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Did any band influence the intro (opening section) of Xanadu?


Texas King
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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".
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It's a good possibility that the boys were influenced by Yes' Close to the Edge. We all know that they were big Yes fans back in the day.

 

Skip to 8:28 thru around 10:00.

 

http://youtu.be/51oPKLSuyQY

 

I was also thinking it's got a Yes sort of quality. Nothing close to a ripoff, but a possible case of inspiration for sure. Although I was thinking more Relayer (the album) than Close To The Edge.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

For sure, and probably did to some degree. PF was so great at that sort of thing.

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It's a good possibility that the boys were influenced by Yes' Close to the Edge. We all know that they were big Yes fans back in the day.

 

Skip to 8:28 thru around 10:00.

 

 

I can see that. Even the opening to CTE has a similar sound to my ears. That and a sprinkle of zeppelin with its Bonham like drum fills for good measure.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

That said, there was a lot of spacey music floating around in the 70s. Long intros that went nowhere (but everybody was high and loved it).

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

That said, there was a lot of spacey music floating around in the 70s. Long intros that went nowhere (but everybody was high and loved it).

 

What riff did Alex lift from Gilmore?

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Not sure about influences on Rush for the Xanadu intro, but the opening few minutes of Trial of Tears by Dream Theater sounds very similar to the intro of Xanadu, especially in some of the live versions. No surprise, given that DT are huge Rush fans...
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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

It's not a coincidence.

The Gilmour part was recorded in 1977, the Lifeson part in 1980.

The only differences are the key and the fact that the Gilmour part was double-tracked.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

It's not a coincidence.

The Gilmour part was recorded in 1977, the Lifeson part in 1980.

The only differences are the key and the fact that the Gilmour part was double-tracked.

 

Mmm, I don't think that's close enough to call lifting. Alex is clearly playing a more complex rhythm in that YYZ lick than Gilmore plays in Dogs, Alex is using a combination of 16ths and 8ths whereas Gilmore is just playing triplets. Not to mention Alex goes up and down his triads whereas Gilmore only goes down. I don't think its impossible Alex might have been toying around with Gilmore's idea and came up with his own version of it for that bit, but I don't think it's impossible he just came up with it on his own either. I'd need to read an interview from Alex where he specifically mentions getting inspiration from Gilmore for that solo, if such an interview exists.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

 

I can easily imagine Alex being influenced by that lick, but it's not nearly close enough to the descending lick in YYZ to say Alex stole it.

Edited by JARG
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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

It's not a coincidence.

The Gilmour part was recorded in 1977, the Lifeson part in 1980.

The only differences are the key and the fact that the Gilmour part was double-tracked.

 

Mmm, I don't think that's close enough to call lifting. Alex is clearly playing a more complex rhythm in that YYZ lick than Gilmore plays in Dogs, Alex is using a combination of 16ths and 8ths whereas Gilmore is just playing triplets. Not to mention Alex goes up and down his triads whereas Gilmore only goes down.

 

It's true that each 3 notes batch in the Gilmour run descends in sequence, but the pitch at the beginning of a sequence is higher than the pitch of the last note in the previous sequence, so it has sort of a stair step feel rather than a linear descent feel.

 

And yeah, Alex's riff is very different. Each pattern is a group of 4, with the lowest note the same in each group (open B string), which gives the whole riff has a "pedal point" feel, and each pattern of four notes has an "up/up/down/down" pitch arrangement, rather than the "down/down/down" pitch arrangement in the groupings of the Gilmour run. And finally, Alex's lick is mostly hammer ons and pull offs, which gives it a very fluid feel ("legato"), whereas Gilmour's lick is more saw-toothed.

 

This is great, we're talking about my #1 and #2 favorite guitarists!

Edited by JARG
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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

It's not a coincidence.

The Gilmour part was recorded in 1977, the Lifeson part in 1980.

The only differences are the key and the fact that the Gilmour part was double-tracked.

 

Mmm, I don't think that's close enough to call lifting. Alex is clearly playing a more complex rhythm in that YYZ lick than Gilmore plays in Dogs, Alex is using a combination of 16ths and 8ths whereas Gilmore is just playing triplets. Not to mention Alex goes up and down his triads whereas Gilmore only goes down.

 

It's true that each 3 notes batch in the Gilmour run descends in sequence, but the pitch at the beginning of a sequence is higher than the pitch of the last note in the previous sequence, so it has sort of a stair step feel rather than a linear descent feel.

 

And yeah, Alex's riff is very different. Each pattern is a group of 4, with the lowest note the same in each group (open B string), which gives the whole riff has a "pedal point" feel, and each pattern of four notes has an "up/up/down/down" pitch arrangement, rather than the "down/down/down" pitch arrangement in the groupings of the Gilmour run. And finally, Alex's lick is mostly hammer ons and pull offs, which gives it a very fluid feel ("legato"), whereas Gilmour's lick is more saw-toothed.

 

This is great, we're talking about my #1 and #2 favorite guitarists!

 

Totally! I love both of them as well.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

 

I can easily imagine Alex being influenced by that lick, but it's not nearly close enough to the descending lick in YYZ to say Alex stole it.

 

Fair.

It's not the same notes, per se, so I probably shouldn't have written "stole".

But it's easy to see that Alex was almost certainly influenced by it, especially given the spacey keyboard half-time stuff that follows both parts. Context matters.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

 

I can easily imagine Alex being influenced by that lick, but it's not nearly close enough to the descending lick in YYZ to say Alex stole it.

 

Fair.

It's not the same notes, per se, so I probably shouldn't have written "stole".

But it's easy to see that Alex was almost certainly influenced by it, especially given the spacey keyboard half-time stuff that follows both parts. Context matters.

 

I think you can say Alex certainly could have been influenced by it, as much as he could have been influenced by anyone else. Without Alex directly citing Gilmore as an influence for that lick or that solo I fail to see any reason to say that was definitely Alex’s inspiration beyond the shadow of a doubt.

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I can't imagine Geddy, Alex, and Neil listening to Dark Side Of The Moon and saying "moody, atmospheric stuff has no place in rock music".

 

I was thinking the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond could have influenced the one in Xanadu.

 

Alex is a huge Gilmour fan, so yes. You can hear in the spacey bridge of YYZ, especially that cascading riff that he stole from Dogs.

 

Can you post the Dogs video and point out the approximate time-stamp where the stolen riff occurs?

Here: 13:55 to 14:00 -- a down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff leading into a spacey PF bridge -- bears an uncanny resemblance to Alex's down-cascading hammer-on-and-off riff in YYZ leading into a spacey Rush bridge.

 

I can easily imagine Alex being influenced by that lick, but it's not nearly close enough to the descending lick in YYZ to say Alex stole it.

 

Fair.

It's not the same notes, per se, so I probably shouldn't have written "stole".

But it's easy to see that Alex was almost certainly influenced by it, especially given the spacey keyboard half-time stuff that follows both parts. Context matters.

It's possible he was influenced by it. I'm sure they all listened to a lot of PF during that point in their careers. Like I said, the licks are substantially different. Composition and execution matter.

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