I just listened to rush for the very first time.

ras1983 · #1 10-01-2005, 10:24 AM

Holy cow, they are awesome. just listened to YYZ, and Tom Sawyer and i think a track called summertime blues??

Man, these guys rocked, geddy rocked. he's right up there with the Ox in my books now.

SomecallmeTim · #2 10-01-2005, 10:34 AM

Good for you.

Keep listening. Rush has tons of amazing material, especially for the bass oriented listener. You can pick up a compilation and work your way into their catalogue from there.

Enjoy.

Matt Till · #3 10-01-2005, 10:35 AM

Summertime Blues is a cover of an old blues song, Rush did an entire album of old bluesy rock covers.

When venturing into the world of Rush... avoid the 80s. At least at first... Moving Pictures (the album) contains "Tom Sawyer" and "YYZ" ... I'd say it's a good starting point. But I'd head backwards from there.

mwm70 · #4 10-01-2005, 10:54 AM

Im pretty sure the original post was a goof.

Jonki · #5 10-01-2005, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ras1983

Holy cow, they are awesome. just listened to YYZ, and Tom Sawyer and i think a track called summertime blues??

Man, these guys rocked, geddy rocked. he's right up there with the Ox in my books now.

welcome to the world of Rush.

im a big fan myself!

Geezerman · #6 10-01-2005, 01:20 PM

Very cool, rush is great band, like someone said, stay away from the 80's.

The Antipop · #7 10-01-2005, 02:07 PM

and people say "Blame Canada"

Gard · #8 10-01-2005, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geezerman

Very cool, rush is great band, like someone said, stay away from the 80's.

Either there's something wrong with me, or y'all are missin' something, because some of my favorite material is from the 80's records...

I'm particularly fond of "Grace Under Pressure", "Hold Your Fire", and "Presto".

Matt Till · #9 10-01-2005, 03:28 PM

"Roll the bones" makes me vomit blood... "Power Windows"... well, I'd rather listen to fingernails on a chalkboard during a Kenny G concert than listen to that album all the way through ever again. Yuck.

Jonki · #10 10-01-2005, 03:47 PM

i like all the Rush eras.

but one song that really takes me is Prime Mover

"everything could happen...."

Slater · #11 10-01-2005, 04:14 PM

I would totally disregard the "Avoid the '80s" comments!

1980 - Permanent Waves - A great album! my personal favorite Rush album

1981 - Moving Pictures - Probably thee most popular Rush album

1981 - Exit Stage Left - Awesome live album

1982 - Signals - The album is worth having for the bassline on New World Man alone

1984 - Grace Under Pressure - Not the most popular album, but contains great songs like - Distant Early Warning, Red Sector A, The Enemy Within

Matt Till · #12 10-01-2005, 04:23 PM

When I think 80s Rush, I think late 80s Rush. Actually including early 90s. But I don't know... I guess I hate the cheesy synth tones and the lyrics seemed to get pretty weak.

**Blackbird** · #13 10-01-2005, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Summertime Blues is a cover of an old blues song,[...]

Actually, Summertime Blues is a rock song from the 50's and was a hit for Eddie Cochrane. IIRC, Brian Setzer recorded a cover of the tune for the La Bamba movie soundtrack.

Welcome to the world of Rush. Check out "Fly by Night", (my current avatar) and "Hemispheres".

Snarf · #14 10-01-2005, 05:40 PM

Disregard the "Avoid the 80's" jibes. Any music is worth hearing at least once. And in my case, the period of 82-89 for Rush was worth hearing a whole hell of a lot more than the earlier stuff. Also add Counterparts into that, probably their strongest album in terms of continuity.

ras1983 · #15 10-01-2005, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwm70

Im pretty sure the original post was a goof.

