1-0-0-1-0-0-1

Yeah, Babs sang it in one of her farewell political fundraiser concerts.

I'll be doing a thread/poll on those wordplay songs in the near future (I've already compiled a list), but you touched on my biggest problem with them -- that the music in many of those songs is uninspiring, almost non-Rush-like, like the music was an afterthought. Anagram is the biggest offender for me, and it once held the distinction of being my least favorite Rush song until I remembered that Second Nature wasn't a song by Barbara Streisand.

Hmmm..... Yeah.

Still working on my list (totally taking my time) and I almost didn't include BU2B2 because it's really just an interlude where the lyrics are just filling in a gap in the overall story. You listen to it once, take note of what's being said, and never listen to it again. But I did include it just for the sake of completeness and I have it ranked rather low.

Yeah, Dave's voice takes some getting used to, and some people can't get that far. I totally get that. If you can deal with that, the music is pretty interesting. I'd classify it as funky prog folk pop country. Drummer Carter Beauford is an absolute beast. I'm not a DMB disciple but I do like them. If I were to recommend an album it'd be Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King since it's where (IIRC) they started incorporating some electric guitar into their music. A little more rock, and little less folk. Here are a few songs that a Rush fan might like. (The horn lines that start off the first track sound super dated.)

Probably my favorite from Feedback. I like the intro, and Alex's guitar sounds nice and heavy. It's a fun listen once in a while but I don't seek it out too often.

This is new and I haven't watched it yet, but it's Geddy's birthday so I'm giving it to him as a gift.

Happy birthday Dirk!

I don't know if I value the lyrics too much, but Geddy is definitely slappin' da bass, and that's enough for me.

I agree on those two PW tracks, in fact I have them in the same ranking (2nd and last). Emotion Detector has a great Alex solo so that boosts its ranking a bit.

Good tune. I don't know if Neil ever mentioned this, but I wonder if this was meant to be a sequel to Ghost Rider.

If you read the comments section of that video, the StickHits guy points out that the audio for the guitar solo is different than what we heard in the original concert video from the '80s. The original video borrowed the solo track from the ESL album, and that always bugged me because I can see the spots where Alex's fingers aren't quite matching up with we we're hearing. That clip posted above seems to have restored the solo from that night's filming.

What's that you say, sonny?

These lists have me constructing my own, which means they have me re-listening to some long-neglected tunes that my brain needed a refresher course on. Never a bad idea. With most of the songs the refreshers didn't change their rankings much, but there are a few songs that did not benefit at all from a re-listen -- they haven't aged well for me and I dropped them way down the list despite them being revered by many of the old-school prog era fans.

I forgot all about this, haven't seen it in years, great call! It's a song that fits right into VH's wheelhouse, though I like the slower tempo of ZZ's version. Billy Gibbons did the right hand fretting notes on the neck thing in this solo, which was back in 1973 -- five years before VH1 came out. Hearing Eddie doing that solo and putting his own tapping style into it sounds like a proper follow-up.

Songs like Peaceable Kingdom and Open Secrets would be near the bottom of most Rush fans' lists, but I consider them underrated gems. PK has all those snarky dirty guitars and Neil actually does a decent job of grooving -- an accomplishment for him. Open Secrets has that adult contemporary sound, but it's deceptively upbeat and propulsive, with lots of great bass work by Geddy and one of Alex's very best solos. Time and Motion is my third fave from T4E. hi_water also had it ranked relatively low on his list. What bothers you about it?

Obviously all of the songs on the VT Remix sound better than the original. Given that, there are few songs that lost some of their "magic" from the admittedly ear-blistering original mix. Ceiling Unlimited lost some of its intensity and gained a useless guitar solo that was left out of the original for a reason, while How It Is got a huge lift. For me, the better-sounding remix of this song wouldn't affect it's position on a list. I like the song no matter what. I haven't included this song on my list yet -- working backwards I'm up to 106 so I have it ranked higher than this.

I love both tracks, but VH edges out a win here. Eddie's rhythm playing on TYWH is stellar.

BTW, if Garden Road was included on the debut it'd be my third favorite track from that album, possibly second fave.

Yeah, Broon's Bane. It's a standalone original track and not just the intro to The Trees, so my list will include it. You could make the argument that the drum solos are also original compositions, but I wouldn't include them in my rankings.

No, Garden Road was not released on an official live album. If that were the case I would have included it.

Mine has it at #164, but only because I have 166 songs on the list, not 165. 164. Half The World 165. Anagram (For Mongo) 166. Second Nature There's no arguing that bottom-2.

I'm starting to make up a list, but I'll take my time with it and probably wait till you and hi_water are close to finished with yours. I've got the top-10 and maybe the bottom-70 done. Ranking the songs you don't like is pretty easy. The hard part is ranking the songs that you do like but aren't in the top-10. Starting at the bottom, our lists were looking kinda similar, but after the bottom-10 or so, there are some obvious differences.