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

Absolutely stellar job on your list, man. Early on I said I had a feeling our rankings would be comparable, and I was right. And your analyses were concise and spot-on. 

And we still get to enjoy hi_water's ongoing rankings.

5 hours ago, _hi_water._ said:

90. “The Fountain Of Lamneth”, Track 5/5 (19:57), Caress Of Steel (1975)

Caress Of Steel - Entry 3 out of 5

 

...And here is the most debated Rush song of all. As we all know, this makes up Side B of Caress Of Steel, and closes the album. For me, this 20 minute epic opens structurally exciting with "In the Valley" - just an excellent, building intro into soaring guitars and vocals. Then we get "Didacts and Narpets", which is mostly a drum solo with Geddy Lee screaming single words - totally okay. My favorite piece is "No One At The Bridge", mainly because I love Lifeson's clean riffs. Then there is "Panacea" - which kind of falls this track down here for me - it works well in the grand scheme of the song's story, but the song itself is somewhat bleh. It ends great with "Bacchus Plateau" and the reminiscent "The Fountain". Great stepping stone for Rush.

 

Below: Why is it titled "The Fountain of Lamenth"? 

 

 

 

Previously on my list...

91. “Secret Touch”, Track 8/13 (6:34) - Entry 9/13, Vapor Trails (2002)

90. “The Fountain Of Lamneth”, Track 5/5 (19:57) - Entry 3/5, Caress Of Steel (1975)

 

How is this album doing?

5. “I Think I’m Going Bald”, Track 2/5 (3:41) - #146/173

4. “Lakeside Park”, Track 3/5 (4:07) - #120/173

3. “The Fountain Of Lamneth”, Track 5/5 (19:57) - #90/173

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, laughedatbytime said:

A bit high.  Fortunately they got things turned around by their next album; another one like this and it would have been down the tubes forever, and we'd have missed out on a great catalog.

Agree, I have it ranked lower than this. How much lower I won't say at this time.

45 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

#3      2112 (2112, 1st of 6)

 

 

Not only the song that saved the band, but one that contains the most transcendent moments in the catalog.  At its highs (Overture, Priests, the Grand  Finale) Rush has never been better.   Has any band?  Not in my book.  Though there were slow parts essential to the story keeping it from #1, this is THE most essential Rush song ever.

I had trouble ranking this one. Its importance in Rush's history is obvious, but it's not a song I can just pop on and listen to at a moment's notice simply because of its length and intensity (same goes for Hemispheres). It's a song that part of me wants to rank in the top-3, but I don' have it quite this high. Still, can't argue with where you placed this.

4 minutes ago, 1-0-0-1-0-0-1 said:

 

I love the heavy Led Zep vibe of this song, and have it ranked much higher. I feel like I'm in the minority there, but this song grabbed me on the first listen and it still delivers.

2 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

I really enjoy the song now, but it, like most of VT, took a while to appreciate.

Yeah, a lot of VT was like that for me. Vapor Trail and How It IS are good examples of songs that flew under the radar at first but got a lot of appreciation later. Most fans don't like Peaceable Kingdom, and I felt likewise at first, but I really like the snarky guitars and the groove now.

1 hour ago, _hi_water._ said:

91. “Secret Touch”, Track 8/13 (6:34), Vapor Trails (2002)

Vapor Trails - Entry 9 out of 13

 

Perhaps I am underrating Vapor Trails - this is yet another powerful song that wonderfully evokes Neil's pain prior to the album. "The way out
Is the way in" and "You can never break the chain/There is never love without pain/A gentle hand, a secret touch on the heart" are all excellent lyrics, but I feel that this may be a little too repetitive for six and a half minutes, especially in comparison to shorter songs coming up from this album.

 

 

 

Previously on my list...

