MOVING PICTURES

I was 18 when I witnessed my first Rush gig, it was at the known Dutch Pinkpop Festival in '79. I was not only impressed by the great music from Rush but also the amount of Rush die-hards that joined Rush during their first European tour. Soon I became a Rush die- hard, my favorite Rush album (painful choice, like you have to say who's your favorite child .. or does this sound too emotional?!) is "Moving Pictures" because it contains seven excellent songs, so varied and alternating, in my opinion this was Rush at their creative peak. "Tom Sawyer" and " Red Barchetta" are powerful and catchy 'power-sympho' songs with the touch of class of a timeless rock classic like "Black Night" from Deep Purple. "YYZ" is an incredible composition, perhaps the best Rush ever composed, what an exciting and virtuosic climate, the interplay between the three musicians is breathtaking. "Limelight" has one of the most moving soli from Alex Lifeson, "The Camera Eye" shows the great ideas from Rush to sound symphonic, "Witch Hunt" is a mindblowing effort to create an ominous sound that evokes a real witch hunt and "Vital Signs" prooves that Neil Peart is one of the best drummers. For me this was the last 'true-progressive' studio-album from Rush, from "Signals" they mixed every album more trendy elements. This unsatisfying visiont led to my desision to stop buying Rush records from the album "Presto" but I still visit the concerts because Rush wants to please all their fans, mr. Collins!