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How You Came to Discover Your Favorite Album


winter17
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Yes, I know that favorite albums can change, sometimes quite frequently, but I'm just curious if my somewhat unique experience is similar to the bulk of Rush fans.

 

Being the unfortunate youngling that I am, the only Rush album that came out while I was a Rush fan was Clockwork Angels, and even then I probably knew no more than 25% of Rush's catalog (I'm especially disappointed that they'll never play again, since by the time R40 rolled around, I only knew about 50%, so I still couldn't get the whole experience. I now can only live the full Rush experience through audio and video recordings).

 

Since Clockwork Angels was "my" album, it quickly became my favorite.

 

Fast-forward to now, when I know the full Rush catalog inside and out, frontwards and backwards. In recent months, I have started to take a new appreciation to a plethora of Rush songs in a way that I can't really describe. All I know is that I find myself constantly playing the deep tracks like "Vital Signs," and my new favorite album is Permanent Waves, even though "The Garden" remains at the top of my list.

 

Is this a familiar story? Was your favorite Rush album the first one that was released while you were a fan, at least for a time?

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All The World's A Stage was my intro to the band, and shortly after I got ahold of Archives. The debut was my favorite at that point, and is still a go to for me.

 

When Moving Pictures dropped, it jumped to the head of the pack.

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Interesting that you mention Vital Signs, as that is the song that has, by far, jumped up the most on my list of favorites

 

I was first introduced to Rush when I saw the A Farewell To Kings video one late late night back in 1977 .. It didn't take but a few moments for me to love this band ..

 

A Farewell To Kings was the first I bought, and , if memory serves, I got The Debut at the same time and Caress, if not that same day, was soon to follow .. There was no breaking in period or acquired taste to any of it - I loved all of it

 

All three of the albums are firmly planted in my Top 5

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All the World's A Stage

 

In the early 80s I heard Crazy Train on the radio for the first time, and I was hooked by the song (although I had no clue who it was). My older sister was really into music and had dozens of albums, so I naturally assumed she would have a copy - of whoever it was...

 

In a very stereotypical manner I started selecting albums where the band looked like they could play hard rock (my sis had lots of mellow music). Lo and behold ATWAS had a bunch of guys that looked the part, so I put it on for spin......then another spin and then another....hooked immediately...I couldn't believe the sound, especially Alex's guitar tone...

 

In a weird twist, around the same time Limelight was also playing on the radio quite a bit, another tune I loved...again no clue who played it. It took some time to for me to figure out that the same band played Limelight and By-Tor & The Snog Dog....

 

:D

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The White Album (The Beatles)

 

i gotit for my 16th birthday. I remember locking myself in my room with Headphones on.

 

I LOVED the scatter brained nature of it.......so many styled and CLEARLY a band apart but it works in spite of it.

 

i also love the vague creepiness that runs through the album.

 

Mick

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Yes, I know that favorite albums can change, sometimes quite frequently, but I'm just curious if my somewhat unique experience is similar to the bulk of Rush fans.

 

Being the unfortunate youngling that I am, the only Rush album that came out while I was a Rush fan was Clockwork Angels, and even then I probably knew no more than 25% of Rush's catalog (I'm especially disappointed that they'll never play again, since by the time R40 rolled around, I only knew about 50%, so I still couldn't get the whole experience. I now can only live the full Rush experience through audio and video recordings).

 

Since Clockwork Angels was "my" album, it quickly became my favorite.

 

Fast-forward to now, when I know the full Rush catalog inside and out, frontwards and backwards. In recent months, I have started to take a new appreciation to a plethora of Rush songs in a way that I can't really describe. All I know is that I find myself constantly playing the deep tracks like "Vital Signs," and my new favorite album is Permanent Waves, even though "The Garden" remains at the top of my list.

 

Is this a familiar story? Was your favorite Rush album the first one that was released while you were a fan, at least for a time?

