psionic11

QUOTE (Unattractive Truth @ Mar 19 2012, 10:27 AM) Man, just looking at that list...wow. Dreamline. Animate. TSOR. Tom Sawyer. The Big Money. All great songs, IMHO. My vote goes to Subdivisions. My favortie Rush song, and probably my favorite song, period. Agree, great, great openers for the most part. I went with Big Money, although Hemispheres was in the running. BM is just so exciting and over-the-top, with awesome synths, singing + lyrics, bass guitar, drums (electronic, woo!), and a great Lerxst solo to boot... Prime time Rush... I even like the video. BTW, judging from your logo, let me ask you this: if someone were to make, say, a 5-7 minute montage of various Firefly scenes, don't you think a most fitting soundtrack or song in the background would be --- Hope?!!

Glad you posted your point of view. For many of us, Rush is the soundtrack of our lives, and it looks like it will be a part of yours as well. Way back when (Gen X here), I used to love the anticipation of the next great Rush album... will they have a different synth sound? will the guitars be super heavy or more chorused and clangy? is the single going to be epic? what new style/styles will they explore next? Being a bass player, I couldn't wait for more awesome bass lines. And the anticipation of yet another batch of catchy songs with great musicianship... Rush has more good songs than any other single band I can think of (subjective, of course). This happened again and again every 2-3 years, where you were still enjoying the last album and Rush comes out and releases another great one. So I feel your pain when you've waited all your teen years just to get *one* more next album. Things happen so fast nowadays, so much stuff in between, with technology and social networking and world events and the churning of TV crap. So yeah, ignore the naysayers and the haters. Instead, relish the anticipation. Meanwhile, make some awesome Rush playlists of your favorite songs, maybe with a theme for each playlist (epics, mellow, big synth, preachy, personal, etc), and just enjoy what we have for now.

Before Signals, synth lines were monophonic -- no chords. Afterwards, we have big lush walls of synth chords and colors everywhere.

At this point in time, the poll shows 53% like VT. In other words, half of us don't like VT. In other, other words, saying "very few don't" like VT is an incorrect conclusion. Anonymous or not. Just sayin'.... PS: I want to like VT, I really do. But the shrill vocals, dense textures, and grating sound quality just make it to unbearable most of the time. Shrill vocals most of us tend to like, since we like Rush. But Rush albums have almost always very good, if not great, sound quality. T4E is boring, with average sound quality. VT just hurts.

Losing it. 5/8, 6/8, 4/4 Turn the Page: 6/4, 4/4 Different Strings: some 7/4 Jacobs Ladder: 6/8,7/8, 6/4 5/4 La Villa Strangiato: all over the place

Different songs need different strings.

I can just imagine Alex having a ball cracking on this one... ... tears of joy, literally rolling on the floor laughing...

Funnny! Great facial expressions. Not the most commanding of voices, but his logic was sound.... "err, move back, or people will get crushed...err.. do you speak English?"... lol Dying to see more.

Nice, good to hear keyboard renditions of Rush. Maybe next recording you could go direct out instead of mic'ing the room, might be a little clearer? Still, great job, it's the feeling and live performance that matters most. My chosen keyboard renditions are Losing It and Manhattan Project, for which I use a straight up layered acoustic piano sound. Broon's Bane and The Trees I've played on my acoustic since I was 17, and still love playing it to this day. Overall, great job, looking forward to more videos from you.

Yeah, a lot of Rush fans are hardcore and the idea of them doing "cover" songs is alien. But I like a couple songs off the album, even though I don't care for the originals that much. I like Heart Full of Soul the most. Especially like when Geddy sings, "tell her I have a heart full of soul". First time I heard this, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the boys play something so simple and heartfelt and, well, "normal" as far as rock songs go. Good stuff, if not epic.

I love stories like this. Makes us old-school musicians and Rush fans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Before checking out this thread, I just happened to come home early from a half day at work, and some tall skinny kid was walking down the neighborhood sidewalk in front of my hose, playing a nice-looking custom 5-string bass. I struck up a conversation before I even got out of the car. Turns out he's going to Berklee, and is in a 3-piece power trio. We talked bass shop (I'm a bass player also), and names like Dave LaRue, Jaco, and of course Geddy came up. It's encouraging to know new musicians are still digging Rush.

True, but it's so easy nowadays to smoothly cut out parts and mix and match... Was it Pags or someone else who made that Rush compilation? It's a bit lengthy, and shows what can be achieved with editing. But the main point is, it's a quickie to fix or blend various Rush song parts into custom "re-mixes". For example, I have a Freewill edit without the banshee wails after the solo when I'm not in the mood or environment to broadcast screeching vocals. Rush has so much rocket juice that once in awhile a bad batch is bound to come forth, because tastes vary so much. Ain't nothing better than taking what you like and putting it all together for easy access. Like good food.

So this song somehow has come back into my playlists. And it rocks. Just wanted to give props to an old classic: Fast punk speed, length, and angst. Crunchy guitar. Prog-rock math changes with the swing part at the end. Classic Neil double-meanings and philosophical ramblings. Pure 3-piece power trio goodness, with above average bass and vocals. And Neil's drumming is just positively over the edge in creativity and energy. All this at just 3 minutes...

Aye, Bravest Face flip flops between good and iffy. I edited it to remove some of the repetitive parts, and it's much stronger. It's really a new area they started to explore, and had a lot of potential. But I think the majority of us fans look to Rush for energy and speed, not so much slower, bluesy nuggets...

Between, Beneath and Behind, besides and beyond the obvious sexual references, somehow resurfaced today. And stuck. Good old fashioned rock song, yes?