101. “In The Mood”, Track 6/8 (3:36) - Entry 4/8, Rush (1974)

100. “We Hold On”, Track 13/13 (4:13) - Entry 10/13, Snakes & Arrows (2007)

99. “Cinderella Man”, Track 4/6 (4:20) - Entry 2/6, A Farewell To Kings (1977)

98. “Totem”, Track 6/11 (4:58) - Entry 9/11, Test For Echo (1996)

97. “Cut To The Chase”, Track 3/11 (4:46) - Entry 5/11, Counterparts (1993)

96. “Lock And Key”, Track 6/10 (5:09) - Entry 6/10, Hold Your Fire (1987)

95. “The Twilight Zone”, Track 3/6 (3:18) - Entry 3/6, 2112 (1976)

94. “Chemistry”, Track 3/8 (4:58) - Entry 1/8, Signals (1982)

93. “Ghost Of A Chance”, Track 8/10 (5:18) - Entry 8/10, Roll The Bones (1991)

92. “Vapor Trail”, Track 7/13 (4:57) - Entry 8/13, Vapor Trails (2002)

91. “Secret Touch”, Track 8/13 (6:34) - Entry 9/13, Vapor Trails (2002)

 

How is this album doing?

13. “Peaceable Kingdom”, Track 4/13 (5:23) - #164/173
12. “Out Of The Cradle”, Track 13/13 (5:03) - #155/173
11. “The Stars Look Down”, Track 5/13 (4:28) - #138/173
10. “Ceiling Unlimited”, Track 2/13 (5:28) - #130/173
9. “Nocturne”, Track 11/13 (4:49) - #125/173
8. “How It Is”, Track 6/13 (4:04) - #116/173
7. “Ghost Rider”, Track 3/13 (5:41) - #113/173
6. “Vapor Trail”, Track 7/13 (4:57) - #92/173
5. “Secret Touch”, Track 8/13 (6:34) - #91/173

I love the heavy Led Zep vibe of this song, and have it ranked much higher. I feel like I'm in the minority there, but this song grabbed me on the first listen and it still delivers.

2 hours ago, laughedatbytime said:

#5      Subdivisions (Signals, 1st of 8)

#4      Red Barchetta (MP, 1st of 7)

 

No argument with either of these rankings. Some wouldn't rank Barchetta in their top-10 but I sure do.

Schauffele is -21 on the last hole of the Tour Championship. Imagine having that score and being five back of the leader. Hovland tore this one up 

7 hours ago, laughedatbytime said:

#6     The Spirit of Radio (PeW, 2nd of 6)

 

 

As one era ended with the last song on the countdown, a new, more accessible one began with the first song from their last Seventies album (sorry, had to), which appears at #6.   Not wishing to sacrifice musicianship at the altar of accessibility, they meet the standards of both with a song whose lyrics manage to be acerbic while sung joyfully while capturing the transition of FM radio from creative to corporate (though this had pretty much happened a few years prior.)  Always a joy to listen to, even with vicals best described as what will be looked at five years from now as a primitive AI mashup of Geddy and Phil Collins that just sounds like Geddy at half power.

 

 

Imagine having a song on the radio that has multiple time signature and meter changes, all played with advanced skill, and having it become as popular and iconic as some straight-ahead rock songs. This song and Tom Sawyer did just that, and that might be Rush's greatest accomplishment.

The other good example of that is Carry On Wayward Son. Not as many time sig changes but lots of meter and feel changes.

11 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

He did his best to get to 100 without going over...

Too soon? No, that was solid joke.

We had a mix-up with the domain registration and it took way too long for the site to come back up. All good now.

9 hours ago, laughedatbytime said:

#7     La Villa Strangiato (Hemi, 1st of 4)

 

 

The end of an era.   And what an era it was.  I have to admit, not being a musician, it took me a while to appreciate its complexity but once I did, the greatness here hit me like a ton of bricks, and it has remained near the top of the list ever since.  It's somewhat breathtaking that some like this could have been conceived of, let alone executed live in near perfection.

I have this one ranked a little higher. This song is way too fun to have outside the top-10.

3 hours ago, TheAccountant said:

Very good song and their best instrumental.  Clearly in the top 100 but lower than this.  Not certain where but not in my top 25. 

What would be your highest rated song from Hemispheres, and about where would you rank it?

3 hours ago, Mosher said:

While I'll say I've always liked High Water,

I do have to wonder about your change of heart.

 

In the late 80s you had High Water quite low. But at that time you did not know of Anagram, Half the World, etc.

