Best Rush Album

[Wilco]

16 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

I have never listened to Rush and would struggle to even name one of their songs.

What’s a good entry point for a newbie?

Due to the many years they have been around, the style of their output varies considerably. To try & narrow it down to a useful answer, what bands do you normally listen too?

[Stub Mandrel]

17 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

I have never listened to Rush and would struggle to even name one of their songs.

What’s a good entry point for a newbie?

What music are you into? They have changed a lot over the years, walking a strange zig-zag line from heavy rock, to fanstasy/scifi, to prog and to pop-rock.

Single songs? Something like Spirit of Radio, Closer to the Heart or Bastille Day are good examples of their straight rock songs, Tom Sawyer or Red Barchetta are good, as is Countdown. YYZ if you like an all time classic bass riff. I'm afraid Working Man and  The Trees are my two favourite tracks.

Big Money is very accessible to listen too but the video will make you squirm.

The more recent stuff tends to be less 'accessible'?

 

 

[GarethFlatlands]

18 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

I have never listened to Rush and would struggle to even name one of their songs.

What’s a good entry point for a newbie?

It's a bit trite, but I'd say get a best of collection and work from there. You can narrow down an album or an era from the tracks you like on there and investigate further, or not. I got 'Chronicles' and discovered mid 80's Rush which is currently my favourite, Grace Under Pressure specifically. I also discovered I wasn't a big fan of anything before 2112, or the late 80's stuff. 

Be warned that Chronicles stops at Presto and there are still 6 albums after that, so there might be a better collection out there, that's just the one I picked up.

[BrunoBass]

Thanks all, I’ll dip into one of the compilations and see how I get on 😊

[odysseus]

20 hours ago, Bilbo said:

I have read all the Peart books and I think his personality is fine. It is the expectations of the rest of us that is at fault. His relationships are precious to him and he enjoys people's company but he doesn't want to have relationships with Rush fans because they want more of him than he is prepared to offer. 

Yeah, unfortunately, a significant number of the public expect musicians (and others) to be all things to all people and fulfil their expectations.  Fulfilling expectations outside of music and performance isn't really a musician's job, outside of realistic limits.  One could argue that 'if you don't want the attention, then don't seek the fame' but that just panders to the entitled fanboi. I guess you need the patience of a saint to be nice to every single person who wants a piece of you.... I ain't got it, and I wouldn't expect others to have it either.  I'd make a crap rock star!! 😂

[Chris2112]

On 21/08/2019 at 16:10, GarethFlatlands said:

It's a bit trite, but I'd say get a best of collection and work from there. You can narrow down an album or an era from the tracks you like on there and investigate further, or not. I got 'Chronicles' and discovered mid 80's Rush which is currently my favourite, Grace Under Pressure specifically. I also discovered I wasn't a big fan of anything before 2112, or the late 80's stuff. 

Be warned that Chronicles stops at Presto and there are still 6 albums after that, so there might be a better collection out there, that's just the one I picked up.

Grace Under Pressure was my first Rush album. It's actually a great centre point to their career. I can still remember the feeling as I listened to the 30 second track samples at a Virgin music store. I felt as though 'Afterimage' was the song I'd been waiting my whole life to hear, and Rush were the band. 

[Witters]

My entry was Caress of Steel, if memory serves. Also, 2112. Their early material up to “Exit stage left” was brilliant back in the day, but not so much now. I really enjoyed “Signals”, “Power Windows” and “Hold your fire”; then I discovered their entire catalogue on an old hard drive (how did I miss that?)

So, I am now really getting into “Clockwork angels”, “Snakes and Arrows” and “Vapor trails”.  I love the lyrics and how he talks about life, age, family, people; and the story telling; it’s great. Then the challenge of working out the riffs and timing and trying to understand how it’s all constructed.  I find there is nothing else like them at the moment, and they have managed to maintain their energy to the end.

[paul_5]

My entry album was the Chronicles compilation, I still listen to it from time to time.

[Witters]

1 hour ago, paul_5 said:

My entry album was the Chronicles compilation, I still listen to it from time to time.

That was it! A triple wasn’t it?

