This is a bit of a departure for Hall of Prog: not a performance of a specific song, but a trailer for what looks like one of the best prog rock-related documentaries ever made. Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage is an award-winning documentary that is going to be screened across the U.S. on June 10. I’m not quite sure why there are two sites; I think one is for the movie itself and one is for its U.S. distributor. At any rate, both are worth checking out.
Since I always have to have something snarky to say, let me latch onto this highly selective statistic cited in the trailer and other promotional materials for the film: seeking to emphasize the band’s influence, they note that Rush is ranked third all-time for most consecutive gold or platinum albums, behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. It may be true, and it’s not an insignificant fact, but, really, it’s pretty heavily qualified: most consecutive albums certified gold or platinum. It may help to explain Rush’s longevity, but it seems intended to suggest that they’re the third most popular rock band of all time behind the Beatles and the Stones, and I think it’s pretty hard to make that argument. Geddy Lee’s own assessment is probably more accurate: “I always like to consider us the world’s most popular cult band.”
Clearly, this is the most apt song title in the history of progressive rock. Ironically, it was given to one of the shortest tracks in the history of progressive rock, clocking in at just over two minutes.
The development of this track is a rather interesting story, and an excerpt from the “making of” documentary that accompanied the DVD-A version of Snakes and Arrows is also available on YouTube:
“The Analog Kid” by Rush
From the 1982 album Signals
20 years ago, in the summer of 1989, I had just finished my freshman year of high school, and I was deeply immersed in the music of Rush… specifically, the two albums I had bought on cassette at the end of the school year: Signals and A Farewell to Kings.
“The Analog Kid” seems to capture the essence of being a 15-year-old kid idly passing the hours of the seemingly endless days of summer. It helps, too, that the song was literally the soundtrack of my own experience of those days.
This video is from the Counterparts tour, in 1994. The ’90s were sort of Rush’s “lost decade.” The band started the decade a bit adrift stylistically, releasing some albums that were mostly filler and suffered from brittle, over-polished production that would instantly become dated-sounding upon the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind in late 1991. The band bounced back with 1993′s grunge-tinged Counterparts, undoubtedly (to my ears) their strongest album of the decade. But they struggled to find their identity and began to run out of steam, and after 1996′s weak effort, Test for Echo, and Neil Peart’s devastating loss of both his daughter and his wife (to a car accident and stress-induced illness, respectively) within a year of each other, it seemed like the band might be done for.
They weren’t, of course, but I’ll save that discussion for another day. Here we see the band carrying on after releasing Counterparts, and they deliver a pretty solid performance, but they seem tired… burned out.
Pardon the poor quality of both the audio and video in this selection, as well as this blog’s increasingly Rush-heavy bias, but seeing as it’s July 14, there was only one possible song to feature today.
This is a really sketchy recording of a blistering (as was characteristic of the band at the time) 1976 performance. Despite both the deteriorated video and the artifacts of digital compression, and the fact that the entire band seems to have been recorded from Geddy’s vocal mic, it’s worth suffering the limitations of this recording to hear this young band on stage with all of its raw exuberance intact.
I’m sure the band would just as soon forget this extremely early material, but for some reason this particular song remains in fairly heavy rotation on KQRS here in Minneapolis. (In fact, I was really annoyed a couple years ago when Snakes and Arrows was released and they still insisted on playing “Fly by Night” instead of giving “Far Cry” some airplay.)
Regardless of the band’s opinion, it’s not a bad song — classic mid-’70s hard rock, not really progressive at all, but with Neil Peart’s arrival on the album, the band’s prog tendencies were beginning to emerge. And it is simply amazing to be able to see the guys this young, and to think about everything they’ve accomplished, but hadn’t yet when this was filmed.
Incidentally, what I really wanted to share here was the hilariously quintessential early-’80s video for “Body Electric,” but I can’t find it on YouTube. It is on the VH1 Classic website though, if you care to check it out.
This post is an experiment in trying to fully research and compose an entry solely using the iPhone. It has posed challenges I do not care to describe in detail on a touchscreen keyboard. But I have proven: it can be done… at least with reliable WiFi and abundant patience.
As for the song, what can I say? It’s a great song. The recording is a bootleg, probably from a cell phone. But the performance is great, and I should know: I was at this show at St. Paul’s Xcel Center last year! The band is scorching in the fusion-jam instrumental section, and Geddy can still hit those high notes right after that — even if you can tell he’s keeping a reserve of energy throughout the show just for that moment.
