Rush - "Presto" & "Roll The Bones" Discussion

[GOS]

One could make a bitchin' LP length album, selecting tracks from Presto and RtB.

Roll the Bunnies
Presto! Bones!
Or whatever you'd want to call it.

hahahahaha, hilarious.

 

[paligap]

I was a die hard fan of Rush until Snakes & Arrows came out (got the MVI DVD). I have all their studio albums and several live albums (and no compilations) and I have seen them live four times. For mix and mastering, I've separated it in several periods:

1. Raw (Rush to Hemispheres)
2. Balanced (Permanent Waves to Signal - their best period in my opinion)
3. Thin (Grace Under Pressure to Roll The Bones - Steinberger and Wal basses, lots of synths and electronic drums)
4. Loud (Counterparts and Test For Echo, their last good album for my taste)
5. Saturated mess (Vapor Trails to Clockwork Angels - their most uninspired material)

The last live album that had a good mix and mastering was Different Stages and after that, they were saturated messes (like their studio albums). Around the mid-2000s (R30 and S&A), I felt that they were just in it for the money and their music was downhill since TFE.

All that being said, returning to the main subject, Presto was OK, a little boring (fell asleep on the first listen), and Roll The Bones was better (for my tastes).

It's interesting that your breakdown is basically chronolgical.

I was a big Rush fan during the first two periods you describe. I still have the All the World's a Stage and Moving Pictures LPs I bought back in the day. I know I had more of their early LPs, but I have no idea what happened to them.

I bought the 90s (?) remasters CDs of everything from Fly by Night to Permanent Waves. I wasn't as big a fan of their music after Signals. The only new releases I bought were Roll the Bones (the last tour I saw them, and the first time my wife saw them), Snakes and Arrows, and Clockwork Angels. Of course, I also bought several of their multichannel releases.

I would like to get the "best" versions of some of their music I already own and some that I don't, but, sheesh, discussion about that topic on the Internet is like the black hole of Cygnus X1.

 

[JulesRules]

Don't think CA has been remastered and it's a muddy mess. You can only have so many flamenco bass parts and taurus pedals running at the same time and make it work.

Run a filter across the album, removing some of that excessive low end, and it gets a lot more listenable.

 

[Frogmort]

'Superconductor' from Presto is my least favorite Rush song of all time, and I'm a huge Rush fan.

 

[edisonbaggins]

'Superconductor' from Presto is my least favorite Rush song of all time, and I'm a huge Rush fan.

Pooperconductor!!!

 

[Blackwood]

Ugh. I don’t want to say this too loud but, I kind of like Superconductor.

I’ll see myself out of the thread now.

 

[cbmmm3]

well, Im not afraid -
I really dig Superconductor

 

[ctoelle]

Nothing in Rush's catalog is worse than Tai Shan.

Nothing

 

[Bill B]

LOL...
That's what's so great about Rush (and music in general), someone, somewhere, loves every song they've ever created.

I am somewhat ambivalent to Superconductor, but earlier I mentioned how much I like the album "Hold Your Fire", and those final two songs, "Tai Shan" and "High Water", have a lot to do with that.

Sort of a Miller Lite thing going on here.... "Tastes Great!!!"..... "Less Filling!"

 

[JulesRules]

Yeah, I somehow think High Water is even worse than Tai Shan. Second Nature and Prime Mover also do very little for me. Looking at it chronologically, the leaner, stripped-back style of Presto was desperately needed after HYF, IMO. The way the keyboards are used mostly for textures and the occasional lead melody is reminiscent of the 1976-1981 period.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

So.... Why hasn't 'Permanent Waves' been released in surround sound?

 

[privateuniverse]

So.... Why hasn't 'Permanent Waves' been released in surround sound?

They were unable to locate the multi-tracks.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

They were unable to locate the multi-tracks.

What a disaster!

 

[RustyStatic]

When I was a kid I thought the voice saying "Superconductor" was bad-ass, and as an adult (in appearances, anyways) I can't shake it, I love it and I'm not ashamed. My vote for worst Rush song of all time is I Think I'm Going Bald. I mean, c'mon, man.

 

[Bill B]

… My vote for worst Rush song of all time is I Think I'm Going Bald. I mean, c'mon, man.

Yeah, it’s hard to make a case for that one. They must have needed a song just to fill out the album. I agree, worst Rush song.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Yeah, it’s hard to make a case for that one. They must have needed a song just to fill out the album. I agree, worst Rush song.

Rivendell, Take a Friend, Neurotica...

 

[RustyStatic]

Rivendell, Take a Friend, Neurotica...

Yeah, Take a Friend definitely came to mind... that first album is very near and dear to me since it was the first album I could play cover to cover on guitar, but man, I've caught myself from time to time absentmindedly singing that in the shower or something and been like "woof, that song is... not good."

 

[jimfisheye]

When I was a kid I thought the voice saying "Superconductor" was bad-ass, and as an adult (in appearances, anyways) I can't shake it, I love it and I'm not ashamed. My vote for worst Rush song of all time is I Think I'm Going Bald. I mean, c'mon, man.

Never minded that track... Until the last few years when the hair started malfunctioning! And I hadn't thought of that until just now, thanks! Geddy does not appear to be going bald even a little either!

Um... Rivendell? Tears?
These are just so obviously trying to be record company ballad throw away tracks.

 

[JulesRules]

Geddy does not appear to be going bald even a little either!

Alex was actually going bald at that point already. He used wigs and eventually got hair transplant surgery IIRC.

Tears?

 

[Bill B]

I like "Tears"... a lot. Perhaps from the whole brain washing effect of listening to the album 2112 a thousand times.