Snyder80

For Lorraine......and anyone else who enjoys my psychotic rants

 

http://www.therushfo...20#entry3236711

 

Mick

 

Can I dare ask your age? I'm not trying to come off as judgemental at all I'm just curious. Like anything else I find that age, when regarding Rush, has a lot to do with the material you most relate to and identify with as being "classic".

 

I for one consider "Mission" to be a pretty classic track. That statement would probably get me killed in some circles.

Their shows sell and they put on a great show.Why should they retire? Because of your "standards"? I've never heard anyone complain about his vocals after a show or wanted a refund. Why stop something that's in demand and people enjoy?

 

No need to panic. The odds of Geddy reading this thread and saying, "Well that seals the deal. I'm done with touring" is vanishingly close to zero.

 

Their live dvd's are another story. We're specifically talking about live performance not the live releases. Does his vocal idiosyncrasies actually bother anyone while they're at the show?

 

That's my thoughts almost exactly. I adore the shows and enjoy them immensely. The energy and excitement that comes with a live show is indescribable and most people who don't attend them can't even understand. The DVD's are never as good as actually being there. Just watch Rush in Rio. Personally that is my favorite recorded live show of theirs. Now can you imagine having been there?

I don't but I have solid plans to get one. I've spent the last five years planning it and designing it so it's original and hopefully memorable in a good way.

Definitely no! What they should do, like it or not, is lean towards the newer material that is shaped around his naturally occuring vocal changes. Complain all you want but the man shouldn't still be trying to sing Circumstances. However I think he sang all of Clockwork Angels quite beautifully. He's one of the most accomplished musicians on the planet. Ask yourself if you really want him to hang it up because he can't sing like he did when he was twenty-five.

Definitely the 80s. I can listen to, with great enjoyment, every single album from the 1980's, front to back, no skips, with the exception of Hold Your Fire and Presto. With those two albums I enjoy a majority of the material on HYF and a small amount on Presto. Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Signals, Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows are all perfect albums in my opinion with the only skip coming from Red Lenses on GUP. Otherwise, it's sonic euphoria.

I would go as far as to say if you don't love "All the World's A Stage," you're not a true Rush fan. Freaking Rush at their pinnacle, man!

 

That was Rush in their infancy. The things they have accomplished since far surpass that era of their existence. I know I'm a child of the 80's but some fans rabid obsession that borders on murderous rage over that time period is mind boggling to me.

freeze blows.... sorry to those who like it.. and how it is ... wasn't doing it for me.

 

I agree. Some people think it's their best instrumental. I don't get it... at all.

 

I really hope you're being sarcastic because otherwise someone might want to let you in on the fact that Freeze isn't an instrumental...

 

Also, it's a great song that ties in nicely with the Fear series, especially lyrically. The post-chorus bridges are terrific. Sometimes I feel like not being able to connect to some of their lyrics is like saying you aren't human. I'm not being judgemental here, really, but I mean who the hell hasn't felt like that?

 

"I'm not prepared to run away and I'm not prepared to fight."

 

Sounds like money hiding time in the lunch line.

I haven't heard the remixed version and I probably never will. I've always enjoyed this album the way it is. The lyrics are emotional and powerful and the mix I think, albeit by accident, is a good representation of that period in their career. It's tumultuous and sporadic and not always together in the best way. For something that obviously wasn't delibrate, I think it carries a lot of weight. Great record, by the way.

There is a huge amount of Rush in my iTunes collection and I listen to that daily so it's inevitable that Rush comes on. However I am strictly a shuffle only guy most of the time because otherwise you will hear repeats instead of iTunes shuffling through your entire playlist. Apple swears that iTunes is programmed so it doesn't favor certain songs but with God as my witness if I skip around to songs and reset my shuffle that phone will play By-Tor and the Snowdog within fifteen songs. Every. Damn. Time.

I've never seen Neil or any other musician I worship in pubic. If I did see Neil, I would offer a polite thank you with a handshake and walk away. I heard him in an interview and a man came up to him on the street, shook his hand, said thanks and kept going. Neil was grateful for that encounter judging by his face when telling the tale.

Were you around at the time of signals release dude? Of course everythings a matter of opinion on these things but i was around at the time, when the police at their peak, and Rush -clearly looking for a slight change in sound- released this amazing revolutionary album in their history. Vital signs had previously given quite a big glimpse into what the future held, the old progressive sound of Waves hemispheres etc had had its day, and to me and a few others it was pretty obvious (not certain but pretty obvious) that Al was playing with the kind of reggae feel of Andy summers bringing his own interpretation into it very successfully without damaging the rush ethos.

