Need a hand with some Rush covers

[WavesandWindows]

Hi everyone

 

I have a project that I will be working on next year at my high school. Within the space of a fortnight I found something very wrong with students in my classes, they didn't know Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Van Halen, and a lot of other essential music that should be basic knowledge. I talked to my teachers and they suggested a concert series. Now, while I have my lists that cover a lot of material, I was sadly unable to add Rush to any of them, as there just weren't enough songs I could think of that were short and catchy enough to have 25 minutes worth of, and my lists are already being improved upon and approved by my band mates!

 

However, we may be asked to do an assembly, in which we should be allowed 5 minutes to play a song, which shouldn't involve any vulgar themes/language and other bad ideas to take to school outside of personal listening. I thought Virtuality and Half the World are my best ideas with their stronger guitar tones and decent themes, but I was wondering if anyone else has any ideas. We do have a keyboard player, but please nothing with a lack of guitar of bass (I know Ged is the bass and keys, but there should be songs requiring both at the same time, or an easy to meld bass/key part)

 

Thanks

W&W

Edited January 3, 2014 by WavesandWindows

[KennyLee]

Moderate skill:

 

New World Man

Entre Nous

Closer To The Heart

 

High skill:

 

YYZ

Limelight +1

Red Sector A

[WavesandWindows]

Thanks for the quick reply. These are all great songs, yet if I may ask, what does the +1 mean next to Limelight

Limelight +1

[KennyLee]

I think that would be the best one to do. Very popular, nice keys throughout while bass is playing, great guitar solo, vocals are not too difficult or "grating"..

 

+1 is like a "like".

Edited January 3, 2014 by KennyLee

[WavesandWindows]

Well then +2. I think that would be great. 4:19 of awesomeness

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Well, Limelight on the surface seems straight forward, but coming out of the solo can easily be a train wreck even in expert hands. 3 people doing math....

 

The later songs from TFE mentioned above may be easier to pull off, both performance wise and structurally speaking. Of the two Half the World would probably be the less difficult as well as go over with audience a little better.

 

Tears would be a good choice because it has a melotron and simple guitar, drum and bass parts. Not a real rocker though. Entre Nous is a good choice too. Though the individual parts may be a little tricky. But that song lends itself to a little simplification. Even when they did it on a recent tour Geddy especially kept things simpler than the original recording, although they did mess with the structure a little bit.

[KennyLee]

Well, Limelight on the surface seems straight forward, but coming out of the solo can easily be a train wreck even in expert hands. 3 people doing math....

 

 

That's why it was under my "high skill" section. Lot of time signature changes. :)

Edited January 4, 2014 by KennyLee

[hunter]

Subdivisions.

[KennyLee]

Subdivisions.

 

Not a lot of bass/keys overlap the OP was looking for ... although what a great song!

[KennyLee]

Analog Kid would be a great one to serve the keys and bass very well. Busy and aggressive on bass but not one of their more challenging songs.

 

Mid to high skill level required.

[WavesandWindows]

Well, I have come up with my winning idea. I want to do a five minute medley spanning their entire career. I know what I want to cover in terms of Rush-Hemispheres and I'm close on PeW and MP. However, Signals-Snakes will get me. Here's my template so far

 

Before & After (intro)

Best I Can (pretty much every riff)

Necromancer (the whole Under the Shadow, just shortened a little)

Something for Nothing

Cygnus

Hemispheres

Spirit of Radio or Freewill, I'm not sure for this album, help?

Limelight (jamming on the intro) or a YYZ jam?

Signals (Analog Kid likeliest choice)

GUP (Kid Gloves? Between the Wheels is in a different tuning so might have to be an octave up?)

PoW (Middletown Dreams, Marathon, Big Money?)

HYF (Prime Mover?)

Presto (probably Show Don't Tell, Chain Lightning, or Anagram)

RTB (Probably Dreamline if Chain Lightning or Anagram, otherwise Roll the Bones for SDT, they sound kinda similar)

CP (feeling Animate or Double Agent)

T4E (Wanna say Driven but the second half of the intro to the title track could be cool [you know, the half that isn't the chorus])

VT (Safe to say it's probably One Little Victory)

Feedback (Summertime Blues? Crossroads? Should it be included?)

S&A (hardest to choose, so many awesome riffs on the album)

Headlong Flight (it's a perfect medley closer. Plus, with the likely addition of a slideshow [similar to R30 Overture] finishing with "I WISH THAT I COULD LIVE IT ALL AGAIN" would be AWESOME]

 

Any help here is greatly appreciated, and if any bass/guitar/key players are helping and know the songs could kindly leave the best tab they've got for the songs, that would be the greatest help anyone could give me at this point?

 

[WavesandWindows]

Actually, could all help regarding the medley be posted in the new thread, "Please Take Part in My Rush Medley"? Thanks!

