Rush, the New Wave band, playing Classic Rock

[GeddyRulz]

Rush, the New Wave band, playing Classic Rock.

 

I was watching my copy of the Grace Under Pressure concert video and I thought something was strange. See if you think so, too.

 

In the mid-80's, Rush added a heavy dose of keyboards to their music, adopted something of a Police sound for GUP, Geddy played a Steinberger bass, they tried to hire producer Steve Lillywhite, they hired Aimee Mann for b-vox on "Time Stand Still," began wearing suit jackets and skinny ties and other 'New Wave' clothing, and chose New Wave "sculpted" haircuts with lots of mousse. I think, generally speaking, they were looking for acceptance within the New Wave music community at the time.

 

As "New Wave" as you think their songs were or weren't during this period, isn't it a little odd to see these "New Wave" guys playing old, classic 70's stuff in concert? If we're to accept them as a (then-)contemporary New Wave band, what are we supposed to think of them playing "Closer to the Heart," for example? It doesn't seem to fit. It's like watching A Flock of Seagulls play "Layla."

 

Anyone else think the juxtaposition is strange? Classic Rock songs being played by these New Wave-looking dudes, this New Wave Wannabe band?

 

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WNkAtgX-HT4/0.jpghttp://img.youtube.com/vi/5QylVq8enyk/0.jpg

[snowdog2112]

Having been a teenager growing up in the 80s all I remember thinking when I first saw the GUP concert on MTV around 1985 was "Wow, these guys look just like normal people!" instead of what I thought were the ridiculous RATT/Dokken type rock outfits of the day. I can understand looking back how odd it may look but my impression back then was that they were dressed so conservatively. So, even after all this time it just doesn't seem like a big deal. I can certainly see how some of the younger fans would see this as being as weird as I saw 70s outfits growing up though.

[ReRushed]

What about Yes? They got a little New Wave, didn't they? Heck, a couple of New Wave guys even joined the band!

[snowdog2112]

QUOTE

What about Yes? They got a little New Wave, didn't they? Heck, a couple of New Wave guys even joined the band!

 

Very much so, their 90125 video concert is 10x more 80s-like than the GUP show. And hey, The Rolling Stones and KISS and Rod Stewart among other rock bands all made disco songs in the late 70s so it could have been much worse. At least Hemispheres doesn't have a "Shake your groove thing" kind of song on it.

[GeddyRulz]

QUOTE (ReRushed @ Apr 16 2010, 12:19 AM)

What about Yes?  They got a little New Wave, didn't they?  Heck, a couple of New Wave guys even joined the band!

Yup, same thing. A former 70s Classic Rock band trying to disown it's former image and re-paint themselves as 80s contemporary. In the home video "9012Live," it's out of hand. Look at those clothes and those haircuts!

 

I grew up in the 80s and I thought nothing of it at the time. I liked Rush and Yes, but I also liked the New Wave music on the radio. I didn't compartmentalize things, so I didn't think about how unnatural it was. Now, it looks strange to see mid-80s Rush playing "Closer to the Heart." The clothes and the haircuts don't match with the song. A real New Wave band would have nothing to do with such a song. The Cure wouldn't play a Fleetwood Mac tune.

 

Maybe I should keep in mind that it was just an attempt at an image, one which didn't wholly fit the band. Whatever they looked like, they weren't really New Wave. Even the established New Wave community rejected them - witness the Steve Lillywhite fiasco.

Edited April 16, 2010 by GeddyRulz

[RushFanForever]

It seems odd seeing '2112', 'Finding My Way' and 'In The Mood' mixed with the 80's material on the Grace Under Pressure concert video.

 

[invisibleairwaves]

The most awkward thing about that era IMO is the decision to use the 80's guitar sounds on the 70's songs. I love the Strats and the processing, but would it have killed him to bring along a Gibson or two so the older songs don't sound so bizzare? Alex seems to be fiercely loyal to whatever his guitar-de-jour is.

[red sector animal]

This ones easy.

 

Its a Zepplinesque sort of mantra.

 

Meaning, like Zeppelin, Rush was a universal rock band, that could rock any style.

 

It's a formula straight out of Zeppelin's playbook, that few other bands dare to attempt.