Actually it wasn't. I decided to listen to them, since everyone i know kept telling me how incredible they were. I'll tell you right now that geddy has some pretty mean chops for a rock bassist.

christle · #16 10-01-2005, 08:54 PM

They are probably the only band I have listened to continously since the 70's. Tonnes of great material with plenty of variety. As was suggested earlier, start with one of the compilations and work you way through it and on to their other material. You will learn lots by just listening.

Alvaro Martín Gómez A. · #17 10-03-2005, 12:09 AM

I'm another 70's-early 80's Rush fan. Here are my favorite tunes:

- "Finding My Way" and "Working Man" from their debut album (1974).
- "Fly By Night" and "Anthem" from "Fly By Night" (1975).
- "Bastille Day" from "Caress Of Steel" (1975).
- "2112" from the album of the same name (1976).
- "La Villa Strangiato" from "Hemispheres (1978). Although I already listened to other Rush stuff before, this is the piece that really turned me into them. To me it's simply an exquisite, flawlessly conceived piece of progressive rock. I can easily put it in the first place of the tunes I'd take with me to a desert island.
- "Freewill" from "Permanent Waves" (1980). I was never impressed by "Freewill" as a song, but now that I'm learning it for an upcoming concert I only can say "Wow!". I've played lots of Rush material and I can say that this is one of their hardest tunes to learn ("YYZ" may be very difficult, but only from the technical point of view. Considering it as a whole, I think "Freewill" is even harder).
-"Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight" from "Moving Pictures" (1981). The bass growl in this album still gives me chills.
- "The Spirit Of Radio" and "YYZ" from "Exit... Stage Left" (1981). The first one came originally in "Permanent Waves" and the second in "Moving Pictures" but I like these live versions better. I also like the "Different Stages" version of "YYZ" with the "Cygnus X-1" bit and the mess they made on the fast run before the main theme. Very honest from them!
- "The Analog Kid" from "Signals" (1982)
- "Driven" and "Leave That Thing Alone" from "Different Stages" (1998). "Driven" appeared originally in "Test For Echo" (1996) and "Leave That Thing Alone" is from "Counterparts" (1993), but again, I prefer these live versions.
-ANY drum solo. Neil Peart is one of the drummers (if not THE drummer) I admire the most. Many people can say that his solos are based on the same material all the time, but anyway, they're pretty enjoyable no matter how many times you listen to him playing his agogos or his MIDI marimba.

And last but not least, don't miss the "Rush In Rio" DVD. Truly awesome.

About Geddy's bass tone, I must say that his trademark sound is great in the whole Rush output, but I think his most refined moment can be found in the "Power Windows" album (That was his Wal, right?). Again, I'm not a fan of that "forefront keyboards" Rush era, but I listen to "Power Windows" because of the excellent bass sound.

keb · #18 10-03-2005, 06:41 AM

The mid-late 80's Rush isn't bad... and it's weird, whenever I think "80's Rush" in loose general terms I think of just three studio albums out of the seven studio albums that were technically released in the '80s: Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, and Hold Your Fire... probably because that's when they really went into synth overdrive.

My favorite periods are the early 80's (which seems to be everyone's favorite period) and the 90's from Counterparts on. And then there's the Presto album (89), which is one of my favorites.

buzzbass · #19 10-03-2005, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

"Roll the bones" makes me vomit blood... "Power Windows"... well, I'd rather listen to fingernails on a chalkboard during a Kenny G concert than listen to that album all the way through ever again. Yuck.

I concur, Moving Pictures was their last good record. I don't really care much for anything after that.

bigbeefdog · #20 10-03-2005, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gard

Either there's something wrong with me, or y'all are missin' something, because some of my favorite material is from the 80's records...

I'm particularly fond of "Grace Under Pressure", "Hold Your Fire", and "Presto".

Couldn't agree more.

I still remember the big inflatable bunnies from the "Presto" tour.... if you looked real hard, you could see the stage crew straining to bounce the "hats" back and forth, so it looked like the bunnies were jammin'.....

Oh yeah.... the music was terrific, too......