Even with Yes?

I totally agree. Nine times out of ten prog vocals totally turn me off to the music.

I guess you have to be a nerd like me to enjoy complicated lyrics with complicated meaning?

I'm a nerd too.

and I've been known to understand complicated things from time to time...

I'm just not crazy about the style of most prog vocals. It has nothing to do with whether they're "complicated" or not and it has nothing to do with the lyrics.

Three of the most incredible musicians of all time in one band!

what don't you like about them?

YES!! I think Alex is the most underapreciated of them, Niel gets all the fame he deserves I think. But Lifeson is definitely one of my favorite guitarists ever, 'La Villa Strangiato' is my favorite song ever for the guitar. He has more technical skill than most guitarists, but what makes him one of my favorite is that he focuses on creativity rather than showing off his technique whenever he can. It's why Rush has the best guitar solos IMO, because they always fit perfectly and no two are even similar.

oh, and like I said before Geddy is my favorite rock vocalist.. so.. plus his base playing is epic as well.. and keyboard.. and both at once.. ya he's just too good

To be honest, Lifeson isn't really that amazing in his technique. However, I really appreciate his music because he is a tasteful guitarist. He pulls off some very creative and original work without simply "shredding". I'd dake him over an Yngwie Malmsteen or a Tom Morello any day, simply because he knows how to play many varieties, and he can change his stylistic approach nearly from year to year, while someone like Malmsteen has been releasing what seems to me like the same album over and over again for the past 20 years. Lifeson also knows when and how to restrain himself. The solos from Red Barchetta and Heresy are great examples of instances where he simply holds back rather than exploding into a technically-amazing but tonally-tired solo. Yet on the same token, he really knows how to rock the hell out. Look at The Analog Kid or Circumstances. There, he really seems to "blow a fuse" without surrendering any of his originality. GO ALEX!!!

One of the reasons RUSH stands out to me is because their lyrics actually have some contiguity. Peart is incredibly poetic and ideological, and his lyrics have grown on me. Unlike the psychedelic-infused musings of Yes and King Crimson or the whimsical fairy tales of Octopus and Genesis, Rush lyrics actually MEAN SOMETHING. Whether he's discussing objectivist philosophy (Anthem and 2112), giving us a history lesson (Bastille Day, Closer to the Heart and Heresy), describing his own personal experiences (Secret Touch, Entre Nous and Limelight), painting an atmospheric mural of a situation or story (Red Barchetta, Jacob's Ladder and Dreamline), inventing a surrealistic scenario as an allegory for our society (By-Tor and the Snow Dog and The Trees), or advising us to be ourselves and march to the beat of our own drummer (Roll the Bones and Stick it Out), Peart always brings something insightful, and often ingenious, to the table

I haven't posted in this thread since July of last year....

...but yesterday while in the lab I heard again on the radio my favorite Rush song, "The Spirit of Radio," and I want to write about it with reference to what some of the rest of you have said about their lyrics and sound.

After hearing the song yesterday, I decided finally to read the lyrics to learn what the song is about, because the song gives me such a feeling of a happy rush that I have always just made up my own meaning for the lyrics without considering what Rush actually intended!

While reading about "The Spirit of Radio," I learned that I'm not alone in liking it: "It remains their biggest UK hit to date. 'The Spirit of Radio' was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Radio

The lyrics made me see that they are about our freedom to be stirred and reached by music without needing to fork out a lot of money to enjoy it. I actually hadn't realized this literal meaning, because I always thought the song was a relationship song...but maybe it really is, since hearing someone's song *is* like hearing that person's "spirit" or sense of self singing out.

Now that I've read the lyrics, I enjoy them for their cleverness. They make a song about music on the radio sound sumptuous and poetic.

My favorite stanzas are the first three, which *could* be about a person rather than a song on a radio. I also especially like certain other lines that I have placed in bold, below. And I like that the final lines in the song play off Simon and Garfunkel classic "The Sound of Silence": "...the words of the prophets/Are written on the subway walls/And tenement halls/And whispered in the sounds of silence." That is clever, and I didn't realize until today that Rush were being clever in this way.

While writing all this, I enjoyed listening to the song because I am watching the growing pink glow of an Iowan sunrise, beginning *my* day in much the same way as is described in the song...

I agree with Hitting_Singularity, who says:

I also agree with jastrub, although I haven't listened to all the songs mentioned in this post but would like to:

Like I wrote earlier, though, I never actually *listened* to the meaning behind "The Spirit of Radio" until today, because I just like the music so much. It is a song that inspires a lab dance. And no, I didn't mean "lap dance," though maybe it could! ;)

I meant that when I hear this song while working in the lab, I just have to stop what I'm doing and dance and sing around the lab, as all serious scientists do, I imagine, when the right song comes on the radio. :)

I love the energy in the song, the drums, the solid feel, the tempo changes, the way it builds up (say at 0.28 in the song posted below) to little climaxes and changes. My favorite part of the song begins around 1:50 as it leads up to "it's just a question of your honesty, your honesty." Somehow that feels very profound to me!

