winter17

BBBoB as well as Wandering the Face of the Earth

I thought this guy does a really good job of breaking down everything that goes into the song, and just how complex the music that Rush made was.

 

Also I never noticed the harmony part in the second verse, that part really blew my mind.

 

Hello all. I guess I'd consider myself an intermediate level guitar player. Here are a few of the songs that I know all the way through and enjoy playing:

 

More Than A Feeling

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Limelight

Subdivisions

Time Stand Still

 

 

What are some other Rush and non-Rush songs that I could learn that are around this difficulty level or are a little bit tougher?

Rush - Working Man

FBN - In the End

CoS - Lakeside Park

2112 - 2112

AFTK - Xanadu

Hemi - La Villa Strangiato

PeW - Jacob's Ladder

MP - Red Barchetta

Sig - Losing It

P/G - Between the Wheels

PoW - Grand Designs

HYF - Force Ten

Presto - Available Light

RtB - Bravado

CP - Leave That Thing Alone

TFE - Test for Echo

VT - Vapor Trail

SnA - Workin' Them Angels

CA - The Garden

Don't murder me for this opinion, but I always put the debut in my bottom two. It's got four of my favorite Rush songs, but the other four are just terribly weak and I always pass over them. The other album in my bottom two is Test for Echo, with a two or three relatively good songs, and the rest of them are either just average or also terribly weak.

 

Also, "terribly weak," "average," and "relatively good" are all compared to Rush's catalog. I'd take Dog Years and Tai Shan over a lot of other music.

1. The Garden
   
2. Xanadu
   
3. Jacob’s Ladder
   
4. 2112
   
5. Red Barchetta
   
6. La Villa Strangiato
   
7. Natural Science
   
8. Working Man
   
9. Cygnus X-1: Book One: The Voyage
   
10. The Anarchist
    

I just have some very simple, relatively cheap equipment at home.

 

Epiphone Les Paul

Cheap amp (can't remember the name), but it's 15G and just has the treble, bass, and volume controls with an overdrive switch

Behringer pedals:

-Tuner

-Chorus

-Tube Overdrive

Donner Mini-Phaser pedal

 

I'm playing on Ernie Ball regular strings

 

I know that the better equipment I have the more flexibility I'll have with the tone I can produce, but really I'm just wondering if there are any suggestions in how to get my tone to sound more like Alex's on a variety of songs.

Big fan of the tone all throughout Limelight

Live Rush is crazy, and studio Rush can be just as good. There are certain songs though that just sound 1000x better live than they did in the studio. For me, they are

 

Presto

Faithless (and most of S&A)

Caravan

Finding My Way

Entre Nous

 

What are yours?

I know there are isolated bass tracks for the studio version, but I really think Geddy plays the crap out of the bass during LVS on Time Machine and I think it would be amazing to here it isolated. Does anyone have it or know how to make one?

I was wondering if anyone has any videos or recordings of Neil from the debut tour. The only ones I've been able to find are with Rutsey.

The Garden

Xanadu

Jacob's Ladder

My first two vinyls! I've been hoping to start a Rush vinyl collection and my brother started me out with Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves.

I have given Caress of Steel another listen, and The Necromancer went up to a 6/10 and I Think I'm Going Bald went to a 3, which increased Caress of Steel's average to 6.6.

 

Caress of Steel is now in this order:

 

Clockwork Angels

Caress of Steel

Vapor Trails

I just peed my pants

 

Where should it go?

I have given Caress of Steel another listen, and The Necromancer went up to a 6/10 and I Think I'm Going Bald went to a 3, which increased Caress of Steel's average to 6.6.

 

Caress of Steel is now in this order:

 

Clockwork Angels

Caress of Steel

Vapor Trails

Show Don't Tell to Roll the Bones

 

Where's My Thing to Counterparts

 

Before and After to Fly By Night

 

Most of their albums have a distinct sound to me so that's the best I could come up with

Rush: Working Man, What You're Doing, Here Again

 

Fly By Night: In the End, By-Tor and the Snow Dog, Anthem

 

Caress of Steel: Lakeside Park, Bastille Day, The Fountain of Lamneth

 

2112: 2112, A Passage to Bangkok, The Twilight Zone

 

A Farewell to Kings: Xanadu, Cygnus X-1, Closer to the Heart

 

Hemispheres: La Villa Strangiato, Hemispheres, The Trees

 

Permanent Waves: Jacob's Ladder, Natural Science, Freewill

 

Moving Pictures: Red Barchetta, Limelight, YYZ

 

Signals: Losing It, Digital Man, Subdivisions

 

Grace Under Pressure: Between the Wheels, Red Sector A, Kid Gloves

 

Power Windows: Grand Designs, Middletown Dreams, Marathon

 

Hold Your Fire: Force Ten, Time Stand Still, Mission

 

Presto: Available Light, Show Don't Tell, The Pass

 

Roll the Bones: Bravado, Dreamline, Where's My Thing

 

Counterparts: Leave That Thing Alone, Cold Fire, Animate

 

Test for Echo: Resist, Test for Echo, Driven

 

Vapor Trails: Vapor Trail, How It Is, Ghost Rider

 

Snakes and Arrows: Workin' Them Angels, Far Cry, Malignant Narcissism

 

