Snyder80

Neil has Twitter? Wow. And I thought he was nothing more than a washed-up, fan hating son of a bitch who refuses to play old songs, drink cheap scotch or ride to the next show with his bandmates.

It's definitely a classic. Opinions aside, man, Jacob's Ladder is an absolute classic and a Rush deep track at the same time. It's one of those tunes I can put on at work that no one knows what it is but by the time it's over a few of them have asked about it. In a good way.

I was thinking the same thing. And when you consider the weird time signature during the last segment of JL with snare hits seemingly coming at random (i'm no drummer) I can see him having a little hesitation with playing this tune.

This is so true I can't even stand it. As much as I enjoy some of the new material, the older I get, and the more I revisit albums like AFTK, PeW, Hemispheres, MP, I can't even find a resemblance from those albums on the newer stuff. It really pains me to say this but sometimes I wonder if Lifeson ever sits and listens to a song like Natural Science or Xanadu and then listens to Far Cry or Wish Them Well and thinks, What in the f**k am I doing??? I realize it's all stylistic development and creative nonsense that I'll never fully understand but I also think that if you can't hear the difference in musicianship, effort and creativity between the aforementioned songs then you might be deaf, crazy or both.

When I read this statement, I got to the H at the beginning of the word Hemispheres before I was erupting a volcanic blast of bile into the trash can next to my desk.

Comparing Clockwork Angels to Moving Pictures is akin to John Travolta's character in Pulp Fiction trying to compare a foot massage to cunnilingus to which Sam Jackson's character responds: "...ain't no f***ing ballpark neither. You know maybe your version of a foot massage differs from mine but touches his wife's feet and sticking your tougnue in the holiest of holies ain't the same ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same f***ing sport."

I listen to a lot of The Talking Heads and I always thought they were kind of new wave. Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears join that company as well. I don't really think Rush ever fit into that category of music. Some of their lighter sounds and electronic drums may have come close but not quite.

I can only answer this for myself, but yeah, I can play most all of their songs, but I've been playing them and learning them close to 40 years. I've also been playing out in bands since I was 17. As each new album came out, I would learn the songs. I was in a Rush tribute band as the bassist/keyboardist and singer for several years. That really made me work to practice, let me tell you! Finally a believable post by a musician who can play Rush music proficiently. It's nice to hear someone talk about how long they've played and how much they had to practice. The people who piss me off are the guys who have drummed for 9 months and claim they can play everything from PeW through Signals, with ease. It makes me want to jump off a f***ing bridge. I don't want to make you fly off a bridge on Christmas eve or anything but I was kinda like that. Mainly because I had about 30 years experience "air drumming" to Rush before I ever sat behind a kit! When I did buy my first kit a little over a year ago I really felt like a natural drummer.. But one that could play Rush almost better than AC-DC!! Learning drums is easy but learning Rush is hard.. I'm not saying I can play any song complete, I can play maybe less that 5 songs note for note but you take just about any Rush song and I can get usually 80% of it bang on, usually the first 3/4.. Neil likes to challenge me towards the end of the song.. Every fukking time!! :P I've been itching to buy a kit for three years now and at 35 years old, for whatever reason, I still can't convince myself that it's worthy endeavor. Hell, I've listened to Rush my entire life, I used to set up six or seven five gallon drums and use frying pan lids as my symbols, strap on the walk-man and beat the hell out of stuff trying to cover Tom Sawer, Subdivisions, Time Stands Still, etc. These days, along with Neil, I have a lot of other drummers who are very inspiring to me, Stewart Copeland, Danny Carey, Gavin Harrison, etc. My biggest problem is I don't know the first f***ing place to start. My daughter plays drum for school so she has a good Ludwig snare and pad I could practice on but I don't the first thing about rudiments and counting notes and all that crap. Drumming for me has always appeared to be more of a feel kind of thing. I hope to give it a try someday.

I can only answer this for myself, but yeah, I can play most all of their songs, but I've been playing them and learning them close to 40 years. I've also been playing out in bands since I was 17. As each new album came out, I would learn the songs. I was in a Rush tribute band as the bassist/keyboardist and singer for several years. That really made me work to practice, let me tell you! Finally a believable post by a musician who can play Rush music proficiently. It's nice to hear someone talk about how long they've played and how much they had to practice. The people who piss me off are the guys who have drummed for 9 months and claim they can play everything from PeW through Signals, with ease. It makes me want to jump off a f***ing bridge.

