Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion - Page 5

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

"Personally, any Rush is good Rush." I second that! I love the synth period, too. Especially Mission, and lots of stuff from Grace Under Pressure.

Why isn't Xanadu considered a synth song? Or Tom Sawyer? There's more synthn in those two songs from the 70's and 1980 than anything in the last decade +.

Granted, Hold Your Fire was definitely a high point for the synths. But even Rush recognized that. Hence, Presto.

I'm really hearing lots of Counterparts in S&A, and Vapor Trails, after a recent listen.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

I am loving this CD, but it appears there's some clipping in Main Monkey Business? Listen to the left channel when the guitar is doing the da-da-da dadada da-da-da dadada thing towards the end, right before Neil does his cymbal choke thing.

Anyway, here's a few things I blogged about tonight:

# Geddy plays his bass w/o doing his flamenco thing. He seemed to pick that up during the Counterparts era, but if you watch the video from "Limelight" in the early '80s, you see him doing the flicking thing with his picking finger. It's cool in some songs, but he overused it in recent recordings. Call me a purist, but why use 16th notes when 8th notes will suffice?

# No insane bass tracking. Once again, on VT, Geddy tracked 2 or 3 different basslines on some songs. Does Rush have 3 bassists? No. So why have 3 tracks? Self-production, that's why. No outside voice to tell him, "Uh, HELL no." On the S&A songs, Rush is 99% bass, drums and guitar, as they should be. (Though there is a bit much vocal tracking and harmonies)

What else is cool for me is that there are no songs I dislike (The Stars Look Down from Vapor Trails anyone? Ugh)

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

I actually like The Stars Look Down. To be honest, I don't really like Ghost Rider on VT--though I love it on the Rio DVD. I know this is a popular song, but I just don't like the studio version.

Extra voices bug me a lot more than extra basses. True, it's impossible to reproduce live without triggering pre-recorded stuff, but they do that all the time in concert with sythn parts, so what's the difference?

Oh, and there's plenty of overdubbed guitars on S&A. Maybe not as much as VT, but surely more than 1%. What's cool is that a lot of it is acoustic layered beneath the electric. That seems to give it more "space" than simply another electric.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Is "Hope" really even a Rush song?

The credits read "Hope" is "composed and performed by Lerxst Lifeson all by his own self".

Is this Alex's son?

Great CD.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Lerxst is Alex's nickname. Neil is Pratt and Geddy is Dirk.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

"I don't remember any synths on Counterparts. I thought that was the first one when they decided to strip down their sound."

"Um. . .the "synth-heavy" Rush days have been gone for almost 20 years!"

Vapor Trails was the first Rush record Id heard prob since I think Grace Under Pressure

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

I heard that as well (actually, a few times, but most notably towards the very end).

I have that song on "repeat" mode. I can't get enough of that instrumental.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Here's an interesting review on Snakes & Arrows from IGN. The reviewer, who seems to be a credible Rush fan, seems to like the music a lot, but is bothered by the sometimes extremely negative lyrics.

http://music.ign.com/articles/784/784829p1.html

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Thanks for posting that. It is an interesting read. I am more than a little uneasy about the tone of some of the lyrics.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

DavidJ, please tell us more about your feelings on the lyrics. I can imagine being a Christian Rush fan, for instance, and being bothered by the lyrics. But please don't feel like you can't speak your mind on this issue if that's the case (and if it's not the case, then just ignore my post ).

I think the lyrics mourn how men have perverted religion, rather than criticize religion for the hell of it.

And if Neil doesn't have faith, so what? It shouldn't have any effect on your faith.

As to the "negative" criticism . . . I don't see this as negative at all. Was the "unattractive truth" from Subdivisions negative? There's a difference between authentically facing something that sucks and being negative. Neil is not whining. He is not complaining. He is chronicling the human condition, as he sees it. This album is remorseful and euphoric at the same time. It is paradoxical. But if you try to view it through a filter of your own beliefs--rather than try to understand Neil's perspective--I can see how you might only get one side of that paradox. That doesn't mean your view is wrong. It just means that Neil might disagree with you. And if music doesn't challenge our certitude and cause us to think about the deepest aspects of our lives, then it's just Britney Spears.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

It is more a matter of not wanting to derail the thread.


Of course, you are correct that is shouldn't affect my faith and it doesn't, but it does sadden me. I can't imagine going through what Neil has gone through and I can't imagine going through it without faith.


Well, I appreciate lyrics that speak to more than the notion of romantic love and sex. I stated earlier that Hold Your Fire was one of my favorite Rush albums and it deals with all sorts of "world" problems, but to my mind it is filled with more hope. I'm not sure "political" songs can ever be proven to really accomplish anything more than providing a catharsis to like-minded individuals. That said I tend to appreciate the effort and often connect with them. Now, I do need to state that I have not yet been able to evaluate the lyrics in their full context, but from what I have read to this point, I find it negative. Is it whining like much of the grunge that was popular in the 90s? No, but it seems pessimistic and nihilistic. That may be their perspective at the moment and we live in a vastly flawed world. It can be hard at times to remain positive and music without hope is not something I see as having value to me.

