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Virtuality - what's with the hate?


Earthshine_sf
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I was listening to this two days ago and Good Lord the lyrics are sooooo cheesy but I LOVE the music.

 

If the lyrics in a song are really bad, like they are here, I just can't get past them to even notice the music. And if I do, it almost makes it worse.

 

It's like having a delicious hamburger that's smothered in velveeta cheese. I can tell that the hamburger is yummy underneath, but all I really taste is gooey, disgusting processed cheese and the hamburger is completely wasted.

 

Maybe if I could scrape off the cheese the hamburger could be saved, but you can't exactly make Virtuality an instrumental. ;)

 

 

I'm the exact opposite- I go straight for the music and most of the time don't pay as much attention to the lyrics. I can't help it, I listen to songs in "layers"- drums, guitars, bass, keyboards, etc. all separate :)

Lyrics are just words, IMO at least lol. my husband is always like "HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT THE SONG'S ABOUT?? WE HEAR IT ALL THE TIME!!" lol

 

the funny thing is my wife is super picky and sensitive to lyrics. i've sometimes played a song for her, and will say isn't that great? she'll say oh my god no, that was horrible, the lyrics were about this and this and this, and she'll dissect them and not be able to enjoy the song if she thinks the lyrics are negative somehow. in those instances whatever those lyrics were didn't bother me enough to get in the way. i'm particularly hypersensitive to rush lyrics, however, because generally they're so cool and/or meaningful that when they don't meet up to a certain standard, it's hard to ignore. for example, good news first on S&A - the music is cool, it's catchy, but the lyrics just don't make sense and it kills the song for me. and if the lyrics are just really lame like in virtuality or other certain songs on CP or RTB, etc., i just can't get past it. the music could be super killer (like in the necromancer), but the lyrics (or in that case the narration) just ruins it for me *cough* roll the bones rap *cough*

 

LOL! It's a parallax, you dig? ;)

hahaha so I take it "I Think I'm Going Bald" is not high on your list, eh ;)

 

indeed, it is not. :no:

 

I'd say that's because you have no sense of humour, but I'm afraid you might not realise that I'm kidding ;)

 

i know you're kidding. i love rush's sense of humor in general as people, but it just doesn't work in that song IMHO. rush's songs are meaningful - i appreciate them having fun while performing or being themselves, but a whole song that's tongue in cheek, even if their are some meaningful overtones present, just doesn't do it for me personally...

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Lyrically and musically, this is one of my favorites. Other than Resist, best song on Test For Echo.

 

For me that goes to Time and Motion, for the odd 5/8 time signature and just the overall strange sound of the song, which used to be the norm for them, but became extremely rare as they got older.

 

"Time and Motion" and "Driven" remain my faves from T4E, for the reasons you mention here., and "Double Agent" from the previous album for the same reasons.

 

This is exactly how I feel. Resist is a good song, but the rest of the album I could take or leave. Double Agent is a tune that grew on me over the years. I did not particularly like that tune when the album came out, but since then have developed quite a liking for it.

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Great track love the mandola bit (if thats what it is, just sounds like a banjo to me)

 

in fact, i'm going to give it full volume right now.

Edited by lifeson90
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To reinforce what rushgoober posted:

 

"Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains

Or the glimpse of a woman's smile through a window in the rain

I can smell her perfume

I can taste her lips

I can feel the voltage from her fingertips"

 

I remember in an interview Neil saying how (even in '96), the net gave people this strange predeliction of reality when, in fact, it was nothing of the sort. He said that the whole "voltage from her fingertips" was a mockery of sorts because that was precisely what you COULDN'T feel online - no matter what you wanted.

 

In essence, you can glimpse the smile through the rainy window and you can have illusions of careless flight and fancy, but it's still a hard, impermeable window (i.e. a CRT screen back then) separating you two and the only voltage is in the big Gateway desktop on the desk in front of you.

 

 

Still - "throw your message in a modem"? Sweet Jesus. +1 for alliteration. -100000000 for forced contemporary imagery

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Oh, and I thikn ever since MP and definitely since Signals, Neil has tried to capture the emotional and socio-cultural zeigeist of North America in his lyrics. Whether it was the Big Brother mentality of 1984's P/G, the mid-80's excess of PW, etc...
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Honestly I cant stand most of T4E except for T4E, Driven, Limbo, Half The world, Resist and Virtuallity. Other than that, they're just filler songs to me. I dunno what it is. If its the production, the song writing or what, but it just seems inferior to the other 90's albums.
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Honestly I cant stand most of T4E except for T4E, Driven, Limbo, Half The world, Resist and Virtuallity. Other than that, they're just filler songs to me. I dunno what it is. If its the production, the song writing or what, but it just seems inferior to the other 90's albums.

 

I'd add the Color of Right to that list, which makes twice as many songs as CP, IMO.

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Honestly I cant stand most of T4E except for T4E, Driven, Limbo, Half The world, Resist and Virtuallity. Other than that, they're just filler songs to me. I dunno what it is. If its the production, the song writing or what, but it just seems inferior to the other 90's albums.