Clockwork Angels: The Garden, The Anarchist, Clockwork Angels

Most of the hate that goes towards Greta van Fleet is that their sound is too Led Zeppelin-esque, and some even accuse them of being poor attempts at a copy of Led Zeppelin. Honestly, I don't quite understand it. If the lead singer, Josh, didn't sound so much like Plant, and it isn't really his fault, then they would not sound like Led Zeppelin any more than a lot of other 70s bands did. I don't hear Page in their guitar, Jones in their bass, or Bonham in their drums. "Well that's because they aren't nearly as talented as Led Zeppelin!" Well no kidding! If we determined if a band was good or not based on whether they were as good or better than Led Zeppelin, then we wouldn't have very many good bands at all. I think Greta van Fleet has a sound not heard since the 70s, but with new flares that continue to develop the music of old while they find their own style. They've only produced one album (and a couple EPs), so I expect them to really come into their own if they continue on the trend I believe there are on now.

 

Just my two cents...

I gotta say generally I go for Greta van Fleet over YYNOT, although I enjoy YYNOT over any other modern band (outside of Greta van Fleet)

 

Yeah you heard that right. As far as current bands go, Greta van Fleet is 1 and YYNOT is a close 2

Sweet pics from the COS tour...

 

https://www.cygnus-x...-09.21.1975.php

 

Great photos, embarrassing neckwear

 

I didn't realize Alex was using a Les Paul back then

Catching lots of flack for having the debut at the bottom. Not surprised, but I might as well offer my justification.

 

Take a Friend, Need Some Love, Finding My Way, Before and After, and In the Mood I ranked 5/10 or below, again in comparison to other Rush songs. For reference, Caravan was a 6, Lessons was a 5, and Ceiling Unlimited was a 4.

 

Those songs outweighed Working Man, What You're Doing, and Here Again.

 

Take a Friend was the lowest of those 5, I'm not at all a fan of the lyrics.

Need Some Love and Finding My Way are good, but the lack of Neil on these tracks and iffy lyrics are what caused me to rank them low.

In the Mood was a 5, good song but I think it is just a little too repetitive.

Before and After was also a 5, I enjoy this song, but for some reason I can't quite define, I can't justify ranking it better than a perfectly average Rush song.

A list that has the debut at the bottom and their signature work 8th I'll pass on. We all have our opinions however...

The way to correct this would be to weigh the longer songs more heavily. Because side 1 of 2112 is top 5 in their catalog and side 2 is reallllllllllly spotty. I could see how it would lose points in a ranking like this.

 

I thought about that, and there could be ways to weight the songs based on length or weight the albums based on total minutes or total songs, but I decided that I wanted to look at the albums holistically, which meant I needed to disregard song length or number of songs.

What do you get when you have an engineering student with a passion for Rush that is procrastinating on homework?

 

A large excel spreadsheet ranking each Rush song 1-10 (by Rush standards), and using that to determine my album rankings, and then using that to rank every Rush song from 1-165. I spent too much time on this.

 

Anyways here's what I ended up with for the albums, and if anyone wants to see the full spreadsheet or my ranking of every Rush song, just let me know.

 

Permanent Waves: 9.5

Hemispheres: 9

Moving Pictures: 8.71

A Farewell to Kings: 8

Signals: 7.63

Grace Under Pressure: 7.25

Power Windows: 7.13

2112: 7

Clockwork Angels: 6.75

Vapor Trails: 6.31

Roll the Bones: 6.3

Fly By Night: 6.25

Caress of Steel: 6.2

Hold Your Fire: 6.1

Counterparts: 6

Snakes and Arrows: 5.77

Presto: 5.55

Test for Echo: 5.27

Rush: 4.88

 

Please don't hate on me too much, for the rankings themselves or that I shared them here.

 

And since its in excel you can make some graghs!

 

Already done!

What do you get when you have an engineering student with a passion for Rush that is procrastinating on homework?

 

A large excel spreadsheet ranking each Rush song 1-10 (by Rush standards), and using that to determine my album rankings, and then using that to rank every Rush song from 1-165. I spent too much time on this.

 

Anyways here's what I ended up with for the albums, and if anyone wants to see the full spreadsheet or my ranking of every Rush song, just let me know.

 

Permanent Waves: 9.5

Hemispheres: 9

Moving Pictures: 8.71

A Farewell to Kings: 8

Signals: 7.63

Grace Under Pressure: 7.25

Power Windows: 7.13

2112: 7

Clockwork Angels: 6.75

Vapor Trails: 6.31

Roll the Bones: 6.3

Fly By Night: 6.25

Caress of Steel: 6.2

Hold Your Fire: 6.1

Counterparts: 6

Snakes and Arrows: 5.77

Presto: 5.55

Test for Echo: 5.27

Rush: 4.88

 

Please don't hate on me too much, for the rankings themselves or that I shared them here.

I am the owner of a Ephiphone Goldtop Les Paul, a Peavey guitar that looks like a red raptor but isn't quite that so I'm not exactly sure, and a Peavey acoustic. The Les Paul gets the most wear and the electric Peavey really just collects dust. Not the most outstanding guitars in the world, but they get the job done for me. I dream of the day when I can afford an ES-355 and a Gibson Les Paul.