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Subject: RUSH Fans Digest of 07/19/90 (#14)
RUSH Fans Digest, Number 14
Thursday, 19 July 1990
Today's Topics:
My Least Favorite RUSH Set
DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY
P/G
P/G, best and worst, and the future
Grace Under Pressure (what a title!)
P/G discussion...my 2 cents.
p/g and pg
P/G
P/G ain't so bad...
Duplicates
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From: boerio@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu (Jeff Boerio)
Subject: My Least Favorite RUSH Set
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 11:01:09 EST
I, too, think that P/G is my least favorite recording. Someone in today's
digest talked about the time frame when it was recorded. I must admit that
I didn't know about the death of the close friend, and rumors of breaking
up (I wasn't into Rush then).
It'ss nice to know that information, because now things make a little more
sense. But to me, it's still my least favorite album 8-)
- Jeff
--
Jeff Boerio (boerio@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu)
Purdue University ECN Software Support Programmer
Ob. Rush Quote: "Don't ask me, I'm just improvising"
Rush Bitmap Mail Service Available: Send mail with subject of "rush bitmaps",
with body containing the word "help" for more info to above address
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Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 10:06:37 MST
From: JEFF JONSSON <DATACTL%UTAHLIB.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY
HEY, what is all this negative B.S. I can understand maybe a topic
like: Favorites, but least favorites?
Personally I don't own a copy of "Grace Under Pressure" but that isn't
because I don't like it, tis a case of no dough joe. . .
RUSH, love 'em or hate 'em, but don't spoil anyone's enjoyment over the issue
of P/G being rotten.
Later folks, Jeff J. <datactl@utahlib.utah.edu>
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Subject: P/G
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 11:59:36 MDT
From: Doug Grumann <dougg@hpptc16.hp.com>
Thanx to Anand, Derek, and all for the P/G opinions. I'm going to keep them
in mind next time I listen to the album, and perhaps I'll appreciate it more.
I didn't appreciate the dark overtones in the music and the lyrics (when I'm in
a dark mood, I crank up the Black Sabbath), but maybe I've gained a better
perspective, thanks to your comments. It may rise above Rush Rush, but it'll
never take my personal 1st place, methinks.
The responses made me wonder if the first contact with Rush music has a strong
effect on which albums we like. I was introduced to Rush by a 12-year old who
had taught himself some of the guitar parts to 2112, when I was in high school.
This was around the time Permanent Waves came out. PeW was my first Rush album,
and remains my favorite. I'm attached to their older stuff more than the
Signals-and-later music, though I don't deny they've done great work since then.
My musical tastes in general were "frozen" in 1980, and I haven't liked very
many albums produced since then by anybody! Pretty sad, huh? Maybe it all goes
back to that melon-and-milk drink I had at the ice-cave graduation party.
Shawn: I grew up in the Boonies in Wisconsin, which is almost as bad as IN.
Now (as Cheap Trick would say) I'm a California Man.
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Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 14:21 EDT
From: Chris Bhagwan Fuzzy Normandeau <N200280@pavo.concordia.ca>
Subject: P/G, best and worst, and the future
I don't feel that P/G is a bad album at all. I agree with most people that the
album is dark but again, look at the circumstances in which they wrre written.
I think it is one of the better produced albums, very sound, technically.
I would also like to defend the album Rush. If you understand the time period
in which it was written and can get by the Led Zeppelin-like vocals (Oh yeah,
babyyy!!!, etc.) then it really is not that bad. To this day, In the Mood is
a great concert song that always gets the house rocking. Finding My Way and
Working Man are also good songs.
I tried to think about which album I like the least and the only one I could
come up with are Fly By Night and Permanent Waves. Now don't your knickers in
a twist about this, I am not saying that they are bad albums. They have some
very good songs BUT a lot of the songs on them do not stand out in my memory
as being EXCELLENT songs. They are just GOOD songs. With me, there are no songs
that I don't like, just one's I like less than others.
Could somebody tell me if the Rush Backstage Club out in Las Vegas is still
running and if so, what is its address and the current charge for membership?
