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CKnoxW 
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 Topic: Guitar in 80s Rush
Posted: April 10 2014 at 09:38 |
 King Lerxst wrote:
CKnoxW wrote:
Hold Your Fire has some real stinkers, but I think Turn The Page is a complete gem.
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Bite your tongue, every song on HYF is excellent. |
"And China sang to meeeeeeeee"
We can agree to disagree. 
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King Lerxst
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Posted: April 09 2014 at 18:05 |
CKnoxW wrote:
Hold Your Fire has some real stinkers, but I think Turn The Page is a complete gem.
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Bite your tongue, every song on HYF is excellent.
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CKnoxW
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Posted: August 22 2013 at 00:26 |
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^ Yes! Someone agrees with me about Counterparts! Happy day
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King Lerxst
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Posted: August 21 2013 at 13:15 |
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So called "uneven" Rush albums would include Counterparts and Test For Echo. However Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, Grace Under Pressure and Presto are some of their best...at least to me. Vapor Trails though...nice try but misses the mark.
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verslibre
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Posted: August 18 2013 at 00:11 |
Ambient Hurricanes wrote:
Yeah, I don't think there's a bad song in the bunch. Second Nature and Tai Shan are a bit weaker imo, but still good songs.
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Yeah, it's an uneven album but not "bad" by any means.
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thellama73
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Posted: August 18 2013 at 00:02 |
Horizons wrote:
The whole album is great. One of Rush's best. |
I'll have to give it another listen, then. :)
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Ambient Hurricanes
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Posted: August 18 2013 at 00:00 |
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Yeah, I don't think there's a bad song in the bunch. Second Nature and Tai Shan are a bit weaker imo, but still good songs.
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Horizons
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Posted: August 17 2013 at 23:57 |
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The whole album is great. One of Rush's best.
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CKnoxW
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Posted: August 17 2013 at 23:48 |
thellama73 wrote:
Ambient Hurricanes wrote:
I was just listening to Grace Under Pressure today, and I got to thinking that the classification of Rush's work from 1982's Signals to 1987's Hold Your Fire as the "synthesizer period" is a real myth. Just about every description you hear of that era describes it as "synthesizer dominated," "drowning in keyboards" or something of the sort, trying to tell us that the guitar was pushed to the background as the keyboards came to define the sound of the music and take the lead in almost every song. This has never made any sense to me. Sure, Alex Lifeson had to share the spotlight with some keyboards, but for the most part, the synthesizers were confined to the rhythm section, playing chords, ostinatos, and atmospheric parts. They emerged into the lead from time to time but Alex still got all the solos and played some brilliant rhythm parts and arpeggios, working with the keys in a masterful way. If anything, this period was his most tasteful, where his parts might have been a little more sparse, but added to the music that much more, not to mention that he shredded on his solos as much as ever. Does anyone else think this? I think the 80's contained some of Lifeson's best guitar work, and some of Rush's best material overall. |
In the liner notes to the Benefit remaster, Ian Anderson comments on how the arrival of John Evan on keyboards allowed Martin Barre to stretch out and be more creative, not having to worry so much about banging out chords in the rhythm section. I think it's fair to say that a similar thing happened with Lifeson in the 80s. Although their 70s albums are still my favorites, I've always felt Rush's 80s material is unfairly maligned. With the exception of Hold Your Fire, which I have not been able to get into, every album from that period is great.
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Hold Your Fire has some real stinkers, but I think Turn The Page is a complete gem.
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thellama73
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Posted: August 17 2013 at 21:09 |
Ambient Hurricanes wrote:
I was just listening to Grace Under Pressure today, and I got to thinking that the classification of Rush's work from 1982's Signals to 1987's Hold Your Fire as the "synthesizer period" is a real myth. Just about every description you hear of that era describes it as "synthesizer dominated," "drowning in keyboards" or something of the sort, trying to tell us that the guitar was pushed to the background as the keyboards came to define the sound of the music and take the lead in almost every song. This has never made any sense to me. Sure, Alex Lifeson had to share the spotlight with some keyboards, but for the most part, the synthesizers were confined to the rhythm section, playing chords, ostinatos, and atmospheric parts. They emerged into the lead from time to time but Alex still got all the solos and played some brilliant rhythm parts and arpeggios, working with the keys in a masterful way. If anything, this period was his most tasteful, where his parts might have been a little more sparse, but added to the music that much more, not to mention that he shredded on his solos as much as ever. Does anyone else think this? I think the 80's contained some of Lifeson's best guitar work, and some of Rush's best material overall. |
In the liner notes to the Benefit remaster, Ian Anderson comments on how the arrival of John Evan on keyboards allowed Martin Barre to stretch out and be more creative, not having to worry so much about banging out chords in the rhythm section. I think it's fair to say that a similar thing happened with Lifeson in the 80s. Although their 70s albums are still my favorites, I've always felt Rush's 80s material is unfairly maligned. With the exception of Hold Your Fire, which I have not been able to get into, every album from that period is great.
