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Subject: 11/21/90 - The National Midnight Star #107
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The National Midnight Star, Number 107
Wednesday, 21 November 1990
Today's Topics:
pentagrams and necromancers
broken string in YYZ
Re: 11/19/90 - The National Midnight Star #105
Just my $.02
Chronicles video, Cancer rumours
Rap music
Alex interview at awards show
Bootlegs
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 12:26:46 -0500
From: linus@ritcsh.rit.edu (Jim Craig)
Subject: pentagrams and necromancers
Hey!
First of all I'd like to address the issue of the pentagram and
satanism. It had been to my reading and observations that the people who
accuse music and games for satanism do so without trying to understand the
music or game. One issue that was hot years ago was the blaming of Dungeons
and Dragons of printing insanity curses and witchcraft in the books. Hmm...
I have't found these, has anyone else? ;) As for the pentagram, it symbol
was originally used to ward off demons... how in history it was twisted I don't
know... but if these people want to accuse RUSH of satanism, wouldn't they
that the force and meaning of 2112 is fully against the oppression of the
red star? it seems we have another witch hunt on our hands...
anyway...
Has anyone noticed the similarity between the Necromancer's story and
the reason Gandalf left the dwarves in _The Hobbit_? Gandalf went south to
rid a land of a necromancer.... neat comparison anyway. Rivendell has the
same feeling in that it came from The Hobbit also...
....just an observation
* Linus VanPelt * Half of what we worry about isn't worth *
* linus@ritcsh.csh * worrying about, and the other half we *
* .rit.edu * have no control over, so why worry? *
* Turn around and walk the razor`s edge. *
----------------------------------------------------------
From: yackob@eeserv.ee.umanitoba.ca
Date: 20 Nov 90 11:48 -0600
Subject: broken string in YYZ
>X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.0.4 1/31/90)
Several people have mentioned that they saw Alex Lifeson
break a string playing YYZ. One part of the song requires bending
a string (the B, I think) one semitone sharp. Could it be the B that is
consistently breaking? With a locking nut and a sharp saddle, I
wouldn't be surprised if the string gave out when it's pulled this
tight.
Also, someone mentioned that they could buy Chronicles for
$25. It's selling for $23 Canadian here, which is worth maybe $5 US. :-)
--
Kerry Yackoboski <yackob@eeserv.ee.umanitoba.ca>
The Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Laboratory in the Cellar
U of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 14:27 EST
From: DG8150%ALBNYVMS.BITNET@UACSC2.ALBANY.EDU
Subject: Re: 11/19/90 - The National Midnight Star #105
Not only have I heard the cancer romours, I once heard a funny story on why
Geddy sings so high. It goes something like this:
When Geddy was a kid, his bike had no seat on
it. On day he was riding on a bumpy road and
he damaged his manhood so bad that he spoke
and sang with a high voice from then on.
I don't know. I always thought Geddy sang in the high range, because it made
dogs stop and piss in their tracks.
Enjoy
Dean
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 14:52 EDT
From: "People are strange when you're a stranger." <OLIVER_T@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu>
Subject: Just my $.02
O.K., folks! Here it goes! Yet another story about Alex breaking a string.
At the very end of the Presto concert at the Arena in Baltimore, MD, Alex
did it again. I think that it was at the beginning of In The Mood (or whatever
their last song was), I was looking in Geddy's general direction, and heard
something peculiar. Actually, it was what I didn't hear -- the guitar part.
It seems that the sixth string (lowest pitch, sorry to all you guitar virtuoso-
type people out there :-) had snapped, and I saw him in the act of tossing
the one guitar off stage and grabbing another one, which he began playing with
little or no inturruption in the continuity of the song. As is said in the
Subject line, just my 2/100 of $1...
-Todd
[ The man can switch guitars *fast* - I was at the show (on the floor), and
I didn't even realize he'd done it! :rush-mgr ]
"Anthem of the Heart and Anthem of the Mind..."
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 14:56 EST
From: "Michael L. Sensor (814)949-5626" <MLS129@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
Subject: Chronicles video, Cancer rumours
Hello all of you out there in RushLand...
I picked up the Chronicles video last week. Unfortunately I paid a bit more
than everyone else seems to be paying -- $19.99 at Wall to Wall Sound & Video.
