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Subject: 01/15/93 - The National Midnight Star #597
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
The National Midnight Star, Number 597
Friday, 15 January 1993
Today's Topics:
Administrivia
Buhl Planetarium and GK guitar amps
Post Card from Neil!
Buhl is bull...
bootleg stuff
Xanadu pitch
More on the NMS cd
Houston Chronicle article
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From: rush-mgr
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1993
Subject: Administrivia
I included a *long* article at the end of the digest today, because it was a
short digest.
- rush-mgr
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Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 19:40 EST
From: "Greg J. Musi" <MUSI@vms.cis.pitt.edu>
Subject: Buhl Planetarium and GK guitar amps
Hello fellow Rushians,
Just thought I would answer the question
>Any of you Pittsburgh people know if Buhl Planetarium still does the
>Laserush show occasionally? That one and Laserock Gold were pretty good.
I do believe that they still do the laser show with Rush music (among others)
I hear about periodically, but unfortunately have not gone to see it.
Also.....
>And since I'm rambling here, just an interesting fact that has no meaning
>whatsoever: Those GK amps/speakers/whatever that Alex used, at least in the
>later part of the tour, are made by my second cousin (the K stands for Kruger,
>which is him -- don't remember the G person).
Just a little tidbit, the other person is "Gallien"
for "Gallien/Kruger Amplifiers" not mention high quality amps
just a little bit of info
Later all,
Greg Musi
--
***************************************************************************
** Greg J. Musi ==> University of Pittsburgh **
** Computing Lab Operator Forbes Quad Lab **
** BITNET : MUSI@PITTVMS or GJMST14@PITTVMS **
** INTERNET: MUSI@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU or GJMST14@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU **
***************************************************************************
** "Distributor of pain, your loss becomes my gain" .... **
** James Hetfield, Metallica **
***************************************************************************
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From: pittmanc@ucs.orst.edu (Chris Pittman)
Subject: Post Card from Neil!
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 93 21:40:31 PST
Hi Im back in the scene on thr NMS after three monthe of traveling
in New Zealand and Fiji. Anyway, I just thought I would tell everyone
what I had waiting in the mail for me when I got home. A personal post
card from Neil Peart. I thought it was really neat. I did write him via
the Modern Drummer while I was in New Zealand and got this reply in a
matter of two months.
Im anxious to see all the new gossip on the NMS since Iv'e been away for
so long.
Peace
Chris Pittman
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Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 00:12:09 -0600
From: Joshua Hyatt Weiss <jhweiss@lime.wustl.edu>
Subject: Buhl is bull...
For those wondering about the rush laser show in Pittsburgh...
This was a featured performance in the old Buhl Science center's laserium
and it sounds like the same show that was described in Cincinnatti and that
other western city (sorry I forgot the name). It was a very well put together
show and along with a state-of-the-art sound system, provided for a very enjoy-
able tour of the trio's material.
However, this show left Pittsburgh around 2 summers ago. I remeber this
since I recall that I had seen the penultimate presentation of it. If this
opportunity arises in your town, don't hesitate to see it. It does them justice
Bring popcorn.
Anyway, on a different note, I still don't understand the association of
Dream Theater with Rush. To me they sound more like Queensryche but natheless
they would make a good opening act for our boys from up North (magnetic North,
that is).
"You've got to question the facts,
determine what is right from wrong.
When those houselights go down
you better be singing your own song"
--Tweed Sneakers
--Josh Weiss
jhweiss@lime.wustl.edu
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Date: 15 Jan 1993 02:33:04 -0600 (CST)
From: ST1S1@Jetson.UH.EDU
Subject: bootleg stuff
G'day all you Rushians!
First let me say how cool it is to have discovered TNMS! I look foward
to every issue, and I hope that everyone will continue to contribute new
and exciting information that might benifit us RUSH fans who are just getting
started with their bootleg collection!
Anyway, I have a few bootlegs, and I was wondering if anyone could tell me if
they are rare, or if everyone already has them. They were given to me by
a friend at Harvard, so he deserves the credit! I have:
1. Rush Rarities - I believe this features the first singles
Rush cut. It has "Not fade away", and
"You Can't Fight It". The quality is decent.
