Three Eyes

Really? The drums don't sound that terrible to me. Maybe the snare could pop a little more but it's still in keeping with the back to basics ethos of the record. Grohl is a drummer too and I'm sure he had a lot of input on the overall sound of the album. Seems to me he likes those guitars really loud. So loud they may have crowded out the drums a bit. I mean if there was any problem with the drums maybe it was a too many cooks in the kitchen problem. Dave and Butch maybe disagreeing on what they should sound like while Taylor's the one actually laying them down and writing them, lol. Haha. That's true. A lot of drummers there. When did drummers take over music production? lol. Other drummers with expanded roles: Phil Collins Don Henley

I haven't see many of Fridge's posts so I went with Tony based on his posting style when he was called Reed Lover.

Really? The drums don't sound that terrible to me. Maybe the snare could pop a little more but it's still in keeping with the back to basics ethos of the record. Grohl is a drummer too and I'm sure he had a lot of input on the overall sound of the album. Seems to me he likes those guitars really loud. So loud they may have crowded out the drums a bit.

It is.

Good lord, I wouldn't get rid of any of them. Dust them off every couple of years and you'll learn to appreciate them again. If you're still listening to classic rock radio that's your own damn fault. lol. Last time I heard Freebird was in a YouTube clip of that scene in Forrest Gump. And it was awesome. I hate the live version though with those tweeting birds.

Just listened to Walk from Wasting Light. Great song and sounds great too. Very high energy, rockin' performance. I heard some Radiohead influence in places too. Nice! Most of us don't have access to all that analog equipment, much of it very expensive, I'm sure, but great that they went old school for that album. Thing is, you could do the same thing recording digitally (with a possibly less warm sound albeit). You just have to make a pact with yourself that you will rehearse the hell out of your songs before recording them. It'll sound a million times better than if you phone in a mistake laden, low energy performance that you then quantize the ca ca out of and in the process remove any last bit of soul that may have accidentally made it into your performance.

I seem to recall reading that sometime in the early 80s - possibly about Limelight. I wonder when they actually started practicing this method though. Can anyone link to an interview where they mention it? I have my doubts they did it on anything prior to AFTK the album which is when these angular, jagged solos started showing up (although there were hints of the style in solos on prior albums). The song A Farewell to Kings specifically was a new kind of solo for Alex at the time and I think it can be argued it was the prototype for Tom Sawyer's great solo. It's more abstract in nature than denoting a specific emotion through melody. Of course, Rush went full-tilt with the odd time sigs on AFTK which must have forced Al to get really creative with his soloing. Can anyone identify another guitar player soloing quite like this prior to AFTK? Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage, Cinderella Man, La Villa Strangiato also have stand out solos in this style. It really emerged as one of his musical signatures as time went on. Sometimes hearing someone else competently playing Al's stuff can be a refresher on what a musical genius the guy actually is. http://youtu.be/GN5taxJRg5g Hearing that guy try to nail those solos just amplifies how incredible Alex's timing really is on the originals, and in the age of tape!! You hit upon a good point there. The age of tape required a guy be ready, willing and able to lay down a hot performance when that red light went on. Surgical editing and pitch correct wasn't available so you couldn't phone it in and fix it in the DAW later. They had to perform on the clock in expensive studios. I think that's why 70s rockers were so organic and high energy on tape. Rush's relentless touring didn't hurt either. They were a turbocharged Maserati at this point. I mean, you can be great and use the advantages of new recording techniques and also not tour half as hard as Rush....but if you manage to do that think of how much greater you'd be if you were gigging with your band every night and could lay down a killer take after only a try or two on a whim? There are definitely advantageous to the new way of doing things and some artists use them to great effect, but I think there's a balance to be struck. Listen to the shear energy Dave and co. got on the Foo Fighter's Wasting Light when they decided to record it to tape in Dave's (very studio like) garage and tell me that record would have turned out the same had it been done with Pro Tools in a "real" studio. The Foos also tour an absolute ton and I think that and their great friendship must make it much easier to go in, lay down a great take, and get out. If you're playing every day with these same guys already, there's never any dust to shake off. Yeah I heard about Wasting Light. Not that familiar with the album though. I'm not much of a Foo fan generally but I'll give some songs from the album a listen. But cool that they did that. They brought Butch Vig in for that one. The subject of quantization is a favorite rant of Rick Beato's. http://youtu.be/L-8EbHkc8tc I tend to agree, old fogey that I am. But I'll come clean. I've used drum machines on most of my past demos. I tried to make them sound as organic as I could but you can only do so much with those old machines. Drum software of today sounds a lot more organic. In any event, drum machines and software are excellent songwriting tools, at least. Right regarding striking a balance. I also make use of the modern DAW's incredible powers. In fact, DAWs, plugins and the affordable quality music gear that's being developed for the home recording boom has truly democratized making music. It's a great time at least in that regard. I'm not against digitally tweaking rock songs. Tweaking was done in the old studios too, after all. And I'm not necessarily against gridding an entire song if it fits what you're trying to accomplish artistically. As with most things, it's good to keep an open mind. I'm sure there are many people nowadays who don't play any instruments at all but are skilled at programming their musical creations. But the dark side of the DAW is that quantization seems to be everywhere now. I heard that if your music doesn't sound perfect you're going to be ignored by the industry. That sucks. But you know what? Who wants to work for a soulless major label anyway? Promote yourself on the web and take all the profits instead of a tiny percentage. YYNOT is a good example of this. I'm hoping they can eventually build a big fan base.