[KennyLee]

In 5 minutes? Tall order. About 15 seconds of each song?

[WavesandWindows]

In 5 minutes? Tall order. About 15 seconds of each song?

 

Hmmm, it is a tall order. You're right. Ok, Kenny. You've had a lot of good ideas on this thread alone, can you please give me a hand working out what albums should be covered and how?

[KennyLee]

In 5 minutes? Tall order. About 15 seconds of each song?

 

Hmmm, it is a tall order. You're right. Ok, Kenny. You've had a lot of good ideas on this thread alone, can you please give me a hand working out what albums should be covered and how?

 

Well, a lot of it should deal with hits or landmark songs (I would think). Another thing to consider is keys. You can't just comfortable (or quickly) come out of a song in E right into something in C (for example) without some serious work on making it sound right.

 

My thought would be something like:

 

Working Man (got them heard ion the first place)

Fly By Night (First Peart hit)

2112 Overture (just a taste of the hits at the beginning as they guitar starts the lead)

La Villa Strangiato (the Bugs Bunny Multiplying part)

Spirit Of Radio (intro)

YYZ (Bass and drum solo section seems best taste)

Subdivisions (Give the keys a small solo)

 

That's 3 1/2 minutes right there if you give each song :30. I'll let you finish it but that's my thinking on hitting the highlights.

[WavesandWindows]

It's good. But it really doesn't feel like enough for me. I think the 30 second snippets is a great idea, but I don't know what songs to play after that, I think it should really be a partnership on this one, mate. I'll be in contact!

[Disk98]

I don't know…wouldn't Tom Sawyer or The Spirit of Radio be options?

[KennyLee]

How did all of this work out W&W?

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

I once did a medley of "first" songs starting with Anthem then Bastille Day, 2112, AFTK, Prelude, Spirit, Sawyer then a snippet of Yyz.

 

Basically it started with the G A C D E then the riffs until repeating the chords then moving into the intro to Bastille Day (before the move up to A) then the section of 2112 up to C G D C G D then into the A7 sus of AFTK through the intro until the C# D E F# riff then into Prelude then into the E A B of the Sounds of Salesmen into the E Spirit riff (E F# G G# A B C C# E) into Tom Sawyer through to the descending line of C B A (before "What you say...") into the outro of Yyz (C F# C C C F#---- F# E D B). Done.

 

It was weakly recorded but effective as a medley. I don't have it digitized but it lives in full glory on 4 track cassette. Mostly the keys are E or related and easy to move in and out of.

Edited February 14, 2014 by CygnusX-1Bk2

[Xanadoood]

I once did a medley of "first" songs starting with Anthem then Bastille Day, 2112, AFTK, Prelude, Spirit, Sawyer then a snippet of Yyz.

 

Basically it started with the G A C D E then the riffs until repeating the chords then moving into the intro to Bastille Day (before the move up to A) then the section of 2112 up to C G D C G D then into the A7 sus of AFTK through the intro until the C# D E F# riff then into Prelude then into the E A B of the Sounds of Salesmen into the E Spirit riff (E F# G G# A B C C# E) into Tom Sawyer through to the descending line of C B A (before "What you say...") into the outro of Yyz (C F# C C C F#---- F# E D B). Done.

 

It was weakly recorded but effective as a medley. I don't have it digitized but it lives in full glory on 4 track cassette. Mostly the keys are E or related and easy to move in and out of.

 

What the hell did you just say?... :P

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

If you think hard enough you can hear it.... :P

[TFEman]

In The Mood is easy. The hardest part is the solo.

[KennyLee]

I once did a medley of "first" songs starting with Anthem then Bastille Day, 2112, AFTK, Prelude, Spirit, Sawyer then a snippet of Yyz.

 

Basically it started with the G A C D E then the riffs until repeating the chords then moving into the intro to Bastille Day (before the move up to A) then the section of 2112 up to C G D C G D then into the A7 sus of AFTK through the intro until the C# D E F# riff then into Prelude then into the E A B of the Sounds of Salesmen into the E Spirit riff (E F# G G# A B C C# E) into Tom Sawyer through to the descending line of C B A (before "What you say...") into the outro of Yyz (C F# C C C F#---- F# E D B). Done.

 

It was weakly recorded but effective as a medley. I don't have it digitized but it lives in full glory on 4 track cassette. Mostly the keys are E or related and easy to move in and out of.

 

What the hell did you just say?... :P

 

Haha. I got it!

 

We're doing a cool 2112 into Tom Sawyer into La Villa medley. 2112 to Tom Sawyer is obvious but we're doing the live ending of Tom Sawyer and where Neil normally does the double crash on the cymbals, we're doing triplets and on the 4th one we're climbing chromatically down to the A and going into La Villa. Sounds really cool!

Edited February 18, 2014 by KennyLee