Rush Countdown - Pt. 4

In honor of Rush's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I am posting a countdown of my personal top-twenty favorite Rush songs. In addition, I am ranking all 20 Rush albums in reverse order. Albums and songs 20-16 can be found here, 15-11 here, and 10-6 here.

Albums 5-1

Album #5 - Rush

The eponymous first album, includes some very classic Rush songs including Working Man, In the Mood, What You're Doing, and Finding My Way. 

Album #4 - A Farewell to Kings

This album has some of my favorite Rush songs, including Closer to the Heart (maybe Rush's best known song for their hardcore fans), Xanadu, and the title track A Farewell to Kings. I LOVE the sound!

Album #3 - Test for Echo

This album has largely been dismissed by critics but I think the songs on this album have some very unique to Rush songs. Especially, those that have interesting time changes, like Time and Motion. Also, Neil Peart was ahead of the curve with the whole internet dating in his song Virtuality. But my favorite song on the album is Driven.

Album #2 - Counterparts

You can tell that this album is very high my list just by looking at my top-20 favorite Rush songs. In some ways I think this album was a response to the grunge movement that was happening in America at the time (the album was released in 1993). While not a big fan of the grunge movement, I like almost every song on the album. 

Album #1 - 2112

What can I say? Any fan of rock and roll in the 1970s was aware of 2112. Every garage band wanted to know how to play the beginning of the song.

Songs 5-1

Song #5 - By-Tor and the Snowdog

I can remember the first time I heard this song, I was blown away. While some of this is disputed it is said that Geddy is By-Tor and Alex is Snowdog. In the song there is a battle sequence where you can hear the "growling" bass lines versus the screaming high pitched guitar lines.  

Tobes of Hades lit by flickering torchlight

Netherworld is gathered in the glare

Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the north light

Sign of Eth is rising in the air

By-Tor, knight of darkness

Centurion of evil

Devil's prince

Across the river Styx, out of the lamplight

His nemesis is waiting at the gate

The Snow Dog, ermine glowing in the damp night

A coal-black eyes shimmering with hate

By-Tor and the Snow Dog

Square for battle

Let the fray begin

Ooh, yeah

The battle's over and the dust is clearing

Disciples of the Snow Dog sound the knell

Rejoicing echoes as the dawn is nearing

By-Tor in defeat retreats to hell

Snow Dog is victorious

The land of the overworld

Is saved again

Is saved again

Song #4 - Driven

As indicated earlier, Test for Echo is one of my favorite Rush albums and this is my favorite song on the album. The lyrics don't exactly make sense, but I love the bass line on this song.

Song #3 - Xanadu

Maybe more than any other, this song demonstrates both the musicianship and fantasy/sci-fi nature  of many Rush songs. 

To seek the sacred river Alph

To walk the caves of ice

To break my fast on honeydew

And drink the milk of Paradise...'

I had heard the whispered tales of immortality

The deepest mystery

From an ancient book I took a clue

I scaled the frozen mountain tops of eastern lands unknown

Time and Man alone

Searching for the lost Xanadu

Xanadu...

To stand within the Pleasure Dome

Decreed by Kubla Khan

To taste anew the fruits of life

The last immortal man

To find the sacred river Alph

To walk the caves of ice

Oh, I will dine on honeydew

And drink the milk of Paradise

Song #2 - 2112

What can I say, 2112. The very best Rush concept song. According to Wikipedia:

"2112" tells a story set in the city of Megadon in the year 2112, "where individualism and creativity are outlawed with the population controlled by a cabal of malevolent Priests who reside in the Temples of Syrinx". A galaxy-wide war resulted in the planets forcefully joining the Solar Federation (symbolized by the "Red Star"). By 2112, the world is controlled by the priests who take orders from giant banks of computers inside the temple. Music is unknown in this world absent of creativity and individuality, but in "Discovery", a nameless man finds a beaten guitar inside a cave and rediscovers the lost art of music. In "Presentation", the man takes the guitar to the priests at the temple, who say, "Yes, we know, it's nothing new; it's just a waste of time", and then proceed angrily to destroy it and banish him. Next, in "Oracle: The Dream", the man dreams of a new planet, established at the same time as the Solar Federation, where creative people live. He awakens, depressed that music is part of such a civilization and that he can never be part of it, and kills himself, in "Soliloquy", originally titled "Soliloquy of the Soul". Another planetary war begins in "Grand Finale", originally named "Denouement", resulting in the ambiguous spoken ending: "Attention all planets of the Solar Federation: We have assumed control". Peart described the ending as a "double surprise ... a real Hitchcock killer".

Song #1 - Here Again

I guess I like this song because it is different than any other Rush song. You won't find this on any other list of best Rush songs, but it is at the top of mine...so there!

Honorable Mention: The Trees, Circumstances, Distant Early Warning, Superconductor, Dreamline, Roll the Bones, The Big Wheel, Malignant Narcissism.

Rush Countdown - Pt. 3

In honor of Rush's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I am posting a countdown of my personal top-twenty favorite Rush songs. In addition, I am ranking all 20 Rush albums in reverse order. Albums and songs 20-16 can be found here. Albums and songs 15-11 can be found here.

Albums 10-6

Album #10 - Snakes & Arrows - It's no secret to most Rush fans that Neil Peart has issues with organized religion. There is no better example of that than Snakes and Arrows. Throughout the album, Peart's lyrics are focused on the worst parts of religion. The album seems foreboding in some ways, not only in its words but in its music. Yet, despite its sometimes darker subject matter and sound, I actually like this album a great deal. There are three instrumentals on the album as well, and in my opinion they are some of the band's best.

Album #9 - Permanent Waves - This was Rush's first album of the 80s. As the band started in its second decade of music, Permanent Waves was a clear departure from what preceded. Moving away from the Sci-Fi themed epic pieces of the 70s, this album delivers more commercially accessible music. Specifically, the first two songs on the album, The Spirit of the Radio and Freewill would become radio mainstays on the Rush playlist.

Rush Countdown - Pt. 2

In honor of Rush's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame I am posting a countdown of my personal top-twenty favorite Rush songs. In addition, I am ranking all 20 Rush albums in reverse order. Albums and songs 20-16 can be found here.

Albums 15-11.

Album #15 - Caress of Steel - When released, Caress of Steel was considered a disappointment, largely because it marked a new direction for the band. Caress of Steel can be viewed as a "Tale of Two Sides." Side one has a more traditional format and contains the #18 song on my top-twenty, Bastille Day. Side two reflects the band's first attempts at "sci-fi," "concept," or "epic" music. I'm not a big fan of side two although, you really get a glimpse of the band's musicianship when you listen to it.

Rush Countdown Pt. 1

In honor of Rush's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (FINALLY, I might add), I am going to be posting a countdown of my personal top-twenty favorite Rush songs. I will also be ranking all 20 Rush albums in reverse order. If you follow this link you can find an interactive list of all 20 albums.

First, albums 20-16.

Album #20 - Power Windows (1985) - Ummmm...I hate this album, I can barely stand to listen to it. This album typifies everything wrong with their synthesizer phase. Next...