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Prog_Traveller 
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 29 2005
Location: Bucks county PA
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Points: 1474
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 Topic: Rush - Caress of Steel
Posted: July 18 2014 at 21:15 |
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I love this album. Some of it is just ok but the great stuff really kicks butt. It's funny that RUSH calls the tour for this album the "down the tubes tour" and critics and the album sales reflect that but I think in retrospect we have to give it props. If it wasn't for this album there would be no 2112. "The Necromancer" is one of the most intense things they have ever done.
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Gerinski
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 10 2010
Location: Barcelona Spain
Status: Offline
Points: 5093
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Posted: July 18 2014 at 17:36 |
I discovered Rush with A Farewell To Kings but that was around 1981, they were not really well known in Europe back then and even less in my native Spain. I was totally sold, then I bought Hemispheres and thought these guys were unbelievable, I made a lot of publicity to my friends and we all got hooked to this band no-one else knew about. I already loved Prog but it was a period when I also embraced hard rock and metal much more than now, I loved early Queen, Purple, Zeppelin, Whitesnake, Rainbow... and even AC/DC  Then I bought CoS and it felt much rougher than A Farewell or Hemispheres, but since I was into hard rock and metal I loved it, all of it, even Going Bald. I was also learning guitar playing and Lifeson did hard-rock-prog in quite a different way than all the other well-known guitarists. Production was not too good but I didn't look much at those things back then, I guess my stereo was not that faithful either. Nowadays I don't listen much to it but it will always hold a special place in my heart. I like Fly By Night and quite less the debut, but CoS was indeed the album where they started to show what they were going to be able to do, when listened in retrospect it's the turning point. Funny that apparently it got a rather bad reception at the time of its release, but thank god that they knew what they wanted and reacted by delivering something like 2112 instead of bending to the wishes of the business.
Edited by Gerinski - July 18 2014 at 17:41
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Stereolab
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 22 2014
Location: NorCal
Status: Offline
Points: 126
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Posted: July 18 2014 at 17:09 |
Listening to it now. Definitely a very good album, but not in the top half of Rush's pre-90s output. The stupid Necromancer voice gets on my nerves also... if you're going to do over-the-top narration, do it 100% of the way, like in an Ayreon album!
On a side note, I must admit to being shocked at the hate shown toward FBN in the Prog Archives reviews... seriously? Against an album containing the immortal "Anthem", plus "By-Tor", "Rivendell", and of course "Fly By Night"? Heck, if it just had "Anthem" and Geddy Lee reading the phone book for the next 75 minutes, I'd still give it five stars, but that's just me I suppose.
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Xonty
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 23 2013
Location: Cornwall
Status: Offline
Points: 1759
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Posted: July 18 2014 at 16:20 |
 Finnforest wrote:
Love it. Love the first two albums also.
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Same - actually prefer all of those to "Moving Pictures"...
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uvtraveler
Forum Newbie
Joined: December 09 2013
Status: Offline
Points: 27
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Posted: July 18 2014 at 13:16 |
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Well it's tough to choose between Rush's "I Think I'm Going Bald" and Kiss's (I Think I'm) "Goin' Blind".....but seriously
This topic is nice segue from my "guitar-centered" prog topic. It was this very album, as in "The Fountain of Lamneth" specifically...that encouraged me to focus on writing and playing prog rock with a guitar-centered band as a kid. As you can imagine, the number of teenage rock keyboardists in early 1980s NYC was not exactly huge. Also, prog rock was dying a rough death. BUT we still had Rush! and maybe a little Triumph....
Great album....and I agree with an earlier post that the voice in the Necromancer is a little silly, but the chord progression and rhythmic motif with it in the The Fountain make up for any sins in my mind.
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Barbu
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 09 2005
Location: infinity
Status: Offline
Points: 30845
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Posted: July 18 2014 at 11:52 |
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Good one.
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Michael678
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 02 2013
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2466
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Posted: July 17 2014 at 18:28 |
KingCrInuYasha wrote:
I love it.
Also, am I the only one who loves "I Think I'm Going Bald"?
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nope! i think its great too!!
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Progrockdude
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waluigithewalrus
Forum Newbie
Joined: June 26 2014
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 12
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Posted: July 17 2014 at 16:09 |
I wound up picking up COS at my local record store after thinking it would probably be the last Rush album I would pick up only about an hour earlier. I don't regret it. It's one of my favorites, and I love every track, excepting I Think I'm Going Bald, but that's only liked by the two guys who commented in the thread about it 
At this point, Fountain of Lamneth is one of my favorite Rush songs.
