The main shortcoming of band Rush?

[Lucas]

I applaud you Texas King for starting this discussion, but in all honestly, I am completely baffled by the Cygnus X1 reference ..

 

That section of the song - with the vocals beginning at 5:58 - is so completely perfect and energetic .. I am at a loss trying to figure out how anyone could find an issue with it

Edited December 17, 2016 by Lucas

[EagleMoon]

I applaud you Texas King for starting this discussion, but in all honestly, I am completely baffled by the Cygnus X1 reference ..

 

That section of the song - with the vocals beginning at 5:58 - is so completely perfect and energetic .. I am at a loss trying to figure out how anyone could find an issue with it

 

There's a reason why that song is one of the top fan favorites. It's perfect.

[JohnRogers]

I never noticed any of this. I might research this...maybe.

Would that mean you are not a TrueRushFan™?

No, as a TrueRushFan™ I'm at a disadvantage I can't hear these imperfections without really trying.

Edited December 17, 2016 by JohnRogers

[Lorraine]

I never noticed any of this. I might research this...maybe.

Would that mean you are not a TrueRushFan™?

No, as a TrueRushFan™ I'm at a disadvantage I can't hear these imperfections without really trying.

 

That's right. I doubt you'll ever be able to hear the imperfections then, even if you try.

[J2112YYZ]

I never noticed any of this. I might research this...maybe.

Would that mean you are not a TrueRushFan™?

No, as a TrueRushFan™ I'm at a disadvantage I can't hear these imperfections without really trying.

 

That's right. I doubt you'll ever be able to hear the imperfections then, even if you try.

 

I wasn't aware that Rush had any imperfections until I joined this forum and members were kind enough to point them out.

[Enemy Within]

It seems to me, in the three examples given and in a good deal of their compositions, Geddy's not just singing a song, He's the narrator of a story too!

There's certainly an element of friction at times in the music and vocal arrangements, but this only adds to whole, creating a greater sense of dramatic tension.

Edited December 17, 2016 by Enemy Within

[Digital Dad]

I never noticed any of this. I might research this...maybe.

Would that mean you are not a TrueRushFan™?

No, as a TrueRushFan™ I'm at a disadvantage I can't hear these imperfections without really trying.

 

That's right. I doubt you'll ever be able to hear the imperfections then, even if you try.

 

I wasn't aware that Rush had any imperfections until I joined this forum and members were kind enough to point them out.

 

Yeah. I wasn't aware that anyone in the entire world liked The Fountain.

[goose]

It seems to me, in the three examples given and in a good deal of their compositions, Geddy's not just singing a song, He's the narrator of a story too!

There's certainly an element of friction at times in the music and vocal arrangements, but this only adds to whole, creating a greater sense of dramatic tension.

Good points!

[ytserush]

Musically they are awesome in every aspect. I also think the vocal abilities of Geddy Lee are very good, many people unfairly are bashing him as a vocalist.

 

But the main shortcoming I noticed in some of their songs is that vocals don't harmoniously fit into musical background in some parts of a song. The vocal melody goes into one direction while music goes into different direction or there are surplus singing/lyrics in some musical parts where it shoud not be.

I will give you some examples for this:

1.Cygnus X-1 part I: vocals from 5:58 till 6:23 minutes - as they did not know how to insert the lyrics into the music behind and then we have unnecessarily raising and lowering of the voice register by the singer, vague endings of sentences(one or two words are surplus in singing but they have to be there to close the sentence)

 

 

2.Bastille Day: the first verse, chorus ... we have completely "relocated" vocals, vocal rhythm in relation to the pace going in the background ... and then comes the chorus, it begins at the 46th second, which completely fits into the rhythm of the music in the background to the end of the chorus.Then again, we have a short verse where the vocal and instrumental section are splitting up till the chorus where they reunite in good synergy.

 

 

3.Red Barchetta - again the vocal moment 0:56 - 1:02 that somehow is not accompanied well by the musical section behind.

 

 

Pay attention to these things I said while listening these songs and tell me do you agree?

Other shortcomings about Rush I didn't find, just this.

 

You'll notice your examples come from earlier in their career before they gained experience.

[Lucas]

Musically they are awesome in every aspect. I also think the vocal abilities of Geddy Lee are very good, many people unfairly are bashing him as a vocalist.

 

But the main shortcoming I noticed in some of their songs is that vocals don't harmoniously fit into musical background in some parts of a song. The vocal melody goes into one direction while music goes into different direction or there are surplus singing/lyrics in some musical parts where it shoud not be.

I will give you some examples for this:

1.Cygnus X-1 part I: vocals from 5:58 till 6:23 minutes - as they did not know how to insert the lyrics into the music behind and then we have unnecessarily raising and lowering of the voice register by the singer, vague endings of sentences(one or two words are surplus in singing but they have to be there to close the sentence)

 

 

2.Bastille Day: the first verse, chorus ... we have completely "relocated" vocals, vocal rhythm in relation to the pace going in the background ... and then comes the chorus, it begins at the 46th second, which completely fits into the rhythm of the music in the background to the end of the chorus.Then again, we have a short verse where the vocal and instrumental section are splitting up till the chorus where they reunite in good synergy.