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If you have 37 minutes and nothing else to do, every Al solo from the debut through Hemispheres. He put links to each solo in the descriptions of all three videos. http://youtu.be/FoUSpYZzMCg http://youtu.be/RZtTYk7drZI http://youtu.be/OKXhUlO2Mgs

I seem to recall reading that sometime in the early 80s - possibly about Limelight. I wonder when they actually started practicing this method though. Can anyone link to an interview where they mention it? I have my doubts they did it on anything prior to AFTK the album which is when these angular, jagged solos started showing up (although there were hints of the style in solos on prior albums). The song A Farewell to Kings specifically was a new kind of solo for Alex at the time and I think it can be argued it was the prototype for Tom Sawyer's great solo. It's more abstract in nature than denoting a specific emotion through melody. Of course, Rush went full-tilt with the odd time sigs on AFTK which must have forced Al to get really creative with his soloing. Can anyone identify another guitar player soloing quite like this prior to AFTK? Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage, Cinderella Man, La Villa Strangiato also have stand out solos in this style. It really emerged as one of his musical signatures as time went on. Sometimes hearing someone else competently playing Al's stuff can be a refresher on what a musical genius the guy actually is. http://youtu.be/GN5taxJRg5g Hearing that guy try to nail those solos just amplifies how incredible Alex's timing really is on the originals, and in the age of tape!! You hit upon a good point there. The age of tape required a guy be ready, willing and able to lay down a hot performance when that red light went on. Surgical editing and pitch correction wasn't available so you couldn't phone it in and fix it in the DAW later. They had to perform on the clock in expensive studios. I think that's why 70s rockers were so organic and high energy on tape. Rush's relentless touring didn't hurt either. They were a turbocharged Maserati at this point.

