U2's new album / Rush

[Snyder80]

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

Edited September 17, 2014 by Snyder80

[Xanadoood]

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

 

There was an admitted influence by The Police in the early 80s. Lifesons rythm playing during this period was clearly taken from Summers. Just listen to Vital Signs. There WAS an influence.

[savagegrace26]

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

 

There was an admitted influence by The Police in the early 80s. Lifesons rythm playing during this period was clearly taken from Summers. Just listen to Vital Signs. There WAS an influence.

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

 

There was an admitted influence by The Police in the early 80s. Lifesons rythm playing during this period was clearly taken from Summers. Just listen to Vital Signs. There WAS an influence.

 

I wish people would acknowledge their own ignorance.

 

From the August 2007 issue of Guitar World:

 

"GW: ...how influenced were you by new wave? Many of the songs on [Moving Pictures] are short and poppy, at least by Rush standards, and your guitar sound bears similarities to that of Andy Summers."

 

"Alex Lifeson: I was very influenced, in many ways. I cut my hair! [laughs] That shocked a lot of our longtime fans who were used to my long flowing locks. Also, I started dressing cooler, more au courant, wearing bright, colorful blazers and ties. I didn't look like I'd just come from a Rennaissance fair. [laughs]

 

"It was time for all of us to change, musically, visually—our entire attitude. The songs got shorter, more accessible. It felt good to become a bit of a new band. We were listening to the Police, and their impact was huge. We saw that a rock trio could do so many different things."

 

"GW: A hint of that impact was apparent on Permanent Waves--the reggae break in 'The Spirit of Radio'--and on 'Vital Signs,' from Moving Pictures."

 

"Lifeson: Yep. That was early Police influence. Their rhythms, their sounds... It was exciting as when Cream came out. For us, it was a matter of using those New Wave influences in ways that enhanced, but didn't degrade, what we were doing.

 

"There was the Edge, too. What he did with the echo pedal is beyond measure. Yeah, the Edge and Andy Summers were high on my list in those days. Still are."

[savagegrace26]

http://www.cygnus-x1...sic-06.1984.php

 

F.M.: As a final note, name some guitarists that you admire.

Lifeson:

I admire Andy Summers very much. I think he plays a really good role in that band. The guitar is just where it should be. He has a very good sensitive touch and a sensitive approach to his guitar parts. The Edge from U2, I like his style and I've liked Midge Ure of Ultravox for a very long time.

[Snyder80]

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

 

There was an admitted influence by The Police in the early 80s. Lifesons rythm playing during this period was clearly taken from Summers. Just listen to Vital Signs. There WAS an influence.

I have never or will ever understand the insistence by many that Alex Lifeson's myriad of guitar work is or has been influenced by The Edge (what a f***ing name...) or Andy Summers. There are positively zero similarities in the playing of those two when standing next to Alex Lifeson. The styles are different, the writing is different and truthfully, the goddamn talent is way different.

 

Same thing with the bands. Are there really similarities between U2 and Rush?! Hey, my opinion, but U2 sounds like the most rudimentary, repetitive and boring music I've ever listened to. Yes, some of it I like and some of it is catchy but that's all it is, is catchy. Pop music.

 

Rush and U2 are about as alike as cunnilingus is to a foot massage.

 

There was an admitted influence by The Police in the early 80s. Lifesons rythm playing during this period was clearly taken from Summers. Just listen to Vital Signs. There WAS an influence.

 

I wish people would acknowledge their own ignorance.

 

From the August 2007 issue of Guitar World:

 

"GW: ...how influenced were you by new wave? Many of the songs on [Moving Pictures] are short and poppy, at least by Rush standards, and your guitar sound bears similarities to that of Andy Summers."

 

"Alex Lifeson: I was very influenced, in many ways. I cut my hair! [laughs] That shocked a lot of our longtime fans who were used to my long flowing locks. Also, I started dressing cooler, more au courant, wearing bright, colorful blazers and ties. I didn't look like I'd just come from a Rennaissance fair. [laughs]

 

"It was time for all of us to change, musically, visually—our entire attitude. The songs got shorter, more accessible. It felt good to become a bit of a new band. We were listening to the Police, and their impact was huge. We saw that a rock trio could do so many different things."

 

"GW: A hint of that impact was apparent on Permanent Waves--the reggae break in 'The Spirit of Radio'--and on 'Vital Signs,' from Moving Pictures."

 

"Lifeson: Yep. That was early Police influence. Their rhythms, their sounds... It was exciting as when Cream came out. For us, it was a matter of using those New Wave influences in ways that enhanced, but didn't degrade, what we were doing.

 

"There was the Edge, too. What he did with the echo pedal is beyond measure. Yeah, the Edge and Andy Summers were high on my list in those days. Still are."