2. Rush 'N' Roulette - there's a bunch of cool stuff on
this one, but I'm not sure where it was recorded
or when; maybe someone could help me out!
3. Electric Ladyland - It sounds like it was recorded with
20 or so people in the studio. It includes:
Finding My Way
Best I can
In the Mood
Anthem
Need some Love
Fly By Night
Bad Boy ( an old Beatle's tune)
Working Man
I don't know the date on this one, but it is
before the release of "Fly By Night". The sound
quality is pretty good.
4. Manchester, UK June 2, 1977 - sound quality isn't so
great, but it includes:
Bastille Day
Anthem
Lakeside Park
2112
Xanadu
By-Tor and the Snow Dog
The Necromancer
Working Man/Finding my Way/Drum Solo
Fly By Night/In the Mood
What You're Doing
Also, if anyone cares, I have a recording of the first ever live performance
of "Fly By Night".
That's all for now. I have some other things to mention, but I'll save them
for another time.
SEE YA!!!
Dan
P.S. I heard on the radio that Van Halen's new one that comes out this
month is live. Any truth to it????
RUSH ON!
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 10:41:43 EST
From: Floyd Foltz <USUG4%UCONNVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Subject: Xanadu pitch
Has anyone ever noticed that Xanadu on the Hemispheres CD is recorded
slightly above regular concert pitch (somewhere between E and F). I noticed
this when I was trying to play along with the CD - I had to raise the pitch
of each string slightly. On ESL, the pitch is normal. I didn't see anything
about this in the FAQS file. Is it the same way on Hemispheres LP and Tape?
Just Wondering -
Floyd F.
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Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 18:14:30 -0500
From: meg (******* Meg *******)
Subject: More on the NMS cd
I'm starting to get my act together here and locate songs, got some great
ideas (thanx Skip!). Now I could use any concert pictures you or a
friend might have for the booklet... we also need to come up with a name
for this thing! Anyone have suggestions? I thought a kind of 'obscure'
name would be cool, like "Atmospheric" or something. I know that one's
already taken, but perhaps something along those lines? And how about
something on the cover? I thought of trying to render a 3-d circle & star,
tilted at an angle towards you. I say 'trying' because I'm not that good with
computer graphics.
I also could use information on some of the songs, anything you know about
them; I'm going to put each song in the booklet with a short blurb about
it, but some songs I don't know anything about (I could always use more info
in any rate!). Here's some I need stuff on: Battlescar, Not Fade Away/You
Can't Fight It, Take Off, Garden Road, Bad Boy, Fancy Dancer. I'm also looking
for ANYONE that has the 6/3/92 Irvine (1st night!) show on tape, I *need* it.
One more thing; I know that the 12/9/82 show has Geddy singing "the freedom
of baseball" but does anyone know WHY he chose that show and that location?
Baseball was kinda in the off-season at the time... just curious.
-Meg <-- mail me for NMS shirt info, Rush CD boot list, or boot
meg@syrinx.umd.edu mail order list (please tell me *which* list you want!)
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 92 18:36:38 -0500
From: Ethan Evan Prater <prater-ethan@yale.edu>
Subject: Houston Chronicle article
Taken without permission from the Sunday 16 February 1992 issue of
the Houston Chronicle, by Ethan Prater. <prater-ethan@yale.edu>
-- Do It: Rush Progresses to Anger --
- by Marty Racine -
While most pop is aimed below the belt in the hard-hitting world of
marketing, three thinking gents from Toronto remind us that there is
still room for brainpower in rock.
Rush formed in the art-rock climate of the early '70s and has seldom
strayed from a progressive curve.
The central question, students, is: At what point is conscious
thought a detriment to the spirit of rock 'n' roll? The class is
divided, often passionately. We have a show of hands from those who
view Rush as great conceptualists. But there are those who feel
their complexity is so much hokum.
