Timbale

More than a feeling = reality The reality here is that the debut Boston album is one of the best ever in rock music history. Versus a live album by a respected prog band. "It's more than a feeling (more than a feeling) When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)" So...he's not just having a FEELING when he hears that old song...he's....well, he's actually hearing it in reality? Which is the only way he could be having a feeling from hearing it...? Hmmm. I was just being snarky because it's a dumb lyric...which, granted, doesn't set it apart from about 70% of rock music.

Three Sides Live by a progressive country mile. The medley of In The Cage/Cinema Show/Slipperman/Afterglow is astoundingly good on this album, and a few of the Abacab songs - Dodo/Lurker and Me And Sarah Jane - are very well preformed, too. And the "proper" 4th live side with One For The Vine, Fountain Of Salmacis, It/Watcher Of The Skies is sublime. Boston isn't even in the same league to me... and really...how can something be MORE than a feeling?

You can listen to an entire day of classic rock programming, day in, day out, and never hear ONE song you've never heard before. It is maddening to me...and why I don't do it. It's not even about hating the songs...it's just that rock radio sucks the life out of them by having them in constant rotation. Like, with all the great Rush songs there are...I literally never need to hear Closer To The Heart on the radio ever again. Same with the 5 or 6 Zeppelin, Who and Floyd songs they crank out. But I will say, the Can Con stuff that is only in rotation because of regulations is particularly dire. Like, we are really stretching the term "classic" to it's breaking point if Honeymoon Suite and Kim Mitchell are in the mix...

I remember borrowing a friend's VCR in college. Life is better now. Anyways, my confession: I've never seen ESL. I've only heard the album. Even worse, I've never heard ATWAS at all, not one note. I've decided to save both of those experiences for later in life, since the Rush well is dry and I've got to have something to look forward to. I am envious of you, Weatherman - you have some prime Rush in your future!

Kim Mitchell has a dry sense of humour. Anytime a song is huge, there's going to be satire involved. In the late 90's, SNL parodied 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVkgBXs5UDs Dion apparently had a good attitude and sense of humour about the parody. Yeah, I get what you're saying... but doing a parody of one of the biggest pop songs in history after it had ruled the airwaves and won an Oscar is not the same as taking a shot at someone's song right in the moment that is supposed to belong to them - and also as their career is just starting. It pulls focus, and I think it's a dick move on Mitchell's part, given that this is Hill likely being nominated for the first time, which is a big deal. Honestly, I think if it was Dan Hill presenting and he was like "Best album nominees...Rush - A Farewell To Songwriting..." we'd be calling Dan Hill an idiot. But I imagine Dan Hill would have more class than to take a shot like that at fellow musicians just trying to make their way - especially in a televised moment that is about them being nominated for an award. I find Sometimes When We Touch a totally cloying, schmaltzy piece of songwriting... but it is an enduring, arguably timeless hit, loved the world over. Kim Mitchell will never know what it is to write a song like that, and so in retrospect watching the guy who wrote I Am A Wild Party, Ra Ra Olé be a smart ass about someone else's songwriting really sticks out as a shithead thing to do. Kim Mitchell has a good idea of what it's like to write a sentimental song but maybe he does hold the shmaltz a bit. All We Are and Patio Lanterns fits the bill quite nicely, but sorry Dan Hill's son - I have no issue with your Dad, I just think if he was really bent out of shape about this (as much as you are apparently) he shouldn't take himself so seriously. If you prefer his music to KM/MW, that's fine, it's just personal tastes - no arguing that, no right or wrong. If you're arguing chart position of a single as some sort of trump card, well since I don't get any points off of record sales - I don't use that as any sort of metric to judge music quality. Peace I'm not sure which is sillier... underlining your argument by accusing me of an absurd, Kim-Mitchell-level-of-humour type conflict of interest...or sighting goddamn Patio Lanterns in a discussion about good songwriting. Peace right back

