Rush Fan Central

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: progbethyname wrote: The.Crimson.King wrote: progbethyname wrote:  Nice. I love how the spirit of Rush lives in your car. Actually, just recently a very good friend of mine had a birthday and I gave him a copy of MOVING PICTURES, so he could have a nice road trips in his car. I told him that the real gems on the moving pictures album is The Camera Eye, Vital Signs and Witch Hunt. He has never heard those songs before! Gotta spread the prog love. :) Witch Hunt is one of my fave Rush songs...especially lyrically... "They say there is strangeness to danger us in our theater and bookstore shelves. Those who know what's best for us must rise and save us from ourselves." Thanks Neil  'features distorted in the flickering light, faces are grim and Grotesque!' Let's thank Neil together. Moving Pictures in general is one of his best albums lyrically.  Limelight is a great piece of poetry.

Right you are Sargent Hurricanes! You are living on the lighted stage of prog my friend. :)

progbethyname wrote: Yup. Open secrets and Tai Shan are so underrated. Beautiful songs. :)

Tai Shan... can't get behind it. Your opinion is incorrect!

The.Crimson.King wrote: Ambient Hurricanes wrote: progbethyname wrote: The.Crimson.King wrote: progbethyname wrote:  Nice. I love how the spirit of Rush lives in your car. Actually, just recently a very good friend of mine had a birthday and I gave him a copy of MOVING PICTURES, so he could have a nice road trips in his car. I told him that the real gems on the moving pictures album is The Camera Eye, Vital Signs and Witch Hunt. He has never heard those songs before! Gotta spread the prog love. :) Witch Hunt is one of my fave Rush songs...especially lyrically... "They say there is strangeness to danger us in our theater and bookstore shelves. Those who know what's best for us must rise and save us from ourselves." Thanks Neil  'features distorted in the flickering light, faces are grim and Grotesque!' Let's thank Neil together. Moving Pictures in general is one of his best albums lyrically.  Limelight is a great piece of poetry. I remember when Moving Pictures came out I was taking my college English Lit class.  We were analyzing a poem from the great e e cummings called "into the night sky the city shuffles murdering dreams" (or something) and I'll always connect that poem with Neil's lyrics to The Camera Eye.

'THE FOCUS IS SHARP IN THE CITY!!' you know what else is sharp, other than your mind of course, is Neil's drumming. ;)

Camera Eye talks about the varsity streets of Westminster a bit. I remember that and poses a theme where reality is a possible outcome when peering through the Camera Eye. Getting a true sense of the landscape if you will. :)

Permanent Waves is my favorite by Rush and worship the album's influence on me. Lyrically i find it to be their best. 

Speaking of lyrics, I was just reading through the CA lyrics for the first time in a while and all I can think is - oh my gosh, what has happened to Neil Peart?  You would think that, with forty years of experience writing lyrics, he would be able to come up with something that didn't rhyme "love with above" or use the same silly metaphors that seventh-grade aspiring writers use in poetry class.  I mean, I don't really expect lyrics to be great poetry but come on, you can at least try to come up with something original and not as clunky and clumsy as the lyrics to CA.  Gone are the insightful musings on human nature, replaced with a dumb rehashing of some topics that he exhausted a long time ago and banal philosophy (philosophy was never a strong suit of Peart's) that is just a lame rehashing of previously existing philosophy that wasn't very good in the first place.  He seems incapable of writing any words that have more than two syllables, too. 

Come on, I miss the Neil who gave us insightful material like Time Stand Still, Limelight, Distant Early Warning, Open Secrets, Red Sector A, Entre Nous, Cold Fire, Animate, Bravado, Secret Touch, Earthshine...all those great lyrics that really said something about what it means to be human and to be in relationship with other people, besides being good pieces of poetry from a writing standpoint.  It really seems like he's trying too hard.  The same thing happened on some of the songs on S&A. Good News First?  Bravest Face?  Please.  "Faithless" is so hypocritical it's almost funny.  I love Rush but I wish Neil would leave his current lyrical style behind.  It really seems like he's at his best when he explores psychology, the nature of relationships, and human response to hardship instead of trying to make philosophical statements that come across as sophomoric and annoying. 

Sorry for the negative rant, guys, just gotta let off some steam...

I agree, I just his performance wouldn't keep declining.  We need a Miguel Cabrera Neil, not an Albert Pujols Neil 

I actually Iike the ITIGB lyrics.   I feel Iike they're supposed to be tongue-in-cheek and it works like that.  I see Caress of Steel as Rush's "coming-of-age" album and ITIGB is a humorous play on that theme.

Except that's not what he's trying to say (there's no indication the protagonist has a family), I think he's pretty obviously trying to make a philosophical statement, and it really, really doesn't work.

Good artists are able to make a point with their art without resorting to an obvious "and here is the message you need to take from this" part at the end.  When Neil did this in "Hemispheres", at least it was bearable because the philosophy made sense.  I wish he would write more lyrics like "The Larger Bowl," ask profound questions but don't try to give answers, because he really doesn't have any.  I mean, think about S&A, where the album bashes religion the whole time and then closes with "We Hold On," a little tidbit of watered-down existentialism that takes everything that's worst about existentialism and posits it as an alternative to the strawman worldview he's just taken out.  Same thing happens in CA.

Yes, I know.  I might be late to the party, but at least I'm agreeing with you!

Although I can't speak about the musical part, I'm very ignorant about drums, but I love the English language and the CA lyrics don't do it justice.

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: Except that's not what he's trying to say (there's no indication the protagonist has a family), I think he's pretty obviously trying to make a philosophical statement, and it really, really doesn't work. Good artists are able to make a point with their art without resorting to an obvious "and here is the message you need to take from this" part at the end.  When Neil did this in "Hemispheres", at least it was bearable because the philosophy made sense.  I wish he would write more lyrics like "The Larger Bowl," ask profound questions but don't try to give answers, because he really doesn't have any.  I mean, think about S&A, where the album bashes religion the whole time and then closes with "We Hold On," a little tidbit of watered-down existentialism that takes everything that's worst about existentialism and posits it as an alternative to the strawman worldview he's just taken out.  Same thing happens in CA.

Horizons wrote: Permanent Waves is my favorite by Rush and worship the album's influence on me. Lyrically i find it to be their best.  Entre Nous speaks wonders.

You and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins would see eye to eye on that one.