A friend (and fellow Rushian) and I had been checking the store ever since
Chronicles' release had been announced. When I walked into the store and saw
several new copies sitting out I nearly tripped over myself in my haste to get
one!
The video isn't bad. I wish they were a bit lighter on the concert pieces --
I would rather have seen the studio version to "Tom Sawyer" than the live one,
which I could easily see on _ESL_. Also, I wish that there had been videos
from _Presto_. I guess Polygram was to cheap (as usual) to buy the rights
to the Presto videos from Atlantic. Oh well. All in all, a great vid.
The vintage clips of "Closer to the Heart" and "The Trees" made it worth the
price!
As far as the cancer/death/breakup rumors that have been discussed here, I
have another one. Rush will not tour again after the Presto tour (I also
heard this for HYF) because he has incurable leukemia and wants to spend
his dying days with his children. Whatever. :) :)
[ Which "he"? They all have children... Also, check out Robyn Landers'
transcription of an interview below for album/touring info. :rush-mgr ]
Have a happy Turkey Day, everyone. Gobble gobble.
--Mike
Michael L. Sensor <MLS129@PSUVM>
Penn State Altoona Campus
Altoona PA 16601-3760 "Land of Boredom"
===============================================================================
Rush-Quote: + "If you've done six impossible things before
"I will choose free will." + breakfast, why not top it off with dinner at
-Freewill + Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the
=================================|Universe?|===================================
++++++++++
----------------------------------------------------------
From: evanh@sco.COM (Evan A.C. Hunt)
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 16:13:24 PST
Subject: Rap music
> Apparently, someone was taken our beloved "Tom
> Sawyer" and put it to _RAP MUSIC_ (pardon the oxymoron). I have yet to
> hear this myself, but it appears to be true.
[ ... ]
> Please, say it isn't so! First there was the M.C. Hammernuts
> ripoff of "Superfreak", then someone did a dance music bastardization of
> Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", and now ... THIS?!? Why? Why RUSH???!
You know, every ounce of your hate for rap music, multiplied
by five or six, is how much I used to *really really hate* Rush.
I subsequently learned better, which is why I'm on this mailing
list. So be a little more tolerant: A lot of rap music is really good,
after you learn to hear it; it's just an acquired taste, is all. As for
"Why RUSH???!", the answer is that the rap group liked it, and that Rush
okayed it. Which says something about the rap group.
eh
[ RUSH may or may not have OK'd it - Vanilla Ice didn't get Queen's or
David Bowie's permission to use the line from "Under Pressure" for his
"Ice Ice Baby" video. When it was mentioned to one of the two (I
forget who), they said "Yeah, I guess we *could* sue..." I have no
major problem with sampling, as long as you GIVE CREDIT. :rush-mgr ]
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 20:36:56 EST
From: "Robyn Landers [MFCF]" <rblander@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Subject: Alex interview at awards show
[ Normally these are special editions, but this is pretty short, as these
things tend to go. :rush-mgr ]
The following is a transcription of an interview from Q-107's
Six O'clock Rock Report with John Derringer and Steve Warden with Alex on
Tuesday November 20 live from the Sheraton Centre in Toronto where Rush,
Bryan Adams, and k.d.lang were honoured for being group of the decade,
male vocalist of the decade, and female vocalist of the decade,
respectively. I've left out all the ums and ahs and some of the
half-started sentences wherever possible without changing meaning.
John: How are things Alex?
Alex: Things are great.
John: Excellent. Good to see you.
Alex: Good to see you too.
John: It's been ah, what a long strange decade it's been I guess, the 1980s.
Alex: Yeah, when we first heard about this we wondered which decade.
It's been a few for us almost.
John: Actually that's one of the differences we noticed and mentioned
to Bryan Adams is that when 1980 came around, both Bryan Adams and
k.d.lang were unknown whereas by 1980 Rush was huge not only
in Canada but in the rest of the world as well so as opposed to
being found in this decade it must be nice to see that you've
been able to carry on for another ten years and get this sort
of recognition from the industry.
Alex: It certainly seems incredible to us. I mean I don't think we ever
expected to be around in 1990 still doing what we're doing.
