Bangster of Goats

Do the space invaders get by the Monday warrior?

RIP Skip. Sad to see him pass... his is one of those names I'd always seen on Rush album and tour credits for decades. That extended Rush family.

Huh. Rush's site won't load for me.

On a more serious note, I'm slightly bummed that there was clearly more stuff recorded for ESL than what was included in the final product. It's clearly a live version of the Camera Eye playing at the beginning, and there are the shots of Neil during his "interview" segment that appear to come from his solo. Broon's Bane was obviously edited out between Geddy's intro to Alex and The Trees. All that stuff undoubtedly ended up on the cutting room floor and has long been swept away.

The two bright lights level with Neil's drum riser is a clear reference to 9/11. How did they know back in 1981? They're warlocks and Neil's precognitive abilities have been enhanced as a side effect of his brain cancer.

Ahhh yes, I remember picking up the vinyl on the day of release after school, hitting my favorite record store which was conveniently near my high school. I remember thinking "wow, it sure is red" when I picked it out of the bin. A couple months later, HYF became my first-ever CD purchase when I got my first CD player. I still have both of those original copies. I never really felt compelled to get any remaster of HYF and I'm certainly never getting rid of any of my Rush vinyl.

Despite the crappy-flangey-treble lo-rez mp3 mess of those clips, I can still hear some clear (ironic choice of adjective!) differences for the better, namely more space around the instruments and some sweetening on the vocals (especially the wordless vocals in OLV and Freeze). Looking forward to this remix; the original mix sounds as though they just threw all the faders on the mixing board up to 10 and were done with it.

Tom Sawyer. Yeah, we've ALL heard it about 6,398,173 times. Some of us are more tired of it than others. Some aren't tired of it. But I was one who was pretty burned out on it. But recently I managed to put myself into some strange Zen trance, tricking my brain into listening to the song (the album version for those keeping track) with a new, fresh, objective ear - as fresh as I could make it. And you know, really, that song just freakin' RIPS. It's powerful and driving, and yet sounds mysterious and ominous at the same time. I honestly got goosebumps, for the first time in years. I might be preaching to the choir with some people here ("well, DUH it's a great song!") but it was really nice for these jaded ears to appreciate the song once again. :D

Well, all I know is, back when the album was first released in 1987, people still commonly used 90-minute cassettes (45 mins per side) to copy albums for car stereos and stuff. Tai Shan was the one most commonly left off when you wanted to fit it on one side, heh. (Myself, I think I ended up just using a 60 min cassette and matched the vinyl album sides. ;)) Tai Shan... the song Geddy says is an "error" and we'd be "waiting a long time" for the band to play live, but I think if I had to take something off, it would be Second Nature. Tai Shan has some interesting atmospherics and was clearly something a little experimental, but Second Nature just sounds corny to me. But still, it's hard to imagine the album any differently after all these years.

Yeah, Geddy's keyboard rig... Ever since he started switching over to having his keyboards trigger a bunch of racked up samplers offstage, I started to haz a sad. I loved it when he played the actual Oberheims and PPGs and Jupiters and such in front of him, rather than mere samples of those instruments. But oh well, I've heard that Geddy's sold off most of his old keyboards and synths. (Hey Ged, I'll take that old OB-X off your hands if you've still got it!)

1) The Garden - this song gets so much love but it does nothing for me. Plus it doesn't help that I've always despised the saying "it is what it is". ;) 2) One Little Victory - the much-heralded "comeback" track after the band being on hiatus, but it's easily my least favorite track on VT. The only thing I really like on it is the opening drum salvo. Then I skip ahead, heh. 3) YYZ - I do like it, but it's far from being the most amazing instrumental track ever recorded in the history of popular music (that said, it should still have won a Grammy over the Police's "Behind My Camel", which is just dreadful filler.) 4) errmm... I can't think of anything else...

Yeah, for me, the usual complaint about the chorus o' Geddys, and the sonic mush of T4E... I wish Ged would mix it up a little bit in the bass department, whip out the Ricks more often or even the Wals. He's had that same old Fender Jazz sound for quite some time now. And it seems like they've let their internal editors get a little lax since Hold Your Fire. I remember Neil mentioning during that time (the HYF tour book I believe) that they wanted to take advantage of the longer playing times of CDs. There have been songs since then that could have been left off or used a little more work, heh.

While I'm not a huge fan of covers (Feedback included, though I do think Rush's Summertime Blues is the best version of that song), I probably wouldn't mind them covering some of the New Wave artists that shaped their 80s sound (The Police, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, etc.) Kind of a Feedback II thing. Oh wait, that has to be Feedback III. Feedback II would be covers of the prog rock stuff that influenced their sound '75-'78. Rush covering Yes and King Crimson? I might be game!

My faves: "The clowns prepare for battle, in the dark and looming silence..." "My chickens are coming and I just can't pretend." "Gotta eat sh** to rock, I hate no small talk, I'm fine that way!" "I lack their smiles and diapers..." "...and the Space Invaders get by on you."

More new music. I miss the days when they put something new out every couple years... But, you know, I get the economics of it. Albums don't make money anymore, but touring does. I can understand their reasoning -- *if* their reasoning is -- they want to get in as much touring as they can, while they can, to beef up their retirement funds. ;) (And hey, if it makes thousands upon thousands of fans happy to see them live, everyone wins!) Oh sure, they're not hurting for money, but every little bit helps for your kids, your grandkids, etc. But I still want new music! :)

More accurately, Alex is usually the one to program the drum machine (as Neil once said back in the 80s, "my stand-in") while he and Ged hammer stuff out. The tom rolls in the Anarchist is one example of Alex's drum machine stuff being picked up by Neil and played on real drums on the studio recording. Neil's said he often likes what Alex comes up with as it's usually something he wouldn't think of himself. Alex comes up with a lot of ideas in Rush that one wouldn't really normally expect. He came up with the strings stuff in CA (later fleshed out by David Campbell) and he also wrote the piano part in The Garden (though played by Geddy's friend Jason Sniderman on the album.)

My favorite from VT. And the middle section where Geddy's bass goes into hyperdrive... zoooom! It's a prime example of my favorite Rush tunes: full of electric, positive energy from both the musical and lyrical fronts.

Oh lordy, I remember that. When I was there that night, you could just feel the energy suddenly evaporate.

For me it's the lone stinker/skipworthy track on Presto. It doesn't help my feelings about it that when soon after the album was released, a friend of mine said Superconductor sounded like a battery commercial. :) 20 years on and I can't shake that from my head, lol. I mean, even the video is screwy. Geddy and Alex on the wrong sides of the stage... it's like Bizarro Rush World, hehe.

The highlight of ESL for me is also By-Tor and the Snow Dog, but because of goofy Alex antics and Alex and Geddy doing that synchronized finger-waving-pointing thing, hehe.

What article? Link? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?

I think some of the kinks in the new board software are still being worked out...

The strings came out sounding nice, though I initially had reservations when I first heard they would be on the album. That said... the strings were nice for a change of pace, but I'd rather they bring synths back into play more and let the strings be one of CA's sonic signatures. I wanna hear Ged do some new Moog solos.

Meh. Really tired of Limelight. But I guess it's almost like a second Tom Sawyer (another song I can honestly do without live) that they feel they *have* to play for fans. Oh well, can't please everyone.

If they make it in, it'll be an acceptance speech via prerecorded video and the Foo Fighters will fumble their way through YYZ in "tribute".