Blue J

nonplussed

After putting it off for a few weeks as I truly detest dealing with it, I finally knuckled under this weekend and got my 2012 income tax done. Best of all, I am expecting a refund.

 

The same here- I just did mine yesterday...also expecting a healthy refund...

 

But that was yesterday's news. As for today...well, I'm out of bed, showered, and coffee'd...and feeling fine. (I'm often not too difficult to please).

I'm one of those who is very happy that Rush is not a nostalgia act. And I'm not saying that that's what GR79 is arguing in favor of, necessarily, but here's the thing- over the course of the past few tours, there has been ample opportunity to hear more of the older favorites. But they've done those to death (and to CygnusGal's point, there are some that they may never discard).

 

I'm grateful for the fact that they still have new music in them, and that they continue to record and share it with us. I'm also grateful that they still feel like touring as much as they do, and that they consistently play about a three-hour show, every show of the tour.

 

Here's a thought- isn't it just blindingly awesome that in the whole history of humankind, that we've gotten to be a part of something that has lasted a mere 40 years?

 

I think Clockwork Angels is the strongest album they've made since Counterparts. It's only a matter of tangentially-related circumstances as to why I haven't been to a Rush show since the tour for Counterparts, in 1994. But I'll be breaking that drought this summer. And I'm looking so forward to it!

indignation

 

Say it a few times, slowly- just one syllable at a time. It's fantastic!

It's understandable that many people judge his vocals based on the ferocity of his voice as a young man - but there is so much more to his voice then that now and he has many more tools in his toolbox.

 

Absolutely true. Technically speaking, he is a much (MUCH) better singer than he was in the '70s. It was around the Grace Under Pressure era that I think his vocal chops really became refined. And I think the Hold Your Fire album contains what I would call his 'purest' singing- not straining, and just melodic and beautiful. Even if there is a song or maybe two that I tend to skip on that album, I think it's a great record.

 

I was listening to Hemispheres yesterday, though, and there were several passages that caught my ear, for some reason- I was just really into the vocal- perhaps because I was thinking about the things that other people have cited in this thread. Anyway, to wit:

 

"You need onlyyyy trust your feelings

Only love can steer you right"

 

"The warriors felt my silent cry

And stayed their struggle, MYS-tified!"

 

There are tons of others I could think of, from all over the place, but that'll do for now.

from .26 seconds into Subdivisions to .37 seconds, Neil is playing what I consider to be a technically challenging drum part where he is using a combination of hi-hat and ride with this off snare timing - it's just crazy complicated to me (I've tried to play it) but the rest of the song is not as complicated in relative terms.

 

Exactly right! I've always been awed by that particular passage. I've spent 28 years playing the drums, and there are a lot of things I've never been able to do, that Neil seems to be able to toss off in his sleep.

 

And now that I've started on guitar, I'm finding that Geddy and Alex's approach to songwriting (not just the time signatures, but the chord progressions) is from somewhere way out in the cosmos. Great, great stuff.

 

I can't pick a 'most technically challenging' piece of Rush music...there are too many.

It's such a great album, and very good listening from beginning to end, or as stand-alone songs, as well. I still get goosebumps with 'Everyday Glory'!

 

Interesting...I've thought for a long time that I'm just a mushy-hearted goofball because when I'm listening to that song and singing along, I get choked up at the line "No matter what they say", at the end of the verses- and then with the drum fill right before the refrain, it goes away. But seriously, yeah, every time I listen to that song, it happens- I get choked up and almost start crying. But then I go back to rocking again, almost immediately. Perhaps I should seek professional help.

 

Counterparts is also an album that 'takes me right back', as you say- more than any other. I was twenty years old when it came out, and I'd been listening to Rush since I was seven. I was in college and working in a record store in 1993, and I skipped class to go get it when the store opened on the day it was released. I remember it was a rainy day in October. I put it on in the car and was just blown away! :)

I liked it when it was first released, and I like it better than that now. The music on it has developed its own character after repeated listens. As for where it ranks among the others, I won't say- too long and drawn-out for me to explain, and it would be rather "nebulous", to use a Geddy word. But yeah, it's a really good record.

Yes- those albums have aged very well, I think. Counterparts is my favorite of the three. It's still a shot in the arm today when I listen to it, compared to some of the territory they had been mining since the mid '80s (and I love those records, too, but they're very different).

"Still looking forward", as Geddy said, I think is key- to me it means plainly that they're not thinking about hanging it up yet.

 

I would bet that they have another studio album or two in them, yet to come (with supporting tours, hopefully).