As a matter of fact we're in the studio now working on the
new record, so it just keeps going on and on for us.
John: It must be even more strange in your situation with Rush in that
when the band started out the critics slammed you, the industry
itself wasn't really behind the band. It was your fans that
did it for you and it was your fans that you seem to have
had the allegiance to all those years. Yet it must be kind of
strange to see that now the industry has embraced you the way
they have.
Alex: Yes. I guess it's nice. But you're right. For us, Rush was never
a band that, you know, we're not really a very popular Top 40;
we never had the hit singles that a lot of bands end up having.
We had to work very hard touring and we work very hard on our music
and we have a very good relationship with our audience that
has developed over the last 15 or 16 years that we've been
touring. And that's always been the special thing.
I mean, it's very nice to have this recognition certainly
but I think the recognition you get from your fans is a lot
more important.
[break, tunes, ads, summaries, introductions again, deleted]
John: You guys are working, or I guess are in the preproduction stages
or very early stages of putting together --
Alex: Very early stages. We've been working for about two weeks now,
we're working on the new record, we'll be working until
probably the middle of December and take a break then,
get back into it in the new year, start recording the
end of February and hopefully finish by the end of
June, take a few weeks off in the summer, and then possibly
start touring some time in the fall next year.
John: You guys changed quite a bit over the years, 1980 through 1990 --
Alex: -- Yeah, about 25 pounds.
[laughter]
John: On the plus or minus side?
Alex: Unfortunately on the plus side.
Steve: Well you still bowl a mean game Alex!
Alex: Well, thanks.
John: But with Moving Pictures in 1981, and now up to what you're doing
in 1990, a couple of changes in between, a couple of live
albums in there as well, and you guys have always kind of used the
live album as the end of one stage I guess and the beginning
of the next if I'm not mistaken.
Alex: Right. It gives us some breathing room. At least you have
something that's current and released and you can get away from it
and I think that's important for us. Before we recorded
Presto we took seven months off, and for us, that was unheard of.
By a factor of three, I mean we never took more than a couple
of months off between touring and recording. And we just really had
to get away for a good length of time. Really divorce ourselves
from being in a band, from being musicians, from you know the
whole thing. And we came back very enthusiastic when we
started working on Presto. We were just really excited when we
came back to work and it was like a breath of fresh air for
us. And it's carried over -- the tour was really great,
we really enjoyed ourselves, really, for the first time since
Moving Pictures or Signals tour. It was a much better paced
tour, we had a lot of fun, shows did really well, it was I
think one of our better shows from a staging standpoint,
and we had a great time. We suddenly remembered how much
we really enjoyed touring, and we had sort of lost a bit of that
over the years. And it's carried over into this record. We've
started working, we've got about four or five songs in fairly
decent shape at a fairly early stage, and look forward to
continuing that and going back out.
Steve: If I could -- sorry -- just something similar to what I asked
Bryan Adams how has success affected Rush and your music?
Has success had an impact?
Alex: Well it depends on your definition of success. We've always felt
successful in that we've been able to play the music and write the
music that we want to. There was only really a brief period during
Caress of Steel that there was kind of any problem with regard
to support from the powers that be. I mean management and
the record company were very worried with Caress of Steel but
for us that was a very transitional record and a very
important record for us, but it certainly wasn't a very commercially
successful record. And then of course we went on and 2112
came out after that and everything went great, everybody
was happy and we've been free to do whatever we want, so
we've had quite a great measure of success in those terms.
If you mean does financial success change your music,
then, well, it is always easier when your bills are paid
to not have to worry about that aspect of your live.
Steve: I was more concerned about the creative side of it.
When you have a success behind you, does that influence the
way you're going to go from there, or ---
Alex: No, no, it doesn't.
Steve: --- do you say ---
Alex: No no no, no no. We go out of our way to ---
[simultaneously]
Alex/Steve: to avoid repeating your/ourselves
Alex: Yeah, it's ah, we don't ever have anything written in advance --
very little written in advance -- we have a few ideas floating
round, we don't have anything thematic in advance.
We arrive at the studio and start writing and it goes wherever
it goes.