 

I really dont get it when people cant see the link :) I can only assume, perhaps wrongly for which i apologize, that they werent there at the time, when The Police and Andy Summers were pop megas even Rush probly looked up to.

 

I was around but I was three. My memory is pretty outstanding as still remember, with great clarity, the day my father walked in the door with Signals in his hand and the first time I held that record sleeve in my hands. However, obviously, I wasn't really in tune with the music world. My parents weren't really into The Police but we had a neighbor who loved them and I do remember hearing lots of stuff from Synchronicity. Don't get me wrong, I listen to a great deal of The Police and those sounds definitely link up around that time period.

Far Cry could almost be a u2 track at times. Artists in any sphere take note of their greatest peers and contemporaries. Ive no doubt at all, admittedly on a probability scale, that Al and probably Ged too gave songs of innocence a good play in the first day or two of release.

 

Incidentally.. nobody, especially me, is inferring Al a guitar style plagiarist in any way, he's the pinnacle of rock guitar originality so far as i concerned. But the mans a real artist and he takes note of other artists around him, most notably Andy summers of course back in 80s and although he seems to have avoided sounding anything like The Edge in most part you can see it in tracks like Far Cry

 

Maybe it's because I'm not an accomplished musician. I listen a lot of The Police and enjoy much of it but I fail to hear the similarities between the two. However, I have a bad habit of comparing the sound of the entire band against each other. And truthfully, I'm not really trying to piss people off but I don't like hearing comparisons between a guy who is a 40 year virtuoso musician and is considered to be one of the best guitar players of all-time and one guy whose band made their last album in 1983 and the other band that lives and dies inside their radical politics.

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

 

There was an admitted influence by The Police in the early 80s. Lifesons rythm playing during this period was clearly taken from Summers. Just listen to Vital Signs. There WAS an influence.

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

 

There was an admitted influence by The Police in the early 80s. Lifesons rythm playing during this period was clearly taken from Summers. Just listen to Vital Signs. There WAS an influence.

 

I wish people would acknowledge their own ignorance.

 

From the August 2007 issue of Guitar World:

 

"GW: ...how influenced were you by new wave? Many of the songs on [Moving Pictures] are short and poppy, at least by Rush standards, and your guitar sound bears similarities to that of Andy Summers."

 

"Alex Lifeson: I was very influenced, in many ways. I cut my hair! [laughs] That shocked a lot of our longtime fans who were used to my long flowing locks. Also, I started dressing cooler, more au courant, wearing bright, colorful blazers and ties. I didn't look like I'd just come from a Rennaissance fair. [laughs]

 

"It was time for all of us to change, musically, visually—our entire attitude. The songs got shorter, more accessible. It felt good to become a bit of a new band. We were listening to the Police, and their impact was huge. We saw that a rock trio could do so many different things."

 

"GW: A hint of that impact was apparent on Permanent Waves--the reggae break in 'The Spirit of Radio'--and on 'Vital Signs,' from Moving Pictures."

 

"Lifeson: Yep. That was early Police influence. Their rhythms, their sounds... It was exciting as when Cream came out. For us, it was a matter of using those New Wave influences in ways that enhanced, but didn't degrade, what we were doing.

 

"There was the Edge, too. What he did with the echo pedal is beyond measure. Yeah, the Edge and Andy Summers were high on my list in those days. Still are."

 

Vital Signs is poppy? Really? Compared to what? It's reggae influenced and it is indeed shorter but it's far from pop worthy. Is there a single tune off that album that runs across as mainstream pop? If so, it's news to me.

 

Either way he can state influence all he wants but I've never heard a lick of U2 in a Rush song. Those two bands are like two different planets. One grows awesome huge fruit bearing trees and the other is covered in shit.

I was born in 1980 and raised on Rush from day one. Still I'm the opposite of most on these boards. The 80's material is what I grew up on; I had to discover albums like Hemispheres and AFTK on my own and at my own pace. It's hard for me to relate to a lot of fans on these boards because the material many distanced themselves from was the material that I've loved from the moment I first heard it.

 

I would strongly suggest giving GUP another listen and try not to judge it against their earlier work. Rush isn't a band where that tactic works very well because they've always strived to be experimental and dynamic. Geddy Lee once said that in the early days they were just hoping they could get Neil to play the same beat two verses in a row. With a statement like that you would have to expect the most outlandish and unpredictable material from them, right?

