What would Grace Under Pressure have sounded like if Terry Brown produced it?

[grasbo]

Don't know if this has been brought up before and has bugged me for some time,but here goes.

Grace Under Pressure is one of my fave albums but it seems to polarize the Terry Brown era fans.For some Signals is the begining of the end and of course this is Terry's last album with the band.I was reading the liner notes to GUP Tour cd the other night and Neil goes into detail how Terry was let go and how they wanted change.GUP sounds very New Waveish ,electronic percussion,keyboards and for my money some of Alex's inspired guitar work but a mile away from the thick power chords of Moving Pictures.I have a couple friends who won't go past MP,saying they lost it as well as losing Terry.This has all been dicussed before but sometimes i imagine GUP with a more heavier production.I play Afterimage and Red Sector A on my guitar with much heavier sound just to see what it sounds like.Would the old crowd be still with them today if Terry kept producing?

[Narps]

I am most certainly old school and am not much of a fan of their late 80's output to current. Having said that I have always lumped in Grace Under Pressure with the great stuff Terry Brown or no. Power Windows started the down slide for me anyway. I wouldn't change a thing about the sound and production of that album...

[fraroc]

Well, look who's back :)

[GabesCavesOfIce]

I am most certainly old school and am not much of a fan of their late 80's output to current. Having said that I have always lumped in Grace Under Pressure with the great stuff Terry Brown or no. Power Windows started the down slide for me anyway. I wouldn't change a thing about the sound and production of that album...

 

 

What a thrill it is to quote Mr Narps again! Also Brown era fan here, and I also rate "the decline" to the moment I heard Big Money on the radio.

 

I think Grace and Signals are very good albums, but the next two, although both contain a couple of great tunes, are where the decline rests.

 

I would single out Between the Wheels as a song I'd love to hear with the "sinewy" (t/h Geddy Lee discussing the Hip) guitar treatment.

[YYZ Working Man]

GUP is a great sounding album- another fine product of LeStudio's state of art recording equiptment and majestic surroundings so we cant blame the technology or or atmosphere. The band especially Geddy had to take ownership of this project and do alot of their own editing and mixing because they did not get the result by Henderson they expected. This album was one of the hardest efforts, mentally draining and took the longest to record due to this. Geddy had a tough time enjoying this album and the final result of it left them wondering how the fans would receive it. Alot was weird in the music industry in 1984. I think they did a great job for a new type of Rush sound and put forth their technical abilities as Rush always does.They were really tight on this tour too . This was my first RUSH concert - 1st row floors at maple leaf gardens Toronto- years later I learned it made it to the video too.

I think Terry Brown may have have helped make this album go alot smoother and quicker making everyone more comfortable but for the new- wave approach they were going after -I doubt he could have made it heavier.

RIP: Robbie Whealen ....

[Tombstone Mountain]

I am most certainly old school and am not much of a fan of their late 80's output to current. Having said that I have always lumped in Grace Under Pressure with the great stuff Terry Brown or no. Power Windows started the down slide for me anyway. I wouldn't change a thing about the sound and production of that album...

Agreed, Why screw around with am awesome album? It's perfect as is

[Blue J]

I think the change in direction that the band wanted was something they saw as a matter of growth; of their evolution as a band. (Say what one will about whether the change in their sound was a "good" thing, or not- personally, I love all of their '80s output, despite a couple of weaker songs on Power Windows- the rest of 1984-'89 is really, really great. It's just different).

 

Considering the difference of opinion that he had with the band (or at least with Geddy) during the making of Signals...if Terry Brown had produced GUP, I don't think it would have been a pleasant experience for any of them. And their parting of ways- which, in hindsight, I think was inevitable- would have been downright acrimonious.

[bluefox4000]

Wow haven't talked about Rush in ages, lol

 

anyway......as much as i don't like this album and am intrigued how Broon might have handled this. i think at this point Rush was at a fork in their musical road. they could have continued on with Terry and eventually become stale.......you know they would have or branch out. and i think it was essential for their survival to do so.

 

Mick

Edited August 27, 2016 by bluefox4000

[Maverick]

GUP was produced and engineered by the right people, in the right way, at the right time.

