I am with you on those two songs. “Analog Kid” with that line “too many hands on my time” is a frenetic ripping track I had somehow never connected with until this thread. And Vital Signs has always been the one song I was iffy about on Moving Pictures, but I have finally come to think it is a great track. The whole Alex-does-reggae-riffs thing that he dabbled in over the course of 4 albums became noticeable and more understandable to me thanks to this thread. I can’t really rank albums, except to say that Moving Pictures has got the best sound of any of the albums. “Sound” meaning not only the production also the whole sonic landscapes they laid out on the individual songs. To my ears, they never sounded this good again. Terry Brown’s productions with Rush peaked in different ways on A Farewell To Kings and Moving Pictures.
Since everyone is doing final thoughts and rankings I guess I’ll throw mine in too. Rush is one of my favorite bands of all time and holds a special place for me. They’re a nostalgic favorite that I‘ve come to appreciate even more over time as I’ve discovered their versatility and increasing maturity. Having the opportunity to examine their discography song by song, day by day has only reinforced that appreciation. I deprived myself of the opportunity to re-examine their 90’s and 00’s albums (the part of their discography I’m least familiar with) the same way, but whatever. I’m glad I came back for Clockwork Angels though, because that really did help me appreciate the album more. Like everyone else is saying, I can’t really rank Rush’s albums because there are about five that could qualify as my favorite. Here’s my attempt to rank them: 2112 A Farewell to Kings Grace Under Pressure Moving Pictures Hemispheres Permanent Waves Signals Power Windows Clockwork Angels Fly By Night Hold Your Fire Caress of Steel Rush Counterparts Vapor Trails Presto Test for Echo Snakes and Arrows Roll the Bones
Thanks! Rush gets a bit murky for me between Grace Under Pressure and Vapor Trails. There were still a bunch of good songs in there for sure, and Counterparts is probably an album I should catch up with at some point. I just haven't made the time. Before the lockdown I was listening to Clockwork Angels, then the Permanent Waves 40th came around, and that's where I'm still stuck. There are also a half-dozen live recordings I have to get around to at some point. I mean, I love Wilco too, and I probably won't even say hello in that thread before it's over. Thanks @mark winstanley for hosting. I could never do it, that's for sure.
I re-read it, Dirskter. That was a classic post! I am a huge Prime Mover fan. Going through the posts, yes, there were quite a few folks who didn't care for it, but it had a good amount of support.
Clockwork Angels Tour I've never heard this album (or seen the video), but since the album contains the same musical content as the video release, I can cover both at the same time. The album/video was compiled from three consecutive concerts in Phoenix, Dallas, and San Antonio in November 2012. The setlists were the same at all three shows and every song played is included here. Not sure which songs came from which show; the bonus tracks come from different shows but I don't see any credits as to which shows. Thoughts on Disc One: Subdivisions - after a long intro (the soundcheck is interesting but, once again, the pre-concert video is rather sophomoric - they seem to have the sense of humor of 14-year-old boys, which I wasn't into even when I was 14), we launch into the opener. Immediately I'm noticing that the sound is nowhere near as good as it was on the last two live releases. This isn't the most obvious concert opener and I wonder if it was chosen because it was easy for Geddy to sing and get his voice warmed up. No real stretches into higher octaves for him. Solid version. The Big Money - man, what a great song this is. Best Rush album opener ever! Geddy struggles with the vocals but the band sounds excellent here. Force Ten - Geddy's vocals aside, this is a strong version. Nice to see them embracing the mid-80s to start these shows. My favorite Rush period. Grand Designs - didn't expect to see this gem pop up, but very glad it's here. Sounds fantastic (aside from the obligatory vocal issue). The Body Electric - wow, they were really digging into the 80s deep cuts at these shows. This is one of the few Rush songs that sounds dated lyrically and I can't say that I loved the original version to begin with. Not a highlight here but it's well performed at least. Territories - wow...one of FIVE Power Windows songs on this album! Unfortunately, this is one that hadn't dated at all. Neil's best lyric. Amazing version as well. The Analog Kid - another fantastic deep cut. Very good performance. Bravado - finally we move out of the 1980s (if barely). A stirring version that highlights the anthemic qualities of this song. Where's My Thing/Here It Is! - another Roll The Bones song, but not one of their better instrumentals. A Neil drum solo is appended to it here. This is a more organic drum solo with minimal synth intrusion. It's also much shorter. They flow back into "Where's My Thing" to finish. Far Cry - great song to finish the first set/disc with and to bring the audience up to the near-present day in terms of the band's output. It's not the best version of the song, but it serves as a nice preface to the second set that will be focusing on Clockwork Angels material. Hearing this one after the rest of this first disc emphasizes to me how much heavier sounding their late-period work is in comparison to their 1980s music. Discs Two and Three to come....
