FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
I already said I'd be fine if someone picked those. I have my knife-sharpener right here by my laptop :)
The Album Review Club - End of Round #9 Break (page 1904)
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
OB1
Well-Known Member
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
Oh oh oh -- Moving Pictures -- Rush!
I should have gotten that earlier. Jeez! Ron Howard of course directed Rush. That's the building they shot the cover at.
This will be the easiest review ever to write as I'd bet this is in the top 5 of records I've listened to most in my life, albeit 95% of those listens were in 1981 and 1982.
I should have gotten that earlier. Jeez! Ron Howard of course directed Rush. That's the building they shot the cover at.
This will be the easiest review ever to write as I'd bet this is in the top 5 of records I've listened to most in my life, albeit 95% of those listens were in 1981 and 1982.
Saddleworth2
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- 27 Jan 2014
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I believe you have it. That’s in Toronto and on the album cover I think.
OB1
Well-Known Member
I was struggling to choose what to review next, but the deciding factor was that, slightly belatedly, Rush recently issued a 40th Anniversary version of their 1981 album Moving Pictures and I took that as a sign.
Moving Pictures is an apt title for the record, given the images that it conjures us so majestically. It kicks-off in impressive fashion with perhaps the band’s best known and most loved song: Tom Sawyer.
The track was inspired by the famous Mark Twain novel and features lyrics that were a co-written by drummer Neil Peart and quirky Canadian poet Pye Dubois, who often collaborated with fellow Maple Leaf rockers Max Webster. Peart took Dubois’ poem “Louie the Lawyer” and produced a slightly autobiographical set of deeply philosophical words about personal independence and free thinking. Musically, the song is relatively short but still complex, featuring more time changes than Pep Guardiola makes formation changes in a match. It springs into life with a burst of synthesiser and a distinctive hard-hitting four on the floor drumbeat. The “main” instrumental section commences with Geddy Lee’s memorable synth line, melds into Alex’s face melting guitar solo and crashes out with the most air drummed break in the history of Rock and Roll (sorry Phil).
As much of an FM favourite as it is, Tom Sawyer is not for me the best song on the album: that honour belongs to track two, a widescreen mini epic by the name of Red Barchetta.
Introduced by Alex Lifeson’s guitar harmonics, the song starts with a gentle wistful air, suggesting a bucolic calm, but soon goes through the gears like Charles Le Clerc exiting La Rascasse, racing along on an adrenaline surge of turbo charged riffage. This is musical equivalent of a Disney roller-coaster. Inspired by Richard S. Foster’s short story “A Nice Morning Drive” this is a cinematic experience, a perfect fusion of words and music that creates moving pictures in your mind as the futuristic tale comes vividly to life.
Musical mastery is to the fore in YYZ, an instrumental piece inspired by the transmitter code for Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport. The composition uses the morse code for YYZ as a motif and features phenomenal bass playing from Geddy that has more twists and turns than Snake Pass.
Side 1 ends with Limelight, a fairly straight-forward radio friendly rock track about Peart’s difficulties dealing with the glare of stardom into which the band had been thrust. It neatly borrows from Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It” with the lines:
All the world’s indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
and nods back to Rush’s utterly brilliant first live album (All the World’s A Stage).
Throughout the album, guitarist Alex Lifeson is in superb form but his solo in Limelight is a highlight as he wrings out every ounce of emotion from his whammy bar to produce a sense of isolation befitting of the songs’ theme – it’s his favourite solo to perform live.
Side 2’s lead off is the last track Rush recorded that was over 10 minutes duration, although it doesn’t feel long and musically has quite a sharp focus. The song has two halves lyrically, which are Peart’s musings about walking around two great cities (albeit not the greatest City): New York and London. Again, he paints beautiful pictures – I always imagine these to be in black and white. Rush left the song out of their setlist for nearly three decades, during which it was often the most requested song for the band to perform.
The sounds of a screaming mob usher in the highly produced track that is Witch Hunt. The rest of the album was put together to be played live but this number even featured the band’s album cover artist Hugh Syme on synthesiser and a host of overdubs. Part III of the Fear trilogy of songs, produced out of sequence across three albums, this is a dark number with a grinding heavy riff that has lyrics of enduring relevance and handles issues that go beyond folk in black pointy hats.
