2. Xanadu - Me #5
There was a time when I had burnt out on this a bit. But my brother has been sharing Rick Beato videos with me lately, and when Rick did a breakdown of every bit and layer of Xanadu and what makes it such a gem, I was transported back to when I first fell in love with it. And yet, it wasn't instant. I was still a pretty new Rush fan when I picked up ESL, and I wasn't accustomed to longer songs yet. But I loved Broon's Bane and the Trees, which of course, seamlessly led into Xanadu. So it took a few spins for a 13yr old mind to wrap his head around. But once I "got it", A Farewell to Kings became my next album purchase. Another great memory of this song. My first "Laser Rush" at the local Laserium at the Pacific Science Center. It opened with Xanadu and it was AMAZING! It was loud and it was incredible. I remember that when the power chords hit about the 2 minute mark, an album cover would come flying towards you. Every power chord, a new album cover came flying at your face....Rush, FBN, COS, 2112, ATWAS, AFTK, Hemi, PeW, MP, ESL, and Signals (the only albums released at the time)...then on the last one, the Starman symbol just hovered in the air. It took my break away.
1. Subdivisions - Me #8
Really shocked this made it to #1. But I'm not disappointed. It's just really surprising. The lyrics are among my favorite in Neil's entire catalog. They perfectly capture the spirit of being young and dissatisfied with being away from the city...and then wanting nothing else but to get away from the city once you've been there. Also, the idea of not fitting in certainly resonated with just about everyone in Rush's core fanbase. And again, not to beat a dead horse here, but this was a great example of Rush going the synth route, but not sacrificing honesty and musicianship in the process. There is **A LOT** going on in just the into of this song. They did not dumb down their music just because they introduced synthesizers, and I think most people got that, which is why the synth era is still loved by many fans.
WHEW!! I did it! I'll try to take some time to post my full list along with some more thoughts later.
Topic: Official Top 75 Rush songs Thread!!! (Top 2 revealed!!) (Read 52853 times)
