Rush's Most Technically Difficult Song?

[newworldman20]

i.e. The song where the sum of (drum difficulty) + (guitar difficulty) + (bass/keyboard/vocal difficulty) = is the highest.

 

Could it be La Villa?

[mankad89]

La Villa Strangiato or Hemispheres I'd say.

[trenken]

Not sure about drums or guitar, but ive been playing bass and singing for a looong time and have learned every Rush song, I think Geddy's most intricate bass lines are on Power Windows and HYF.

 

But also thinking about singing on top of those busy bass lines, and also how busy Neil is on both of those albums, I would definitely say that was their peak as far as technical ability. Plus they also had all the keys going on at that time, sequencers, triggers, etc... much more going on than anything that came before or after.

 

Its tough to say with guitar because although Alex is great at doing whats best for the song, his technical ability in what he usually plays isnt very high. He's usually just working to fill the sound out more.

Edited February 28, 2010 by trenken

[oldphilly]

Collectlively maybe LaVilla or Free Will?

 

 

Turn the Page has a really tricky bass line.And the fact that Geddy sings over it is crazy.I believe he mentions it took him 3 months to work that up for the HYF tour.

 

[Deathbass89]

I always thought of Hemispheres as their most technical song but then again, I haven't tried to learn anything off of Power Windows or Hold Your Fire yet.

[Alex]

In The Mood.

[Phantom]

On tour, the guys have said that Natural Science and One little victory are among the most difficult to play.

[Rushman14]

As a bass player its either La Villa or YYZ.

[Tick]

some of them are...

 

Xanadu

CygnusX1

The Camera Eye

Hemispheres

La Villa

Natural Science

 

[rushfanNlv]

I would have to say something from HYF. Something like Mission or Turn the Page. Alex's stuff doesn't seem all that dificult on these albums I know but those other two guys were on fire IMO.

[Ancient Ways]

guitar: yyz, the spirit of radio, freewill are on the list.

i find natural science and xanadu quite easy to play....

[Armor and Sword85]

Tai Shan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rendclaw]

Watching Pauliewanna and Martin Periard play Free Will and seeing a couple of others play bass or guitar, that has to be the hardest Rush song I have seen.

[rcbassist39]

rivendell

 

its pretty painful to play through

[Some Half-Forgotten Stranger]

QUOTE (rcbassist39 @ Mar 1 2010, 12:35 AM)

rivendell its pretty painful to play through

[MMCXII]

I dunno but I hope it's off the next album...

[Rush Cocky]

QUOTE (MMCXII @ Mar 1 2010, 07:24 AM)

I hope it's off the next album...

 

All the answers are great so far. I would like to throw Tom Sawyer in there.

[LeaveMyThingAlone]

Drums=Tom Sawyer

 

Base=Turn the Page

 

Guitar=La Villa

 

Vocals=Hemispheres Side 1

 

All together? I'd guess La Villa. This song was written for no other reason than for them to show us their chops....and it was written at a time when they were at ther peak in terms of those chops!

[Cinderella Man]

Alex himself has said Freewill is the most difficult for him to play live

[Rush Cocky]

QUOTE (Cinderella Man @ Mar 1 2010, 12:04 PM)

Alex himself has said Freewill is the most difficult for him to play live

Yeah, I'd have to agree that all three parts of that one are very tough.

[metaldad]

QUOTE (tick @ Feb 28 2010, 01:23 PM)

some of them are... Xanadu CygnusX1 The Camera Eye Hemispheres La Villa Natural Science

[craig34]

Geddy has said in interviews that Hemispheres and Vapor Trails were the 2 toughest, most complex albums to make

[KillerInstinct]

drumwise, i'd say that La Villa is pretty easy to play. To me the fact that the song is separated makes it easier to know when and what happens whenever i drum to it. I find MP, PW, HYF and specially Presto to be much tougher drumwise. The drum fill in Lock and Key is very challenging and pretty much anything out of Presto is very tough to play.

 

Thats just my .02, anyway

[trenken]

Yeah in terms of bass and singing at the same time, I always felt that some of the songs off of PoWin and HYF were by far the most difficult.

 

Because most everything before that was pretty straight forward for Geddy most of the time, outside of a little riff here and there. But on those albums he wrote intricate lines even for just the verses, and then sang over them.

 

I remember when I was about 15 by then I had been playing for 3 years, and never struggled with anything prior to those 2 albums, then it was like a whole new learning curve. Much harder than all the previous albums.

[PariahDog]

I would throw in YYZ. A lot of players know the riffs, but it's challenging to play CLEANLY and up to speed. I hear YYZ butchered all the time at Guitar Center.

 

Also, the bass/drum timing of the intro to TSOR still throws me off after all these years.