Bard

It is a matter of taste. But the debut is growing on me more and more lately. Breathtaking in places, especially when I take into consideration their ages and experience.

 

It's an extraordinary piece of work considering its release era and its out-the-gate sound. Groundbreaking yet also fitting the period, pre-synth, pre-prog. It's basically their only 'hard rock' album. Tracks like Finding My Way, In the Mood, Need Some Love, Working Man, Here Again - in 1974? Seriously, think about it. When ABBA, the Carpenters, BTO, and Kool and the Gang were leading the charts. And boom, Rush drops Rush. Seems pretty no brainer to me.

To rank Vapor Trails or Test for Echo over the debut, it boggles the mind.

Does it boggle your mind when they rate TFE and VT over Hemispheres?

 

Yes, it does. :D

I can't believe the lack of love for the first album. Yeah, Neil's not on it, so what. The songs are solid and stellar for a debut. TFE is by far the least 'Rush' Rush album. Every nerd knows that. :D

Makes me shake my head every time the debut comes up and this thread is no exception. I just don't get it either... :sigh:

 

It would be interesting to know if the age of the voter counts in whether someone likes the debut.

 

Indeed. But even the younger crews ought to recognize what a blistering debut it was, especially for that time and era in rock. I think it's almost certainly more 'loyalty' to the professor than anything else. How many people would've changed their vote if the album sounded EXACTLY the same, but Peart played on it? Methinks a fair amount. To rank Vapor Trails or Test for Echo over the debut, it boggles the mind.

The R 30 overture was the best opener ever, yes. I too hope they come up with a similar R-40 medley.

Haha. It's been a long long time since I threaded a setlist thread. For any band.

 

The Canuck boys are getting old per their own admission. Why they need to stick with a two set + intermission song structure is questionable. It's great, nay, it's awesome they wanna put out that much content so fans get maximum bang for their buck. But really, it's okay to scale down some in their elder years and just do the industry standard 20-22 song set. That way, they can power through the flashpoints (especially on an R-40 type tour) and get Neil on his bus in time for an 11 pm supper. So in that regard, presuming they scale down to one set approximately 2, 2.5 hours long: (btw, the love for Far Cry is interesting...I gotta say, I'm okay with the set passing on SnA stuff), and mixing casual fan must-plays with my own preferred cuts):

 

Spirit of Radio

Digital Man

Red Barchetta

Subdivisions

Superconductor

The Anarchist

Freewill

Limelight

Red Sector A

Natural Science

2112 medley

Distant Early Warning

YYZ (into drum solo)

Afterimage

Roll the Bones

Cut to the Chase

Tom Sawyer

 

(Encore)

New World Man

Chemistry

La Villa

Haven't read the responses yet and I'm sure Lorraine mentioned Xanadu already so hmmm.. Probably a waste of time wishing for Cygnus/Hemisperes.. I think I'm ready to hear natural science again..

Yes, I did. :)

Yes, it would be. :(

So am I. :)

 

I would love to hear anything up to and through Signals that hasn't been played to death the past few years.

 

Agreed.

 

Like Chemistry.

Or Countdown.

 

I agree with the poster who cited Cut to the Chase, too. Always light on Counterparts. I could stand Alien Shore for that matter.

_{A new singer is as likely as them opening with Welcome to the Jungle.}

 

LOL. Exactly. There will be no Rush without any one of the three players. Period.

South Americans love their concerts. Never a bad time down there, they are JUBILANT when it comes to global legends playing their arenas. However, that said, I doubt there is a finer place on earth to see Rush than Red Rocks in Colorado.

Absolutely one of their top three albums. Perfection.

I can't believe the lack of love for the first album. Yeah, Neil's not on it, so what. The songs are solid and stellar for a debut. TFE is by far the least 'Rush' Rush album. Every nerd knows that. :D

So the rumor that Signals will be played in its entirety ala the Time Machine/Moving Pictures tour is just that, a rumor?

 

Apologies if this has been covered extensively elsewhere.

