RallyCat909

When I heard The Garden the first time, I felt that feeling of knowing that you have to walk through a lot of shit in your life to get to a point where you appreciate the treasured moments in life that carried you to a place like 'The Garden' is. Most of the people on this board had Neil's lyrics carry them through such moments. His imprint our lives is forever, in the way we love, the way we hurt, what means anything to us, and how we heal. This song, in particular may say something about all of that. I like that perhaps the vocals are not technically the most able, but there is passion and devotion to what the song is trying to say, and thats enough for me. I'm biased, sure, but I'll take Rush's worst moments over many other bands best.

As a 12 year old then, I was listening to the radio and heard Countdown and it captivated my science-loving boyish passions. I didnt align the context of the lyrics with the space shuttle, it was more of a flight crew in space communicating with a mothership. I was very much into UFO's and the conspiracies thereof and I thought this song was about that. I had always pictured an alien doing the synthesizer solo for that reason! When my cousin showed me the album and informed me it was about the space shuttle I was a bit disappointed. Nevertheless some years later as my interest in synths flowered, the solo in that song always came to mind. This song made me feel as a boy what one day I would later feel experimenting with LSD. I hope in saying that it doesnt cheapen the inspirational euphoria that polarized my soul in so many ways I had yet to realize later in life.

Open Secrets IMHO opinion has one of Alex's best recorded studio solos on it. The soaring tremolo work is inidictive of his approach to soloing in this timeline. I also loved Geddys Wal bass secondly to his Rick. Im not a fan of what I hear from the Jazz bass live these days, it sounds like a bunch of metal pipes being assaulted with a sledgehammer. (Again IMHO!)

Shhhhyet. PW has one of my favorite of Alex's solos: Emotion Detector. Though the concert reproduction of PW songs had alot of nasty DX-7 tinkly bell patches when played live. Bleh.

QUOTE (Moonraker @ Aug 24 2004, 01:28 AM) Open Secrets, I just have the highest emotional feelings attached to that song, more so then others. True to that. For me its one of Alex's best recorded solos and Im pretty sure they played that song live here in memphis in 88.

Different Strings, Id love to hear him wail on the lonely solo in that song.

I got to thinking about this a few minutes ago. Im sure alot of animation has been done for them over the years and certainly there must be some around on YouTube or something. Has anyone ever looked into this?