Winter storm warning here for Sunday - Monday 6-10 inches of snow. :sarcastic:

 

Yep...bracing for the same here in western Ohio. My wife is a teacher and had spring break last week- kids have it this week. She's hoping for one more snow day for the season, so she can stay home with them.

 

Even I, who love winter, am tired of it. It's spring now, you know...so let's have it!

http://www.visiteauclaire.com/graphics/muchadoaboutnothing.jpg

 

Agreed!

I'm also a bigger fan of Counterparts than a lot of people seem to be- at the time, I thought it was their best album since Signals, or maybe earlier. Clockwork Angels has taken me some time to warm up to, but I'm liking it more and more. I don't even know if that's the right way to put it, as I can't say that I didn't like it at first- but it's taken some time to develop a personality of its own. I'm more and more into it now than I was last summer.

 

I think all of the albums since Vapor Trails have been much more riff-driven than melodic, if that makes sense. I think many of the songs from VT and S&A don't stand out from one another, VT especially. And maybe Clockwork also stands out to me more than the two that preceded it because it is rather a "concept" album.

 

Alex's playing has never been less than stellar, on anything Rush has ever released, though. This post is not a criticism of the musicianship, on the part of any of the three members- consummate players, all of them.

I'm 39, so that would be...Roll the Bones era. I saw them three times on that tour, I believe, when I was 18-19.

 

I've thought about this kind of thing before, with other bands, too. It's pretty freaky. Groovy idea for a thread, though.

I've gotten back into Sabbath just very recently- I heard National Acrobat on satellite radio a few weeks ago and it made me want to dig up the old Ozzy-era albums (which are the only ones I have, so that's what Sabbath is, to me, you understand)...

 

Great old rock & roll.

It will be a sad day when they call it for good.

 

I was born in 1973...they've always been here...(*sniff*)...

 

Seriously, though, I mean that. But they are and always have been realists, and I agree that we're fortunate to have benefited from all that they've given to us.

 

Even though I love the fact that they're playing roughly three-hour shows, and that is remarkable, they could certainly get away with two hours. I don't think many of us would complain about that, because sure, just traveling itself gets to be physically demanding, not even mentioning the energy that is expended onstage.

Don't end sentences (or even questions) with 'at'.

 

But I'm in Dayton, anyway. Rock on.

Raw materials buyer/planner/logistician/production scheduler for an engineering and manufacturing firm.

 

It's not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

 

 

If I'd had any stones when I was younger, I would have tried to make it as a writer or a musician...but I also enjoy things like food and shelter, so, y'know...

Welcome indeed, and spend a good deal of time looking around and posting. There's a lot to get into here...

 

I thought it was sort of dubious when you mentioned spamming in your very first post, but hey, maybe that's just one guy's opinion.

QUOTE (Lost In Xanadu @ Apr 5 2012, 09:40 AM)

In 2012 (last night!), driving home from a big golf win after work JAMMING TO RUSH, I got a speeding ticket for 17 over (he wrote the ticket for 15 over to save me a point and $50)

Spring Snow, by Yukio Mishima.

 

I've read several of Mishima's other novels, but this is the first of his epic tetralogy...I'll read them all, chronologically, of course.

 

Very nice prose in this, and I'm only about 40 pages in, so far.

I've lived about a forty-five minute drive away from Kings Island for most of my life, so we would go every year- not every week of the summer, like some crazy people, but once or maybe twice a summer. Then I didn't go for quite a few years, and now that I have kids, we go every summer again.

 

I like SOME roller coasters, but I still don't really go for things that turn the human body upside down. That defies gravity, and it's just not supposed to happen!

 

The Beast is still awesome, though. I wouldn't ride it until I was about 14 years old, but it's great.

I was eight years old. My brother had recorded the album onto a cassette, and I remember seeing that cassette with his handwriting on it and thinking to myself, hey, that's a new Rush album. He had introduced me to the band with 2112, Fly By Night, and Permanent Waves over the past couple of years before...but anyway...I remember his handwriting on the cassette made it look like the name of the album was 'Moving Pictunes'. Hahahaha...

 

The first time I heard it, even at that young age, I was blown away. Every song is a classic.

QUOTE (CrossedSignals @ May 6 2012, 04:18 PM)

Easy, cancel your Facebook account and correspond by email instead. Yes, I am a smartass.

QUOTE (Animate @ Apr 30 2012, 07:19 AM)

I give AFTK a total score of eleventy billion. Rounded down to "10" for this poll.