Uh...you list six of the eleven songs...leaving five. Hate to break this to you, but you like most of T4E. :hi:

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Lol fair enough. I mean from a drumming standpoint, they're fun but listening is different. I haven't played it in over 2 years. It's still higher than Rush on my list though haha.

Speaking of drumming, the only way I really enjoy the T4E songs is when I watch the instructional video "A Work in Progress"

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Lol fair enough. I mean from a drumming standpoint, they're fun but listening is different. I haven't played it in over 2 years. It's still higher than Rush on my list though haha.

Speaking of drumming, the only way I really enjoy the T4E songs is when I watch the instructional video "A Work in Progress"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCMVmCtXHCo

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I'm amazed how you guys like to tear apart lyrics when they're still better than 99.9% of the music that's out there today.
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I'm amazed how you guys like to tear apart lyrics when they're still better than 99.9% of the music that's out there today.

 

yeah, well -- "Virtuality" and "Dog Years" aren't.

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I'm amazed how you guys like to tear apart lyrics when they're still better than 99.9% of the music that's out there today.

 

Well we're not on a "today's music" forum so it should be completely understandable.

 

Right, we're comparing apples to apples, not apples to oranges.

 

The truth of the matter is, Rush has set a VERY high standard when it comes to lyrical content, and when songs don't match up, like with Virtuality, Dog Years, the above mentioned Neurotica, etc. it's a GLARING deficiency that for many of us is difficult, if not impossible to ignore.

 

I listen to songs like Xanadu or Red Barchetta or Hemispheres or Subdivisions or any number of Rush songs with great lyrics, and then I put on Virtuality and my reaction is that you've GOT to be kidding me. Unfortunately, they weren't. They released the song. It's a Rush forum so we discuss their works, good and bad. Thankfully, there's a LOT more good than bad, but some of their lesser works are pretty bad by any measure of comparison. Would I rather listen to Virtuality then some current rap song or current super crappy pop song? Sure, if I had to make that choice, but that doesn't make it a good song.

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...Rush has set a VERY high standard when it comes to lyrical content....

 

...Thankfully, there's a LOT more good than bad, but some of their lesser works are pretty bad by any measure of comparison. Would I rather listen to Virtuality then some current rap song or current super crappy pop song? Sure, if I had to make that choice, but that doesn't make it a good song.

 

Well said, but I still think Virtuality sounds good.

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I'm amazed how you guys like to tear apart lyrics when they're still better than 99.9% of the music that's out there today.

 

I do apologise for that, but Neil's lyrics could be called into question. WHAT DOES THIS SONG EVEN MEAN????

 

 

Right, we're comparing apples to apples, not apples to oranges.

 

The truth of the matter is, Rush has set a VERY high standard when it comes to lyrical content, and when songs don't match up, like with Virtuality, Dog Years, the above mentioned Neurotica, etc. it's a GLARING deficiency that for many of us is difficult, if not impossible to ignore.

 

I listen to songs like Xanadu or Red Barchetta or Hemispheres or Subdivisions or any number of Rush songs with great lyrics, and then I put on Virtuality and my reaction is that you've GOT to be kidding me. Unfortunately, they weren't. They released the song. It's a Rush forum so we discuss their works, good and bad. Thankfully, there's a LOT more good than bad, but some of their lesser works are pretty bad by any measure of comparison. Would I rather listen to Virtuality then some current rap song or current super crappy pop song? Sure, if I had to make that choice, but that doesn't make it a good song.

 

I do agree to most of this, except for your opening line. It's more like comparing a god who wants nothing but the best for everyone to a criminal who doesn't care what he does and who he hurts.

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I'm amazed how you guys like to tear apart lyrics when they're still better than 99.9% of the music that's out there today.

 

I do apologise for that, but Neil's lyrics could be called into question. WHAT DOES THIS SONG EVEN MEAN????

 

Right, we're comparing apples to apples, not apples to oranges.

 

The truth of the matter is, Rush has set a VERY high standard when it comes to lyrical content, and when songs don't match up, like with Virtuality, Dog Years, the above mentioned Neurotica, etc. it's a GLARING deficiency that for many of us is difficult, if not impossible to ignore.

 

I listen to songs like Xanadu or Red Barchetta or Hemispheres or Subdivisions or any number of Rush songs with great lyrics, and then I put on Virtuality and my reaction is that you've GOT to be kidding me. Unfortunately, they weren't. They released the song. It's a Rush forum so we discuss their works, good and bad. Thankfully, there's a LOT more good than bad, but some of their lesser works are pretty bad by any measure of comparison. Would I rather listen to Virtuality then some current rap song or current super crappy pop song? Sure, if I had to make that choice, but that doesn't make it a good song.

 

I do agree to most of this, except for your opening line. It's more like comparing a god who wants nothing but the best for everyone to a criminal who doesn't care what he does and who he hurts.

 

:unsure:

 

 

:huh:

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Ambitious lyricists in rock'n'roll are always hit-and-miss. All bands whose lyrics seek to rise above the basic themes of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll have just as many clunkers as they do gems. So I consider the lyrics to a song like "Virtuality" to be pretty much the cost of doing business.
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