Peart’s commentary on technospeak, Vital Signs closes the album on a more uplifting note and signals what is to come sonically on the group’s next three releases as they deviate from their norm with a Police-like intro and a mix of poppy rock and reggae lite.
And that’s it, seven tightly constructed, superbly produced tracks that have garnered multiple accolades over the past forty years.
P.S. The 40th Anniversary version comes with a full live show from 1981. I don’t intend to ask anyone to listen to that, but highly recommended if you like the studio album.
Moving Pictures is an apt title for the record, given the images that it conjures us so majestically. It kicks-off in impressive fashion with perhaps the band’s best known and most loved song: Tom Sawyer.
The track was inspired by the famous Mark Twain novel and features lyrics that were a co-written by drummer Neil Peart and quirky Canadian poet Pye Dubois, who often collaborated with fellow Maple Leaf rockers Max Webster. Peart took Dubois’ poem “Louie the Lawyer” and produced a slightly autobiographical set of deeply philosophical words about personal independence and free thinking. Musically, the song is relatively short but still complex, featuring more time changes than Pep Guardiola makes formation changes in a match. It springs into life with a burst of synthesiser and a distinctive hard-hitting four on the floor drumbeat. The “main” instrumental section commences with Geddy Lee’s memorable synth line, melds into Alex’s face melting guitar solo and crashes out with the most air drummed break in the history of Rock and Roll (sorry Phil).
As much of an FM favourite as it is, Tom Sawyer is not for me the best song on the album: that honour belongs to track two, a widescreen mini epic by the name of Red Barchetta.
Introduced by Alex Lifeson’s guitar harmonics, the song starts with a gentle wistful air, suggesting a bucolic calm, but soon goes through the gears like Charles Le Clerc exiting La Rascasse, racing along on an adrenaline surge of turbo charged riffage. This is musical equivalent of a Disney roller-coaster. Inspired by Richard S. Foster’s short story “A Nice Morning Drive” this is a cinematic experience, a perfect fusion of words and music that creates moving pictures in your mind as the futuristic tale comes vividly to life.
Musical mastery is to the fore in YYZ, an instrumental piece inspired by the transmitter code for Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport. The composition uses the morse code for YYZ as a motif and features phenomenal bass playing from Geddy that has more twists and turns than Snake Pass.
Side 1 ends with Limelight, a fairly straight-forward radio friendly rock track about Peart’s difficulties dealing with the glare of stardom into which the band had been thrust. It neatly borrows from Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It” with the lines:
All the world’s indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
and nods back to Rush’s utterly brilliant first live album (All the World’s A Stage).
Throughout the album, guitarist Alex Lifeson is in superb form but his solo in Limelight is a highlight as he wrings out every ounce of emotion from his whammy bar to produce a sense of isolation befitting of the songs’ theme – it’s his favourite solo to perform live.
Side 2’s lead off is the last track Rush recorded that was over 10 minutes duration, although it doesn’t feel long and musically has quite a sharp focus. The song has two halves lyrically, which are Peart’s musings about walking around two great cities (albeit not the greatest City): New York and London. Again, he paints beautiful pictures – I always imagine these to be in black and white. Rush left the song out of their setlist for nearly three decades, during which it was often the most requested song for the band to perform.
The sounds of a screaming mob usher in the highly produced track that is Witch Hunt. The rest of the album was put together to be played live but this number even featured the band’s album cover artist Hugh Syme on synthesiser and a host of overdubs. Part III of the Fear trilogy of songs, produced out of sequence across three albums, this is a dark number with a grinding heavy riff that has lyrics of enduring relevance and handles issues that go beyond folk in black pointy hats.
Peart’s commentary on technospeak, Vital Signs closes the album on a more uplifting note and signals what is to come sonically on the group’s next three releases as they deviate from their norm with a Police-like intro and a mix of poppy rock and reggae lite.
And that’s it, seven tightly constructed, superbly produced tracks that have garnered multiple accolades over the past forty years.
P.S. The 40th Anniversary version comes with a full live show from 1981. I don’t intend to ask anyone to listen to that, but highly recommended if you like the studio album.
Last edited:
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
OB1
Well-Known Member
Cheers
OB1
Well-Known Member
You won't be alone.
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
I am going to have a great time writing this review and expect to take a wholly unconventional approach because if there's one thing I understand, it's why some people absolutely detest Rush.