It was the last live release on dvd that I had to have. Sound quality was good and the band was really tight. Geddy's voice was pretty solid on that show as well. I tend not to get too caught up in live material as much anymore because it's what happened over the course of a single evening. In my opinion some folks lend way too much weight to live recordings; for better or worse. I'm not really impressed by the live recordings with American crowds. Typically they're very low energy. The Cleveland recording was only the way it was because people knew they would be on a recorded show. I remember seeing the trailer for that one and seeing the girl they show headbanging and air drumming during Tom Sawyer always makes my skin crawl.

Freewill on guitar Vital Signs on drums

I voted late 80s. I really enjoy the control he had during Power Windows, Hold Your Fire & Presto. I've been listening to Hand Over Fist a lot lately and his voice is so smooth on that track.

1. Marathon 2. Middletown Dreams 3. Mystic Rhythyms 4. Grand Designs 5. The Big Money 6. Manhattan Project 7. Emotion Detector 8. Terrirtories

Although I adore the title track, Show Don't Tell, The Pass and Hand Over Fist, I feel like this should've been called The Final Curb Stomping. Hemispheres. By a long, long way.

Released in 1989=80's album. It was a different sound than HYF but it quietly ushered them into the next decade. The only thing that was 90s about Presto was Neil's sweatshirt in the video for The Pass. Other than that Roll the Bones, literally and stylistically was most definitely their first 90s album.

Earthshine-Live version has meatier guitar sound and the overall feel has more energy. Roll the Bones-Alex improvs a solo over the rap section and it's different nearly every night. Check out the R30 version and really take a listen. He kills it! Vital Signs-Overall I prefer the studio version but I love how when they play it live, Geddy sings "Emancipate from the norm" towards the end. For some reason the first time I heard that it was breathtaking. Awesome change. Driven-Bass solo, obviously.

100% love it. Not doing so is illegal is about twelve countries, I believe.

Moving Pictures. The topic of the lyrics and the way they're phrased is very unique. He's descriptive passages are brilliant and I feel like they are so well at providing an image in your mind that I can see what Geddy is singing. Signals was a close second.

With no disrespect to anyone, Styk begins and ends for me with how fast I can grab the tuning knob.

100% agree with the poster that said no band is like Rush. That's so true, whether you love them or hate them, it's impossible to argue that statement. That being said, Porcupine Tree is another progressive band that I think is very talented and writes some very complex material. Check out the track Anesthetize from their album Fear of a Blank Planet for some obvious Rush influence. Lifeson plays the solo on that track. Also check out their song Lazarus for hands down one of the most beautiful songs you will ever hear.

Worst post ever. By-Tor and the Snow Dog??? Hello??? Is anyone in there? CoS is a pretty weak effort, truthfully, it is a little too ambitious for what their skill set was at that time and it does nothing but diminish what they did on FBN. For three kids in their early twenties, FBN was pretty f***ing incredible.

Different Strings-yes. Lyrically mostly. The guitar solo had massive potential and kind of fizzles out. The other two-not so much.

Rush Porcupine Tree The Talking Heads

Material as technical as the stuff Neil plays didn't exist to my knowledge when he was seven. I'm not gonna delve too much into this because it's the one topic that can get a me a little fired up but Neil Peart reinvented how people played the drums. Period. I respect and enjoy the works of Jon Bonham and Keith Moon and I accept that there are guys out there in jazz fusion that are beyond Neil's technical abilities but at the end of the day it's pretty much like this: When Van Halen released their debut and Eruption was heard for the first time it sent every teenage kid running to his parents for a guitar, the same thing happened the first time Tom Sawyer was heard, only it was drums they now begged for. The other thing I'll say about this is that writing something is much more difficult than copying something. I know a thousand guys who can play the solo to Mr. Crowley but they sure as hell couldn't have written it if you put a gun to their head.

Sooner rather than later unfortunately. The end of the road is in sight. I will certainly miss the band when they retire from a live performance perspective. And I'll miss the fact that the ever lingering anticipation of new news or new material or something will most likely cease to exist, especially from Neil. Which is sad to me because although I'm not a fan that is so engrossed with them that I would ever want to run into them during lunch, I find Neil very interesting and his lyrics have walked me through so many moments of my life that the idea of him extinguishing that part of himself almost seems like a waste of incredible talent. On a brighter tone the legacy they will leave behind for all of us to enjoy for the rest of our lives is so vast and so inspirational that I find it difficult to really locate anything sad about it. Their music is them. That part, thankfully, can never be taken away.