The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

The Scottish cup final went to a replay that year and I think it was not shown live.
The FA cup replay was weirdly shown live.
I think that's how it went that year.
That’s right. I watched the replay from the comfort of my own gaff.
couldn‘t tell you about Scottish final, I took very little interest in Scottish football when I returned home.
 
I’ve said on here that I got into music relatively late as a 17-year old in the mid-80s. This explains why 1981 means the following for me:

1. City getting to the cup final (I even went to the replay).
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (or maybe it was 1982 when I finally saw it, such were the weird US v UK cinema release dates).
3. Botham’s Ashes.

1981 was one of my most memorable years; although, ironically, I don't associate Moving Pictures with it; perhaps partly because they didn't bring the Moving Pictures tour to the UK. Musically my main memories are 3 weeks on tour as a roadie for my friend's band who were supporting Diamond Head and following that by going to the U.S. for the first time (for a month) and the bands we saw there and the music being played on the radio.

We watched Raiders... at Grauman's Chinese Theatre - still the most memorable cinema going experience of my life, even though the cinema was virtually empty: it was toward the end of its run in U.S. cinema's and I recall it was just opening in the U.K.

I went to every game in the 1981 FA Cup run.

I also finished Uni, started work and started dating a lovely young lady and shortly after beginging work, got my ankle broken in three places playing football for my firm at Hough End and ended up with a full length plaster on for three months. Helluva year.
 
I bought Moving Pictures on release and played it to death. They were the vinyl days.
I still occasionally listen to the CD version.
A lot of music has passed my years since 1981. I could write two reviews - one based on its release and a retrospective look.
At the time of release it was a follow up to Permanent Waves and continued in the same musical vein.
I think Rush benefitted from the fact they appealed to hard rock/metal fans and Prog fans.
2112 through to Moving Pictures was a great era.
 
In 1981 I was listening to Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, OMD, The Human League etc etc. It sounded fresh, exciting and "on point" and was miles away from the prog/ rock dinosaurs of the 70's.

Obviously later on in life I can now look back and admit I was wrong as a lot of the 70's stuff I called "Dad Music" was brilliant.
 
I bought Moving Pictures on release and played it to death. They were the vinyl days.
I still occasionally listen to the CD version.
A lot of music has passed my years since 1981. I could write two reviews - one based on its release and a retrospective look.
At the time of release it was a follow up to Permanent Waves and continued in the same musical vein.
I think Rush benefitted from the fact they appealed to hard rock/metal fans and Prog fans.
2112 through to Moving Pictures was a great era.
You need to give us a score for Moving Pictures, PJ. Sounds like you know enough about it.
 
Rush must be the ultimate marmite band.

Yet another week and I find myself agreeing with Bimbobob and Bennyboy.

As I’ve mentioned on other threads I am not a Rush fan.

Apart from the fact I don’t like Prog Rock although I love early Genesis,

I really can’t stand Geddy Lee’s vocals, he sounds like a poor mans Jon Anderson who i also don’t like.

I respect that they all great musicians but the songs do nothing for me, I’ve listened to it the requisite 3 times and unfortunately it doesn’t get any better, although YYZ is by far the best track for me as it’s an instrumental!

As Foggy has said there’s going to be a massive disparity in scores, I see there’s a few 10s from posters who rarely review on this thread so they obviously have an army of fans on BM.



I’m definitely not one of them



2/10
 
I have listened to it all the way through at least six times so think I know the album pretty well now. I consider this a rock album as most of the songs are driven by guitar based riffs. It has brush strokes of prog all over it but in essence, at its core it’s rock. As I and many others have mentioned, the playing is very very good verging on brilliant. I did wish for a little more light and shade in the playing. For the most part it’s pretty full on and the three almost seem to compete at times to demonstrate technical excellence. Just for fun, I stuck on three tracks immediately after the album. Genesis Firth of Fifth, Focus, Eruption, Zeppelin, No Quarter. Each band stuffed full of technically brilliant instrumentalists who also understood the old saying ‘sometimes less is more’.

Doing that helped me in my conclusions round Moving Pictures because despite the brilliance of the playing, the songwriting/composition is not as strong and the lyrics at times are ridiculously simplistic and delivered in a way that makes it all the more obvious.

So I don’t hate Rush at all. I certainly respect their prowess enough to listen to more of their work. At the moment, I have filed them alongside bands that I sometimes listen to when the mood takes me. Bands like Wishbone Ash, ELP, Marillion but very very unlikely that I would listen to them in front of the bands that helped create their sound, yes, Genesis and Zeppelin.

So score wise, I’m conscious I have been a bit ‘Nippy’ with @OB1 previous nominations especially Kiss . So I am tending to upgrading a 5 which is what I think the album is worth to a 6 to reflect just how good I think these instrumentalists are.
Thanks @OB1 for such an interesting pick.
 
As Saddleworth said, I have never seen Rush as a prog band, they are rock....and are as similar to Genisis (who I like, mainly Gabriel era) as Metallica are.
My exes son plays guitar and asked me to name my top 10 albums, VH1 and Moving Pictures were first 2 straight down, the other 8 took some thinking about.
My one observation of this album is that 'Witch hunt' is good on this album, but would struggle to make my fav 25 Rush songs, but when played live is straight in the top 5!
Easy to score, and hoping someone offers something I've not heard to match it.....10.
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.