 

 

3.Red Barchetta - again the vocal moment 0:56 - 1:02 that somehow is not accompanied well by the musical section behind.

 

 

Pay attention to these things I said while listening these songs and tell me do you agree?

Other shortcomings about Rush I didn't find, just this.

 

You'll notice your examples come from earlier in their career before they gained experience.

 

Yes, that's because later on entire albums were the mistakes

[treeduck]

I think my "Main Shortcoming" thread is better...

 

[Fridge]

I know what the OP is referring to, although to be honest, I don't hear much of it at all in the songs mentioned.

 

However, there has been a growing trend since possibly T4E for this "shoehorning" described.

 

I think the reason for this is that you have a situation here where the singer doesn't write the lyrics, and has to interpret someone elses work.

 

Neil used to write lyrics that "scanned" better, but lately this hasn't been the case and Geddy is forced to crowbar too many words into a line and use words which sonically may not be so good.

[MusicHead]

I love how we're Rush fans judging someone for being an anal Rush fan lol.

 

There ya are--fixed.

[J2112YYZ]

Musically they are awesome in every aspect. I also think the vocal abilities of Geddy Lee are very good, many people unfairly are bashing him as a vocalist.

 

But the main shortcoming I noticed in some of their songs is that vocals don't harmoniously fit into musical background in some parts of a song. The vocal melody goes into one direction while music goes into different direction or there are surplus singing/lyrics in some musical parts where it shoud not be.

I will give you some examples for this:

1.Cygnus X-1 part I: vocals from 5:58 till 6:23 minutes - as they did not know how to insert the lyrics into the music behind and then we have unnecessarily raising and lowering of the voice register by the singer, vague endings of sentences(one or two words are surplus in singing but they have to be there to close the sentence)

 

 

2.Bastille Day: the first verse, chorus ... we have completely "relocated" vocals, vocal rhythm in relation to the pace going in the background ... and then comes the chorus, it begins at the 46th second, which completely fits into the rhythm of the music in the background to the end of the chorus.Then again, we have a short verse where the vocal and instrumental section are splitting up till the chorus where they reunite in good synergy.

 

 

3.Red Barchetta - again the vocal moment 0:56 - 1:02 that somehow is not accompanied well by the musical section behind.

 

 

Pay attention to these things I said while listening these songs and tell me do you agree?

Other shortcomings about Rush I didn't find, just this.

 

You'll notice your examples come from earlier in their career before they gained experience.

 

I don't know, the band sounds pretty damn experienced on those tracks if you ask me.

 

Maybe you can make that argument for COS, but AFTK was their fifth album and MP their eighth. There's no way you can't say that hadn't gained experience by that point.

Edited December 18, 2016 by J2112YYZ

[ytserush]

Musically they are awesome in every aspect. I also think the vocal abilities of Geddy Lee are very good, many people unfairly are bashing him as a vocalist.

 

But the main shortcoming I noticed in some of their songs is that vocals don't harmoniously fit into musical background in some parts of a song. The vocal melody goes into one direction while music goes into different direction or there are surplus singing/lyrics in some musical parts where it shoud not be.

I will give you some examples for this:

1.Cygnus X-1 part I: vocals from 5:58 till 6:23 minutes - as they did not know how to insert the lyrics into the music behind and then we have unnecessarily raising and lowering of the voice register by the singer, vague endings of sentences(one or two words are surplus in singing but they have to be there to close the sentence)

 

 

2.Bastille Day: the first verse, chorus ... we have completely "relocated" vocals, vocal rhythm in relation to the pace going in the background ... and then comes the chorus, it begins at the 46th second, which completely fits into the rhythm of the music in the background to the end of the chorus.Then again, we have a short verse where the vocal and instrumental section are splitting up till the chorus where they reunite in good synergy.

 

 

3.Red Barchetta - again the vocal moment 0:56 - 1:02 that somehow is not accompanied well by the musical section behind.

 

 

Pay attention to these things I said while listening these songs and tell me do you agree?

Other shortcomings about Rush I didn't find, just this.

 

You'll notice your examples come from earlier in their career before they gained experience.

 

I don't know, the band sounds pretty damn experienced on those tracks if you ask me.

 

Maybe you can make that argument for COS, but AFTK was their fifth album and MP their eighth. There's no way you can't say that hadn't gained experience by that point.

 

Perhaps I should have said "more experienced."

 

Even they have gone on record (Mostly Neil specifically, and the others to a lesser degree) as saying the 70's were an experimental period and they really had no clue what they were doing.) Songwriting and arranging hadn't really been the focus in most of those years.

 

 

And as far as I'm concerned that part in Red Barchetta may not have been a songwriting mistake and that song falls outside of my general comment anyway.