Tag: Neil Peart

Farewell to Kings (and Faith): Neil Peart, 1977

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock1 Comment

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of A FAREWELL TO KINGS.

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40th Anniversary Edition

What followed, 1977’s A Farewell to Kings, though, had far more in common with 1976’s 2112 than it would with 1980’s Permanent Waves.  Not appearing on the market until September 1, 1977, A Farewell to Kings ended the new album every six months schedule Rush has followed thus far.  A brilliant album in and of itself, A Farewell to Kings still belongs to Rush 2.1 as I have defined it.  So does the follow-up album, Hemispheres.  Certainly, Rush tried many new things—in terms of album structure, lyrical depth and story telling, and musical complexity—than it had on the first several albums.  “We had written material that was a little beyond us, considering our level of musicianship at the time,” Lee later admitted.[i]  But the progress is in continuity, a major reform rather than a revolution.  “Our progress has always been sincere—not in an arrogant way, but for our own pleasure,” Peart stated in 1982.  “We’ve always incorporated music from people we liked, so it has made us stylistically schizoid.”[ii]

While there are no side length tracks on A Farewell to Kings, the album revolves around its two major songs, “Xanadu” at 11 minutes in length and “Cygnus X-1” at almost ten and 1/2 minutes.  Thematically, Peart continues to embrace both the fantastic—“Xanadu” based on the iconic romantic English poem, “Kubla Kahn,” by Samuel Coleridge—and science-fiction, “Cygnus X-1.”  At the time, Peart lauded fantasy writing in lyrics.  “It’s a way to put a message across without being oppressive.”[iii]

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Clockwork Lives Graphic Novel

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rockLeave a comment

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Well, in perusing Cygnus X1’s website just now, I found even more information about Rush.  Stuff that had totally eluded me.  Cygnus, what would we do without you???  Thank you!

Kevin J. Anderson has just announced that CLOCKWORK LIVES will be a graphic novel soon.  How very cool.

Here’s the Cygnus X1 link: http://news.cygnus-x1.net/2017/04/clockwork-lives-graphic-novel-coming.html

And, here’s the direct link to KJA’s website: http://kjablog.com/clockwork-lives-graphic-novel/

Rush’s 2112 at 40: The Super Deluxe Edition

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock5 Comments

Rush, 2112 (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition).  2CDs, 1DVD, 3LPs, 1 vinyl single, starman turntable mat, three collector buttons, June 1976 handbill, June 1976 ticket stuff, starman sticker, LP-sized photos of the three members of Rush, LP-sized liner notes by Rob Bowman, code for digital download, cd-booklet and liner notes, vinyl single adaptor, and starman sketch.  http://www.rush.com/2112-40th/

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So much stuff, I can barely contain my emotions!

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Is there a greater anthem of individualism and anti-conformity in all rock history than Rush’s 2112?  No folk song of the 1950s or protest song of the 1960s comes close to matching Rush’s power of words and music.  Even more than “Bohemian Rhapsody,” 2112 makes us want to bang our heads and raise our fists.  Sorry, Garth.

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Ending at the Top: RUSH, TIME STAND STILL, Part I

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock6 Comments
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2016, available now.

A two-part review of Rush, TIME STAND STILL (2016).

Between May and August, 2015, Rush performed to jam-packed audiences in cities across the United States and Canada.  Rush captured this tour with its own 2015 release, R40 LIVE, a three cd/1-bluray set.  This tour attracted an immense and diverse crowd.  Generations of men in the same family (grandfather, father, and sons) sat together, women attended in larger than usual numbers, and my two oldest kids (Nathaniel and Gretchen) drove with me nearly 10 hours to see the band perform R40 in Lincoln.  That magical show will always remain one of the greatest of my life.  Not just because I was seeing Rush for the umpteenth time, but because I got to share the band with my children for the first time.  They’ve grown up with Rush—listening to the music and watching their concerts over and over again; indeed, all six of my kids can readily name the members of the band, the songs, and the albums—but they’d never experienced the joy of an actual concert.  It was, to be sure, a glorious spectacle.