 

I'm fortunate to be the owner of my ears because I love most of their material, especially the 80's synth stuff.

 

PoW is a perfect album. A great concept record and has some of Geddy and Neil's best work, in my opinion.

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

My favorite band of all time by a long shot. 90% of their material I absolutely adore. The other 10% I can deal with over most other music. Very few of their songs I consider shitty. When they're great, they're something magical. A cosmic coincidence that we've all been graced with for the last forty-one years. Sometimes when I realize the impact their music has on me I feel like I should write my father a thank you letter for being a fan from day one and allowing me to grow up listening to them.

Subdivisions-10

The Analog Kid-10

Chemistry-8

Digital Man-10

The Weapon-10

New World Man-9

Losing It-8

Countdown-7

 

To me this album is near perfect. Many will disagree with me but being a child of the 80's, I can't help but look back and see this album as the one where they captured the sound that separated them from the masses of the decade. Of all the stylistic shifts and changes they've undergone, this one remains my favorite. The keyboards are tasteful and eleoquent and I think while Alex doesn't fully recognize his potential as a "quieter" guitarist until Power Windows, he very gracefully moves throughout this record (the solo for Subdivisons remains one of my favorites, just listen to how sad and angst riddled he makes it sound) and cuts loose on The Analog Kid. I'm sure it alienated a lot of fans upon it's release but I must say that it holds a special place with me as one of my absolute favorite albums of all-time, by any band. The lyrical material, especially that of Subdivisions, speaks to me on a very personal level and to this day I find myself feeling instant emotion the second I hear that opening keyboard. The album is a true gem and one that never ceases to please my ears and transport me to another place and time.

Disco?

 

 

That's either a joke or you're crazy as a shit house rat.

 

The Weapon. The only thing I'd like to do to that song is drum it.

And people wonder why Neil Peart has several armed guards with automatic rifles surrounding him at nearly every moment while touring.

Soliloquy-The lonely guitar in the beginning of it, coupled with Geddy's vocals that sound so genuinely distraught and desperate that I can hardly believe what he's singing is fiction. Follow it with Alex's searing solo that is like the human soul screaming out it's angst and sadness. It's one of the most perfect moments in Rush history. I get choked up and covered in goosebumps every time I hear it.

How many of you realize that Neil let us glimpse into his feelings towards fans and fame on the first album he ever appeared on?

 

Well, I know they've always told you

Selfishness was wrong

Yet it was for me, not you, I

Came to write this song

 

No. That was the genius of Ayn Rand's feelings.

 

Are you saying that that line doesn't reflect Neil's personality? I'm pretty sure he was revealing part of himself there. Even if it was subconsciously.

How many of you realize that Neil let us glimpse into his feelings towards fans and fame on the first album he ever appeared on?

 

Well, I know they've always told you

Selfishness was wrong

Yet it was for me, not you, I

Came to write this song

Does he really hate all pre-Moving Pictures material? I honestly never heard that before. Hopefully that can't really be true. How in the hell could hate 2112 or Hemishperes?

And how could he not be embarrassed by the lyrical tripe that makes up Test for Echo?

 

Horse shit. That album's lyrics, minus Half the World (still a great song minus the lyrics), are Shakespeare compared to Counterparts.

 

Eh, maybe some of Counterparts but Animate is one of the most eloquent lyrical efforts he's every made. The meaning beneath those words is undeniable.

Does he really hate all pre-Moving Pictures material? I honestly never heard that before. Hopefully that can't really be true. How in the hell could hate 2112 or Hemishperes?

I don't think anyone hates Neil....That's a little extreme.

 

Me, I'm just more disappointed at him. His shyness towards fans seems really unappreciative towards them.

 

As someone who is shy, and an introvert, and I can tell you that shyness has absolutely nothing to do with appreciativeness.

 

Listen to Neil's words—he has said/written multiple times just how much he appreciates fans.

 

very well put! I too have always been introverted and kinda shy and I remember growing up feeling completely detached from the rest of the world. and then to have someone pick on you about it is like having dirt thrown on you when you're already in a hole.

 

Neil said something that I'll always remember because it's so true, "extroverts will never understand introverts". it's amazing how true that statement is. watch the Subdivisions video, I'm positive Neil wrote it about his own childhood..

 

me, I'll make fun of Alex for wearing that stupid hairpiece and not shaving his head like a real man!! ;)

 

I love that you referenced Subdivisions. That song pretty much defines 9th-12th grade for me. One of the most emotionally captivating songs for me ever.