Anyways, enough chatting. Going to listen to The Necromancer (Great guitar
work, wicked solos) See Ya...
Chris
Department of Computing Services
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
ORQ: " Right to the heart of he matter, right where discovery starts...."
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Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 09:49:51 hst
From: Hinano Akaka <bigtuna!hinano@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Subject: Grace Under Pressure (what a title!)
Grace Under Pressure their _worst_ album? No, I don't think so.
I think Grace Under Pressure (or as my friend is fond of saying,
Pressure over Grace) is one of their best albums. It's sensitive,
both lyrically and musically--Alex does some of his best guitar work
on this album, and Neil's lyrics are powerful and very moving in their
own right. It stands to reason that it would be "dark", they went
through a rough time! Their albums always reflect what the band is
doing/going through and GUP is one of their most personal albums and,
personally, one of my favourites. Actually, I really don't get
depressed listening to it, it isn't all that different from any other
album, lyric-wise, I mean (well, maybe a little). I do agree with what
someone wrote about "The Enemy Within"--a definite pick-me-upper!
Definitely one of their best songs (along with DEW).
Not to mention, it's got the best artwork of all the albums,
and the portrait is one of the best the band has taken--Yousuf Karsh
knows his stuff! Later...
Puanani Akaka
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Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 14:38:43 -0700
From: David Conley <dmc@u.washington.edu>
Subject: P/G discussion...my 2 cents.
P/G is certainly not one of my favorite RUSH albums. I am not critical of the
albums "redness" nor its negativity. I rather like the lyrics and raw emotion
displayed, and it is quite understandable that any band worth their salt should
have such albums produced during rough times. In fact, one of my favorite songs,
"Kid Gloves" is on the album. RUSH albums have always contained that rich,layer-ed sound . But I find P/G too heavy and overwhelming. There are no songs that
provide balance and give the listener a breather, for example "Losing It" on
Signals and "Different Strings" on PW. Alex's guitar work, although it could
be argued that it is technically and emotionally some of his best,
is too overpowering for me, and sonically speaking too bright. Guitar and
keyboards tend to dominate the mix. Anyway, to get to the point, I would rank
Signals and P/G as my least favorite albums (I didn't say their worst.. RUSH
has no worst album, all have their place in the Band's evolution). I tend to
gravitate towards their earlier works, with AFWTK, CoS, and Hemispheres being
some of my favs.
And now for something completely different. A couple of weeks ago there was some
discussion of opening acts and I posted a message concerning one of those acts,
FM, a three piece Toronto band. No one has responded to my trivia question,
"name another 3 piece Toronto band"...well the answer I was looking for was
Triumph. Anybody else listen to them? Great stuff, super guitarist (Rik Emmett)
but a more simple, harder edged sound. Can anyone else come up with anymore
bands from the Great White North? Of course there was Max Webster and The Guess
Who and Bryan Adams. And I used to follow a group calling themselves
Chilliwack in the late '70's.
Enjoy this food for thought.
-DAVID
P.S. Oh yeah, there was Loverboy (hope i don't offend but I loathe them)
and I belive April Wine may have been Canadian too!
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From: evanh@sco.COM (Evan A.C. Hunt)
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 14:11:20 PDT
Subject: p/g and pg
> Here's something I've always wanted to run past fellow Rush fans: I think
> that Grace Under Pressure is Rush's WORST album (even behind Rush Rush). I
> get depressed every time I attempt to sit through it, and the sheer REDness
> of it bothers me. Does anybody else have strong opinions about P/G?
I think it's one of their best albums, if that's what you mean.
I try not to play favorites with music, "Distant Early Warning" is
definitely in my top four or five favorite Rush songs. Of the other
songs on the album, nothing really sparkles individually, but it's
all consistent and all excellent.
One thing I've noticed about myself is I like consistency
in an album. I'll tend to prefer albums that are good all the way through
to albums that are excellent in some places and poor-to-okay in others.
p/g falls in the first category; "Signals" falls in the second. "Signals"
has more blow-your-mind incredible fantastic songs on it, but the songs
that aren't fantastic are pretty weak (in my opinion, obviously).
