Powderfinger

QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Apr 16 2012, 03:36 PM)QUOTE (Powderfinger @ Apr 16 2012, 04:27 PM) Spinning the Revealing Science of God right now. I'm totally digging it. So far I don't understand why this is any more difficult to like than, say, Gates of Delirium... well, you ain't normal. Or I've just become a full-blown Yes fanboy Or maybe not. I was checking out some of their 80s/90s material earlier today... I think I'm really a Jon Anderson homer. Which is strange, because I usually have very little patience for dudes who rock dreamcatchers and crystals. No offense to anyone here who embraces that sort of thing

Spinning the Revealing Science of God right now. I'm totally digging it. So far I don't understand why this is any more difficult to like than, say, Gates of Delirium...

I picked up Tales... on vinyl today. Along with vinyl copies of Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures! I'm going to take Circumstantial Tree's advice and immerse myself in one cut at a time in order to make the process a little less exhausting. Do any of you enjoy Jon Anderson's first solo album, or Wakeman's first solo album?

Stevie Wonder vs. Roland Kirk

Since early March I have been absolutely obsessed with Yes. Prior to this I only had a few songs in my collection (Roundabout, Long Distance Runaround, Seen All Good People) and never paid much attention to them. But as I've mentioned in other threads, Close to the Edge perhaps became my favorite album of all time as a result of this full immersion into the world of Yes. Don't laugh, I've experienced something almost spiritual in my appreciation of this album. Anyway, I've also worked through and thoroughly enjoyed the Yes Album, Fragile, Going for the One, and Relayer (for which I promised a full review in the Relayer thread I started, but have yet to deliver...). So let me get to the point and question at hand. Tales from Topographic Oceans: Do I want to go there? I know it's a polarizing album. And of course I can formulate my own opinion about it. But I'd love to hear Yes fans' thoughts on it--especially Yes fans who also love Rush...

Saw it today. Absolutely killer!!!

Rolling Stones vs. The Band

Signals Hemispheres Moving Pictures Permanent Waves A Farewell to Kings 2112 Grace Under Pressure Fly by Night Snakes and Arrows Counterparts Power Windows Hold Your Fire Caress of Steel Roll the Bones Rush Presto Vapor Trails Test for Echo

Sound Chaser is finally starting to click. I'm really falling in love with the record. You have to understand that CTTE has been an absolute obsession over the past month or so, and during that period probably became my favorite album of all time. Relayer is going to have a tough time climbing out from under that shadow. But it's a different album in many ways. It doesn't entirely warrant comparison. I'm still digesting it, as mentioned.

For that price should we assume there are some sort of extras? Or perhaps the packaging and booklet will be particularly elaborate?

QUOTE (invisible airwave @ Apr 7 2012, 11:56 AM) Nice to see Fletch, Coming To America, Anchorman and Election on that list. Election is underrated. One of my favorite comedies...

Spirit of Radio Limelight Subdivisions Tom Sawyer New World Man The Analog Kid Vital Signs Red Barchetta Working Man Entre Nous The only aspect that surprises me is the inclusion of Tom Sawyer, not to mention its high ranking. It's not one of my ten favorite Rush songs, and I didn't think I listened to it that much. This list is a little misleading because I frequently listen to several of the epics that I don't always make it all the way through before I finish a chore, etc. and turn off the music. So if I listen to 15 minutes of Hemispheres or 2112 while making food or getting ready in the morning, and then turn off the music, it doesn't count as a play. But that aside, the list above includes many of my favorite Rush songs, so it's not that shocking.

QUOTE (Rushman14 @ Apr 9 2012, 06:33 PM) still waiting on Powder's review I'm flattered I'll weigh in soon. It needs a little more time to digest. I love it, but I've needed more time with it than I did with CTTE--not that CTTE isn't overwhelming in its own right upon introduction. I can say with certainty that Gates of Delirium is brilliant. I've got that one down. I'm still working on Sound Chaser and To Be Over.

I don't care about Jethro Tull. I'm only here for the Sarah Carter pictures...

I just wasted 14 seconds of my life. Damn you Rush forum!

Watching this for the first time now. I love it! I think the grainy film quality only enhances the experience. And you gotta love Wakeman's sequined cape... I only wish the sound was better. But it's Yes in support of CTTE... I'll take it!

QUOTE (ReflectedLight @ Apr 7 2012, 08:28 AM) QUOTE (Checkster2112 @ Apr 6 2012, 07:45 PM) Hard to say. Limiting myself just rock (jazz is on another level for me), its probably Radiohead, then Rush, then Zepplin. i've been listening to more jazz lately. you want to talk about amazing drummers...wow Elvin Jones...

Roxy Music vs. Wilco

QUOTE (Rushman14 @ Apr 3 2012, 11:01 AM) I'm hoping this will eventually make my top 5 http://celebpromoter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Prometheus-Movie-Poster.jpeg Saw the preview for this before The Hunger Games. Looks promising!

Now that's an image/design I can get on board with. Very cool! If that isn't legit, and something some fan devised just to mess with us, then someone has way too much free time on their hands...

It has arrived! The packaging is awesome (I got the Rhino reissue with the gatefold digipak and extensive liner notes). I started listening to it on the way to a gig last night, was pretty blown away by the first five minutes or so, but then realized I wasn't ready to engage it the right way. I wanted to wait until I could sit down and listen to the whole thing with no distractions. But I think I'm going to love it...

1) Big Lebowski 2) Spinal Tap 3-10 in no particular order) Stripes Anchorman National Lampoon's Vacation Step Brothers Spies Like Us Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Best in Show Annie Hall Honorable Mention: South Park, Team America, Caddyshack, Top Secret, Airplane!, Naked Gun, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Dr. Strangelove, Election, Christmas Vacation, MP Holy Grail, Talladega Nights, The Wicker Man with Nic Cage... Edit: I just remembered, the hardest I ever laughed in an actual movie theater was during Borat, but that doesn't even make my list at this point.