I got mine yesterday from Amazon. As an audiophile myself, I can attest that gold pressing CDs are almost uniformly better mastering than original mixes. ALMOST. Not always. Sometimes the remastering tends to spice up the high end and fails to equalize the deep end in commensurate measure. Particularly with the newer venture Audio Fidelity, which I don't quite understand since Hoffman did such stellar work with DCC offerings. That said, I have several of the AF discs because I'm a gold CD whore, basically...it's ALWAYS warmer on gold than aluminum (for best results, stick with 180 gm vinyl and a top of the line modern turntable with a diamond needle).

 

As far as RTB...well, they punched up the treble for sure, it's crisp no doubt, in fact in parts Neil's snare is too spiked and it sounds more electric than it ought to. Last AF releases I picked up were the Doors' Morrison Hotel and Yes' 90125, and neither of those discs suffered from bass mud. RTB does, alas.

 

But still....it's a Rush gold CD. Rare they are. If given a choice, I'd always prefer an MFSL edition, they're consistently the best at what they do (i.e., Permanent Waves). Seeing as how you can only get 2112, MP, PW, Signals, and now RTB in gold...I'm holding out hope for an MFSL remastering of GUP, myself.

Yeah, about a couple million Toshiba players moved at Xmas. I would imagine some folks are pissed. Like me, who got a nice Toshiba HD A30 from the little lady, plus several HD titles, and then in January Warner decides to back Blue Ray. Sigh. Betamax all over again.

 

Really, the only reason I was even interested in upgrading to HD players was to see the newly released Blade Runner collection. Which admittedly looks kick ass.

 

I really didn't want to replace my entire DVD collection with HD dvds, apart from Blade Runner and possibly the Indiana Jones trilogy. Then I got to thinking when Tarantino flicks finally come out on HD, particularly Pulp and Kill Bill, I'll be wanting those in HD too.

 

Samsung makes a combo HD / Blue Ray player, but they still want over six or seven hundred bucks for it.

Alien Shore. But CTTC and LTTA are great too.

Roadshow is by far the best of Neil's books. I know he limits his sphere to travelogue type memoir, but I think the master lyricist ought to branch out into bona fide fiction just for kicks.

 

Going to be picking up Steve King's newest tomorrow, Duma Key. Sounds promising, and it's been a while since he dipped into the literary fiction well adequately (I didn't like Lisey's Story).

1 Signals

2 Moving Pictures

3 Grace Under Pressure

4 Rush

5 Permanent Waves

6 2112

7 Fly By Night

8 Counterparts

9 Snakes and Arrows

10 A Farewell to Kings

11 Hemispheres

12 Roll the Bones

13 Presto

14 Power Windows

15 Hold Your Fire

16 Vapor Trails

17 Caress of Steel

18 Test for Echo

 

 

Signals. By a country mile.

 

MP is the defining landmark effort, but Signals is their best collaboration in tems of tone, flow, and depth. Pure perfection.

 

The core of absolute Rush: 2112, Waves, MP, Signals, GUP.

 

Personally, I think Kings and Hemispheres get a lot of overblown credit, but that's just me.

Best fantasy/sci fi writer out there currently, bar none.

 

His Sandman graphic novel series is nothing short of a manifesto of brilliance.

 

Also worthy: American Gods, Good Omens, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, and any of his short story collections.

Top notch satire and far-out literary wackery.

 

Recommended works: Any and all, but especially...

 

Lamb - The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. A true classic. Possibly the funniest book you will ever read.

 

A Dirty Job

 

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

 

Practical Demonkeeping

 

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

 

Coyote Blue

 

The Stupidest Angel

Coupland's the watermark for dramatic Gen X writers....him and Ellis and Mcinerney.

 

Gen X was his magnum opus. Hard to live down the success of a first novel like that.

 

Jpod was his worst. Yuck.

 

All Families Psychotic, Microserfs, Shampoo Planet, Polaroids from the Dead - very good stuff. Coma, Eleanor, Life after God and Wyoming - to a lesser degree.

 

Finished his newest The Gum Thief a month or two ago. Best since Shampoo I think.

When was the last time/tour they played either of these tunes live?