1. "Spirit of the Radio": It is a great wake up song as it tells of getting in your car and starting your day, only to be influenced by commercialism. It also features Geddy Lee hitting astronomical high notes with the words, "...of salesmen."
Monday, December 3, 2012
Three for the Road: Rush
As a middle school teacher, I am surrounded by kids who love Beiber, One Direction and Ke$ha. I usually am listening to music on my prep period while I work. As my sixth period shuffles in, they usually are curious as to what I am listening to. They also love to give requests - mostly to songs I would never be playing. But, for some strange reason, this class loves to request RUSH. Guys, girls, you name it. Strange to see a 12 year old girl ask for "Tom Sawyer." So, if you need three by the Canadian trio, here is what I would go with:
1. "Spirit of the Radio": It is a great wake up song as it tells of getting in your car and starting your day, only to be influenced by commercialism. It also features Geddy Lee hitting astronomical high notes with the words, "...of salesmen."
2. "Closer to the Heart": name anotehr song that uses bells so well. It interrupts the song only to bring it back to the next verse. I actually think it's a nice song.
3. "Fly by Night" : Is there an automobile company that better implements music than Volkswagen? From "Da, Da, Da" to this gem, which is, by far, my favorite commercial of the year.
1. "Spirit of the Radio": It is a great wake up song as it tells of getting in your car and starting your day, only to be influenced by commercialism. It also features Geddy Lee hitting astronomical high notes with the words, "...of salesmen."
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The "Fly by Night" VW ad is one of my favorites, too. I can't believe we haven't discussed it until now -- I laugh every time I see it.
ReplyDelete"Closer to the Heart" and "Spirit of Radio" are solid, if not obvious choices. I toyed with making one of my choices "By-Tor & the Snow Dog" (because it's in four chapters and it's 9 minutes long) or any of the other epics like "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage" or "Xanadu", whose intro alone is longer than most songs by other, lesser bands. But here are my three Rush songs:
1)"A Passage to Bangkok" -- for the laughable juxtaposition of its menacing opening guitar riff couple with the trite little Asian-sounding tones that follow. Either way, a drug anthem like this gets the old fist pumping.
2) "The Trees" -- A nice, mellow, and utterly ridiculous interlude to two otherwise stadium rock gems.
3) "Freewill" -- Don't you just want to drive around blasting this? I know I do. And Geddy Lee hits the highest part of his vocal range at the end of the song. What's better than that?!?
By the way, here's what I love about Rush and their fans. Check out this comment by YouTube user MonkeyMagic64 about the song "Circumstances":
"This is what I consider the perfect example of a GREAT progressive rock song. Everything flows seemlessly. It's not complex for the sake of being complex. It is musical and the phrasing is perfect, even if it doesn't conform to 4/4 timing. I wish people could take the time to appreciate music like this....too bad our society is so superficial."
Freewill was on my short list. So was "In the Mood."
ReplyDeleteI knew you were going with "The Trees." What about "Subdivisions?" I love Alex just stating the word over and over!
Good call going with stuff from 2112. That is epic prog RUSH!