This video also demonstrates both the good and bad of close-up seats: great view, the best sound, and Geddy can watch you illegally recording him on your phone. But you pay a lot more, and your view is always obscured by the towering giant right in front of you who insists on not only standing but bouncing for the duration of the show.
Me? I’m usually 90% of the way back, in the cheap, sitting down, drinking beer, and actually watching the show seats, as was the case at this concert.
“Subdivisions” by Rush
From the 1982 album Signals
Rush was my first favorite prog rock band, and “Subdivisions” was my first favorite Rush song (even though now I prefer “Digital Man,” but Signals is still my favorite Rush album).
I heard this song on the XM Radio being piped into the Milio’s where I was eating lunch today, in the subdivision-filled Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie. How appropriate, I thought, and so I decided to make it today’s feature here.
There are a handful of live videos of the band performing this concert staple on YouTube, but I had to go with the classic original music video. This song is, after all, the ultimate high school nerd anthem, and with its video the band made no attempt to pretend it would ever be otherwise: throughout the video we follow a teenage misfit through the small agonies of his daily life, taking refuge the only way a four-eyed, pimple-faced dork could in 1982: by setting the high score on Tempest. Sweet.
There are plenty of Rush rarities and oddities on YouTube. I was originally going to link to an early performance (audio only) of “Tom Sawyer” before Moving Pictures was released, but ultimately I decided to go with the definitive live version of this most definitive of Rush songs: the version as it appears in the Exit… Stage Left concert film.
This film is interesting, as it is presented somewhat like a documentary: the opening credits feature the crew setting up for the show, and you see the band backstage before going on. But what really takes the cake is the self-consciously erudite voiceover commentary from Neil Peart (and once from Geddy Lee) between songs.
I watched this concert film on VHS many times in high school. It has a great early ’80s vibe: you can clearly see that the hairstyles and fashions are in transition from the greasy, warmed-over hippie look of the ’70s to the MTV and Miami Vice look of the ’80s. I always thought Alex’s bright red blazer was the best, although Geddy’s black short sleeve dress shirt and skinny red tie are nice too. And let’s not forget Neil’s bowtie. I can’t understand how a drummer could possibly play comfortably with his neck so constricted, but Neil pulls it off.
Rush dug “Between the Wheels” out of the vault for their 2004 30th anniversary tour, and I’m glad they did. I made me take another look (or, I guess, another listen) to Grace Under Pressure. As Geddy Lee says at the beginning of the clip, “this is one of those songs that seem to fall through the cracks,” which pretty much sums up that entire album for me, released in a time of transition and turmoil for the band (hence the title).
It is really a great album, and not to be overlooked. It’s the last one they did before they entered a long dark period where their sound was overwhelmed by the brittle, plastic, reverb-heavy super-high-gloss production values of the late ’80s. It wasn’t until 1993′s Counterparts that the band would again release an album that sounded good, regardless of the quality of the music it contained.
And yes, those are laundry and vending machines on stage behind Geddy. Starting on the Vapor Trails tour, I believe, Geddy no longer played with a huge wall of amps on stage, instead moving his gear beneath the elevated stage for somewhat dubious reasons. (He claims it helps give the bass more punch but I think it makes everything too boomy and undefined.) Anyway, that change left a big empty space behind him and threw off the visual balance since Alex Lifeson still has his mountain of Gallien-Krueger stacks. So, with the band’s typical sense of humor in place, Geddy filled the void with these vending machines. On the 2007-2008 Snakes and Arrows tour, the space was filled with (if I remember correctly) three huge rotisserie ovens, filled with chickens. Yes, they were real. You could smell them from the back of the hall. Even over the usual scents at a rock concert. (You know what I mean.)
I’m not sure what the source of the video seen here is, but if you find it at all appealing, I suggest you seek out the official R30: 30th Anniversary Tour CD/DVD set from the same tour. It’s excellent.
Rush was my introduction to progressive rock, and “Xanadu” is, arguably, their most prog-tastic track. It has most of the trappings of the genre: length, epic story, inexplicable time changes, extended instrumental wankery showcases. (And I’ve been listening to Rush for so long that I almost forgot to mention Geddy Lee’s near-ultrasonic, Banshee-like wailing vocals.) Plus they’re all wearing silk robes. Yes, this track has it all. If you have a stomach for this, welcome aboard… it’s going to be a wild ride.
Incidentally, I had not previously seen this video clip, but I can say with confidence that it is not actually a live performance. The audio is the album version of the song. The band recorded a number of these “live on stage” lip-sync music videos at the time, quite possibly for the entire album. A few surfaced on the Rush Chronicles video collection in the late ’80s but I’m not sure where this one’s been hiding up to now.