 

Vital Signs is poppy? Really? Compared to what? It's reggae influenced and it is indeed shorter but it's far from pop worthy. Is there a single tune off that album that runs across as mainstream pop? If so, it's news to me.

 

Either way he can state influence all he wants but I've never heard a lick of U2 in a Rush song. Those two bands are like two different planets. One grows awesome huge fruit bearing trees and the other is covered in shit.

[lifeson90]

Far Cry could almost be a u2 track at times. Artists in any sphere take note of their greatest peers and contemporaries. Ive no doubt at all, admittedly on a probability scale, that Al and probably Ged too gave songs of innocence a good play in the first day or two of release.

 

Incidentally.. nobody, especially me, is inferring Al a guitar style plagiarist in any way, he's the pinnacle of rock guitar originality so far as i concerned. But the mans a real artist and he takes note of other artists around him, most notably Andy summers of course back in 80s and although he seems to have avoided sounding anything like The Edge in most part you can see it in tracks like Far Cry

[Snyder80]

Far Cry could almost be a u2 track at times. Artists in any sphere take note of their greatest peers and contemporaries. Ive no doubt at all, admittedly on a probability scale, that Al and probably Ged too gave songs of innocence a good play in the first day or two of release.

 

Incidentally.. nobody, especially me, is inferring Al a guitar style plagiarist in any way, he's the pinnacle of rock guitar originality so far as i concerned. But the mans a real artist and he takes note of other artists around him, most notably Andy summers of course back in 80s and although he seems to have avoided sounding anything like The Edge in most part you can see it in tracks like Far Cry

 

Maybe it's because I'm not an accomplished musician. I listen a lot of The Police and enjoy much of it but I fail to hear the similarities between the two. However, I have a bad habit of comparing the sound of the entire band against each other. And truthfully, I'm not really trying to piss people off but I don't like hearing comparisons between a guy who is a 40 year virtuoso musician and is considered to be one of the best guitar players of all-time and one guy whose band made their last album in 1983 and the other band that lives and dies inside their radical politics.

[lifeson90]

Were you around at the time of signals release dude? Of course everythings a matter of opinion on these things but i was around at the time, when the police at their peak, and Rush -clearly looking for a slight change in sound- released this amazing revolutionary album in their history. Vital signs had previously given quite a big glimpse into what the future held, the old progressive sound of Waves hemispheres etc had had its day, and to me and a few others it was pretty obvious (not certain but pretty obvious) that Al was playing with the kind of reggae feel of Andy summers bringing his own interpretation into it very successfully without damaging the rush ethos.

 

I really dont get it when people cant see the link :) I can only assume, perhaps wrongly for which i apologize, that they werent there at the time, when The Police and Andy Summers were pop megas even Rush probly looked up to.

[lifeson90]

Soz dp Edited September 18, 2014 by lifeson90

[Snyder80]

Were you around at the time of signals release dude? Of course everythings a matter of opinion on these things but i was around at the time, when the police at their peak, and Rush -clearly looking for a slight change in sound- released this amazing revolutionary album in their history. Vital signs had previously given quite a big glimpse into what the future held, the old progressive sound of Waves hemispheres etc had had its day, and to me and a few others it was pretty obvious (not certain but pretty obvious) that Al was playing with the kind of reggae feel of Andy summers bringing his own interpretation into it very successfully without damaging the rush ethos.

 

I really dont get it when people cant see the link :) I can only assume, perhaps wrongly for which i apologize, that they werent there at the time, when The Police and Andy Summers were pop megas even Rush probly looked up to.

 

I was around but I was three. My memory is pretty outstanding as still remember, with great clarity, the day my father walked in the door with Signals in his hand and the first time I held that record sleeve in my hands. However, obviously, I wasn't really in tune with the music world. My parents weren't really into The Police but we had a neighbor who loved them and I do remember hearing lots of stuff from Synchronicity. Don't get me wrong, I listen to a great deal of The Police and those sounds definitely link up around that time period.

[MMCXII]

I just heard its free on iTunes. I bet it's worth every penny.

[losingit2k]

Far Cry could almost be a u2 track at times. Artists in any sphere take note of their greatest peers and contemporaries. Ive no doubt at all, admittedly on a probability scale, that Al and probably Ged too gave songs of innocence a good play in the first day or two of release.

 

Incidentally.. nobody, especially me, is inferring Al a guitar style plagiarist in any way, he's the pinnacle of rock guitar originality so far as i concerned. But the mans a real artist and he takes note of other artists around him, most notably Andy summers of course back in 80s and although he seems to have avoided sounding anything like The Edge in most part you can see it in tracks like Far Cry

 

[len(songs)]

Sigh...

[treeduck]

I hate the new U2 song that keeps appearing as a commercial for Itunes...stinks!