 

Yes, parts of your story are familiar. When I discovered Rush, AFTK was the newest album in the catalogue and in typical obsessive teenage fashion, I burned through all the existing albums up that time. The catalogue was much smaller back then, so this meant many duplicate listenings by the time Hemispheres came out. What CA was to you ("your" album), Hemispheres was to me.

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Permanent Waves first album released after i became a fan. A handful of albums AS good but none better

 

My heart goes out to any new Rush Heads out there who'll never experience a brand new Rush studio album release, is a special moment in life - although of course you do get to hear them all for first time, which is some kind of compensation. Wish i could get my hands a rush album first time again

Edited by lifeson90
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I had heard someone play The Trees and then heard Closer To The Heart on the radio. Went and bought Hemispheres and Kings the next day. Within a month I found Archives and 2112 at thrift stores and had all their 70s albums to obsess over. Hemispheres and Kings got played the most by far. Edited by MalformedEarthborn
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All The World's A Stage was my intro to the band, and shortly after I got ahold of Archives. The debut was my favorite at that point, and is still a go to for me.

 

When Moving Pictures dropped, it jumped to the head of the pack.

ATWAS was my virgin album as well. Never heard them but I bought it simply based on the cover. Then it took maybe a minute into Bastille before I was hooked.
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Are some of you guys simply mentioning the first Rush album you guys heard? The OP is asking a potentially different question (assuming your "gateway" Rush album isn't your favorite).
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It's a little bit of a long story so please bear with me.

 

It was just after the end of a long week at our church youth group's retreat. A girl who I had known since second grade (we'll call her Amy), who was always slightly tomboyish, had "blossomed" early and well. I couldn't even talk to her, that's how intimidating her fulsome beauty was. I had joined the group because of her, based on some ridiculous notion that she would take a liking to me and maybe someday, with enough planning I'd be able to come up with a way to talk to her and she would somehow think I was charming.

 

Well, it was the end of camp when the church bus got to the parking lot. It was one of those dull, gray days, and my nerves got the better of me every time during the week when I thought there was an opportunity to talk to her, so my mood matched the weather. My parents were out of town when I was due to be back so I had planned to walk home, which was a little over 2 miles away. Most of the rest of the group had arranged for their parents to pick them up. About 5 minutes after I started walking, the skies opened up. I continued to walk, thinking this was one of the worst days of my life. But not for long. Amy's parents saw me walking on the sidewalk and had Amy ask me if I wanted a ride.

 

Of course, I said yes, even though I was petrified, and I got in the back seat of her car. Her parents said they had to get to their friends' house for dinner, but I was welcome to stop in and call my parents to pick me up at their house. During the car ride, Amy seemed a little embarrassed, but when they dropped us off and I asked her where the phone was, her demeanor changed considerably. She said that there was no rush for a phone call and wondered if I might come up to her room to talk for a few minutes. Well, when I got to her room, it was clear that talking was the last thing on her mind. She asked me if I wanted to get out of those wet clothes, and said that if I was too shy to take them off in front of her she would reciprocate by removing some of hers. It wasn't long before we had completed that task, and then she said, I'd really like a kiss, but first she wanted to turn on some music to set the mood, and she walked over the turntable. I didn't know the song at the time but as the music began to play I asked her who this was and she said "this is Rush, and the name of the album is Hemispheres. I find it incredibly romantic and hope you like it as much as I do." I was about to tell her I'm sure I would when she started giving me deep kisses, and then started working her way down my neck and to my chest. To make a long story short, let's just say I have a special place in my heart for that famous 'ding'.

 

It was either that or sometime in the late 70s listening to my stereo (alone) when I heard "The Spirit of Radio" for the first time.

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AFTK's my favorite.