I've never thought of this as one of my favorite songs, but I like to listen to it more than once, and it has so much stuffed into it (tempo changes, interesting lyrics and concepts, nice melody, lovely instrumentals that can be beautiful, I feel, yet also have a nice grungy feel) that maybe the song actually *is* one of my favorites:

The Spirit of Radio:

YouTube - Rush- Spirit Of The Radio

Great post, Vegangelica! It's a brilliant song and I've missed your wall-of-text posts just a little bit :p:

I do this, sorta. I certainly sing along at least. If my little bugs and spiders weren't dead, they'd be listening to a lot of private concerts! But I make sure I'm the only one present in the room before I do. If I'm not alone, I turn down the music I listen to until I can barely hear it as I worry that I'm bothering other people .. :(

Nothing I can put a finger on specifically, I just find a lot of prog vocals don't do it for me. Some of them don't bother me much, like Rush or King Crimson, but in the case of someone like Yes or Samla Mamma Manna they just really grate on my nerves.

its sad that they are as popular as they are.

Rush?

no offense, but go die in a hole

F*cking Tool fans.

lol! that was actually a coincidence, I don't listen to Tool

I went with 2112!

Back around 77 I was at this warehouse record sale. They had 45's 4 for a dollar & I picked up a bunch & one was Temples of Syrinx. I never heard Rush before but I was blown away by that 2 minute song. Iwas telling my friend about the tune & he explained the 2112 album so I rushed out & bought the record & became a fan

I was referring to the other guy, undertow.

Considering his avatar and SN are both Tool related I put 2 and 2 together and took a shot. Looks like I missed pretty badly...

Little did you know that it was just a mere 2 minutes of a much more epic track. How exciting.

I remember finding a swap meet with a bunch of old Rush records a few years back. I was able to get Grace Under Pressure and Moving Pictures for next to nothing.

Ah, now it all makes sense, you were on my side.

Still a funny coincidence lol

Yep, Tool are probably the most overrated band that ever existed, not even in the same league as Rush.

I love rush by tor and the snowdog bitch!

they are an east coast fad. i'm from wCanada and rock music fans i know cant stand rush. t.o,boston,buffalo.

Rush has been around for over 40 years. Like them or not, they clearly aren't a fad.

I know plenty of people from the west coast that like Rush, what songs have you even heard that you hate them so much undertow?

I just bought the 2112 and Moving Pictures Remasters CDs, I already had Moving Pictures. Now I just need A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres to complete my golden era Rush collection.

Ever since I started ripping my CDs to lossless I can't stand mp3 compression, plus most of my Rush was in 192kb/s so even worse.

Why do you think geographics would have anything to do with it?

And how is Toronto on the east coast anyway?

It kind of is. It is connected to the Atlantic by water.

It sits adjacent to Buffalo, NY doesn't it? I would consider that East Coast.

Buffalo is about 500 miles from the coast and Toronto is directly across the American border from Buffalo. Toronto is inland, but I'd definitely consider it an East coast city.

Despite what its considered, what does Rush and the east coast have to do with it anyway......whats the connection between Rush and the east coast of Canada or USA musically? Undertow says he/she is from the west coast of Canada............isn`t that where Nickelback is from?:laughing:

It's about as far from the ocean as Tucson, Arizona. Would you consider Tucson a west coast city?

BUUUURN!!! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Rush is from Toronto, and they were first played on the radio in Cleavland, so I see how someone who doesn't know very much about them might think that maybe they had a big following on..

screw it, too much of a stretch. You would have to be tres ignant to think that.

There are no good surfing spots in Tuscon.

Rush is insanely popular worldwide, I don't even know why this conversation is taking place. I've encountered copious amounts of hardcore Rush fans in just about every place I've ever been.

They're not some regionally famous bar band or something, it's fucking Rush!

Or in Toronto. ;)

Heh. I agree. Not only are they hugely internationally famous, but they've been that way for decades.

hey, I dunno if you guys think this as well, but everyone I have come across who doesn't like Rush has only heard a limited extent of their catalog. For example my parents both didn't like Rush, then I played Permanent Waves for my mom and now she likes them.

It proves how good they are even if this is mostly true.

Yes, its always from people who have heard 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Spirit of Radio' a handful of times and have made the determination they don't like the band based on that alone. More often than not, irritability for Geddy's voice gets cited as the reason more often than not, which I can underastand, it's an acquired taste. But still, the same people saying this are the same people who either can't, or choose not to listen to music beyond the vocals, which isn't really Rush's target market in the first place.

The thing is there is nothing really North American about Rush anyway! Being from the UK, I tend to think of American bands as sounding East coast, West coast, Midwest or Southern. This is a generalization I know, but it does hold true for a lot of bands given the sheer size of the USA.

In the case of Rush though, most of their influences are British and their early hard rock stuff certainly had Led Zeppelin and Cream influences. Their prog sound is distinctly Yes influenced, so in essence the group is actually very British. They really didn`t sound North American until their 80`s power pop phase.

Rush is Canadian
 

You obviously don't know about Canadians!

Think of us as 40% American, 60% British

and FYI we get angry when you group us in with Americans

Why not just think of you as 100% Canadian?

Sounds like an identity crisis here!