Classic Albums: Rush–2112 • Moving Pictures (2010)

[WATCHED: January 3, 2011] Classic Albums: Rush–2112 • Moving Pictures

Sarah got me this disc for Christmas.  Thank you, Sarah!

This DVD is from the Classic Albums series.  The series is shown on VH1 in the states and BBC (and other places) elsewhere).  There’s been about 35 episodes of the series, with Rush being one of the few bands to have two albums for the show (which is an honor, but which also cuts down on the content for each album by half…boo!).

The show is an hour, and there’s almost an hour of bonus footage on the DVD  (which die-hard fans will enjoy more than the actual show).

The main show itself looks at the creation of these two classic albums.  There are interviews with the band members as well as many people associated with the band (and a couple completely random musicians).  We get their manager Ray Daniels and the producer for these albums Terry Brown (his segments are my favorite because he gets behind the mixing console and plays around with the songs).  We also get Cliff Burnstein (the guy with the crazy hair) who was instrumental in getting Rush publicity.

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Skylaire Alfvegren–“Grokking Rush” (The Believer, July/August 2010)

SOUNDTRACK:  RUSH-“La Villa Strangiato” (from Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage) (2010).

In the bonus features of the DVD for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, we see (in addition to some awesome live footage of Rush in 1974 with original drummer John Rutsey) a fantastic live clip of Rush playing “La Villa Strangiato,” one of the best instrumentals around.

The camera angle focuses mainly on Alex Lifeson.  And man does he rock!

It’s common knowledge, even among Rush haters, that Geddy Lee and Neil Peart are (or at least were) always at the top of the list of “Best” bassist and drummer respectively.  And yup, they are pretty amazing.  But this has always left Alex in the shadows.

Admittedly, there are thousands of great, amazing, ear melting guitarists.  And, typically, the bassist and drummer are kind of dull, so it makes sense that Alex’s playing is in the shadows of the other two.  But I fear that he is often labelled as just not very good.

This video should totally prove that suggestion incorrect.  He plays quickly and with amazing accuracy, in a multitude of styles.

And speaking of the movie, I always wondered if their families minded that Alex and Geddy changed their names for the band (it’s never addressed in the film). It seems like a weird thing to have done circa 1974 in Canada, although Kiss did the same thing at the time in New York (removing the Jewishness of their names).  I just love the name Živojinović, and it’s a shame it’s not better known.  (Huh, although Wikipedia tells me that Lifeson is a sort of literal translation of Živojinović.  Who knew?)

[READ: July 29, 2010] “Grokking Rush”

Since Rush has been everywhere lately, I figured I’d mention this recent article in The Believer.  There’s nothing terribly new in the article.  In fact, it seems like something of an introduction to the uninitiated, giving a basic history of the band and their lyrical themes.

The only thing I didn’t know, which is teased out in the subtitle, was that so many academic papers have been written about the band. Dissertation titles include “Permanent Changes: Rush, Musicians’ Rock, and the Progressive Post-Counter-Culture” and “Grand Designs: A Musical, Social and Ethnographic Study of Rush.”  They have also been written about in The Journal of American and Comparative Cultures and Popular Music and Society.  And, they are the only band ever to be cited in the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.

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Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010)

[WATCHED: July 11, 2010] Beyond the Lighted Stage

I had heard about this film around the time that I read .  I was pretty excited about it, and then evidently everyone I know went to the TriBeCa Film Festival and saw it (except me).  And then everyone saw it on VH1 (except me), so I bought the DVD instead.

This film is really fantastic.  Obviously, it helps if you’re a Rush fan, but Geddy and Alex in particular are funny and interesting (even if they think they are boring).  And the film is expertly edited.  They cover 40 years of Rush’s history in 90 minutes.  This leads to a rather cursory look at their history, so the film doesn’t get mired in details, but there are tidbits of fun for die-hards.

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