Regardless, this is one band that does most of its creative work in
the preparation of an album. By the time it reaches the touring
stage, all puzzle pieces are in place.
"It's the division between creative and interpretive art," said
drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, one of the more articulate rockers
of this or any era. "Playing live is very much interpretive because
the creative work has been done."
- Wrong questions -
Rush -- also vocalist/bassist/synthesizer player Geddy Lee and
guitarist Alex Lifeson -- will perform Tuesday at The Summit.
The concept of the band's new _Roll the Bones_ album begins in the
eternal tug-of-war between fate and free will that each of us
interprets by our own disciplines, be they spiritual, philosophical
or physical. "It's the wild card aspect of life," Peart said, "that
however well-planned things are, however secure the future seems,
however hard you've worked or however talented or beautiful you are,
there are these wild cards that life throws at us. Sometimes
they're happy ones, sometimes tragic ones. You could be discovered
by Hollywood tomorrow, you could be hit by a bus tomorrow.
"It's also circumstance, the elements of chance. I started by
considering the ill fortune of somebody being born in Ethiopia, or
being born with AIDS. These kinds of tragedies are wrenching to me,
and there's no other way to describe them in my system of belief
other than to say, 'Well, it's very bad luck.' The questions that I
felt compelled to ask from that are the ultimate existential
questions: Why are we here? Why do these things happen?" But, he
said, "Those are the wrong questions. It's pointless to sit around
stargazing. It's more than just luck. The point is, what can I do
about it? It's the practical side I'm interested in. I've gone from
compassion to anger. So Roll the Bones also means, 'Do it!'"
And so Rush has. They donated the entire proceeds (several hundred
thousand dollars) from their Jan. 30 Oakland Coliseum concert to the
American Foundation for AIDS Research, a non-profit group founded in
1985.
"It's something we feel very strongly about," Peart said. "We
normally do these things privately -- for example, our Christmas
presents to one another tend to be donations to charitable
organizations -- but we thought there was a message here. We
thought that being in a rock band, which is a world of homophobia
and misogyny, it might be good that this is publicized, that we're
very moved by the AIDS tragedy and want to contribute."
- Pushing the performance -
With _Roll the Bones_, Peart says, the band has dared some onstage
spontaneity.
"That's one area we set out to change. For a long time it's been
enough of an ambition for us to play the song as well live as it is
on the record, because the record is a superhuman, flawless
representation. We always thought if we could approximate that
onstage, we were really doing something.
"We have reached the point where that is more attainable, so we
started messing with the arrangements in tour rehearsal, extending
instrumental bits, adding on improvisational bits." Peart's own
role is a microcosm of the fascinating Rush recording process and
its evolution.
"There are no real rules, but the basic mechanism is I work on the
lyrics and the other two work on the music," he said. "But since
I'm not there to be their drummer, they're working on a drum machine
that I program. That way we all have a rhythmic touchstone to work
from.
"But to get to a satisfactory level, a lot of changes can go into
it. Sometimes I rewrite the lyrics to make it work better musically
or reframe the arrangement to set off the dynamics better." All
this is the "pre-production" prior to the actual recording process.
In the early days, Peart said, the band had no such luxury.
"We'd be on tour for 10 months and go straight into the studio and
be expected to come up with a record. There wouldn't be the luxury
of time.
"Later on, we had to forge new work habits, so we'd get half the
record sort of arranged and then dive into the studio and finish it
there. That was a lot of pressure." But success has its perks. For
_Roll the Bones_, Peart said, he spent the last two weeks before
recording rehearsing his drum parts and working on transitions.
"I was free as I could be, because I wasn't wasting anyone's time
but my own, wasn't beating up anyone's hands but my own." At the
same time, over-rehearsing can turn a piece stale.
"But I tricked that, too," Peart said. "I rehearsed every song
until I knew every note; then all that was left were certain fills
and transitions that I wouldn't let myself figure out.
"That way, every time I come to those parts (in concert), I'll close
my eyes and go. Hopefully, that gives me a better chance of coming
out with that magical moment, to where the audience will sense that,
within the architecture of the song, there is this 'pull' that has
never been played before."