Just to disprove the "after Presto" theory: A Cinderella Man A Doing what you can A They can't understand B What it means A Cinderella Man A Hang on to your plans C Try as they might B They cannot steal your dreams In the betrayal of his love he awakened) Digital Man: great majority of the song (awesome 6/8 and swing reggae sections!), but the straight-8th ending "he's got a force field and a flexible plan" detract from an otherwise really solid song I'd be embrassed to introduce a would-be Rush fan to "Tears". And I won't even mention old classic stinker sections like "Return of the Prince" or pretty much the whole debut album... But yeah, speaking of heresy, Heresy is strong until "yes I guess we could/should/would"... EDIT: oh yeah, In The End... smooth intro, blah most of the rest of the song, drags on for almost 7 minutes.

I don't hate when Rush does covers. I do hate the Rolling Stones. Therefore, Socrates was a man.

I was 17 in '87 when HYF came out. That was back when you still had the awesome sense of anticipation when the new Rush album was about to come out... you just didn't know what it was going to sound like, but from a musician/Rush fanatic perspective, you knew it was going to be great!! Hemispheres was my first Rush album. Exit Stage Left after that was sonic bliss. Of course, Freewill and Moving Pictures were a given. Signals and Subdivisions, GUP and the love/hate relationship with it. I still very clearly recall wandering a public library where someone was listening to an album in an isolated and closed carol very loudly... the high pitched, soulful guitar licks are what grabbed my wandering attention. Sure enough, I recognized those as Lerxst, and it was HYF all over the place. I appreciate a lot of styles of music, but I mostly appreciate the musical peaks that Rush achieved with HYF. Show Don't Tell was a very intriguing change of pace, but Presto overall only rated as a very good album with several songs. Keep in mind back then we didn't have the CD loudnes wars, so volume was never a problem. Still, it wasn't until CP that things rocked Rush again. Here's hoping that CA is a return. HYF is still a great culmination to my musician bass player ears and soul. A testament to Rush's great diversity...

My best years covering Rush were with a DW-8000! The 2112 intro, the Tom Sawyer chirp dive, the full-on Subdivisions/Jump sawtooth glory... RUSH-2112 -- glad to see you responsive to constructive criticism. Though you may understand the written music correctly, please make sure the opening right hand chord does not contain an "F". Remember, 3 notes max at a time. C# major with the F is NOT the first chord. Cheers. P.S. Can I still get a gig as a badass bassist/keyboardist/backup singer, or are we lost forever to hiphop and autotune?...

But hey, it's all fun anyways, right? I play Losing It and Manhattan Project on piano all the time, and they're not exact to the studio version, esp MP. It's just that if you're going to teach others how to play, best to show the correct way, eh? Cheers.

You have it written almost correctly: RH: C# G# C# <== notice there is no F You are playing a full C# major chord with the F. The correct way is to play the first right hand chord as a power chord with no F. The F gets played by itself just before you go to the second measure's F# major chord. In my black Rush Complete Bible from 1983, the right hand never plays more than 3 note chords in the entire song -- except for the last 2 measures where a full G major chord has all 4 notes. I know it's a hard habit to break after all those years you've been playing it, but don't you think it's more than a coincidence that people from this site and from youtube are correcting your incorrect C# major chord? You even wrote 3 notes for the first RH chord, but in your youtube video you are playing 4 notes. The F is the odd man out, only to be played as a single passing note between chords.

QUOTE (CLPalacioATX @ Jan 16 2011, 06:14 PM) My name is Christian. I'm new here. I play bass and keys and I am a Rush fan. [support group clap] So current keyboard gear ... Korg Z1 Korg Triton Pro Korg Trinity TR Casio AZ-1 keytar (mainly drives the Trinity) Akai AX60 (used it for Tom Sawyer sweep and The analog kid pulse but unfortunately it is on its last LFO) Roland PK-5 http://www.beyonddarwin.com/images/DSC01038-1.jpg Past rig was... Ensoniq ASR-10 Korg X2 Akai AX60 Roland PK-5 http://www.beyonddarwin.com/images/msBRKeys4.jpg Is there anyone that is good with programming a Z1? My dying Akai has a randomiser that is good for The Camera Eye but I need to reproduce it on the Z1. I am kinda new and the actual programming part and the manual is not being much of a help. Very nice rig, including the guitars. Which Rush songs can you play, and which ones do you find yourself coming back to most often? And where are you from? Looks like Eastern Standard Time?

Ah yes, Dune, great mention. Love the visuals and the plotting. Jane Eyre has been made into a movie. My memories of the novel are somewhat meh. Like Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Required reading in the 80's, and I was probably too immature to realize their greatness. Still, I'm not inclined to re-visit them, like I don't want to re-visit The Scarlet Letter either. But somehow, Lord of the Flies still seems to strike a deep chord even nowadays.

QUOTE (In A Tidewater Surge @ Mar 9 2011, 12:51 AM) QUOTE (Show Don't Tell @ Mar 8 2011, 07:27 PM) I can narrow it down to two: Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell) Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) +1 I've only read a few of the classic mentions elsewhere in this thread -- Great Gatsby, Brothers Kazamorov, Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye -- none of those really stick out like the 2 above. I also actually really enjoyed Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, having read the whole series twice. The latest 2 novels by Brandon are both very good also... can't wait for the final book this November. Ender's Game series is pretty good, easy reading, great concepts

Admit it, greatness often verges on the insane or abnormal. I dare anyone to come up with one Rush song that doesn't have at least some element of cheesiness in it.