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Alien Shore


lifeson90
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Alien Shore is a good song, but it gets lost in the magnificence of Counteroarts. If it were on an album likeTest fo Echo, it would stand out more. Counterparts has some of Rush’s best post-MP songs that stand out. It’s a good tune that probably deserves more attention.

 

My only complaint about that song - and Nobody's Hero too - are the lyrics are clunky and awkward. But that is a minor gripe. I enjoy that song. I agree that CP is one of their best later-era albums.

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Alien Shore is a great track,so is CTTC.I am not doubting Alex's ability but CTTC guitar solo is a tad tricky,could he have pulled it off live.My ears sprung up when i heard that opening run.Wasn't Beneath Sun and Moon a bonus track on Rush in Rio?(gets out of bed at 5.30 am,walks stark naked into music room,turns light on,finds said cd,stumbles back into bed,wakes missus up,gets abuse)Yes it was.
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Great song musically but some of Neil's worst lyrics ever. "For you and me, we hold these truths to be self-evident/for you and me, we'd elect each other president" WTF

 

Late night stream of consciousness fandango mixed with too much Macallan?

 

I like the song a lot but I ignore those lyrics

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I am not doubting Alex's ability but CTTC guitar solo is a tad tricky,could he have pulled it off live.

 

I've always assumed that's the main reason it wasn't played. Or maybe one of them just didn't feel it in rehearsals. Shame because I think the song has a great groove. Neil's lyrics on CP may be iffy, but his drum sound is fabulous.

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Such a great track was just giving it a listen and thought i'd check out YT to see if any live performances of it but couldn't find any. Anybody know if such a thing exists?

 

Don't listen to the Alien Shore Haters.

 

The song is my favorite on that record. Musically perfect, lyrically simple.

 

Who cares. Alex goes off. Very Jimi Hendrix.

 

I prayed to the Universe that they would have played that song live on the "Counterparts" Tour. No such luck, although I remember reading rumors that the boys played "Alien Shore" a few times on the East Coast before scrapping the masterpiece.

 

Anyone on here can confirm this?

Edited by RUSHHEAD666
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Alien S

I am not doubting Alex's ability but CTTC guitar solo is a tad tricky,could he have pulled it off live.

I've always assumed that's the main reason it wasn't played.

 

Alex played so many tricky solos live.....(or did anyway :P)

 

I've read the solo was recorded as an afterthought to balance out the album (paraphrasing: 'there was nothing fast on guitar...')

 

Perhaps he just didn`t care for the style of solo in a live set list?

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Hard to believe CTTC never played live, in some sense can understand why Alien Shore wasn't, not being an expert has a kind of studio feel about it that may have been too difficult to translate live, all kinds of funny little effects in it, i dunno. CTTC doesnt seem to have this problem, didnt go CP tour but i'd have been disappointed not to get it

 

Wasn't disappointed at all. Witnessing Bravado, Leave That Thing Alone and Xanadu/Prelude multiple times was probably the main highlight of that tour for me. Though I have to say it was missed not hearing them do at least Overture/Temples. (But they kind of made up for that on the following tour.)

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It's weird for me. In 1993 I was so disappointed by Counterparts after Roll The Bones (an album I loved then and still do now) that I didn't give it that many listens and very few beyond Side A (Alien Shore was track #1 on Side B of the original vinyl). It was only in the last couple of years, when I went back and did a reassessment of all the albums, that I discovered how much I really liked Alien Shore. I now count it as one of my 3 favourites on Counterparts along with Between Sun & Moon and Nobody's Hero.
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I would much have rather they played "CTTC" instead of "Cold Fire" on the Counterparts tour.

Geddy was asked about CTTC in a pre-R40 interview , possibly in a AMA Reddit forum and he chuckled and remembered the song and perhaps they rehearsed it before that tour but it didn't make the final cut. Neil expressed interest in performing Hand Over Fist but that too didn't make the final cut either

 

I was always surprised that the most rockin' song on CP, Between Sun & Moon wasn't performed on that tour

It's funny how serious us fans take this stuff compared to the artist. I could see Geddy saying "Oh yeah, let's see...hmmm that was off of...Count...yeah, Counterparts." "We may have considered it for the set list at some point". "So...people really seem to like that song?"

 

How true that is. I'm sure many fans were flabbergasted that Geddy had to be reminded that "Jacob's Ladder" had indeed been played live before the R40 tour (not to mention forgetting what city he was in at one point). It was their job. So many performances, sound checks, recording sessions, interviews etc. over the years. As fans, we only got to see the end result of many, many hours of their labor.

 

I would think it's not a whole lot different from every "working man/woman" out there. Would they have rather been someplace else many times while they were performing as the collective entity called "Rush"? I have no doubt. Were there everyday distractions (family, friends, hobbies etc.) that put their thoughts far away from the concert stage while they were on tour? Certainly.

 

As fans, we know more about the fruits of their labor than they do. I'm not surprised at all by that.