The Garden The moving summation of a life that's conveyed in the lyrics is, for us, an easy extension to the life of the band and is a fitting final statement for both. And it’s difficult not to get sentimental about it. This is a strong end to a long and great career; what better than a song about time, set up by the poignant and wistful orchestral sounds of the opening, and punctuated by the lovely piano interlude.
In trying to sum it all up in the home stretch here, I can’t quite muster a ranking or much of a list of any kind; placements change too easily based on mood and recollection. But here are a few thoughts that come to mind… The mid-70s to early-80s span of albums from A Farewell To Kings to Signals will, for me, always be unsurpassed. It’s personal of course, and to some extent unexplainable. But it’s by no means an uncommon view. And on certain days I happily include from the margins 2112 and Grace Under Pressure into that group. An extremely high level of song-writing and production combined to make these albums unforgettable classics. I won’t reiterate the high points, but suffice to say, this thread and all of the thoughtful comments only heightened my appreciation for this era of their music. The combination of nostalgia and song quality likely reached a high-point for me with Subdivisions, with The Analog Kid and Losing It close behind. Nothing in their catalog will ever match the pleasure derived from Signals, as I wore it out on the turntable, my first Rush purchase. While La Villa, Limelight, Red Barchetta, and a few others are a match (at the very least) in terms of song-writing, as a whole Signals claims that special spot (admittedly) beyond objectivity. With that said, as the 80s wore on (in the thread), I was torn between the shift away from challenging songs of distinct character and virtuosity, to those with more of a sameness while still managing plenty of memorable melodies. (I awaited the varying views others would have but somehow the anticipated and inevitable discourse fireworks between prominent enthusiastic 80s supporters--robcar and fritha71--and detractors--Harry Hood--fell short of what it might have been due to absence in one form or other.) After Counterparts, I did more lurking on this thread than commenting. As I'm not really a fan of the less-varied direction the guys took after that, with the deeper song-writing decline I perceived, I didn’t want to be a daily source of negativity. However, I always enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts on each and every track. While not claiming they're “the best” on their respective albums, the most pleasant surprises for me during the thread were: --Here Again: love the tempo and mood. Alex's solo is a standout. The length allows it to breathe. --Before and After: a lot of variance in the song, which appeals to my prog sensibilities. Early Rush, but something to grow on. --The Necromancer: youthful power and dynamics, but, uh, hold that narration! --Something for Nothing: always liked it of course, but revisiting it here particularly impressed me for some reason. The guitar work, I guess. And the sheer excitement. --Chain Lightning: Presto had been, essentially, a black hole with one glimmer of light (The Pass), but I was pleased to discover Chain Lightning as well. (oh ok, and Available Light, too.) --Ghost of a Chance: the mixture of slow (with a late-night vibe) and up-tempo sections worked nicely. --Double Agent: a little quirky, yet intriguing. And love the guitar solo--one of Alex's more unusual ones. --Cold Fire: This was a polarizing one, as I recall, but I appreciated the different perspective of relationships. Plus the imagery in the lyrics was interesting. --The Wreckers: a very welcome return to melody, just in the nick of time before the end. Favorite track since Counterparts. Thanks to all who participated. Truly, both the civility and intelligence of the comments were a pleasure! And a bigger thank you: Mark’s tireless commitment to this and other threads is unmatched, and not even the mid-thread crisis could derail him for long. Great job as always! (Lastly, if we’ve learned one thing from the thread----for goodness’ sake, don’t make too many Black Sabbath comparisons! )
That's kind of you, thanks. And huge thanks to the thread starter! 467 pages, wow! I fell, or was I pushed , at Grace Under Pressure. A hybrid single album from AFTK/H would quite possibly be my favourite album ever. A hybrid of PeW/MP would be right up there too. I enjoyed revisiting Signals more than I thought I would. But I came to Rush as a guitar rock fan who started enjoying things that were a bit "cleverer". But still mainly a guitar guy. So there was no way I was gonna like their Thompson Twins tribute act of the mid 80's. I know there are some good songs on HYF, but the sound really grates with me. FWIW, here's what I put on my ipod 20 odd years ago (GUP onwards) Afterimage Red Sector A The Big Money Manhattan Project Force Ten Time Stands Still Second Nature Prime Mover The Pass Anagram (For Mongo) Dreamline Bravado Heresy You Bet Your Life Animate Nobody's Hero Everyday Glory Test For Echo Driven Totem Virtuality .....although apart from The Pass, Dreamline and Bravado, I don't think I've ever played them. I didn't like Vapor Trails at all. I bought Snakes And Arrows, played it once, slung it somewhere. Boring! I've never heard Clockwork Angels and have never worried that I might be missing out. Is there one about a garden? I think I might have seen a clip of that in one of the documentaries. That's all, folks!