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Encoder314
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Posted: August 17 2013 at 20:26 |
For me, Power Windows is my absolute favorite Rush album. It blends the guitars and keyboards masterfully and has an atmosphere to it (especially Mystic Rhythms) that for me, none of their other albums have. My least favorite album of theirs is probably the debut.
-Top 5 Rush Albums (Today)- 1. Power Windows 2. Hold Your Fire 3. Signals 4. Moving Pictures 5. Presto
My favorite '70s album of theirs is Caress of Steel. The Necromancer and The Fountain of Lamneth make the album great. The Fountain of Lamneth is my favorite "epic" of theirs.
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The.Crimson.King
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Posted: July 22 2013 at 23:07 |
CKnoxW wrote:
But the actual forum topic! Signals is the only Rush album where the guitar is drowned out by the keyboards, which is funny because compared to the next few albums, its is very sparse synthwise. Lifeson's solos from the 80's era are definitely his most unorthodox (Turn the Page) but that doesn't make them bad. In fact, I love them!
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^ Chemistry includes my all time favourite Alex solo 
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CKnoxW
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Posted: July 22 2013 at 20:10 |
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Ah, not understanding everyone's love of Vapor Trails. I do love some of the songs on it, but it ends up sounding like one long idea to me and not 13 small ones like it's labeled.
Worst Rush album? Counterparts in my opinion. Definitely one of the best sounding (because of The Caveman) but apart from Animate, Between the Sun and Moon, and Leave that Thing Alone, the rest of it is weak.
But the actual forum topic! Signals is the only Rush album where the guitar is drowned out by the keyboards, which is funny because compared to the next few albums, its is very sparse synthwise. Lifeson's solos from the 80's era are definitely his most unorthodox (Turn the Page) but that doesn't make them bad. In fact, I love them!
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King Lerxst
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Posted: July 20 2013 at 08:20 |
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Funnily enough when Alex finally abandoned the Signature guitars he didn't go back to Fender Strats but chose PRS instead. IMO the PRS guitars gave him much more fullness to work with (on Roll The Bones) while still offering some of the chimey-ness of the earlier guitars. This lead the way to getting back to the Cream-like trio sound that so many people like on Counterparts.
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stonebeard
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Posted: July 20 2013 at 01:39 |
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I think it's fair to say in 80s Rush the keyboards defined the tone and chordal structure of a lot of the songs. You can trace how the songs filled out from the 70s to the 80s, and how the guitar had less work to do in filling the melodic and harmonic aspects of the music. It's not entirely clear cut but all the way through Hold Your Fire, the guitar became less and less present "all the time" and began taking in a texture, fill, solo kind of vibe. It's still there, but you can't clearly call it the center of attention anymore.
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Neo-Romantic
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Posted: July 20 2013 at 00:58 |
King Lerxst wrote:
I think the 80's gets called the "synth era" with Rush not because Alex isn't in the mix, but because his tone is so different from their earlier albums. There is no over-driven distortion (ala ATWAS) and he often isn't leading the melody but taking a counterpoint approach (influence from Andy Summers ala The Police).
