![]() ![]() The creative juices were flowing nicely at the time, and the transition between “ Permanent Waves” and “ Moving Pictures” was as seamless as can be. As far as what attracts people to their music, I really don’t know.” Even if you could dance to ‘Tom Sawyer,’ you’d be exhausted halfway through. The joke is you can never find a Rush song you can dance to - reasonably true. I don’t think it necessarily was - you can read those lyrics more than one way - but radio seemed to get very attracted to that song. And of course, radio loved that song because they seemed to think it was a pat on the back. As told by long-time road manager for the band Liam Birt, the song is about “ how radio can make or break people. The focus on shorter songs paid off, with the band achieving their first hit, in the form of “ The Spirit of Radio”. “ Hemispheres,” the previous studio album, was a difficult one to make, and as Geddy puts it, “ All the crappiest experiences of your life prepare you for the next step”. ![]() “ Limelight” starts with the making of “ Permanent Waves”, which was the beginning of their love relationship with Le Studio. Out with the satin robes ad long hair, in with the shoulder pads and keyboards, in the blink of an eye. Having a longer piece in the album and an overall concept through the lyrics had been explored to is maximum potential, and the look they were going for had to follow the shift in direction. The move from longer, intricate pieces of music, into shorter, more palatable songs was born not out of commercial sensibilities or pressure from the record company, but from a feeling within the trio that their modus operandi needed to change. As Neil Peart would put it on their most famous song, ‘ Tom Sawyer,’ “changes aren’t permanent, but change is”. In fact, one of the few common threads that could be found between “ Hemispheres,” their last studio album of the ’70s, and “ Presto,” the last release of the ’80s, is a relentless pursuit of evolution. Also of note is the extensive dialogues with Peter Collins, who produced the most synth-laden albums of the band’s career, and Rupert Hine, who rescued them from the infatuation with keyboards and helped Alex Lifeson get his guitar onto the forefront of the band’s mix.Īs announced in the preface, “ the business of Rush is very different in this book versus the first one, reflected in the vast difference between the live albums ‘A Show of Hands’ and ‘All the World’s a Stage’“. ![]() ![]() The statements of Howard Ungerleider, the responsible for lights and the visual elements of the Rush’s live performances, are prominently featured again, detailing the evolution of the live projections as technology took a massive leap forward, and how the sonic aspect was augmented on stage by the films accompanying each song. One of the keys to the success in making this book an interesting read is the interviews conducted with key personnel. Martin, however, manages to find the difficult balance between covering the paths already explored in the band’s career by other writes, whilst also adding new information. Magazines and journals covered the creative process of each album extensively, and some of those who have followed them since their inception might think this exercise is a bit redundant. Even more so than in the first book, the task at hand becomes particularly difficult due to the fact that there’s a decreasing amount of new information in the band’s pantheon to be discovered by long time fans as their history progresses. As mentioned in our look at his previous book, Martin has written 7,900 album reviews and almost a hundred books related to rock and metal, and one would be hard pressed to think of a better person to tackle the humongous endeavour of documenting the trio’s lengthy history. The trilogy started with “ Anthem: Rush in the 1970s” (reviewed by us here), and will be concluded next year with “ Driven: Rush in the ‘90s and beyond”. October 13 brings us the second installment of Rush history, as told by journalist Martin Popoff. ![]()
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