It's Wyman I always look at in this video. Not the three goofballs center-stage. http://youtu.be/SGyOaCXr8Lw

I seem to recall reading that sometime in the early 80s - possibly about Limelight. I wonder when they actually started practicing this method though. Can anyone link to an interview where they mention it? I have my doubts they did it on anything prior to AFTK the album which is when these angular, jagged solos started showing up (although there were hints of the style in solos on prior albums). The song A Farewell to Kings specifically was a new kind of solo for Alex at the time and I think it can be argued it was the prototype for Tom Sawyer's great solo. It's more abstract in nature than denoting a specific emotion through melody. Of course, Rush went full-tilt with the odd time sigs on AFTK which must have forced Al to get really creative with his soloing. Can anyone identify another guitar player soloing quite like this prior to AFTK? Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage, Cinderella Man, La Villa Strangiato also have stand out solos in this style. It really emerged as one of his musical signatures as time went on. Sometimes hearing someone else competently playing Al's stuff can be a refresher on what a musical genius the guy actually is. http://youtu.be/GN5taxJRg5g

Love this one. Just weird guitar playing —- such a cool melody. And how about the sound of these Men At Work albums? Pristine. They really lost the plot on their third record. Trainwreck. Hay’s solo work is a little closer to original vibe... Overcooked 80s synth sound leads to disaster for a guitar-oriented band. I don't recall hearing anything off that album. Will have to check it out.

I'm not that familiar with the listed albums so I didn't vote. But based on radio hits and a few album cuts, I go with BOC 100%. They're just more nuanced and artistic which is what I generally prefer in a band. That's not to say they're more influential than Deep Purple though. There aren't many bands more influential than DP.

I knew that would get some knickers in a bunch. Unlike most here -- presumably -- I've actually performed Rush songs live for an audience, ranging from between 40 to 200. Freewill was one of those songs. I learned every note of that song. The solo really doesn't work. It's shredding, but there is no melodic content at all, no emotional connection to the song. It's just spazzing. That's my general problem with too many of Alex's solos. Sometimes he forgets that guitar can (and should) sound like a human voice singing a recognizable melody. I don't agree with the majority of this but I admire your chutzpah. :P Life isn't always melodic so art shouldn't be either.

^^^ I think Bravado is great too.

I remember wondering what the hell a broon was. Absalom was a word I looked up and promptly forgot. Here's a refresher: In the October 1991 Rush Backstage Club newsletter, Neil Peart explained that the 'Absalom' reference comes from William Faulkners' 1936 book Absalom, Absalom! 1936. "Absalom" was the son of King David. He killed his half-brother for raping their half-sister. Then, he tried to overthrow David and get the throne. A battle resulted during which his hair was caught in a tree suspending him above the ground. Against David's wishes, Absalom was killed by King David's Mighty Men. David grieved for his son by lamenting, "Absalom, Absalom, my son." Said Peart, "After reading the novel, I was curious... and looked up the name in the encyclopedia. Then, while writing that song, I had 'obsolete, absolute' in there, and I thought how similar the word-shape was to 'Absalom.' Since one of the main themes of the song was compassion, it occurred to me that the Biblical story was applicable-David's lament for his son: 'Would God I had died for thee,' seemed to be the ultimate expression of compassion. And that's how it happened." // Peart: "Before I ever knew who or what Absalom was, I always loved the sound of it. I had thought perhaps it was an ancient prayer or something. There is a book by William Faulkner called Absalom, Absalom, which, again, I loved the sound of. I wanted to put it in the song, as a play on words with 'absolute' and 'obsolete,' but I thought I'd better find out for sure what it meant. So I called my wife and asked her to look it up in the encyclopedia. When I learned the real story, and its Biblical roots, I decided that it was still appropriate, as it was the ultimate expression of compassion, which is what the song was really about. 'Absalom, Absalom. My son, my son. Would God I had died for thee.' (Now don't anyone go reading any religion into that!)" Source

1970

Interesting David vs Goliath story on the rise of the Compaq portable computer in the 80s and their battle with IBM for market share. It's available to watch for free on Kanopy, a streaming service associated with public libraries.

Love this one. Just weird guitar playing —- such a cool melody. And how about the sound of these Men At Work albums? Pristine.

Here's a cool one but man early Police is all over this puppy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2eu9WgFuug

^^^ Not sure if I ever heard that but it's really cool.

Every non-Broon album needed to be redone with Broon at the helm. Broon was Rush's daddy in the studio.