Gear-wise Alex continued to change his effects and amps (using tons of chorus), but is most noted for the Floyd-Rose equipped Fender Strats and then around the time of Presto adopting models from the Signature Guitar Company. The Signature guitars (check out the A Show of Fan video) and to a lesser degree the Strats are known for their thin, chimey tone rahter than the full-bodied sound of the Gibson ES-355 or Hentor Sportscaster. |
Excellent points. I always thought a contributing factor was also the fact that for Grace Under Pressure through Roll the Bones he was using solid-state amps instead of tube amps. Tube amps always have a much warmer, more organic and full-bodied tone (in the days before Ax FX super computer modelers, which he now uses with tube amps from what my guitarist has told me). Since the amp is the largest factor in shaping the sound, this is why he had a more stark, wiry tone for those 5 albums. Not a bad one, just one that was more processed, presumably to compliment the character of the 80s synth sounds. You'll notice that he switched back to Marshall tubes for Counterparts by the sheer amount of body and warmth that comes through. Plus, he's jacked up in the mix more, as the keys have been noticeably reduced and the engineering of the album is much more pristine than most of their others. Compare the tones you hear between this album and its predecessors. You'll notice an unmistakable night-and-day difference. He has always been big on chord and arpeggio-oriented parts. The biggest difference between this and, say, 2112 is the tone. Plus, the shorter song structures probably affected how many and how lengthy his big solo moments were. Of course, the quality of his playing didn't suffer at all. He just played parts with a tone that has the listener think of the guitar as more of a structural instrument than a lead one.
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Ambient Hurricanes
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Posted: July 19 2013 at 22:41 |
King Lerxst wrote:
I think the 80's gets called the "synth era" with Rush not because Alex isn't in the mix, but because his tone is so different from their earlier albums. There is no over-driven distortion (ala ATWAS) and he often isn't leading the melody but taking a counterpoint approach (influence from Andy Summers ala The Police).
Gear-wise Alex continued to change his effects and amps (using tons of chorus), but is most noted for the Floyd-Rose equipped Fender Strats and then around the time of Presto adopting models from the Signature Guitar Company. The Signature guitars (check out the A Show of Fan video) and to a lesser degree the Strats are known for their thin, chimey tone rahter than the full-bodied sound of the Gibson ES-355 or Hentor Sportscaster. |
Good point. It's easy to think that the synths are more prevalent than they are when the effects on the guitar make it sound slightly similar to the keyboards! Top 5 Rush Albums: 1. Vapor Trails 2. Grace Under Pressure 3. Hemispheres 4. Moving Pictures 5. Presto
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King Lerxst
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Posted: July 19 2013 at 21:54 |
I think the 80's gets called the "synth era" with Rush not because Alex isn't in the mix, but because his tone is so different from their earlier albums. There is no over-driven distortion (ala ATWAS) and he often isn't leading the melody but taking a counterpoint approach (influence from Andy Summers ala The Police).
Gear-wise Alex continued to change his effects and amps (using tons of chorus), but is most noted for the Floyd-Rose equipped Fender Strats and then around the time of Presto adopting models from the Signature Guitar Company. The Signature guitars (check out the A Show of Fan video) and to a lesser degree the Strats are known for their thin, chimey tone rahter than the full-bodied sound of the Gibson ES-355 or Hentor Sportscaster.
Edited by King Lerxst - July 19 2013 at 21:55
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wjohnd
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Posted: June 25 2012 at 15:45 |
I've just read through this thread and been struck by the best/worst in their catalogue debate. It shows the breadth of styles that Rush have managed to pull off in the last 40 years. Evolving over time but always identifiably themselves.
For me the while 80s albums aren't my favourites it's the 90s ones i find as their low point though that might change as i am currently listening to counterpoints and had forgotten how many good tracks are on it.
Roll the Bones is a bit uneven - though it has some fine tracks on it like Dreamline and Ghost of a Chance The one I struggle most with is Test For Echo - which i just never got in to.
Of the 80s albums, after Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves I think Power Windows is the strongest (though it has dated a bit) and I eventually grew to love Hold your Fire. Where HYF falls down is in some sense because it is very even/consistent and maybe a bit too radio friendly but the songs each stand up well alone. I loved Presto when it came out but don't return to it very often now: none the less it contains some cracking songs.
Signals is half of a fantastic album but i'm not so convinced about the faux reggae segments.
As for Grace under Pressure if find I like all of the songs, but find the arrangements or production is just too 'light' in some way.
As for the debut ..I listen to it reasonably often. Sure its straight up rock and to some extent a journeyman piece with less complexity than their later work but it is more enjoyable than caress of steel and don't suffer from the 'lightness' of their 80s/90s output.
I'm minded to rank the albums for my own interest . I genuinely think it will be a struggle given how different they are over the years.
Edited by wjohnd - June 25 2012 at 15:50
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Eria Tarka
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Posted: June 25 2012 at 01:18 |
Ambient Hurricanes wrote:
Epignosis wrote:
OK, okay
Since we are fans, how about this:
Worst Rush album?
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The debut. Here Again is great, though. |
This
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Guitar in 80s Rush
