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I'd say that by Signals, and certainly by Grace Under Pressure, Geddy was putting so many more layered parts on the keys that there was no way around it. To his credit, he even says in his book that the inability to do it live was a big part of the decision to leave the keyboards behind. I think Geddy just loved programming. He's clearly passionate about finding synth sounds - even freshening up the Mini Moog stuff every tour. In later years, swap the keyboards for layers of vocal harmonies. Equally impossible for Geddy to actually do. I always thought they could have used Alex more vocally. Some of the Snakes and Clockwork stuff was downright distracting with the piped in vocals and fake rhythm guitar behind the solos. One thing I'm actually looking forward to with Loren Gold is possibly getting some actual live vocal harmonies, as well as keyboard parts created in real time as opposed to playback.

I guess you could say it started back on PeW with The Spirit Of Radio - the chorus is a sequencer that he triggered with his foot, I think...and then there's the sequencer on Vital Signs, which I think maybe was them playing to tape live? They clearly made a decision after GUP that they would not allow their arrangement choices to be dictated by the binary "bass or keyboards" thing. We also should not forget that they actually brought a keyboard player in during the PW sessions. I think this has been downplayed over the years, but it's probably good to remember that a lot of the parts that were being sequenced were parts Geddy never played in the first place, and likely were beyond his skills as a keyboardist. I think that time is an interesting period in their career...they really challenged themselves to replicate those arrangements live. One could argue that it was to the detriment of the live energy of the band - Geddy spending so much time locked behind the bank of keyboards, Alex married to his pedals. It's interesting to imagine what it would have been like if Rush were not so obsessed with recreating the album arrangements - what would some of those songs from PW or Hold Your Fire be like if they were more stripped down live. We'll never know. I personally never had an issue with the triggering of keyboard parts back on those 80s tours - but when they started triggering background vocals (I think beginning on the Presto tour?) that somehow seemed less authentic. It's really just semantics, but it seems like more of a cheat somehow.

Their best music video and directed Gerard of Devo.

To me, a prime example of this is Grand Designs. A song thats full of both intricate keyboard parts and bass lines, often done simultaneously. When you have prominent keyboard parts along with a prominent bass guitar, Ged really couldn't "Red Sector A" it by just having no bass and all keys, hence why that song has so much Milli Vanilli'd keyboards when they did it in a live setting. A lot of songs from Presto and Roll The Bones are like that as well, where keyboards and bass guitar are given equal spotlight time in a song. As much as some Rush fans might view this new quartet lineup as a sacrilege, I think it's going to be pretty interesting if they pull out some Presto/RTB songs or synth era material where you have a seperate keyboard player that can replicate all those parts while Ged focuses solely on bass.

Kid Gloves and Afterimage. I really like the Terry Brown mix of Afterimage.

Ged started to mess about with sequencers for songs like Digital Man and The Weapon during the Signals tour, then with Red Sector A during the GUP tour. Power Windows is where I've always felt that Ged started to become too dependent on sequencers for certain songs where you'd have times where he's singing and just holding down a single key to trigger pre-recorded keyboard parts. Hell, even Ged himself agrees that once all the sequencers and pre-recorded bits started sneaking their way in, the keyboards were becoming too much of a distraction from the bass.

as grey traces of dawn tinge the Michigan sky the three travelers, men of somewhere emerge from the forest shadow fording the river dawn they turn south journeying into the dark and forbidding lawn of the ORFromancer Get off my f*n lawn!!! RIP Orfie. You are missed.

I suppose...but shortening the write up of the only band member to contribute seems like a real big f**k up. I mean, The Body Electric was a single from the record.

Thanks 🤓! If not for you my inner Sheldon would never rest!

they're on youtube!

Could they have been edited to fit the plan?

Thank god other people feel the same way as me on the new GUP mix. I felt it sound dull, muffled and unclear. Really disappointing. What really grinds my arse, is paying £256 for the box set and the same day, they put the full f*cking concert up on youtube!?!? SO! Why should any fan stump up the cash to get another box set from these guys? Double x really disappointing. Still, at least we got the full concert. Have to admit, it was great to watch.

Thats different. There's no bass guitar at all on the studio track, just keyboards and synth bass. Songs like Grand Designs, High Water, and Red Tide feature both bass and keyboards being played simultaneously.