[Oopsdabassist]

6 hours ago, Witters said:

My entry was Caress of Steel, if memory serves. Also, 2112. Their early material up to “Exit stage left” was brilliant back in the day, but not so much now. I really enjoyed “Signals”, “Power Windows” and “Hold your fire”; then I discovered their entire catalogue on an old hard drive (how did I miss that?)

So, I am now really getting into “Clockwork angels”, “Snakes and Arrows” and “Vapor trails”.  I love the lyrics and how he talks about life, age, family, people; and the story telling; it’s great. Then the challenge of working out the riffs and timing and trying to understand how it’s all constructed.  I find there is nothing else like them at the moment, and they have managed to maintain their energy to the end.

Was playing Exit Stage Left in the car yesterday, normally I'm a huge fan of live albums, but this one just doesn't 'do it' for me, feels flat and bland. 

Doing a cross thread mashup, played some of Yessongs in car today...now THAT is a live album!!!! Starship Trooper is IMMENSE!!!!

[Bassassin]

5 hours ago, Oopsdabassist said:

Was playing Exit Stage Left in the car yesterday, normally I'm a huge fan of live albums, but this one just doesn't 'do it' for me, feels flat and bland.

This is the album Geddy (I think it was him) described as "live-ish". Seems a lot of it had to be re-recorded in the studio...

[wishface]

17 hours ago, Bassassin said:

This is the album Geddy (I think it was him) described as "live-ish". Seems a lot of it had to be re-recorded in the studio...

I don't know about Exit, but Show of Hands has the bass completely redubbed iirc. Interestingly what he overdubs is actually some of the best stuff he's ever played, but then I'm a huge fan of the Wal tone. The later live album, during the 'dark years', is pretty good. You get a lot of content, and a lot of alex goofing off. 

[Stub Mandrel]

23 minutes ago, wishface said:

I don't know about Exit, but Show of Hands has the bass completely redubbed iirc. Interestingly what he overdubs is actually some of the best stuff he's ever played, but then I'm a huge fan of the Wal tone. The later live album, during the 'dark years', is pretty good. You get a lot of content, and a lot of alex goofing off. 

Sent me looking for reviews... I found this which is pretty telling?

Quote

But let’s face facts, Geddy Lee is one of the best bass guitarists in the industry and the artsy cover shows him playing keyboards – That should tell you something.

 

[wateroftyne]

25 minutes ago, wishface said:

I don't know about Exit, but Show of Hands has the bass completely redubbed iirc.

Umm.. what's your source for this?

[wishface]

Don't have one to hand, this was years ago. The album came out in 88/89 just prior to Presto. 

Did find this though:

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2013/09/09/digital-man-geddy-lee-neal-peart-isolated-bass-and-drums/

[wateroftyne]

Just now, wishface said:

Don't have one to hand, this was years ago. The album came out in 88/89 just prior to Presto. 

I've been a Rush fan for decades, and read everything about them I can get my hands on. I've never heard any mention of the bass on ASOH being completely overdubbed.

[wishface]

2 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

I've been a Rush fan for decades, and read everything about them I can get my hands on. I've never heard any mention of the bass on ASOH being completely overdubbed.

That's what I had heard back in the day. The bass parts just didn't come through off the live recording so Geddy overdubbed them.

[Bassassin]

I've never heard that about ASOH. You sure you're not thinking of ESL? It's notorious for being re-recorded.

[wateroftyne]

1 hour ago, Bassassin said:

I've never heard that about ASOH. You sure you're not thinking of ESL? It's notorious for being re-recorded.

Me neither - with a band as meticulously discussed at Rush, I’d it had been mentioned anywhere in fleeting by an official source it would have been well documented by now.

I'm not naive enough to suggest there’s no overdubs on the album, mind...

[TrevorR]

3 hours ago, wishface said:

That's what I had heard back in the day. The bass parts just didn't come through off the live recording so Geddy overdubbed them.

I recall an interview at the time in Guitarist with Alex and Geddy where they were referring to ESL as their liveish album. As I recall they said that ASoH was 90+% the Birmingham show (and the other show on one track, can’t remember which) but they recorded a lot of shows on the tourand dropped in short samples of segments from other shows where there was a tech or other (presumably playing) glitch. So it was still all “live” in their eyes. They did spend a chunk of time extolling the virtues of the new Akai S1000 Series samplers they were using...