When I looked out the bedroom window the other day to see Nathaniel shoveling snow and head banging, I could tell he was head banging to 2112.  Every few moments the shovel came up and served as an Alex Lifeson air guitar.  Needless to write, it took a bit for him to complete the driveway.  Regardless, I’m deeply proud that my children recognize the greatness of the three Canadian artists, even older than their dad!

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2112: The Uncompromising Integrity of Neil Peart’s Individualism

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock3 Comments

Happy Fortieth Anniversary, 2112!

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The fourth studio album by Rush, 2112 (1976).

While Caress of Steel ended on an organic, open and free-spirited note, their fourth album, 2112, began with discordant and spacey computer noises and swatches of sound.  The contrast in mood and sound could not have been greater.  2112 even inverted the structure of Caress, placing the epic side-long track on side one of the album, with the shorter songs on side two.

Again, it’s worth remembering that if they were going to end, they were going to do so on their own terms.  If Rush was going “down the tubes,” they were going to go down with a serious statement and a very, very loud thud.  No whimper.  Only a bang.  “We talked about how we would rather go down fighting rather than try to make the kind of record they wanted us to make,” Lee remembers.  “We made 2112 figuring everyone would hate it, but we were going to go out in a blaze of glory.”[i]  Alex feels the same.  “2112 is all about fighting the man,” he states.  “Fortunately for us, that became a marker. That was also the first time that we really started to sound like ourselves.”[ii]  It is hard to judge whether or not this anti-authoritarian streak in Rush came from the group as a whole or from each of the three individuals who made up the band.  Perhaps the distinction is a false or a super-fine one.

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The Trilogy Complete: Kevin J. Anderson’s ETERNITY’S MIND

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rockLeave a comment
kja-eternitys-mind
Out today, and available from Amazon.

I wish I had a review ready, but I just received the book today!  So, sadly, no review yet.  Just a notice.  This, however, is the conclusion to Anderson’s brilliant, Saga of Shadows trilogy.

For those of you who don’t know, Anderson is not only one of Neil Peart’s closest friends, but he’s also the co-author of Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives with Peart.  Much to celebrate in the prog world.

What else to write about Kevin?  I mentioned he’s brilliant, but did I mention he also writes lyrics for Roswell Six, is a great guy, has an equally great wife, and has been nominated for the Hugo?

To order Anderson’s’s latest, please go here: https://www.amazon.com/Eternitys-Mind-Kevin-J-Anderson/dp/0765333015/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473789535&sr=8-1&keywords=eternity%27s+mind

It’s a Far Cry: The Genius of Rush, Snakes, and Arrows

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock3 Comments
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Snakes and Arrows, 2007.

Snakes and Arrows, Rush’s 18th studio album, came out on May 1, 2007.  It was the last Rush album to be distributed by Atlantic, but the first to be produced by Nick Raskulinecz.  Snake and Arrows was profoundly progressive, but it was also one of Rush’s blues-iest album, almost certainly influenced by their EP, Feedback, a 30th anniversary tribute to the bands the three members loved in the 1960s.  And yet, even the blues on the album is mischievous, an inversion or twisting of blues, propelling the flow into more classical progressive directions.

The album also sees the return of Peart, the cultural critic and observer.  The first track, “Far Cry,” begins with the harrowing “Pariah dogs and wandering madmen,” a commentary about the evil in society and those who would sell their own souls and become evil to destroy the other evil.  Each, tellingly, is a fundamentalist, “speaking in tongues.”  The track begins, musically, with a psychedelic blues feel.  This was not the world we thought we would inherit, Peart laments.

It’s a far cry from the world we thought we’d inherit

It’s a far cry from the way we thought we’d share it

You can almost feel the current flowing

You can almost see the circuits blowing

Even when we feel we might actually make something right, the world spins and we find ourselves rolled over.

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Fantoons: Neil for President

On By bradbirzerIn Progressive rock2 Comments

Fantoons posted this on Facebook.  I have no idea who the artist is, but I’d love to think her or him personally.  Love it.

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