Different Strings

Kim Mitchell has a dry sense of humour. Anytime a song is huge, there's going to be satire involved. In the late 90's, SNL parodied 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVkgBXs5UDs Dion apparently had a good attitude and sense of humour about the parody. Yeah, I get what you're saying... but doing a parody of one of the biggest pop songs in history after it had ruled the airwaves and won an Oscar is not the same as taking a shot at someone's song right in the moment that is supposed to belong to them - and also as their career is just starting. It pulls focus, and I think it's a dick move on Mitchell's part, given that this is Hill likely being nominated for the first time, which is a big deal. Honestly, I think if it was Dan Hill presenting and he was like "Best album nominees...Rush - A Farewell To Songwriting..." we'd be calling Dan Hill an idiot. But I imagine Dan Hill would have more class than to take a shot like that at fellow musicians just trying to make their way - especially in a televised moment that is about them being nominated for an award. I find Sometimes When We Touch a totally cloying, schmaltzy piece of songwriting... but it is an enduring, arguably timeless hit, loved the world over. Kim Mitchell will never know what it is to write a song like that, and so in retrospect watching the guy who wrote I Am A Wild Party, Ra Ra Olé be a smart ass about someone else's songwriting really sticks out as a shithead thing to do.

"Go-for-a-Soda dickhead"? First off "Sometimes When We Brunch" is pure schmaltz, and second, KM is a f***in' rock legend - show some god damn respect. Dan Hill is a one hit wonder with apparently, no sense of humour I would think that if you're chastising people to show some "god damn respect" that the original clip would upset you as well. Lifeson, an actual rock legend, is of course too classy to say something that stupid.

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They don't show it in that clip...but you can find the whole award clip, in really bad shape, on Youtube. When they're reading the nominees, Kim Mitchell makes a joke out of Dan Hill's song... something like "sometimes when we brunch, they eggs cost too much by Dan Hill", and they cut to Hill...and he is not laughing. I'm not a huge Dan Hill fan...but I'm sure to get nominated for a Juno and then have that Go-For-Soda dickhead make a stupid joke like that right then must have been super annoying. I hope Hill whispered a little F**k You to him as he took the award from him.

Bytor & The Snowdog on the Vapor Trails tour. I hadn't read anything about the tour, had no idea what they were playing...and when they pulled that out, I was honestly shocked. I never, ever, ever thought that was a tune they would resurrect. It's not even a particular fave of mine....but it was one of those moments where I really realized this is the same band that is on All The World's A Stage, you know? They've done so much reinventing of themselves, and left lots of things behind...but that was really a moment of connecting to the past for me, in a way that hearing them crank out In The Mood or Working Man didn't really for me. A close runner up would be Natural Science on the Test For Echo tour. A total fave that they killed on that first tour they brought it back.

My family used to RENT a VCR for the weekend once in a while, as a treat...and I would always ask (sometimes successfully) to include ESL in our rentals. I can remember just binge watching it, over and over. Every frame of it is burned in my memory. The complete filmed set from that night (surely nonexistent) is absolutely the Rush holy grail to me.

I think that the popular craze of "reaction" videos ( some of which I really, really enjoy) has morphed into, or at least created a subset of "expert" reactions...and a lot of times I can't help but feel I'm being grifted while I watch. There are a few "drum experts" or "drum teachers" reacting to Neil Peart solos on youtube...and a lot of it is just someone saying "this guy's insane!" It's like all they want is someone like me, a fan of Neil's, to "like" their video and say "totally, dude - he's the greatest ever!" But Peart was not "insane", and any real expert on the instrument would understand everything he is doing - while also being aware that he is doing it at a high level of skill. I watched classical composer guy's reaction to Xanadu, and found it, relative to him being a composer, really short on insight and expertise. As stated elsewhere in this thread, I don't think Rush's chord progressions are what make them a unique band at all. Having some guy comment on a verse being in E (like, THE most standard chord in rock music) and then moving to D for a chorus just has very little value, in my opinion. And, I wouldn't knock a non-musician for this whatsoever, but when he was saying there was a section of Xanadu that was in 7 because he got confused by the "push" in that riff... well, that really made it hard for me to listen to anything else he had to say...