- Rock 'n' roll drummer -
Peart's technique was influenced mostly by jazz. "Buddy Rich and
Gene Krupa were my first inspirations," he said. "Certainly the
movie _The Gene Krupa Story_ was the spark-to-tinder for me.
"My drum teacher played one of those famous drum battles between
Rich and Krupa, and he said, 'OK, here's where we're going.' Then
he showed me how to hold the sticks and said, 'And here's how we'll
get there.' That was a beautiful foundation. It was a high set of
values to aspire to." Peart believes rock drummers of his
generation can be divided into those who saw Ringo Starr on the "Ed
Sullivan Show" and aspired to be him, and those who saw Krupa and
wanted to be him.
"You can hear it in their playing. Ringo bragged about never having
learned anything, about never practicing -- and I think his playing
shows it. There's no desire to push it forward.
"I'm not knocking simplicity. A great drummer can restrain himself
to play simply. There's a mastery, like a great painter with one
simple brush stroke. (The Rolling Stones') Charlie Watts is a great
example of that. He's absolutely right."
- "Our work is uneven" -
Rush's 1974 self-titled album was followed by 1975's more successful
_Fly By Night_. Despite their tendency toward meticulous planning,
they released an album on a virtually annual basis for 17 years,
compiling a body of work that is among the most dissected in rock.
"We're the first to admit that some of our experiments succeed and
some of them fail," Peart said. "Some ideas have grown on from song
to song, and others have been dead-end tangents.
It's the nature of doing it that way; consequently, our work is
uneven. "But I think that's OK; I read a great quote in an art book
that an artist deserves to be judged by his best work." In the
process, Rush has survived every major pop trend since the wilting
of flower power.
It was difficult. As rookies, the band's first three albums heeded
commercial restraints. But 1976's _2112_ changed all that.
"We felt we were getting so much pressure from the record company
and from everybody around us on the business side to compromise,
change and seek that lowest common denominator," Peart said.
"It was a serious crisis. We had to decide whether to stake our
artistic lives on this or play it safe. We decided not to play it
safe. _2112_ was the statement of that, of anger and passion
against that, of the individual against the masses. The sub-theme
of that record was basically, 'We're not giving up.'" That
rebellion, Peart feels, "helped it communicate to an audience that
lifted us high enough in popularity to where we could finally be in
control."
- Work of a trio -
Rush's longevity is due to both interpersonal communication and
technological advances.
"Technology has freed us up so much," Peart said. "There were times
in our early days when we began to feel stultified by the
limitations of a trio. We would think about adding a fourth member,
at least onstage, a keyboard player and/or background vocalist.
"At that point synthesizers came along, and soon after, sequencers.
They blew the doors open. One of our points of honor is that we
don't use tapes or pre-programs. Everything onstage has to be
triggered by us." That, said Peart, amounts to "a real balancing
act" in concert.
In other areas, however, a trio format means freedom, Peart
believes. "On a personal and creative level it is most satisfying
dealing with only three people. You have fewer disagreements and no
danger of dividing into factions, the way bands of four or five
members do." That has allowed Peart, Lifeson and Lee to achieve
individual fulfillment within the collective.
"We finally faced up to it, that all we need to satisfy everything
that we want to do as musicians and songwriters can be achieved
within the foundation of Rush. It's a freeing kind of thing.
There's no longer the thought that, 'Maybe I need to be in another
band,' or, 'Maybe I need to make a solo record.' If we want to
make movie soundtracks, we can do it as the three of us. If we want
to make weird music or have Nigerian drumming for me or classical
guitar for Alex or -- as we did in the mid-'80s -- if we want to do
electronic dance music or hip-hop, anything will fit into Rush."
----------------------------------------------------------
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The contents of The National Midnight Star are solely the opinions and
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Copyright The Rush Fans Mailing List, 1992.
Editor, The National Midnight Star
(Rush Fans Mailing List)
********************************************
End of The National Midnight Star Number 597
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