I'm still thinking through this and have not by any means written off the album. There just aren't many examples of musicianship like Rush out there.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

That was 20 years ago. Sometimes our familiarity with a record/movie/text we love anesthetizes us to gripping just how long ago it was created.

A lotta life happens in 20 years' time.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

After listening to the CD twice, I think this is some of the best and most thought provoking working these guys have done in quite some time. I'm heading off to begin my third listen.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

I can in no way speak for Neil, I'm just giving my impression of the lyrics. But I think he would agree with you, ElevSkyMovie, that there are millions of good Muslims and Christians. Unforntunately, the suicide bombers and abortion clinic terrorists make the loudest noise and the biggest headlines. It WOULD be unfair to characterize all religion by using these few examples. But I don't think he is doing that.

I think we are all dismayed that something which should be holy and healing can be twisted into some of the darkest, most destructive acts in history. And it's not just a thing of the past. The Crusades may be centuries old, but the tensions in Ireland, for instance, still erupt into violence. And that is at its root a Christian tension. I think believers and nonbelievers alike can mourn the times when faith erupts into violence. After 9/11, it is particularly relevant.

As to the "nihilistic" charge . . . this is true in a sense. There is a rejection of "values written in stone," so to speak. But this doesn't mean Neil is without values. He might think that the world doesn't have Fate or predefined purposed, but this doesn't mean he believes his life is meaningless--he chooses to define his own meaning. For instance, I think these lyrics are beautiful:

"I don't have faith in faith/I don't believe in belief/You can call me faithless/But I still cling to hope/And I believe in love/And that's faith enough for me." [Faithless.]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. This is a very personal subject, and one that must be approached with sensitivity and respect. I can sympathize with liking an artist with whom you disagree on core beliefs. I'm a "flaming conservative" (Libertarian ) myself, and I have a feeling that much of my politics are at odds with Rush. But that's okay.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

I hear that. Most Rush fans probably know who Neal Morse is. As a non-Christian man myself, I'm sometimes at odds listening to his solo music since he left Spock's Beard. However, while I do disagree with 99% of what he sings about, I still sense his passion for it in the vocals, and that's good enough for me. And the truth of the matter is, Neal could write a song about paint drying and I would love it.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

A world in which Jesus would personally break up Spock's Beard makes me question the existence of God.



But seriously, I've never had a problem listening to good music just because the lyrics are theologically different from my own beliefs.

I still miss the old Beard though. . .

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

I found this to be an interesting read on the the new album. Neil touches a bit on the source for some of the lyrics. http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/207669

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Mark, great link. Great article.

"To keep things interesting, though, [Neil] promises Rush feels somewhat "liberated" from its catalogue after doing a pure greatest-hits tour three years ago, and will this time be honing in on new material and "old songs that we haven't played for years or that we've never played." One such gem from 1979 is in the works, although he won't say which."

Hell yeah! Is it time to start making our set-list wish list? What do you think the '79 song is?

OMG, I hope it's all of Hemispheres!!!!

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

I wish they would break out The Camera Eye. Anyway, this quote has me re-thinking my decision to skip the Rush show when it comes to town. "old songs that we haven't played for years or that we've never played."

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Hemispheres was 1978, Permanent Waves was 1980. So perhaps this is intensionally misleading.

Besides Hemisphere, I'd love to hear: Different Strings, The Necromancer (not likely), The Fountain of Lamneth (not likely), Cinderella Man, Circumstances, Entre Nous, Jacob's Ladder, Witch Hunt, Vital Signs, Chemistry, The Weapon, Marathon, Manhatten Project, Mission, Turn the Page, Presto, Hand Over Fist, Ghost of a Chance, Cut to the Chase, Double Agent, Cold Fire, Alien Shore, Peaceable Kingdom, Sweet Miracle, Freeze,

and most of S&A. Is that too much to ask for?

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Or maybe when it was written?

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Or maybe when they toured supporting it?

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

Well, the Hemispheres tour (Tour of the Hemispheres) went from 10/14/78 to 6/5/79. The setlist included the following:

Anthem
A Passage to Bangkok
By-Tor and the Snow Dog
Xanadu
Something For Nothing
The Trees
Cygnus X-1
Hemispheres
Closer To The Heart
Circumstances
A Farewell to Kings
La Villa Strangiato
2112
Working Man
Bastille Day
In The Mood
Drum Solo

What am I trying to say? I have no idea what the mystery tune from '79 is.

Re: Rush: "Snakes and Arrows" discussion

"Warner Spins DVD-Inspired Physical Format, Lots Of Extras"


Limited edition. I don't understand the reference to Roadrunner Records and think that's a mistake.