Anyone here remember the very first time you heard Natural Science? What did you think?

[LeChuck]

Don't know what to say except that I liked it. Great music and playing as usual. I like how most of the song is relatively sad or dark, but it has the section towards the end where everything gets upbeat briefly ("Science, like nature, must also be tamed .."). Reminds me of the ending to Jacob's Ladder, which is probably my favorite track on the album.

[Rutlefan]

I'm with treeduck; from the first I heard it in 1980 I thought it "disparate sections mashed together with some odd melodic content" and still kind of do, though I like it more than I used to. It was a little bit of a disappointment that first listen, as I thought it "no La Villa Strangiato" just as PeW was no Hemispheres (I came to appreciate PeW on its own terms of course; how could one not). I do love and have always loved the "wheels within wheels" refrain. I remember being disappointed that they move on from it so soon on the PeW version, and I'm not a huge fan of what they move on to ("A quantum leap forward..." and "Art as expression...")... "odd melodic content".

 

That all said, with the later/longer live versions with the extended/repeated "wheels within wheels" section it's become a song I look forward to hearing. That extended refrain alone would make the song worthwhile, but regardless I've come to like the song a lot more with the live versions. It seems a song really well suited to live performances.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Rutlefan

[Lorraine]

I'm with treeduck; from the first I heard it in 1980 I thought it "disparate sections mashed together with some odd melodic content" and still kind of do, though I like it more than I used to. It was a little bit of a disappointment that first listen, as I thought it "no La Villa Strangiato" just as PeW was no Hemispheres (I came to appreciate PeW on its own terms of course; how could one not). I do love and have always loved the "wheels within wheels" refrain. I remember being disappointed that they move on from it so soon on the PeW version, and I'm not a huge fan of what they move on to ("A quantum leap forward..." and "Art as expression...")... "odd melodic content".

 

That all said, with the later/longer live versions with the extended/repeated "wheels within wheels" section it's become a song I look forward to hearing. That extended refrain alone would make the song worthwhile, but regardless I've come to like the song a lot more with the live versions. It seems a song really well suited to live performances.

 

Most of Rush is for me. Very few album cuts do I prefer over the live performance. But that's just me.

[tas7]

I repeat this ad nauseum so apologies to those who've heard it before.

I'd just been sent from Tasmania to the UK to live with my aunt in Liverpool. Made some friends who were into heavy rock and we used to go to this rock night in Southport at the Floral Hall run by Radio city DJ's. It had a 10,000 watt PA, you couldn't have a conversation as it was so loud.

Anyway it was Christmas Eve 1979 and we had been drinking all day, by the time we got there we were a bit worse for wear. A mate and I decided to have a pint race after I duly crashed out underneath a table. Coming too I heard the sound of the seas shore thinking, I'm back home in Tas, then this guitar started and this amazing music unfolded. I tough that was amazing, WTF was that. I asked my mates who wouldn't tell me for weeks until they relented and told me it was a Canadian band called Rush. I was hooked from then on.

[Narps]

I remember thinking "this would be so much better if it was written about a gallant knight and his adventures."

 

Seriously though while I loved the song on PeW (a classic to end a decade), I echo Lorraine's comment, the Rush in Rio live version is what sent it into the stratosphere for me.

This^^^^. I obviously heard it the day the album was available for purchase. I always liked it but Rio took it to another level...

[micgtr71]

1983...sixth grade. My friend and I were enjoying a two for Tuesday on the radio where they played Tom Sawyer and New World Man. His older sister laughed and brought us downstairs to hear PeW in its entirety. It gave me chills. I still feel that way listening to that record.