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Lyrically, which album is Neil's VERY BEST work?


Thunder Bay Rush
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I don’t think I can honestly pick just one… so how about two?

I just read all the words from Hemispheres and Permanent Waves (on this site). Those are my two picks… the Trees is one of the simplest, but most clever lyrics I have ever read. It rhymes so perfectly and makes sense, even to us “non-tree” species.

Some of Neil’s more modern lyrics are a little advanced (or deep) for my little brain…

 

I can’t say enough about P Waves and Hemispheres.

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I don’t think I can honestly pick just one… so how about two?

 

I just read all the words from Hemispheres and Permanent Waves (on this site). Those are my two picks… the Trees is one of the simplest, but most clever lyrics I have ever read. It rhymes so perfectly and makes sense, even to us “non-tree” species.

 

Some of Neil’s more modern lyrics are a little advanced (or deep) for my little brain…

 

I can’t say enough about P Waves and Hemispheres.

All of the following are top notch

 

PeW

MP

Signals

p/g

PoW

 

Others have moments but these are more consistently great, IMO.

 

Hard to pick just one.

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Depends on what you personally get out of the songs lyrically. For me, it's Hold Your Fire and Signals. My own life circumstances are reflected quite strongly in the lyrics of both of those albums, but may not for anybody else.
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I think I'm gonna have to go with Hold Your Fire. It's a cerebral, introspective take on human temperament.

 

I once heard Neil joke that he wishes he could disown everything he'd written before 1980. The fantastical scifi stuff and the Randroid ramblings that he no longer subscribes to. Kinda have to agree with him. ;)

Edited by Bangster of Goats
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I once heard Neil joke that he wishes he could disown everything he'd written before 1980.

Was this before or after TFE?

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Hmmm..... Power Windows, Signals, grace under pressure, Moving Pictures would be my choices. I think Lyrically presto is actually underrated (better than everything after HYF and before VT)

 

2112 title track lyrically is awesome, but the rest is kinda meh

 

Hemispheres - Circumstances and the Trees are excellent. This is blasphemous, but book 2 - Hemispheres is grossly overrated IMO. Its about moderation, which is good, but overrated

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For me, it's Moving Pictures. The poetry throughout the album is eloquent, fluid and emotive, and The Camera Eye knows no equal in poetic genius. The mental imagery provoked by that song alone still amazes me even after so many years.
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Moving Pictures. Witch Hunt alone does it for me. It contains my favorite line from any Rush song and we should all know what that is.... :)
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Moving Pictures is probably the best lyrically, not just commercially. I think that's really what got the attention of some of the critics back then. The descriptive language in "Red Barchetta" and "The Camera Eye, the social insight of "Witch Hunt" and "Limelight", the scientific metaphors in "Vital Signs" and, of course, a song inspired by a Mark Twain novel all wrapped up in the same album is going to have an intellectual following as well as a cultural one. Unfortunately, the praise he received from all of that probably did some things to Neil's personality that aren't going away. But compared to a LOT of rock stars, he's not bad at all.
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Rediscovering Counterparts right now after many years and the lyrics for this album pretty sexy i have to say.

 

There is a lake between sun and moon

Not too many know about

In the silence between whisper and shout

The space between wonder and doubt

 

I know Dubois had a hand in that particular track but doesnt detract from the beauty

 

Rush meets acdc oh yeahh

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Rediscovering Counterparts right now after many years and the lyrics for this album pretty sexy i have to say.

 

There is a lake between sun and moon

Not too many know about

In the silence between whisper and shout

The space between wonder and doubt

 

I know Dubois had a hand in that particular track but doesn't detract from the beauty

 

 

Beautiful poem indeed. Peart did a good job re-working it for song.

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La Villa

YYZ

Where's My Thing?

Leave That Thing Alone

Limbo

Main Monkey Business

MalNar

 

If it wasn't clear, I have never paid attention to lyrics in any song. Ever. I have never cared about how the lyricist "feels". I'll listen to Geddy sing all day but the words don't have to mean anything for me to like it.

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Man, this is a tough question. I really am slightly partial to Moving Pictures, but honestly I don't feel like I can pick just one...
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1. Permanent Waves

2. Hold Your Fire

3. Signals

4. Power Windows

5. Moving Pictures

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For me it's between Permanent Waves (mostly for TSOR and Natural Science) and Hold Your Fire (mostly for Time Stand Still, Prime Mover, and Turn the Page)
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Most of it is very emotional and intelligently written. Of course, like any artist, he's had his brighest moments and his dullest. I won't try to narrow my selection down to an album or two. I'm just going to list some of my personal favorites lines.

 

"Well weathered leather, hot metal and oil, the scented country air. Sunlight on chrome, the blur of the landscape, every nerve aware."

 

"Reflected light to another's sight and the moon tells a lover's story. My borrowed face and my third hand grace, only reflect your glory."

 

"When the dust has cleared and victory denied. A summit too lofty, river a little too wide. If we keep our pride, though paradise is lost, we will pay the price but we will not count the cost."

 

"Growing up it all seems so one sided, opinions all provided, the future pre-decided, detached and subdivided in the mass production zone. Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone."

 

"All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars. All of us do time in the gutter, dreamers turn to look at the cars."

 

"Leave out the fiction, the fact is this friction will only be won by persistence. Leave out conditions, courageous convictions will drag the dream into existence." (I also love how Geddy will sing "emancipate from the norm" during live performances).

 

Obviously, there are many many more and I could keep going but you get the idea.

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