 

Since most bands (99%)never do such a wide variety styles, and keep within a safe zone...its easy to think the same thing of rush, and then be bewildered when you pull a snippet of them out of the past for analysis, and see something like this.

[Some Half-Forgotten Stranger]

MTV made image more important than the music, and it was jump on or die.... jumped on.

[micgtr71]

This is interesting. I remember seeing them in the 80s and knowing that they were going to play songs from the entire catalog with the majority being from the recent releases. Consequently, we never complained that 2112 was only the beginning and that the Finding My Way was part of a medley. In hindsight I probably thought they were cutting it down because they had so many songs and wanted to fit them in for us. As for the music, it was Rush. I never thought about the new wave look though it makes sense to me now. The classics sound different played in that context, almost contemporary to the sound. Hard to explain.

[Mara]

They definitely bought into the 80's zeitgeist; that may well be one reason why I grew to love them so much. I was a HUGE fan of the European New Wave/New Romantic music. My Rush discovery began with Tom Sawyer and Moving Pictures (like so many others).

So the big changes that took place with the release of Signals and later, GUP, really cemented my love for them. (And yeah - it was around 1983 that I realized just how smoking hot Neil was!)

The keyboards, the Flock of Alex haircut, Neil's rat-tail, the skinny ties. . .yeah. Totally 80's. And totally cool.

[EmotionDetector]

QUOTE (Some Half-Forgotten Stranger @ Apr 16 2010, 05:48 AM)

MTV made image more important than the music, and it was jump on or die.... jumped on.

Yup...and then they got thrown off by MTV as well.

[shaun3701]

The GUP video is my least favorite because of that "new wave" style. I love new wave music, but I don't think of Rush as a new wave band, so it's weird for me. I guess because I didn't see them in that era, I didn't discover them until the 90s.

[snowdog2112]

QUOTE

The GUP video is my least favorite because of that "new wave" style. I love new wave music, but I don't think of Rush as a new wave band, so it's weird for me. I guess because I didn't see them in that era, I didn't discover them until the 90s.

 

That's what I was getting at earlier about younger fans' perspective which I understand but I promise you at the time I certainly didn't think of them as remotely New Wave. They were and are a band that has always been flavored by the period they're in while still being their own thing. I got into Rush as a serious fan in 1984 and the GUP show was really my first opportunity to attach an image to the music. When I saw pictures of them from 2112 or whatever I cringed and was thankful that they looked "normal" now (in the mid 80s) instead of looking like transvestite hippies. Trust me, as someone going to high school in the mid 80s the images and styles of the 70s were more ridiculous and at least as awkward to us as that 1980's look is to you.

 

As far as the video itself, after I saw it on MTV a I found it on VHS at my local mall several months later. I still have it and I must have watched it a scary amount of times. It's still my favorite of their concert videos even though the modern dvds are unquestionably light years better. Any time I'm depressed or in a bad mood that show never fails to make me feel good.

 

I heard it so many times though that the minor differences in the original, unaltered vocal tracks on the Replay version really jumped out at me.

 

 

 

[Xanadoood]

I dont think anyone came out of the 80's unscathed. I mean, look at those pants on Alex!...What the hell were they thinking?...but really, Rush was one of the few bands from the 70s who were able to blend into the new era and still progress with their music. Look at bands like Foghat, UFO, Thin Lizzy, etc..they just didnt progress with the times. What's funny is that a lot of people consider Rush to be an 80's band.

[cygnus_thegodofbalance]

It's always weird for me to hear them playing all their 80s songs and then progress into YYZ and 2112. It just seems weirdly out of place.

[treeduck]

There's no such fuckking thing as "classic rock" there's rock, hard rock, heavy metal, pop, prog rock, prog metal, art rock, even pomp rock...etc etc etc. I mean how can you define a band's music style by the date they made their albums?? And how can The Eagles be in the same catergory as Black sabbath?

 

[Alex]

I see what you mean GR. It was sort of funny to see In The Mood and Tom Sawyer on ASOH DVD.

