Make your own Rush album!

The camera eye
2112 (ATWAS).
Xanadu
Cygnus x1 book1
Manhatten Project
Subdivisions
Bastille Day
A passage to bankok

Cristi wrote: Xanadu  La Villa Strangiato Jacob's Ladder Camera Eye Subdivisions Afterimage Marathon Show Don't Tell man, this was hard, tomorrow I could make a totally different list...

1. Working Man (Rush)

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - February 08 2020 at 09:16

Fischman wrote: patrickq wrote: BaldJean wrote: I consider Rush to be epigones, and they definitely don't hit a nerve with me. I personally think that the Randian views of Neil Peart reflect in the music of Rush. but I respect your opinion. if you like Rush, fine with me. but I equally have the right not to like them Peart definitely toned down the Objectivism over time. But the libertarian streak was still there at least through the 1990s. I disagree with those who characterize the earlier Peart lyrics as fascist, but I also disagree with the apologists who insist that any political stance in his lyrics is (incorrectly) inferred by critics. I see Peart’s mid-1970s lyrics as reflecting a very intelligent but impressionable young man. By the mid-1980s he was more of a skeptic. But I always felt like he was stating or explaining his (or Rand’s) opinions rather than preaching them. So literally, his lyrics are often pedantic, and often clumsy. 2112 is as anti-fascist as it gets. Even one who finds it clumsy or pedantic must admit it's a serious rebellion against a centrally controlled, oppressive regime. I've heard a lot of negative criticism if Peart's lyrics through the years, but I never heard it called fascist.

Critics who referred to Rush as fascist, based on their lyrical content, didn't understand the definition of fascism, in the same way so many Americans don't know what socialism is, and actually believe Europe is communist. I don't know what they teach kids in High School in the US, but it needs looking at.

There were some extreme left wing music hacks in the UK in the late 70's, who took exception to Peart's Ayn Rand fixation, and accused him of fascism, but I've been listening to Rush for almost 40 years, and I've yet to come across any veneration or advocacy of anything remotely fascist. The polar opposite in fact.

1. YYZ

Fischman wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Rush like every band on the planet(including the Beatles)were hit or miss. Some bands are more hit and less miss but it's impossible for any band to have every song be perfect. That said I believe Rush had a better track record than most and I would even dare say they had a better track record than any band I like(which includes Yes, Genesis, KC, PF, etc). The only band they might not beat is the aforementioned Beatles. Aside from that taste is subjective and everyone has a different taste in music. I got into Rush at around the same time I started to get into Yes, Genesis etc. My brother's best friend was into them and I already was familiar with them having been a big radio listener but also already had "signals" on cassette. Music is something you relate to. I related to them on a deeper level and found their music intriguing(lyrically and musically)and still do. Not many rock bands(and not even all prog bands)strive to be more and give something beyond what others give to their audience. In the case of Rush it was a combination of power, bombast and intelligence that somehow worked. No other bands really did what they did they way they did it. A few kind of come close in some ways(Boston, Styx, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin)but non were really doing it in such a cerebral and emotional way at the same time imo. Bingo. Of course, lack of emotion and too much cerebralness is the oft quoted condemnation of Rush.  For those folks, I think their 'Emotion Detector' is faulty

Yeah, I never understood why people felt their music to be cold and unemotional. The moment The Spirit of Radio fired up on Exit Stage..Left (the first Rush album I heard) It sounded like some of the most heartfelt music I'd ever heard.

Jaketejas wrote: Good post FKC. There are great messages in songs like Different Strings, Entre Nous, Losing It, Subdivisions, Manhattan Project, and others. Definitely in sharp contrast to other songs on the radio at the time, like Cherry Pie by Warrant but to each their own.

Good post FKC. There are great messages in songs like Different Strings, Entre Nous, Losing It, Subdivisions, Manhattan Project, and others. Definitely in sharp contrast to other songs on the radio at the time, like Cherry Pie by Warrant but to each their own.

Not trying to be dismissive, but I have never found Rush that cerebral (but perhaps I'm just not enough of an intellectual to get it).

Rush like every band on the planet(including the Beatles)were hit or miss. Some bands are more hit and less miss but it's impossible for any band to have every song be perfect. That said I believe Rush had a better track record than most and I would even dare say they had a better track record than any band I like(which includes Yes, Genesis, KC, PF, etc). The only band they might not beat is the aforementioned Beatles. Aside from that taste is subjective and everyone has a different taste in music. I got into Rush at around the same time I started to get into Yes, Genesis etc. My brother's best friend was into them and I already was familiar with them having been a big radio listener but also already had "signals" on cassette. Music is something you relate to. I related to them on a deeper level and found their music intriguing(lyrically and musically)and still do. Not many rock bands(and not even all prog bands)strive to be more and give something beyond what others give to their audience. In the case of Rush it was a combination of power, bombast and intelligence that somehow worked. No other bands really did what they did they way they did it. A few kind of come close in some ways(Boston, Styx, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin)but non were really doing it in such a cerebral and emotional way at the same time imo.