Zappa vs. The Who

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Mar 31 2012, 04:27 PM)QUOTE (Powderfinger @ Mar 31 2012, 08:30 AM) 2) The Camera Eye - Among the "epics," it seems this one gets ranked either toward the top or the bottom of most fans' lists. I absolutely love it. The keyboard melody can become lodged in my head for hours after listening. I love the way the drums sort of spill into the fold after the drawn out introduction. Geddy's vocals are top notch: "The focus is sharp in the city." And, above all else, I love the lyrics. I don't really obsess to much over Neil's lyrics, probably because I don't like some of them. But The Camera Eye (and Moving Pictures in general) delivers such a fresh lyrical style for Neil from which I think the band benefited--a style that PeW no doubt played a role in fostering. I mean, I love Hemispheres, Xanadu, and 2112 as much as the next guy, but it's nice to see Neil writing about something a bit more innocent, and concrete--pun intended. I never quite got the lyrics in TCE like I did with every other song on Moving Pictures. The whole "the focus is sharp in the city" and just the theme of the song always seemed perhaps a bit clinical and cold to me. I generally don't obsess over lyrics myself, but with Rush, their lyrics are so significant and meaningful that I can't help but pay attention and have them in some way influence my enjoyment of their songs. Obviously, they have done MUCH worse lyrically. I mean, we're not talking "season of the itch" here, but MP is of such a ridiculously high lyrical standard that the lyrics seem a tad weak by comparison. Also, it seems, unlike other epics of theirs, it's a song that to a degree was done twice in a row to extend it, as opposed to it being really novel musically and lyrically all the way through. They could have cut the song in half and it would have been pretty much as effective. THAT SAID, it's still a GREAT song. That song by another group could easily be their best song and considered a prog classic. It's just that Moving Pictures maintains such a ridiculously high level of quality that it stands out for me as being the only slightly weaker spot. Even still I'd give it a solid 8.5 out of 10, and I've enjoyed the song many, many times. Well, please allow me to elaborate, and even walk a couple of ideas back a bit. I don't have a ton of time at the moment to craft a fancy post, so I apologize in advance for the lack of organization. I do pay attention to Neil's lyrics, that statement was a bit misleading on my part. There are particular songs whose lyrics bother me because I either don't agree with them politically, or I find them sophomoric. (And that is not a comment on the AFTK/Hemispheres era, which are two of my favorite albums both lyrically and musically.) But I always know what Neil is singing about, and I truly love a majority of his lyrics. As for The Camera Eye specifically, let me establish a little more context for my adoration of that song. For most of my years as a Rush fan that was the one song on MP I tended to skip over or sort of relegated to background status when it played. Why? Because I too thought it was a little repetitive and I thought the lyrics were sort of mundane and pointless alongside the other MP tracks. And yes, it does seem a bit clinical and cold. But so do the lyrics and music to Vital Signs. Whenever I listen to Vital Signs I feel like I'm in a hospital, laid out on an operating table, attached to machines. And even YYZ, despite being an instrumental, feels clinical and cold to me, like an airport. Brilliant, right?! In my teenage years I thought Witch Hunt was the coolest song on MP--"Witch Hunt, dude!" And I didn't really care for The Camera Eye or Vital Signs at all. Now, as an adult, it's quite the opposite experience for me. I find Witch Hunt a bit gimmicky and flat. And The Camera Eye and Vital Signs constantly battle with Limelight for position as my favorite song on MP. In so many words, part of my adoration for The Camera Eye (and Vital Signs) stems from the fact that it is still fresh to me after all these years. It's just a song that I'm really "in to" at the moment. And, real quick before I say something about the lyrics, let me go on record as saying I think The Camera Eye, along with Limelight, is possibly the greatest sounding track in the entire Rush catalog--the mix and tone of the instruments on TCE is about as good as Rush gets. Anyway, I mentioned that I used to find The Camera Eye's lyrics "mundane." But that's exactly the point. Upon further review, what I love is Neil's ability to capture the energy of a phenomenon that seems so arbitrary and casual--people navigating NYC. It's an example of Neil taking a snapshot (pun intended) of an everyday scene or occurrence and locating the world within a world. This runs contrast to his previous tendency to completely fashion fictional or semi-fictional stories from the ground up--a trend he was already moving away from on PeW, as previously mentioned. In TCE, Neil either sees something that the average individual takes for granted, or he successfully puts into words something that the average person feels, but maybe cannot articulate in a meaningful way. And, finally, I simply love walking around New York City. So the song resonates with me personally. I apologize if I'm not entirely clear in my opinion, but that's all I have time for at the moment. Let me add one last thing: I've been a songwriter for thirteen years, and a musician for just over twenty. Something I've wanted to achieve in recent years is a shift away from the personal love and loss-type lyrical narratives to something a little less biased, or impenetrable. The Camera Eye represents the type of lyrics I would like to have some success with, but have not really had much luck. Graduate study has to some degree resulted in the loss of my lyrical muse. So I find The Camera Eye completely inspired, if that makes any sense. Thanks for indulging my opinion of this song, Goober. You and I seem to agree on most everything where Rush's music is concerned (as realized in a separate thread). And I don't think we are that far apart here, to be sure. You clearly like the song, and hopefully my thoughts help explain the value a fellow Rush fan might find in the lyrics. Thanks for establishing a great thread. And thank you for always being such a diplomatic board member!

QUOTE (Union 5-3992 @ Apr 1 2012, 10:10 AM) Robert Johnson BB King BB King vs. Chuck Berry