 

Maybe it's only risen given it's company?

 

I also like Anagram, but I do know you hate it 

I didn't like High Water much when HYF came out, but back then I wasn't liking HYF or Power Windows as albums outside of a few songs from each. I felt they were too much of a departure from the prog stuff. Presto didn't fare much better when I first heard it, and it still doesn't, but over the years PoW and HYF have grown on me (PoW more than HYF).

Back when those albums came out I didn't think of where the songs would rank on a list. Either I liked a song or I didn't. I'm thinking about it now because we have people here ranking every Rush song and it made me want to do likewise, and that made me want to listen to songs that I haven't heard in a while. Some songs like High Water benefited from a revisit. Others like Anagram and Half the World sounded worse than ever.

8 hours ago, JARG said:

 

Yes. The AI can't quite get all the little nuances that Phil would have if he were to actually be singing on the track.

I wonder if replacing a singer with AI is tougher than plain dialogue, because dialogue can be done pretty convincingly.

24 minutes ago, edhunter said:

Is this real? It sounds like some sort of high-tech wizardry. I can hear Collins's voice fine, but it too perfectly matches Geddy's enunciation,  and accent.

The video title gives it away -- "AI Rush cover."

If I did a blind listen to this, I would think some fan or tribute band vocalist did this, one that sounded a little like Phil Collins.

On 11/20/2021 at 8:29 PM, goose said:

On 11/17/2021 at 10:15 PM, Super25Smasher said:

I do like High Water. I've seen a lot people slander it over the years.

 

I like it a lot.

For years I had High Water ranked near the bottom, right next to Tai Shan (that's a death sentence for any Rush song!).  I never gave it more than a few listens. I gave it a spin yesterday, for the first time in decades, and it's actually much better than I remembered. It's still not a top-100 song for me, but it's nowhere near Tai Shan anymore.

1 hour ago, laughedatbytime said:

#8 contains the only song in my list that probably wouldn't make the consensus top 20 or even top 15.     But it's not a complete outlier, I wouldn't think.   Look at my username and you can probably guess....

 

#8      Circumstances (Hemi, 2nd of 4)

 

Rush could always write a great song in under 4 minutes and this is one of the first proofs of that.   I think I probably have it higher than most but I just love the tune from the interlude to the chorus to the part before the chorus that I'm sure has a term for it but which I don't know. .   And as Sebastian Bach once said "these dudes are singing in French"   (the incredulity in his voice is not captured fully in print, unfortunately).    Just a transcendently beautiful (though less complex than most, from what I can tell) song.

 

Hate away!

I don't have that song ranked quite that high, but it's not far behind this. It's a solid tune and not surprised to see it in someone's top-10.

25 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

 

Where does "Finding a Way" rank again?

50 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

I did have a thought about how to do this in terms of fixing differences.  If the numbers were not somehow adjusted, a  song someone rated as 117 that someone else rated as 76 would have a greater difference than a song rated 40th and 3rd respectively, but most people would agree that the difference of opinion is regarding the latter song.  How I was thinking of accounting for this is to put the songs on a normal curve and calculating t-scores for each song and taking the difference that way.  The problem with this is that the average Rush song isn't average (which is the peak of the curve), it's very good.  So I was thinking of calculating these scores based on the 25th rightmost area on the curve or maybe 1 standard deviation which if memory serves is the 84.2nd percentile (I'd have to verify that to make sure it's the one tailed value) and see how that worked until something formulaic seemed to reflect common sense.

I took statistics in college, and got an A. Reading this post of yours confirms how little I've retained from that course after all these years.

1 minute ago, laughedatbytime said:

Looking forward to the rest of your list) I'm a statistician so I'm looking forward to the statistical analysis I can do once we get enough of these.  I can't say I'm looking forward to the data entry, though...anyway, we can do a consensus list, see whose picks are the most different, top albums, top songs from.albums etc.   Highest standard deviation for any song...go ahead and suggest other categories as well.

Agreed. Thanks to hi_water for getting this whole list thing started.

