Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / [HIGHLIGHT] Rush’s 80s Synth Era: Genius or Sellout? - From EP 380

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[HIGHLIGHT] Rush’s 80s Synth Era: Genius or Sellout? - From EP 380 · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a clip from our latest episode of book Dan Rock.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Richard James, the author of Rush nineteen eighty four to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, Every album, every song this era. You describe
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: it as one of constant reinvention. The shift towards keyboards
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in the early to mid eighties divided fans. Do you
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: think that criticism was fair or misunderstood?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, when you write a book, inevitably it's your opinions.
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  Speaker 2: I've got a very good friend of mine, also a
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: massive Rush fan, who I sent all of my drafts
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: up to and said what do you think? And he
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  Speaker 2: would come back saying, yeah, like that, No, really don't
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: like that. So it's kind of two people wrote the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: book and we share the same general view that much
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of the mid eighties output they sound like, with the
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: exception of obviously Getty's voice, Alex's always inventive guitar work,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: peer it's peerceless peerless drumming. Rather just just don't sound
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  Speaker 2: like the same bands. That isn't the problem. The progress,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: the different instruments, the desire to write new styles of
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: competition composition, and completely behind. I just don't think some
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: of that material is very good. Some of it is
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  Speaker 2: when they're good. In the Syntheia, they're still good, but
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  Speaker 2: parts of it I felt when I was listening to
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the albums again and writing the reviews, I found my
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: mind wandering, and I just I wanted to note that
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: because it didn't hold me and Rush music, whatever they're doing,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: it shouldn't be boring, and to me, it just lacked
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: some flair and some real common positional, original ideas, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: it seemed like they were trying to occasionally sound like
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: other bands of the time in the general shortening and
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: sort of the almost pop song nature of some of
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: the synthea.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder how much of that has to do
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: with the departure of Terry Brown. Grace under Pressure is
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that first album you cover. How much did the lack
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of a producer, a strong producer impact the final product there?
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: That was something that came to the fore reading up
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: about Grace under Pressure with Peter Henderson at the Helm,
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  Speaker 2: and he wasn't the first choice, but he proved to
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  Speaker 2: be the man who delivered the goods in the end.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: There's a quote some in the book from Geddy saying
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  Speaker 2: he couldn't make a decision, and that's what you need
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  Speaker 2: in a producer, somebody says, yeah, that's really good, or
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  Speaker 2: let's not do that, let's think about that, or Alex,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: you played something there love that kind of guiding cohesive force.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: At the end of the first volume, where Brown and
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the band parted ways, Terry Brown's thoughts are that he
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: didn't like the direction the band were intent on pursuing,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: and he didn't Whilst not he wasn't against keyboards, he
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  Speaker 2: was against keyboards taking over to the extent that they did.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Signals is a mostly fantastic album, but it would be
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  Speaker 2: stronger if the guitar was more prominent. Subdivisions brilliant opener,
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  Speaker 2: but it's swamped with the synths, And if they'd have
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  Speaker 2: just readjusted the balance and made it much more guitar centric,
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  Speaker 2: I think it'd never been a much better album result.
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  Speaker 1: Were keyboards a collaborative decision or was it one particular
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  Speaker 1: member that really backed that idea of the heavy sense.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Geddy was definitely into it in a big way. Neil
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: getting into the electronic percussion, saw the potential for broadening
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  Speaker 2: the sound of the band beyond the kind of power
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  Speaker 2: trio with the occasional synth in the background, to really
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: expanding the sonic universe that they could create. I think
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  Speaker 2: they saw it as a great opportunity to make something
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  Speaker 2: completely original while still being the small trio that they were.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Alex went along for a ride for the ride, but
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  Speaker 2: with less enthusiasm. There's a couple of quotes wheys I
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  Speaker 2: don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, or words
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  Speaker 2: to that effect. In my band, you know, where does
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the guitar live in this song? And you think, yeah, okay,
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  Speaker 2: good point, because the synths can do so much and
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  Speaker 2: they do an awful lot where I think if they
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: were held back a bit and that the songs were
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  Speaker 2: allowed to breathe more, then I think we'd have stronger,
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  Speaker 2: stronger sounding albums.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Was getting into a particular artist that inspired him? What
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: was he listening to at that time that really pushed
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: him forward into that direction.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know of any specifics, but my impression was
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  Speaker 2: they were keen to embrace all new technologies and it
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  Speaker 2: was everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, if you listen to the radio for five minutes,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to hear something with synthesizers.
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  Speaker 2: So with the reggae and the Police, the English band
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: of the Police, influences coming through in to an extent
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  Speaker 2: in Vital Signs. That's the kind of start of it.
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  Speaker 2: But New World Man and Chemistry think Signals have got
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the the reggae pop scar kind of feel coming in,
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  Speaker 2: and they were those styles were prominent and popular, so
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  Speaker 2: that there's a couple of quotes from the guys where
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  Speaker 2: I said, rush has always been a sponge or a mirror.
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  Speaker 2: We absorb what we hear and we like and we
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  Speaker 2: add it into the Rush sound. There's no one definitive Rush.
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  Speaker 2: There's lots of Rushes and we like them all, and
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  Speaker 2: I'm not criticizing them at all for where are interest.
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  Speaker 2: It's not the instrumentation to say, it's songs that aren't
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  Speaker 2: very exciting or don't really hit home in the way
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: that Take an example, Power Windows, Big Money, Brilliant, Grand Designs,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: another great song, Manhattan Project, SUPERB Marathon. All of that
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: first side is a good compositions, they really are. The
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: second side it just I just find it dull, and
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  Speaker 2: I tried to. Obviously, books go through various stages of editing,
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  Speaker 2: and I have a tendency to put in the occasional
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: joke or the occasional criticism, which does not make the
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: final print, which is fair enough. You know, you write
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  Speaker 2: what you're right and then the editor's got the sole control.
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  Speaker 2: But I found it really difficult, especially with the second
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: side of Power Windows and some of the tracks on
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Hold Your Fire, to find positive things to say. I
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  Speaker 2: did find some, but not to the extent that you
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  Speaker 2: find them. Like the first side of Power Windows. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: the Big Money is such an opener, so good, but
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  Speaker 2: then the second half the album, I can't remember how
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  Speaker 2: the songs go, and it shouldn't be like that. Afraid
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  Speaker 2: mystic rhythms. It just it could have been so everything
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  Speaker 2: could have been so much better on parts of that
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  Speaker 2: album and other songs within that Late Ages era. I'm
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: gonna get a lot of Christi for it. You know.
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  Speaker 2: I hate the ape, I hate the synth era. I
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: don't hate anything about Rush. I even like the first
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  Speaker 2: album when they were being man Zeppelin with bits of Rush.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot to admire in every album, but I
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  Speaker 2: think there was a dip in the kind of not
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  Speaker 2: in the integrity, but the compositional flare. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: they what was present on Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves
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  Speaker 2: seemed to go. They seem to not flat line, but cruise.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.