 

My dad got me into Rush around late middle school, so I'd heard many of the big "hits," TS, Limelight, Freewill, TSOR, CTTH, The Trees, Subdivisions, Working Man, you know the drill. I loved them all almost immediately, and when I got my first chance to buy an album the summer before my freshman year, I was intent on buying albums from two bands: Queen and Rush (Queen had already become my favorite band on their hits alone). Though I knew what I wanted to do with Queen (collect each album one by one in chronological order), I wasn't sure I wanted to do the same thing with Rush (I was aware they didn't really come into their own until a few albums in). So my dad recommended 2112 as the essential Rush song and album to have and start with. This happened to be the exact same time as Clockwork Angels was released, so after some decision making, my first two Rush albums were 2112 and Clockwork Angels. They were both glorious and I took to nearly every song almost immediately. The foundations of my Rush fandom were laid, so where would the adventure go from here? Later into my freshman year, my dad and I decided we needed to get another Rush album, and seeing as we both knew and loved Closer To The Heart, and because my dad remembered Xanadu being probably his favorite Rush song, A Farewell To Kings seemed like the best choice. So one day my dad picked me up from school and surprised me with a new CD of A Farewell To Kings that we listened to on the way home.

 

The opener was a immediately magic, exactly the kind of thing I'd been searching for from music. Xanadu wasn't as over the top as I'd imagined, but especially with how much my dad loved it I quickly fell in love there as well. CTTH was perfect as I already knew. Cinderella Man had a wonderful lyric and a return to the sound of the opener that I'd wanted more of. Madrigal was pretty and imaginative...but I quickly realized it was the calm before the storm. I had the lyric booklet out and was reading along when it came to Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage. I wasn't sure how they would bridge the different sections of lyrics musically, but I had faith they could from 2112. The opening cemented the sci-fi theme, which I loved being a massive Star Wars fan and having read some Isaac Asimov in middle school. The bass line was easily one of the best I'd ever heard, and in a weird time signature too! The middle section effectively gave me the sense of being there on board the Rocinante, and the guitar break was absolutely apocalyptic, totally fitting for a song about flying into a black hole. Then there was the mysterious acoustic break, building tension for I wasn't sure what would come around the corner...when all of the sudden BAM! The heavy riff dropped in and I was bobbing my head and grinning in suspense. Geddy starts shrieking and brings me right to the climax of the story: the feeling of entering a black hole. He hit a note I couldn't believe and the song faded out into deep space, along with the album. It was the nerd in me that cemented it, but Cygnus X-1 became my favorite Rush song there, despite all the awesomeness I'd already heard from them. By the time I got Hemispheres that Christmas, it was too late. Nothing could live up to almighty AFTK, but many did come close.

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The White Album (The Beatles)

 

i gotit for my 16th birthday. I remember locking myself in my room with Headphones on.

 

I LOVED the scatter brained nature of it.......so many styled and CLEARLY a band apart but it works in spite of it.

 

i also love the vague creepiness that runs through the album.

 

Mick

 

I think it's supposed to be your favorite Rush album Mick. :P

 

Great choice though. Probably the closest the Beatles ever got to what Queen would do on SHA and ANATO.

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The White Album (The Beatles)

 

i gotit for my 16th birthday. I remember locking myself in my room with Headphones on.

 

I LOVED the scatter brained nature of it.......so many styled and CLEARLY a band apart but it works in spite of it.

 

i also love the vague creepiness that runs through the album.

 

Mick

 

I think it's supposed to be your favorite Rush album Mick. :P

 

Great choice though. Probably the closest the Beatles ever got to what Queen would do on SHA and ANATO.

 

The Beatles never needed to come close to Queen. And Queen never came close to The Beatles.

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It's a little bit of a long story so please bear with me.

 

It was just after the end of a long week at our church youth group's retreat. A girl who I had known since second grade (we'll call her Amy), who was always slightly tomboyish, had "blossomed" early and well. I couldn't even talk to her, that's how intimidating her fulsome beauty was. I had joined the group because of her, based on some ridiculous notion that she would take a liking to me and maybe someday, with enough planning I'd be able to come up with a way to talk to her and she would somehow think I was charming.

 

Well, it was the end of camp when the church bus got to the parking lot. It was one of those dull, gray days, and my nerves got the better of me every time during the week when I thought there was an opportunity to talk to her, so my mood matched the weather. My parents were out of town when I was due to be back so I had planned to walk home, which was a little over 2 miles away. Most of the rest of the group had arranged for their parents to pick them up. About 5 minutes after I started walking, the skies opened up. I continued to walk, thinking this was one of the worst days of my life. But not for long. Amy's parents saw me walking on the sidewalk and had Amy ask me if I wanted a ride.

