I could have been a massive Rush fan. I had tickets to see them on one of their first headlining tours during my formative years but the Blizzard of 78 snowed me in. I often wonder if I had seen them live, would I have reacted differently to them.
I have nothing but love and respect for the guys and their talent but I lost interest from Hemispheres on. The song Tom Sawyer did nothing for me. I was never much for prog and it seemed they were heading more in that direction.
That said, I did listen to the live album and 2112 often and the followup to the live album contained my favorite Rush song, Closer To The Heart which I included as a bonus encore song. Enjoy.
01 Bastille Day
02 Anthem
03 Fly By Night
04 In The Mood
05 Something For Nothing
06 Lakeside Park
07 2112
08 By-Tor & The Snow Dog
09 In The End
10 Working Man
11 Finding My Way
12 What You're Doing
13 Closer To The Heart
Reality Notes
For me Rush suffered the fate of most of the popular bands of the mid 70s. I had just entered my unhappy, anti-radio, folky/glam rock phase and anything I wasn't already emotionally attached to went by the wayside. It wasn't until the mid 80s that I opened myself up and discovered a new appreciation for artists like Prince and Elvis Costello though I never really re-warmed up to many of those mid 70s bands I shunned back then. Mostly I discovered a lot of artists that I never gave a fair chance to back in my snobby phase.
This collection can be seen as a roadmap of Rush's journey from young upstarts to established mega stars. Every studio album before the live album is represented. The band had a unique sound that they honed and developed over the years which for me culminated with the A Farewell To Kings album. After that they seemed repetitive to me but that observation comes from someone who hasn't really listened to much after that anyway so take that with a grain of salt.
I modified the original cover a bit using the pic from the back of the 2112 album.
You didn't call this All The World's Not A Stage? :)
ReplyDeleteI thought of that but it seemed too obvious and it didn't really make sense to me. And as long as they had "Recorded Live" on the cover, I felt that it would be better/easier to alter that instead. Also, who am I to argue with Shakespeare?
DeleteI was a huge Rush fan my junior and senior years of high school. But by my sophomore year in college I'd lost interest. Ah, the restless dreams of youth....
ReplyDelete