[Mara]

QUOTE (Xanadoood @ Apr 16 2010, 03:36 PM)

I dont think anyone came out of the 80's unscathed. I mean, look at those pants on Alex!...What the hell were they thinking?...but really, Rush was one of the few bands from the 70s who were able to blend into the new era and still progress with their music. Look at bands like Foghat, UFO, Thin Lizzy, etc..they just didnt progress with the times. What's funny is that a lot of people consider Rush to be an 80's band.

What, you didn't like Alex's parachute pants?

[librarian]

I don't think they were ever new wave, they just unfortunately adopted the awful look that was associated with it.

 

in the 80's everybody looked like martians, with the Troll mullet hair and shoulder pads - uh, EW! and the other extreme was metal people looking like girls. slim pickin', folks.

 

I look at musicians like Howard Jones then and now, and I just shake my head saying "what the hell were people thinking?!" yikes!

[Xanadoood]

QUOTE (Mara @ Apr 16 2010, 02:54 PM)

QUOTE (Xanadoood @ Apr 16 2010, 03:36 PM) I dont think anyone came out of the 80's unscathed. I mean, look at those pants on Alex!...What the hell were they thinking?...but really, Rush was one of the few bands from the 70s who were able to blend into the new era and still progress with their music. Look at bands like Foghat, UFO, Thin Lizzy, etc..they just didnt progress with the times. What's funny is that a lot of people consider Rush to be an 80's band. What, you didn't like Alex's parachute pants? Alex was the original M.C Hammer

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Xanadoood @ Apr 16 2010, 02:36 PM)

I dont think anyone came out of the 80's unscathed. I mean, look at those pants on Alex!...What the hell were they thinking?...but really, Rush was one of the few bands from the 70s who were able to blend into the new era and still progress with their music. Look at bands like Foghat, UFO, Thin Lizzy, etc..they just didnt progress with the times. What's funny is that a lot of people consider Rush to be an 80's band.

Thin Lizzy did fine in the 80s considering half the band were hooked on heroin and they quit in 1983 anyway, well before most of the 80s bullshit got going...

[Xanadoood]

QUOTE (treeduck @ Apr 16 2010, 06:07 PM)

QUOTE (Xanadoood @ Apr 16 2010, 02:36 PM) I dont think anyone came out of the 80's unscathed. I mean, look at those pants on Alex!...What the hell were they thinking?...but really, Rush was one of the few bands from the 70s who were able to blend into the new era and still progress with their music. Look at bands like Foghat, UFO, Thin Lizzy, etc..they just didnt progress with the times. What's funny is that a lot of people consider Rush to be an 80's band. Thin Lizzy did fine in the 80s considering half the band were hooked on heroin and they quit in 1983 anyway, well before most of the 80s bullshit got going... True. Maybe Lizzy wasnt the best example. But i think part of the problem for them was that they didnt break open big time, and by the time '83 rolled around, they were looked at as a washed up 70s band. Rush changed their sound to fit the era. I mean, if Rush were still writing stuff like Working Man in '84, they would have been looked at as a joke.

[circumstantial tree]

I never saw Rush as new wave though, just adopting some of the sounds. The skinny tie thing was early 80's and is evidenced by Geddy on the Subdivisions video. By the time of Grace Under Pressure, I think skinny ties were outdated.

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Xanadoood @ Apr 16 2010, 06:20 PM)

QUOTE (treeduck @ Apr 16 2010, 06:07 PM) QUOTE (Xanadoood @ Apr 16 2010, 02:36 PM) I dont think anyone came out of the 80's unscathed. I mean, look at those pants on Alex!...What the hell were they thinking?...but really, Rush was one of the few bands from the 70s who were able to blend into the new era and still progress with their music. Look at bands like Foghat, UFO, Thin Lizzy, etc..they just didnt progress with the times. What's funny is that a lot of people consider Rush to be an 80's band. Thin Lizzy did fine in the 80s considering half the band were hooked on heroin and they quit in 1983 anyway, well before most of the 80s bullshit got going... True. Maybe Lizzy wasnt the best example. But i think part of the problem for them was that they didnt break open big time, and by the time '83 rolled around, they were looked at as a washed up 70s band. Rush changed their sound to fit the era. I mean, if Rush were still writing stuff like Working Man in '84, they would have been looked at as a joke. Well Lynott was going in different directions with synths on his solo albums and the hard rock was kept for Lizzy...