 

Trying to change something on GUP would be like trying to change anything on PeW, MP, Hemispheres, or 2112.

 

What I'm saying is, the album is perfect the way it is.

 

Don't try to f*ck with it.

[Lorraine]

I never heard a difference in the production. Sounds like what came before it to me.

[Babycat]

I like it - I think it's perfect how it is.

[Digital Dad]

GUP was produced and engineered by the right people, in the right way, at the right time.

 

Trying to change something on GUP would be like trying to change anything on PeW, MP, Hemispheres, or 2112.

 

What I'm saying is, the album is perfect the way it is.

 

 

Yeah, except for the digitally processed sound and the 3 or 4 shitty songs on it.

[Disembodied Spirit]

I love GUP. I am more happy Nick Raskulinecz was not involved ...could you imagine??

[Mr. JD]

I am most certainly old school and am not much of a fan of their late 80's output to current. Having said that I have always lumped in Grace Under Pressure with the great stuff Terry Brown or no. Power Windows started the down slide for me anyway. I wouldn't change a thing about the sound and production of that album...

 

^^^ This

[Lucas]

Sometimes conflict can be a good thing in artistic creation, and sometimes it can kill it . .

 

You name a great band or great album and in there somewhere is tension and conflict that has been worked into magic .. And if "tension" or "conflict" are not the right words in certain situations, then I believe a good, healthy meeting of the minds and input from outside sources can be very helpful ..

 

IMHO, this is not evident on Grace Under Pressure, and for me, the entire album suffers from what I feel plagues Rush from that point on: where the sound of every song is so similar that it takes away from the feeling of being complete ..

 

And this is where I think Terry Brown could have made Grace a better album ..

 

You look back at the classic Rush: you had songs on 2112 like A Passage To Bangkok and Tears and Something For Nothing and they all sounded completely different - the approach and intent was so varied, and this a huge part of why Rush was so great ...

 

While Grace has some excellent songs, to my ear, you could take a section of any one of those songs, alter the tempo accordingly, and stick it in another song and it would fit - - the album was a wash one sound, one intention ..

 

A great producer will also do a lot more than simply get an album to sound good - if you look at what Bob Ezrin did with KISS and Destroyer, he helped take an underground DIY bar band and added tubular bells, calliope, orchestration and choirs, narration, kids blurting out lines over the music - he literally helped create a monster of an album ...

 

I feel Grace suffered from the opposite

[EagleMoon]

I can hear the difference in the production of this album compared to Signals. The clarity of all the instruments is not quite where it was on the previous album. I think he could've made it sound better but there's no way to know whether him being around would've changed anything else they did.

[Segue Myles]

Signals sounds crap

 

GUP is perfect

[Day of Light]

I love Grace Under Pressure but I always found there was something strange about the way it sounded. It might just be me but it's a fuzzy album, with jarring keyboards and a weird guitar sound--it kind of adds to the atmosphere of the whole thing, though, so I don't know if I would change it.

 

I'd like to hear Terry's GuP just to compare, definitely, but, actually, as long as we're theorycrafting the "what-if's" I'd love to hear what Rupert Hine would've done with it.

[Day of Light]

Signals sounds crap

 

GUP is perfect

 

oh you

[Permanent-Rush]

I like it - I think it's perfect how it is.

 

Same! It is my second favorite :rush: Album.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Surrender74

[bluefox4000]

Although......hmmmm......i haven't listened to Rush in like maybe 4 months. no urge to. but maybe Grace would sound great to me now, lol

 

Mick

[EagleMoon]

Signals sounds crap

 

GUP is perfect

 

Uh....no.

 

[Segue Myles]

Signals sounds crap

 

GUP is perfect

 

Uh....no.

 

 

Yet ANOTHER thing we...

 

No wait...we don't haha

[Lorraine]

 

 

 

 

Music to my ears.

[EagleMoon]

Signals sounds crap

 

GUP is perfect

 

Uh....no.

 

 

Yet ANOTHER thing we...

 

No wait...we don't haha

 

 

I'm not huge fan of Signals the album, but I think technically it was well produced. All of the instruments are well defined with no clipping, with just enough space to make it comfortable to listen to. You don't have to enjoy the music to recognize that it was crafted well.