3 minutes ago, 1-0-0-1-0-0-1 said:

 

 

Yeah, it's worse than a blockage. I've never experienced dysentery, but thanks to Second Nature and Anagram, I don't have to.

Just now, laughedatbytime said:

I see I spelled it (dysentery) wrong above.  That's probably because I'm used to referring to it as "Half the World".

That calls for an expanded sneak preview:

163.
164. Half The World
165. Anagram (For Mongo)
166. Second Nature

16 minutes ago, 1-0-0-1-0-0-1 said:

Yes. Musical dysentery.

9 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

I actually did some research/googling, thinking initially that dystenery was the opposite of blockage, but the only thing I really found out was that I didn't want to do any more research about it.

Yeah, it's worse than a blockage. I've never experienced dysentery, but thanks to Second Nature and Anagram, I don't have to.

On 8/18/2023 at 8:46 PM, _hi_water._ said:

92. “Vapor Trail”, Track 7/13 (4:57), Vapor Trails (2002)

Vapor Trails - Entry 8 out of 13

 

Whether this is the original mix or the remixed version - this is a downright terrific alt-rock jam. It has a great sense of atmosphere, and really transitions well into the chorus. This album begins to lift for me around here.

 

 

Previously on my list...

101. “In The Mood”, Track 6/8 (3:36) - Entry 4/8, Rush (1974)

100. “We Hold On”, Track 13/13 (4:13) - Entry 10/13, Snakes & Arrows (2007)

99. “Cinderella Man”, Track 4/6 (4:20) - Entry 2/6, A Farewell To Kings (1977)

98. “Totem”, Track 6/11 (4:58) - Entry 9/11, Test For Echo (1996)

97. “Cut To The Chase”, Track 3/11 (4:46) - Entry 5/11, Counterparts (1993)

96. “Lock And Key”, Track 6/10 (5:09) - Entry 6/10, Hold Your Fire (1987)

95. “The Twilight Zone”, Track 3/6 (3:18) - Entry 3/6, 2112 (1976)

94. “Chemistry”, Track 3/8 (4:58) - Entry 1/8, Signals (1982)

93. “Ghost Of A Chance”, Track 8/10 (5:18) - Entry 8/10, Roll The Bones (1991)

92. “Vapor Trail”, Track 7/13 (4:57) - Entry 8/13, Vapor Trails (2002)

 

How is this album doing?

13. “Peaceable Kingdom”, Track 4/13 (5:23) - #164/173

12. “Out Of The Cradle”, Track 13/13 (5:03) - #155/173

11. “The Stars Look Down”, Track 5/13 (4:28) - #138/173

10. “Ceiling Unlimited”, Track 2/13 (5:28) - #130/173

9. “Nocturne”, Track 11/13 (4:49) - #125/173

8. “How It Is”, Track 6/13 (4:04) - #116/173

7. “Ghost Rider”, Track 3/13 (5:41) - #113/173

6. “Vapor Trail”, Track 7/13 (4:57) - #92/173

Of all the songs on VT, as far as the mixing in the original release, this song suffered the most. It sounded like a cacophonous brick wall with so many layers of loud guitars battling to be heard. But I still liked the song, and the remixed version has raised my level of appreciation for this underrated deep cut. I have this ranked much higher.

4 minutes ago, 1-0-0-1-0-0-1 said:

 

After further analysis, after a refresher listen...holy shit, those two songs sound so much worse than I thought. To have a level of loathing and revulsion for a song actually grow with each listen is actually kind of impressive.

 

Sneak preview of my list:

 

164.

165. Anagram

166. Second Nature

 

Never have two songs been so  firmly entrenched in the bowels of a rankings list.

1 minute ago, laughedatbytime said:

That sounds like the worst kind of intestinal blockage possible.

Yes. Musical dysentery.

5 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

So did Second Nature get moved up.to your top ten, or did Anagram nudge it out for that honor?

After further analysis, after a refresher listen...holy shit, those two songs sound so much worse than I thought. To have a level of loathing and revulsion for a song actually grow with each listen is actually kind of impressive.

Sneak preview of my list:

164.

165. Anagram

166. Second Nature

Never have two songs been so  firmly entrenched in the bowels of a rankings list.