Relayer2112

There was a documentary, not sure which one, in which someone close to the band states "regardless of what you've heard, John was fired". If that's the case, I'm not sure what the big deal is about hiding it. I certainly doubt that it would be related for royalties on "Fly By Night" since I assume he helped write some of those songs, but you never know.

I just recently purchased "Wandering the Face of the Earth" and was a little disappointed about the little bit mentioned regarding the departure of John Rutsey. I haven't read the whole book yet, but assume that the topic isn't brought up again after the '74 tour. The book goes as far as getting more into detail about some of the other early members and why they left, but not a whole lot about John. Is the consensus around here that he was fired or left voluntarily? My gut feeling is that he was fired based on some documentaries I've seen but, for the most part, it appears that the tale of his departure has been sugarcoated ever since.

I've got to go with "Blackout" by Scorpions. That album single-handedly got me to pick up a guitar for the first time. I listened to little other than that album during 1982. Unfortunately it was the last Scorpions album that I cared for, as they strayed a little too far into just being a hair-metal band after that.

I've often wondered what Alex thought of the emergence of Eddie Van Halen around the time of the recording of PeW. It seems to me like Alex did a little more atypical "shredding" on PeW (Freewill, Natural Science for example) than he had done previously. Could that have been a subconscious reaction to this new flashy player on the scene? I don't believe I've seen any interview with Alex regarding the emergence of Eddie. I can't imagine that it wouldn't have had some kind of effect on him.

I think Caress is their most unique just because, to me, it's the one that doesn't feel like a natural transition between the album that came before and after it.

I just discovered The Tubes in the past year (had heard of them during my high school days back in the 80's, but never really paid much attention). I don't care for any of their post '77 stuff. Everything after that sounds the same to me (boring arrangements). They were another band that figured out that they wouldn't make any money being experimental, so had to simplify things. I really love their first two albums though...The Now album was just ok and I think they lost it after that (though probably made a decent bit of money afterwards with the couple hits they had).

Wouldn't it make more sense to have International "Non-Masturbation" day? It would be more special.

Genesis - Invisible Touch

What is the best book about Rush out there currently? What I really enjoy are the blurbs Neil used to put in the tour books about the recording process at Le Studio. I also enjoy the brief tour diary (I believe of the Moving Pictures tour) that Neil put in one of the newsletters. Are there any books out there with more of this kind of information?

He may be resting his hand on the bridge of the guitar a little too heavily to mute strings at times (assuming it's a floating bridge he's using). That would make the guitar sound like it's out of tune when it's not. Also...the locking nut doesn't guarantee that the guitar won't go out of tune if he's using his tremelo arm heavily. It may be some of that also. It's funny, but I mention above that Alex has a video in which he teaches how to play Limelight and he does so with a relatively clean sound. When he's finished teaching the song, he says (tongue in cheek) "now immediately go re-tune your guitar".

Alex has a series of "how to play" videos on YouTube in which he teaches certain songs (Spirit, Limelight and Tom Sawyer that I know of) by using a clean sound for the instruction. Based on those videos (and he has sloppy bits in those that would be masked with distortion), this certainly sounds like him playing.

I completely agree. I've found this news difficult to process, and I'm not even sure I can explain what I mean by that - something to do with what the band meant to me when I was younger, a sense of finality, an oddness that something that meant so much to me has been so irrevocably damaged and broken without anything actually changing in a practical sense. I'm not sure. Perhaps the best way I can put it is that it feels like a significant moment. The nature of something that's been part of me since I was 16 has changed forever. Whatever Rush is to me, it's different now. But while I think it's really sad that Neil had to cope with this terminal illness so soon after his retirement, and that his loved ones have to do without him, I'm not one of them. I haven't been hurt or upset by this. I'm certainly not mourning. No offence whatever to those of you who have taken it hard. But I don't get preparing for the death of someone you don't know, and haven't been in touch with in any sense for years. By the way I do believe this is my landmark 400th post here. I believe I joined up in 2004, so it's taken a while. Aside from the fact that I didn't know anything about Neil other than what he wanted to be known, it's sad on multiple levels. Knowing that he had a relatively young family, I feel bad for them, but I think a lot of fans would admit that they are probably more sad for themselves. I see this incident as part of the "melting away" of my youth...something that's gone and can never be recaptured again. I'm sure some fans feel closer connections to celebrities that they admire than I do. I'll just listen to Rush more than usual for a couple days and then get on with it.

The only thing I was prepared for is that the passing of a band member was the only thing that would stop the rumors about their coming out of retirement. Did I expect one of them to die in their 60's...no. The weird thing is, when I told the news to my son (19 years old), he asked how old Neil was. When I told him 67, he said "well, he was old after all". I said "that's only 12 years older than I am !!!" and I believe I threw in "you doofus" at the end of that.. I guess it's all about perspective. When you're 19, ten years pass in ten years, when you're 55, 10 years passes in about 3. It's all about that dog years shit.

To one of the men who helped supply the soundtrack for my childhood and adulthood, I thank you Neil. My heart goes out to the entire Rush family...band mates, family, friends, fellow fans. This will take a while to sink in.

It's a shame that it takes an incident like that to bring the United States together as a whole. It never lasts long though. So much nonsensical infighting the rest of the time.

My son is going to see Iron Maiden tonight, just shy on 35 years from when I'd first seen them on the "World Slavery Tour". God I feel old...imagine how the guys in Iron Maiden feel.

I was a huge Scorpions fan back in the day, I still listen to them regularly. In 1983 (after a long wait for their followup to Blackout), a song comes on the radio called "Send Me an Angel". I was convinced that it was a new Scorpions songs and that they'd gone "electronic" when in fact it was by a band called "Real Life". To this day, I still think it sounds like Klaus singing that song. The funny thing is that the Scorpions later released their own completely unrelated song called "Send Me an Angel". Another one...when I first heard the song "Jump" in 1984, I needed some convincing from friends to assure me that it was a Van Halen song.

Rush hasn't had a bad album, but have had some "what were they thinking" albums and some albums that I believe come across as uninspired.

I think Presto is a great album, though I didn't think so at the time it was released. I thought it was just ok. I saw them for the first time on that tour and just remember being really disappointed that they didn't play "Presto". Afterwards, I wondered if the guitar technology of the time didn't allow for the quick acoustic to electric sound changes needed to play it. I was overjoyed when I heard they were playing it on the "Time Machine" tour. As far as Neil's style change, I'm assuming that this was his way of streamlining his part in the recording process by switching over to a more improvisational technique. Kind of the way they decided after hemispheres that they needed to cut back on the overly complex stuff to maintain their sanity in the studio.

I could listen to Alex speak all day long. Rush certainly understood the importance of not stepping on people as they climbed the ladder of success.

I love the way he gets rid of the slide for the solo and puts it back on afterwards without missing a beat.

I had a dream just the other night that I was being followed by a man playing "She Blinded Me with Science" on an accordion. And I didn't even eat anything strange before going to bed. I'll put my mention of "The Golden Age of Wireless" as a result.

Keith Emerson Rick Wakeman Tony Banks Vangelis Thijs Van Leer

The backside of both is the "Vapor Trails" album cover.

When I think of the perfect union between lyric and music, where both contribute equally to tell a story, I always think of Red Barchetta. When I think of an imperfect union between lyric and music, where the lyric tells the story and the music just happens to be there is Wakeman's "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Although I love the album, I don't think the music goes along with the narration all that well.