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Rush songs that deserved a re-do


jnoble
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I'm referring to those songs that didn't live up to their potential simply because of the style of recording/production.

 

First song that comes to my mind is Face Up. Imagine this song with a much beefier guitar sound or held over to the Counterparts sessions....

 

That dinky tinny guitar tone Alex used and Neil's tupperware sounding drums. Damn you Rupert Hine.... :rage:

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Great topic. RTB is one of their worst produced releases. I'd put Presto in there as well - which is a travesty. Thin and tinny is a good way to describe it. Neither one of those albums had any meat on its bones and no matter how much bass I add to the equalizer, they just don't sound full.

 

There are a few songs I would change -

 

1. Spindrift (The verse at the 2:47 mark where Geddy sings "A little closer to you" doesn't sound like it belongs in the tune and completely changes its mood).

 

2. Territories (Great song but I would have preferred Alex's guitar provide texture instead of the keyboards. Specifically where the keyboards enter at the 3 second mark. Geddy's keyboard sounds like an organ from an old horror movie.

 

3. Caravan from CA also sounds like it could benefit from a redo or different arrangement. It has a lot of great parts and Neil's drumming sounds terrific but the song is all over the place. Take a listen to how cool this section at the 1:27 mark sounds without the vocals:

 

 

I'd also replace Geddy's flamenco strumming during one of the jam sections with a more traditional playing style too (Think FreeWill jam section). Are these the sort of things a Producer would suggest in terms of feedback?

Edited by anchorman
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I'm referring to those songs that didn't live up to their potential simply because of the style of recording/production.

 

First song that comes to my mind is Face Up. Imagine this song with a much beefier guitar sound or held over to the Counterparts sessions....

 

That dinky tinny guitar tone Alex used and Neil's tupperware sounding drums. Damn you Rupert Hine.... :rage:

 

 

Holy crap my wife and I were making just this comment about Face Up yesterday! We love the song but hate the production. I told her it should've been produced by Peter Collins and was a dry run for Stick it Out.

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RTB is far and away Alex's worst guitar studio album. Even more so than Presto or HYF or Power Windows. And not for his playing which was always great, for his thin tinny chimey no balls or grit whatsoever pushed too far back in the mix sound. And like I mentioned, I blame Hine and who ever approved the final mix for that.

Alex himself said something along the lines of "It sounded great in the studio but something got lost during mixing" about Bones

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Presto's thin sound doesn't bother me nearly as much as Bones does. In fact I kind of like it once my ear gets used to it. Its not as overblown by comparison Hold Your Fire which was on purpose to thin out their sound with less synths & keyboards. But RTB....Ugh, that paper thin sound just grates on me past 4 songs
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Great topic. RTB is one of their worst produced releases. I'd put Presto in there as well - which is a travesty. Thin and tinny is a good way to describe it. Neither one of those albums had any meat on its bones and no matter how much bass I add to the equalizer, they just don't sound full.

 

There are a few songs I would change -

 

1. Spindrift (The verse at the 2:47 mark where Geddy sings "A little closer to you" doesn't sound like it belongs in the tune and completely changes its mood).

 

2. Territories (Great song but I would have preferred Alex's guitar provide texture instead of the keyboards. Specifically where the keyboards enter at the 3 second mark. Geddy's keyboard sounds like an organ from an old horror movie.

 

3. Caravan from CA also sounds like it could benefit from a redo or different arrangement. It has a lot of great parts and Neil's drumming sounds terrific but the song is all over the place. Take a listen to how cool this section at the 1:27 mark sounds without the vocals:

 

 

I'd also replace Geddy's flamenco strumming during one of the jam sections with a more traditional playing style too (Think FreeWill jam section). Are these the sort of things a Producer would suggest in terms of feedback?