Gonna play that song one more time now.... Here’s an example of how “quarantine life” was measured out in Rush songs for eight months: I wanted to look up the exact day, page number and post # of my Prime Mover write up, because I recalled my wife and I going to a nearby state park the day before (when Second Nature was the song being discussed) and it was a beautiful sunny spring day. When we got home and dinner was cooking I wrote up my bit for the next morning so I could post it fairly quickly after Mark’s initial posting. Mark’s an early riser and consistently starts off the comments each day by 7:00 or so. Sure enough, the posting was on May 1. The previous time we went to the park we’d been overdosing on Distant Early Warning - looked it up, and sure enough that was April 9th. Album by album I could pretty much tell you what we were doing that week or two, which is remarkable to me given that the past 6 months have been a blur of “days that end in ‘y’ but are pretty much indistinguishable”. Quarantine, social distancing, and working from home made a lot months run together to the point where they were hard to tell apart. I made a mental commitment to finishing out the Rush discography because I (a) wanted to hear it all, particularly the late-period albums I’d never listened to and (b) it was a good way to track time, almost like a diary. This thread was a good trip.
Clockwork Angels Tour Random Thoughts I appreciate that since Rush in Rio, they give us full concerts and even throw in the the extra songs that rotated in and out of the set list I am thankful that the first set did not include the string ensemble. Its fine for the Clockwork Angels material that was written with string parts, but I don't need it tacked on to every song. I wasn't too thrilled with the cinematography when the bluray first came out. Seemed like they were trying to mimic a phone cam from the audience is some shots, which seems like a gimmick. On the plus side, the image is very clear and bright. You could say it is overlit in places. From a visual stand point I still think the S&A tour video was a high point. This has a different feel and in retrospect it's not too bad. I love that they dig deep into the 80s synth albums for the first set. Lots of songs that had not been played in forever. Grand Designs, Territories The Body Electric and Middletown Dreams were all deep cuts. Where's My Thing was another surprise and it kicks some butt. Love the bass solo intro. Not every band can get away with playing their new album nearly in its entirety from start to finish. The crowd seemed very receptive throughout and I think that says something about the dedication of the Rush fanbase. Some of the Clockwork Angels material pushes Geddy vocally. He holds it together pretty well but the strain is there. I love that they put the shredding wah wah solo back into Grand Finale. They took it out for the T4E and R30 tour and I missed it. The gnome stuff was pretty funny. Robcar mentions that they have the sense of humor of 14 year old boys. Yeah it's silly. There's a reason why they started their 80s concerts with the Three Stooges theme and its part of their chemistry. I guess it's not for everyone but I like it.
Impossible to know if this was discussed between all three, but I'm convinced Neil had a plan to end it after the Clockwork Angels Tour. I think he did R40 as a favor to his friends and bandmates.
Clockwork Angels Tour Never been a fan of Rush humor either. Now, Alex Lifeson humor I find hilarious. He cracks me up on that dinner video with the other guys. When the drums came in on Subdivisions I thought something was wrong with my system. They sound like they are in another stadium. I see they recorded some of this in Phoenix in 2012. I would hate to know what I was doing instead of being at this show. Probably watching a YouTube video of some guy taking apart a tube amp or whatnot.
Perhaps my favorite Rush Live album DVD and Tour although the filmed interludes will never be my favorite. I don't know if they ever topped the Time Machine acting job they did. Still pretty hilarious in it's own right.
Don't have a problem with that or the last two studio albums being better than Moving Pictures myself. Experience counts for a lot.
"The Garden" A final track that seems so eloquently fitting in retrospect, and so sad as well. As the album closer this one really hits the mark. There's a kind of grandeur about it, which begins as a sorrowful lament and eventually swells into a broad, noble statement. It just builds until it reaches that final, closing curtain. ___________________________ I haven't said much, or anything really, about the string arrangements that where added throughout Clockwork Angels. That's probably because I find them to be a little recessed in the mix, making their part interesting but not necessarily noteworthy. They add a shade of texture to the music, but it doesn't transform it. But then, maybe that was the point. Overall, I would have to say that I find this album, along with its predecessor, Snakes & Arrows, to be their strongest collections of songs of probably the last 20 years or so. And even though someone else may not agree, it is amazing to consider that a band that has been around for so long could still produce such strong works at that stage of their career. From that perspective, these guys certainly went out on a high note. Viva Rush!
“We have to take a short break because we’re about a thousand years old” - Geddy to the crowd on Clockwork Angels tour CD That is funny!
Me too, but there's a thread on all those latter-day live Rush vinyl sets, and it's mostly negative. As far as I can tell, they just dumped the CD mixes onto LPs. Considering they're all expensive - close to $100 or over - I haven't taken the plunge.