 

Of course, I said yes, even though I was petrified, and I got in the back seat of her car. Her parents said they had to get to their friends' house for dinner, but I was welcome to stop in and call my parents to pick me up at their house. During the car ride, Amy seemed a little embarrassed, but when they dropped us off and I asked her where the phone was, her demeanor changed considerably. She said that there was no rush for a phone call and wondered if I might come up to her room to talk for a few minutes. Well, when I got to her room, it was clear that talking was the last thing on her mind. She asked me if I wanted to get out of those wet clothes, and said that if I was too shy to take them off in front of her she would reciprocate by removing some of hers. It wasn't long before we had completed that task, and then she said, I'd really like a kiss, but first she wanted to turn on some music to set the mood, and she walked over the turntable. I didn't know the song at the time but as the music began to play I asked her who this was and she said "this is Rush, and the name of the album is Hemispheres. I find it incredibly romantic and hope you like it as much as I do." I was about to tell her I'm sure I would when she started giving me deep kisses, and then started working her way down my neck and to my chest. To make a long story short, let's just say I have a special place in my heart for that famous 'ding'.

 

It was either that or sometime in the late 70s listening to my stereo (alone) when I heard "The Spirit of Radio" for the first time.

One time at band camp....
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The White Album (The Beatles)

 

i gotit for my 16th birthday. I remember locking myself in my room with Headphones on.

 

I LOVED the scatter brained nature of it.......so many styled and CLEARLY a band apart but it works in spite of it.

 

i also love the vague creepiness that runs through the album.

 

Mick

 

I think it's supposed to be your favorite Rush album Mick. :P

 

Great choice though. Probably the closest the Beatles ever got to what Queen would do on SHA and ANATO.

 

The Beatles never needed to come close to Queen. And Queen never came close to The Beatles.

 

Dude, I swear in the past month or so you’ve not replied to me once without somehow dissing my opinion. What did I do to upset you? Was it my take on GVF? Sorry I had trouble with them in such a public way. Aren’t we usually cool?

 

And for the record, Mick and I have discussed in the past how Queen basically took the Beatles’ album formula and put it on steroids for their own records. That’s what I was referencing, nothing to do with comparing their quality. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Edited by Entre_Perpetuo
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MTV was new. Moving Pictures was new. And I was 9. I had already heard earlier Rush releases millions of times through the eldest Blaze brother’s album collection. However, the combo of frequent radio and MTV airplay, the Blaze bros, and my previous Rush experiences made “discovering” Moving Pictures that much easier. Nearly 40 years later, it’s still my #1 album of all time. And in all these years it’s never been lower than #2 (occasionally being pushed back by the might of Hemispheres)
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MTV was new. Moving Pictures was new. And I was 9. I had already heard earlier Rush releases millions of times through the eldest Blaze brother’s album collection. However, the combo of frequent radio and MTV airplay, the Blaze bros, and my previous Rush experiences made “discovering” Moving Pictures that much easier. Nearly 40 years later, it’s still my #1 album of all time. And in all these years it’s never been lower than #2 (occasionally being pushed back by the might of Hemispheres)

 

Moving Pictures was my first album and in my honest opinion, is one of several that are so great they deserve to always be mentioned as an album worthy of BEST RUSH ALBUM.

 

At their peak, Rush were unstoppable. The fact I don't rate it my favourite is a testament to just how great I find Rush to be.

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Are some of you guys simply mentioning the first Rush album you guys heard? The OP is asking a potentially different question (assuming your "gateway" Rush album isn't your favorite).

"Was your favorite Rush album the first one that was released while you were a fan, at least for a time?"

 

I suppose this is simply asking whether you liked the first RUSH album you heard. If you did, it would be your favorite at that point, until you heard another.