> I had trouble figuring out which one was [Peter Gabriel] III.
> I wound up with the album with Games Without Frontiers on it... was I right?
> Its a fairly good album, but I'm not sure what made it one of the best-of-
> the-best. Any Genesis/Gabriel fans want to clue me in?
You got the right album. There are two nomenclatures for his
albums: Gabriel calls them by the biggest hits they produced: PG I is
Solsbury Hill, PG II is D.I.Y., PG III is Games Without Frontiers and
PG IV is Shock the Monkey (or Security, in the US, where the record
company named the album without Gabriel's permission--"the world's first
disposable title," he called it.) Most fans, on the other hand, call
them by what they depict on the cover: Car, Scratches, Melting Face,
and Mask (or, again, Security).
As for why it's among the best-of-the-best, I don't think I
can explain it. I can point out, however, that he made it in (I think)
1982, and invented a lot of things on that album that others copied
subsequently--for instance, that was the album where he first started
getting into tribal rhythms.
eh
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Date: Wed, 18 Jul 90 21:09:14 EDT
From: Mike Bear <bear@syrinx.bgsu.edu>
Subject: P/G
I too thought that P/G was Rush's worst album, until I
understood it. By now someone has said that it was written after the
death of a close friend of Neils, and that it says a lot about the
cold war. I always liked Kid Gloves, but not the rest of the album.
What it took was finding out what it was really about and seeing the P/G
tour video. It seems much better once you understand it.
On a related subject, I know a few who think Caress of Steel is
their worse album, so I didn't even hear it for a long time. After
listening to it for the first time, I couldn't imagine not liking it.
Any comments?
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UUCP: ..!osu-cis!bgsuvax!syrinx!bear |Put aside the alienation
Internet: bear@syrinx.bgsu.edu or bear@andy.bgsu.edu |Get on with the
Bitnet: bear@bgsuopie.bitnet |fascination
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Date: 18 July 1990 21:01:16 CDT
From: "Geddy Riker " <U28802@UICVM.uic.edu>
Subject: P/G ain't so bad...
In response to Doug's comments about P/G, I'd like to say that
I didn't really go crazy over it when I first bought it..Like most
of The Boyz' albums, it took a while to grow on me. I won't say that
it's their best album, but I'd definately put it in the top 3!
Yeah, it's a dark album, but it's a damn good one, and Alex really
shines in every song..."Kid Gloves" probably contains Alex' best solo,
with "Afterimage" and "Between The Wheels" close behind. Every time
I get PO'd or manically depressed, I'll grab my guitar, put on P/G,
and play along with Alex's *burning* solo from "Afterimage". Basically,
I love this album cuz I can play it whenever I need to blow some steam,
and by the time "The Enemy Within" has finished, I'm usually feeling
MUCH better... :p
As for RUSH's worst album...I can say that "RUSH" is my least favorite,
but it still has it's merits, and I don't think the Boyz have ever made,
or will make a bad album. (Keeping my fingers crossed) :p
John Talbot (U28802@UICVM)
ORQ: "Leave out conditions...Courageous convictions will drag the dream
into existence!"
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Subject: Duplicates
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 90 14:38:02 EDT
From: RUSH Fans Digest Manager <rush-mgr>
Hi all,
It's your beloved (hah) RUSH manager here, with an update (well, the
latest explanation) on the duplication situation. Since there has been
a swelling of the list (over 30 in the past week alone!), there are many
new people out there not used to things. I thought I'd send out this
educational missive to clear some things up. All those who know about
the duplicates can skip to the next article.
There is an ongoing problem with the RUSH Fans Digest with duplicated
mailings. This is a problem in the mailer on Syrinx, and is apparently
loosely related to the size of the mailing list. We are aware of the
problem, and have been making attempts to correct it for some time now.
The next step (which I hope we take care of soon) will be rebuiling the
mailer itself using different software.
For now, though, the problem will be with us. I ask you to bear with
us and just delete that second copy. *Pay attention to the subject line!*
There are occasionally special editions of the Digest; this is noted in
the subject line.
Thanks,
Manager,
RUSH Fans Digest
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