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Hard to believe CTTC never played live, in some sense can understand why Alien Shore wasn't, not being an expert has a kind of studio feel about it that may have been too difficult to translate live, all kinds of funny little effects in it, i dunno. CTTC doesnt seem to have this problem, didnt go CP tour but i'd have been disappointed not to get it

 

Being a musician.....I can tell you the Alien Shore for Geddy is a very challenging tune. Playing that bass line while singing....really tough. I am sure they rehearsed it for that tour but something was not clicking. Same for Cut To The Chase. Sometimes they are simply studio cuts and they don't capture it live like they want to.

 

It took them 35 years to finally play Jacobs Ladder again. And it was glorious. But something had to not be clicking with all three of them to have it locked up for so long. It was requested all the time.

 

So glad they busted that out on R40. It was the highlight of my night. And one of the best of my Rush concert going experience's.

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Hard to believe CTTC never played live, in some sense can understand why Alien Shore wasn't, not being an expert has a kind of studio feel about it that may have been too difficult to translate live, all kinds of funny little effects in it, i dunno. CTTC doesnt seem to have this problem, didnt go CP tour but i'd have been disappointed not to get it

 

Being a musician.....I can tell you the Alien Shore for Geddy is a very challenging tune. Playing that bass line while singing....really tough. I am sure they rehearsed it for that tour but something was not clicking. Same for Cut To The Chase. Sometimes they are simply studio cuts and they don't capture it live like they want to.

 

It took them 35 years to finally play Jacobs Ladder again. And it was glorious. But something had to not be clicking with all three of them to have it locked up for so long. It was requested all the time.

 

So glad they busted that out on R40. It was the highlight of my night. And one of the best of my Rush concert going experience's.

 

I think it was simply the time factor that kept Jacob's Ladder out of the set list for many years. I'm actually surprised it didn't make a comeback when the started playing "Natural Science" again regularly. They could easily have swapped them out for each other on different nights. It's also a possibility that one of them wasn't very fond of it.

 

It was certainly a gift to the fans to play that it on R40. It was probably the highlight of the night for me also.

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Being a musician as well i totally agree that the bass part toAlien Shore is a handful but i remember hearing the Enemy Within and Turn The Page and wondering how he is he going to pull this off live,but he did of course.What i loved about Rush was that they always had the idea that it was how the three of them would be able reproduce live what they do in the studio.Alien Shore really rumbles along and would have made a great jam in the solo section like Freewill.
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Jacobs Ladder was definitely a top three highlight, both visually and in sound, of R40.
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Being a musician as well i totally agree that the bass part toAlien Shore is a handful but i remember hearing the Enemy Within and Turn The Page and wondering how he is he going to pull this off live,but he did of course.What i loved about Rush was that they always had the idea that it was how the three of them would be able reproduce live what they do in the studio.Alien Shore really rumbles along and would have made a great jam in the solo section like Freewill.

 

Yep Turn The Page was a freaking chore for Geddy!!! A really tough tune between that insane bass line and the keys. But they did do it!.

 

Wish we could have heard Alien Shore live......It is a great Rush song and really captured that old early 80’s Rush sound so well. When I first played CP, Animate, Alien Shore, Double Agent and Cold Fire jumped right out to me as capturing that tough, driving Rush sound that they clearly went away from for a while in the late 80’s and early 90’s with Rupert Hine. It was such a refreshing return to their power trio roots.

Edited by Todem
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Turn The Page and Alien Shore are perfect mint masterpiece gems.

 

YAAAASSSS

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Hard to believe CTTC never played live, in some sense can understand why Alien Shore wasn't, not being an expert has a kind of studio feel about it that may have been too difficult to translate live, all kinds of funny little effects in it, i dunno. CTTC doesnt seem to have this problem, didnt go CP tour but i'd have been disappointed not to get it

 

Being a musician.....I can tell you the Alien Shore for Geddy is a very challenging tune. Playing that bass line while singing....really tough. I am sure they rehearsed it for that tour but something was not clicking. Same for Cut To The Chase. Sometimes they are simply studio cuts and they don't capture it live like they want to.

 

It took them 35 years to finally play Jacobs Ladder again. And it was glorious. But something had to not be clicking with all three of them to have it locked up for so long. It was requested all the time.

 

So glad they busted that out on R40. It was the highlight of my night. And one of the best of my Rush concert going experience's.

 

I think it was simply the time factor that kept Jacob's Ladder out of the set list for many years. I'm actually surprised it didn't make a comeback when the started playing "Natural Science" again regularly. They could easily have swapped them out for each other on different nights. It's also a possibility that one of them wasn't very fond of it.

 

It was certainly a gift to the fans to play that it on R40. It was probably the highlight of the night for me also.

 

I can only imagine how awesome the sets would've been if they did Evening With shows back in the 80's. I don't know how or why it happened, but they used to be so rigid with their setlists and song choices, then around S&A, they just started becoming way more interesting and adventurous.

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That bit when Al lets loose about 3.40 in #ohyeah

 

I love this track, defo in my top 10, with Earthshine, BU2B, Secret Touch & a few others

 

Alex is a god

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