 

 

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"Exit Stage Left" has and will always be my favourite Rush album, albeit not a studio album. It was one of the first of their albums I was lucky enough to listen too back in the 80s, and I loved the art wok for the gatefold LP as well. Moreover, whenever I listen to "La Villa Strangieto" from that album, I get goosebumps! (the LP version is far far superior to the CD version)

 

In terms of studio albums, then I guess it will always be "Moving Pictures", with "Signals" a close second.

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It was Winter 1976 and I was hanging out with a friend from high school who was a Pink Floyd freak. I used to go over to his place and listen to nothing but his Floyd albums. On this particular night, he said, "You gotta hear this band called 'Rush'". He tossed on Caress Of Steel and HOLY COW--- Bastille Day blew me away. After the Fountain had finished I asked him if I could borrow the album. He was kind enough to lend me CoS and 2112 as well. Needless to say, I was beyond hooked..

 

When Hemispheres came out, I was at the record store the minute it opened on the day it was released. I got my copy and took it home and threw it on. Book II was off the hook... I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I turned it over to Side 2 and I recognized John Fogerty singing... WTH????? The entire Side 2 was Creedence... A freak aberration. I took it back to the record store and showed them. They gave me another new copy ( Although we opened it and listened to the beginning of each song on both sides to make sure it was Rush ).

 

After hearing Side 2, it has been my favorite album ever since. I was at the Tour of the Hemispheres show shortly thereafter. It was SURREAL...

 

I often wonder if that freak, hybrid Rush/CCR album would have been worth anything? I guess I'll never know :rush:

Edited by tks95747
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It was Winter 1976 and I was hanging out with a friend from high school who was a Pink Floyd freak. I used to go over to his place and listen to nothing but his Floyd albums. On this particular night, he said, "You gotta hear this band called 'Rush'". He tossed on Caress Of Steel and HOLY COW--- Bastille Day blew me away. After the Fountain had finished I asked him if I could borrow the album. He was kind enough to lend me CoS and 2112 as well. Needless to say, I was beyond hooked..

 

When Hemispheres came out, I was at the record store the minute it opened on the day it was released. I got my copy and took it home and threw it on. Book II was off the hook... I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I turned it over to Side 2 and I recognized John Fogerty singing... WTH????? The entire Side 2 was Creedence... A freak aberration. I took it back to the record store and showed them. They gave me another new copy ( Although we opened it and listened to the beginning of each song on both sides to make sure it was Rush ).

 

After hearing Side 2, it has been my favorite album ever since. I was at the Tour of the Hemispheres show shortly thereafter. It was SURREAL...

 

I often wonder if that freak, hybrid Rush/CCR album would have been worth anything? I guess I'll never know :rush:

 

Little did you know that those "CCR" songs were just rare Rush demos we've never heard! Haha great story

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It was Winter 1976 and I was hanging out with a friend from high school who was a Pink Floyd freak. I used to go over to his place and listen to nothing but his Floyd albums. On this particular night, he said, "You gotta hear this band called 'Rush'". He tossed on Caress Of Steel and HOLY COW--- Bastille Day blew me away. After the Fountain had finished I asked him if I could borrow the album. He was kind enough to lend me CoS and 2112 as well. Needless to say, I was beyond hooked..

 

When Hemispheres came out, I was at the record store the minute it opened on the day it was released. I got my copy and took it home and threw it on. Book II was off the hook... I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I turned it over to Side 2 and I recognized John Fogerty singing... WTH????? The entire Side 2 was Creedence... A freak aberration. I took it back to the record store and showed them. They gave me another new copy ( Although we opened it and listened to the beginning of each song on both sides to make sure it was Rush ).

 

After hearing Side 2, it has been my favorite album ever since. I was at the Tour of the Hemispheres show shortly thereafter. It was SURREAL...

 

I often wonder if that freak, hybrid Rush/CCR album would have been worth anything? I guess I'll never know :rush:

 

Little did you know that those "CCR" songs were just rare Rush demos we've never heard! Haha great story

LMAO.... That's hilarious! :laughing guy:
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