That's my favorite part of the song.
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Great topic. RTB is one of their worst produced releases. I'd put Presto in there as well - which is a travesty. Thin and tinny is a good way to describe it. Neither one of those albums had any meat on its bones and no matter how much bass I add to the equalizer, they just don't sound full.

 

There are a few songs I would change -

 

1. Spindrift (The verse at the 2:47 mark where Geddy sings "A little closer to you" doesn't sound like it belongs in the tune and completely changes its mood).

 

2. Territories (Great song but I would have preferred Alex's guitar provide texture instead of the keyboards. Specifically where the keyboards enter at the 3 second mark. Geddy's keyboard sounds like an organ from an old horror movie.

 

3. Caravan from CA also sounds like it could benefit from a redo or different arrangement. It has a lot of great parts and Neil's drumming sounds terrific but the song is all over the place. Take a listen to how cool this section at the 1:27 mark sounds without the vocals:

 

 

I'd also replace Geddy's flamenco strumming during one of the jam sections with a more traditional playing style too (Think FreeWill jam section). Are these the sort of things a Producer would suggest in terms of feedback?

That's my favorite part of the song.

 

That's the sort of thing that makes Rush's music so great. HYF is probably my least favorite Rush release and yet it attracted a whole new legion of die-hard fans. Whatever magic attracted me in the previous releases to HYF still existed for new fans.

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Remixing songs like Face Up won't change the dinky guitar tone at all. Alex used a thin single coil pickup sound throughout most of Bones to its detriment. It would need to be re recorded and that ain't happening now or ever for obvious reasons
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Coincidentally I was thinking something similar today. A bit more than re-mixing but way back in 1974 - leave the first album as a small independent Canadian release, record the best tracks with Neil, combine those tracks witht he best of the FBN tracks and that is their first album with Neil, then rejig CoS with an altered track list that drops ITIGB and Lakeside Park but ads FBN. I think the imbalnce in duration of Side 1 and Side 2 of CoS ruined that album for the 8 track and cassette format. Leave Lakeside Park as a song played live and appears on ATWAS

 

So first international album is:

 

Finding My Way

In the Mood

What You're Doing

Working Man

 

Anthem

Best I can

BB&B

By-tor

 

and second record

 

Bastille Day

FBN

The Necromancer

 

TFOL

 

kick ass records

 

:D

 

sorry, with Neil's passing, I've been geeking out on Rush non-stop

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Coincidentally I was thinking something similar today. A bit more than re-mixing but way back in 1974 - leave the first album as a small independent Canadian release, record the best tracks with Neil, combine those tracks witht he best of the FBN tracks and that is their first album with Neil, then rejig CoS with an altered track list that drops ITIGB and Lakeside Park but ads FBN. I think the imbalnce in duration of Side 1 and Side 2 of CoS ruined that album for the 8 track and cassette format. Leave Lakeside Park as a song played live and appears on ATWAS

 

So first international album is:

 

Finding My Way

In the Mood

What You're Doing

Working Man

 

Anthem

Best I can

BB&B

By-tor

 

and second record

 

Bastille Day

FBN

The Necromancer

 

TFOL

 

kick ass records

 

:D

 

sorry, with Neil's passing, I've been geeking out on Rush non-stop

 

Your first album tracklist here is sweet!

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Honestly, most of PW, HYF, and RTB could be rerecorded.

My ears didn't like Power Windows eve when I discovered it in the 1990s.

Now that I've been listening to huge, dynamic, immaculate recordings by electronic artists, it would sound even worse.

Still, if you put a gun to my head and said name one tune to fix the recording, I'd say Bravado, because it's such a GREAT great great song.

I would want to start by rescuing the ones worth saving the most.

(Especially Neil's drumming on that third chorus. Whew. It still blows my hair back.)

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RTB, original VT and Clockwork are the three Rush albums I simply can't sit through start to finish largely because of the sound: RTB for being so thin weak early 90s dated and gutless and VT/CWA for being distorted brickwalled layers & layers of guitars Geddy choir overload
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