Rush’s first side-long epic was 1975’s “The Fountain of Lamneth,” a 20-minute fantasy-adventure piece with a rambling narrative, uneven musical construction and randomly inserted drum solo.
It was undoubtedly a daring transfer on the time — earlier than Caress of Metal, Canada’s prog kings had largely trafficked in virtuoso onerous rock. However on reflection, it was solely a warm-up for the long-form journeys on 2112, A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres. In different phrases: For Rush, not all that bizarre!
Then once more, this band’s “regular” shifted considerably over the a long time — by the mid-’80s, Geddy Lee’s once-untamable shriek had largely mellowed, and it wasn’t uncommon for followers to come across reggae riffs (“Digital Man”), synth pads (principally every part from that interval) or Aimee Mann collaborations (“Time Stand Nonetheless”).
However sure moments stand out as uncommon for any Rush period, whether or not it is a head-scratching lyric or an association that might be psychological for any band.
10. “I Suppose I am Going Bald” (from 1975’s Caress of Metal)
The title alone makes the argument. Neil Peart wrote lyrics about grand topics — from youthful alienation to particular person freedom to the detachment that comes with fame. For this crunchy, pedestrian blues-rocker, he explored the horrors of dropping “a couple of extra hairs.” Peart sneaks in some depth towards the tip (“My life is slipping away / I’m growing old day-after-day / However even after I’m gray / I’ll nonetheless be gray my means”), however it stays deeply bizarre to listen to Lee yelp about male-pattern baldness.
9. “Pure Science” (from 1980’s Everlasting Waves)
One in every of Lee’s favourite Rush songs, “Pure Science” is structured into three distinct sections — in totality, a maze with some fascinating twists and turns. The reflective opener, “Tide Swimming pools,” sounds in contrast to anything of their catalog, with Lee’s mild vocal and Alex Lifeson’s strummed guitar illuminated by splashing water and pure echo from the mountains close to Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec. In the meantime, the rhythms of “Everlasting Waves” bounce gleefully in near-constant motion.
8. “Go away That Factor Alone” (from 1993’s Counterparts)
The weirdness is refined on this Counterparts banger, which earned Rush their third Grammy nomination for Greatest Rock Instrumental Efficiency. Lee and Peart weren’t complete strangers to funkiness and their rhythms listed below are deeply groovy — however they’re an odd match for the pulsing organ chords and Lifeson’s dramatic, squealing guitar solos.
7. “Pink Lenses” (from 1984’s Grace Beneath Stress)
Too disjointed to really feel like a correct epic however too intriguing to dismiss, “Pink Lenses” is a traditional “throw concepts in opposition to the wall and see what sticks” track. Peart aimed for a form of structured nonsense together with his lyrics, which trace at Chilly Battle paranoia, however they wind up simply sounding flimsy (“I see purple / And it hurts my head / Guess it should be one thing / That I learn”), whereas Lee’s overly affected, un-melodic supply dulls the supposed impact. Musically, “Pink Lenses” additionally hops everywhere: bluesy riffs, spooky synths, transient bursts of chanting and digital drumming.
6. “Tai Shan” (from 1987’s Maintain Your Hearth)
“You are imagined to be crappy whenever you make your first three or 4 data,” Lee advised Blender in 2009, “however even in our center interval, we did this track referred to as ‘Tai Shan’ utilizing a poem Neil wrote about climbing a mountain in China. Once I hearken to that, it is like, Bzzt. Error. We must always have identified higher.” The lyrics alone are abnormally tacky for Peart (“I stood on the high of the mountain / And China sang to me / Within the peaceable haze of harvest time / A track of eternity”), and the track’s try and mimic conventional Asian sounds is much more atypical: We actually might have accomplished with out Lifeson’s lute-like pentatonic plucking.
5. “Scars” (from 1989’s Presto)
Most Rush bass strains refuse to sit down nonetheless, constantly weaving in new melodic phrases and rhythmic feels. The repetitive groove in “Scars” does the other, nevertheless, repeating and repeating one thin-sounding lick by way of a sequencer. The drums, in the meantime, distinction in complexity — however not with Peart’s signature prog showmanship. His taking part in right here cleverly builds from an African rhythm, although anchored with a pounding kick drum that usually pushes the observe into dance-rock territory.
4. “The Necromancer” (from 1975’s Caress of Metal)
“As gray traces of daybreak tinge the jap sky / The three vacationers, males of Willowdale / Emerge from the forest shadow,” a deep, pitch-shifted voice intones. Similar to that, hundreds of teenage boys world wide turned on their black lights, sparked up joints and nestled into their beanbag chairs. That stoner-friendly narration provides a layer of overt weirdness to “The Necromancer,” a 12-minute fantasy epic that alternates considerably jarringly between sweetness and heaviness.
3. “Bravest Face” (from 2007’s Snakes & Arrows)
Peart was instantly struck by the melancholy “Bravest Face,” which provides a spin on the Twenty first-century Rush vibe with uneasy falsetto leaps, soulful vocal vibrato and jazz-blues vibes in the course of the guitar solo. “I used to be particularly excited by how completely different [it was] from something we had accomplished earlier than,” Peart later wrote. He described the track as “contemporary and very important, but rooted in some deeper musical streams.”
2. “Double Agent” (from 1993’s Counterparts)
“We had been dropping our minds, is what we had been doing!” Lee as soon as stated, whereas describing Rush’s mindset for this “full train in self-indulgence.” He stated “we simply wished to form of get our yah-yahs out and simply have a little bit of a rave. And actually, it is one of many goofiest songs I believe we have ever written.” After a reasonably typical intro, the observe erupts into rabid funk-metal riffs and noir-tinted spoken-word poetry — probably the most uncommon combos in the complete Rush catalog.
1. “Roll the Bones” (from 1991’s Roll the Bones)
Extra generally generally known as “the one the place Geddy raps.” Nothing else is that noteworthy about “Roll the Bones”: There’s some not often utilized organ, and Peart does assault his package with a funk-metal depth. However all roads result in Lee’s mercilessly mocked try at spitting bars. Even with the low pitch-shifting, no musician has ever sounded extra uncomfortable utilizing the phrase “homeboy,” and … properly, then there’s this: “Jack, chill out / Get busy with the information / No zodiacs or almanacs / No maniacs in polyester slacks / Simply the information / Gonna kick some gluteus max.”
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