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Blacksword
Prog Reviewer
Joined: June 22 2004
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 16130
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Posted: July 17 2014 at 14:00 |
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COS is in my top five Rush albums. It's flawed but has a very special and mysterious feel to it. Fountain of Lamneth is certainly one of fave prog epics.
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Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Ambient Hurricanes
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 25 2011
Location: internet
Status: Offline
Points: 2549
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Posted: July 17 2014 at 13:46 |
KingCrInuYasha wrote:
I love it.
Also, am I the only one who loves "I Think I'm Going Bald"?
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No you're not! Count me in. I think of CoS as Rush's "coming of age" album. 2112 was their big step into maturity, although the band didn't mature completely, as they themselves have acknowledged, until the Permanent Waves/Moving Pictures era. To continue the lifespan metaphor, the whole album, both musically and lyrically, is the work of a band in the metaphorical late high school stage of their lives, kind of like a smart kid who is doing smart things as he grows into adulthood but is still kind of a mess. The entire album is caught between the past and the future, filled with the angst of leaving home and entering adulthood, with excitement and fear, drive and nostalgia, rebel spirit and cries for help in conflict throughout the entire album. CoS is a quality album, somewhat immature but with flashes of brilliance. But its appeal is less in its aesthetics and more in its authenticity.
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I love dogs, I've always loved dogs
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ProgMetaller2112
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 08 2012
Location: Pacoima,CA,USA
Status: Offline
Points: 3145
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Posted: July 16 2014 at 00:56 |
Catcher10 wrote:
After buying FBN (cause the cover looked cool) in '75, I found myself wanting more By-Tor/Snowdog...Then later that year CoS came out and I was again in long song heaven. I spun those two albums back to back almost weekly...Considering I was only 11yrs old, my only thought was the music was bitchin' (I grew up in SoCal LOL!). Following the lyrics along as a kid I thought these guys were from Mars
That was of course the start of my life long fascination, love, respect for Rush.
I know there are some goofy songs on the album, but many bands had their "goofy" songs.
I think it is pretty amazing for a band that after releasing a debut album heavy with Zeppelin, The Who, Cream, Hendrix..the next two were deeply heavy with Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes and KC. I think that just set the tone for how they were going to approach their music going forward, not knowing it would still be going strong after 40yrs.
I like the album.. |
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“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
"Ignorance and Prejudice and Fear walk Hand in Hand"- Neil Peart
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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: July 02 2008
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 14256
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 20:45 |
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Great album. Not a masterpiece but still great.
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zappaholic
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 24 2006
Location: flyover country
Status: Offline
Points: 2822
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 17:11 |
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Not one of my faves - the production strikes me as kinda flat - but it has some great moments.
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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 11 2014
Location: Kyiv In Spirit
Status: Offline
Points: 20503
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 14:53 |
COS. Meh, ok.......  ........Now it's Fantastic! 
Edited by SteveG - July 17 2014 at 15:30
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Catcher10
Forum Senior Member
VIP Member
Joined: December 23 2009
Location: Emerald City
Status: Offline
Points: 17499
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 14:48 |
KingCrInuYasha wrote:
I love it. Also, am I the only one who loves "I Think I'm Going Bald"? |
Yes 
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rdtprog
Special Collaborator
Heavy, RPI, Symph, JR/F Canterbury Teams
Joined: April 04 2009
Location: Mtl, QC
Status: Online
Points: 5136
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 13:37 |
rushaholic wrote:
love the album - beginning of great things to come
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Yes, the beginning of the band experimenting with enhancing substances, how could it be bad...
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Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.
Emile M. Cioran
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KingCrInuYasha
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 26 2010
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1281
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 13:04 |
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I love it.
Also, am I the only one who loves "I Think I'm Going Bald"?
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He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!
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rushaholic
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 13 2005
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1138
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 12:56 |
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love the album - beginning of great things to come
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verslibre
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 01 2004
Location: CA
Status: Offline
Points: 15007
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 11:37 |
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"The Necromancer"..."The Fountain of Lamneth"..."Bastille Day"..."Lakeside Park"...the first "great" Rush album!
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Jeffro
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 29 2014
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 2038
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Posted: July 15 2014 at 09:59 |
Love Caress. Love it, love it, love it. Love it more than 2112 actually.
I think it was the second Rush album I bought. (Moving Pictures was first) I immediately liked the first three songs. It took a little longer to get into the rest of the album. The "rest of the album" is now my favorite.
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Rush - Caress of Steel