John: One of the things that separated Rush, Alex, from a lot of
bands has been the fact that it seems like you guys aren't
into the trappings of the rock'n'roll world. And when you
mentioned touring there, the question came to mind that,
you guys haven't been the out partying all night, being nuts,
the crazy, the women, the ---
Alex: Not lately anyway!
John: [laughs] okay, the ---
Steve: They bowl late at night, I can tell you that!
[more laughter]
John: But that has been something that has separated you from a lot
and I wonder if there had ever been a time when you guys
considered packing it in because of that. Packing in
the touring part of things. When you get on the road, and
you don't want to be there, you have families, and children.
I mean you guys seem to be really family oriented, really
home oriented.
Alex: Yes we are, and we've, I think we've grown to deal with that.
I mean it's part of the job so you just learn to accept it.
In the earlier days of course it was a little easier.
It was all a very exciting thing, and the band was growing
and developing from the live aspect. It was quite exciting.
I think we reached a point in the mid 80s where it was
the same old thing almost. I think probably the Hold Your
Fire tour was the toughest tour. Geddy was ill for a lot of
the tour, I remember Neil having the flu for a few weeks,
and we all had our own little problems, and it was very difficult
coping on that tour. I think that's why we really needed
to have that break that we did. I think that's probably the
closest we've come to at least stopping touring.
Steve: Are you surprised by the band's longevity?
Alex: Yeah, of course! I thought in 1974 when we signed our American
deal and started touring, I thought that if we lasted five
years, and had the chance to record another five or six records in
that time, we were really really fortunate.
But here we are, sixteen years later.
John: Something that I mentioned to Bryan Adams just a few minutes
ago when he was here, and I think it's a fair comparison
to draw between the two of you, is that instead of deciding
to play Canada, play the bars although you certainly did
a lot of that here in Toronto when you were first starting
out in the 70s, but you decided to really give it the big
shot and go to the States, and really slog it out, and
it worked for you. But what would you recommend to a band
who is in the situation, although the industry has changed
so much --
Alex: [something I can't make out] are so different
John: They really are, but what would you say to a band who you
thought really had it, in 1990, what route should they go?
Alex: It's very difficult. It's a whole different scene. When we
were coming up it was possible for a band to get on to a
two, three, or four act show as an opener and play for
20 minutes and do the whole run of dates, come back
a few months later with another band maybe as a special
guest, do the whole run, come back and start headlining
small halls, work up to 5000 seats, 7000, and do the arenas,
and that's what we did. We just kept touring and touring the
same places over and over around and around. That doesn't
really exist any more. It's very tough for a young band
to get on those types of tours. I think the promoters are
much more concerned with selling tickets so they end up
getting two very strong bands, so that area of opening is very
very tight and very difficult for a lot of bands.
All you can do is persevere and practise and stick to your guns.
John: Do you still practise?
Alex: I don't practice as much as I used to when we're not working.
I used to play all the time, I practice a lot less.
Typically before we went into the studio I started playing
on a regular basis a month before we went in for at least
two to three hours a day. Before a tour I practice about
five or six hours a day for about a month before.
Steve: The question that everybody really wants an answer to is
will Rush be going back to that mid 70s image with
the jumpsuits and the platform boots?
Alex: Yes as a matter of fact we brought our housecoats tonight,
and our scarves...
[much laughter]
Steve: That was one of the great looks.
John: It certainly was!
Steve: When you look back on stuff like that, and what you've done,
and the different images and stuff like that, I mean do you
sort of chuckle?
Alex: Oh yeah, and I cry too.
[laughter]
Steve: Alex, it's been a pleasure, thanks very much, congratulations.
John: Thank you very much Alex.
Alex: Thanks Steve, thanks John.
John: Rush, one of the artists of the decade., the group of the
decade in Canada. Q-107....
----------------------------------------------------------
From: mstovino@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Bootlegs
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 20:39:17 EST
Does anyone out there have a copy of "Rush -n- Roulette", a bootleg
of the MP tour?? I really would like a tape of it. I have "Nassau
Coliseum '82", "Through Any Window" (PoW Tour), and "St. Louis '80"
if any one wants to trade tapes.
Also.... I may be a math major at MIT, but I'm NO GEEK...
I KNOW that I party MUCH more than many State School friends....
Also, is the new album due in Feb. or summer???
I've heard both.
----------------------------------------------------------
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