Listening to Rush: A Farewell To Kings, Side 2
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
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Those crackles on the album take me back I can almost smell the memorex cleaner on the pad for cleaning the record Old Rush fan forever
Neil is a poet, a philosopher and sometimes a prophet. THE MASTER wordsmith of Rock and Roll
Incredible band
Yes... Book 2, Cygnus X-1 is the first song on Hemispheres. The next album and probably one of my favorite Rush songs. Can't wait to see you listen to that one.
You're not going to believe the next album. It defies all categories, and pushes the envelope of what 3 Humans can accomplish musically... The mighty HEMISPHERES!!
My traditional Farewell to Kings story: I was listening to the album in 1977 (age 13), first time listen as I had just bought it when it came out. It was late at night, and I had it playing in the background on the turntable while I was reading Steven King's The Shining. I was growing increasingly scared as the Overlook Hotel came to life in the book to torment the Torrance family, when the narration began at the start of Cygnus X-1. I literally fell off my bed terrified, convinced our house was after me. When the song began I realized what had been talking to me and grabbed the jacket liner to read the lyrics. The 70's were a scene, man. P.S. when you start Hemispheres, you might want to listen to Cygnus X-1 again and then put on Hemispheres Side 1.
Totally agree about (a) the 70's, best ever imo, (6 years older so the 70's WERE my teens, (b) refreshing with Cygnus X-1 Book 1 before Book 2 which starts Hemispheres.
@@clansome you're the same age as my oldest brother. i will agree his experience of the 70's was waaaay wilder than mine!
I agree with a fresh listen to Book I. Many people don't seem to pick up on the snippets inserted into Book II. Of course, it was different for us, back in the day, because we'd been listening - ad infinitum - for over a year, when Hemispheres was released, by which time, we knew every note... and had the air drumming perfected! 😂
harp twins do a nice cover of closer to the heart. was waiting a roll of thunder claps at end for Neils approval
Now onto their masterpiece, Hemispheres!
It sure is .
This is absolutely my favorite Rush album, now. As a kid, in the 80s, this was over my head lol
Jim, Love hearing the crackle. Other Rush album masterpieces Hemispheres, best songs La Villa Strangiato instrumental. Permanent Waves, Jacob's Ladder, Natural Science, Moving Pictures Witch Hunt the entire album. 2112 the entire album. Power Windows Grand Design the entire album. Snakes & Arrows Far Cry. Clockwork Angels song The Garden is a must. It's Rush's last song on their last album. Anthem on the Fly by Night album 1974. Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson are musical geniuses. Rush fan for 46 years.
Cinderella Man was inspired by the Frank Capra movie Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, starring Gary Cooper as a man from a small town who inherits lots of money and moves to the big city. Lyrics on this song by Geddy Lee.
don't worry there's a sequel..
time to listen to Hemispheres 🧠🧠
A Farewell To Kings is the first album I ever bought, along with Counterparts
You were living in a Rush-tinted moment Jim! There's no harm in staying in there for a while. And then onwards to Hemispheres. Thanks for a great reaction.
Cygnus X-1 is a song about a black hole. What's interesting is that Cygnus X-1 is the first black hole we discovered. In the mid-60s, we discovered a source of x-rays very near another star. In the early 70s, it was concluded that there was a massive object that was releasing the x-rays, and it was too massive to be a neutron star and could be an actual "black hole", something we never actually discovered before. In just a few years, Rush was writing a song about it. Some things about the song that make it wonderful is that as the ship is getting pulled into the black hole, Alex's lead guitar is wildly discordant. Whether intentional or not, the guitar perfectly reflects the nature of strong gravitational fields to distort and alter frequencies. It's really a wonderful prog piece from them.
I was in High School in '77. Never heard of RUSH until one day someone played 2112 over the loud speakers as we ran out onto the gym to warm up (Basketball). I had never heard anything like it, and my teammates were like, you've never heard of RUSH? LOL
I'm very jealous of you. I wish I could hear this album again for the first time. Cinderella Man is one of my favourites - one of Lerxst's trademark off-the-wall solos whilst Dirk and Pratt go crazy 🔥
Hearing you loud and clear 😀
Huzzah!!!!
Not seen it, but liked cos I love Rush and glad to see Jim listening to A Farewell To Kings.
Jim Hemispheres next to continue into Cygnus X1 Book 2. Farewell to Kings is really the album that broke them commercially in the US and UK even though I'd been following since the days of Working Man on their debut album.
As to modern bands, I find Greta Van Fleet have filled the void left by Rush et al. They (GVH) will always get compared to Led Zep (most unfairly imo) purely because of the vocals and guitar. At least they are a rock band in the modern era. My personal tastes have diversified massively in the 45 since I saw Rush, but there are still (contemporary) genres of music I will not listen to, but many subsequent ones which I do and really enjoy.
Thanks Jim truly outstanding 👌👍
Quick! Put on side one of Hemispheres!!! ;)
That's much better!👍👍👍😎
Thanks 👍.... sorry for the false start!
You have a great radio voice btw. :) I'm back for part 2, sorry to be a few days late... Busy times here. :)
I love echoes, and in the opening to the first track I love the slight amount echo they have on Geddy's voice and his tone is superb.
Cinderella Man is a deep cut, I don't think it got much air play... The bass lines are sweet. A little bit of Geddy Funk going into the guitar solo. Those high parts I could sing along to back then. Now I'm not sure what I would break if I attempted...
Madrigal is the one in a while love song. :) Also sweet. :)
Yes Cygnus X1 is a biggie, if you've not heard it before it's quite a trip. :) :) :) One of my all-time-favorites. They play so tight even when live.
Hemispheres is yet another journey and the end of an era too for Rush.
Love the intro to Cygnus X 1 - 'Hello mate, it's Rush 'ere. Got any time signatures you want shifting? Reasonable rates. We'll chuck 'em down this black hole we know. All very environmental.' (Sorry, can't do a Canadian accent) 2112 (the track) is their masterpiece but this comes a close second. Cygnus X 1 does indeed conclude on Hemispheres, hence the inconclusive conclusion on this album.
Throw in an "eh" or two and your Canadian accent will improve tremendously! 🤣
Every nerve is torn apart.
I love this album! Such a special time of my life. Funny how music can bring it all back. I forgot how good a bassist Geddy Lee was even in those days. He really did rival Chris Squire with that Rickenbacker.
Time to react to Hemispheres, Book 2 of the Cygnus saga. It does not disappoint.
A new Rush, yes please! Advent Horizon are close maybe?
My favourite one is the next album.....A rather good album called Hemispheres.....simple as in my view....Cygnus X1 continues...
Anyway....A Farewell To Kings has been in my collection since around 1979/80....My sister got me into them as she'd seen them on this tour at Hammy Odeon in early '78 perhaps ? I think this is the gig on the Different Stages live CD (CD3) released many years later (well worth a listen) and, weirdly enough, in the pile of CDs in the car....
Needless to say, I was hooked at aged 15 and bought what I could when I got my first part time after school job.....Firs double LP I bought was All The World's A Stage (live on the 2112 tour), followed by the Archives 3LP set....Unbelievable band....
As epic as Xanadu is….Cygnus is on another level….can’t wait until you see how the story ends on Hemispheres 👍
Neil: "Let's call that our experimental phase. After '2112,' we were guitar, bass and drums and ambitious, so we thought maybe we should add another musician. But then it was, no, let's expand our own arsenal, so the guys started getting into acoustic guitar, bass pedals were just coming out, and I started expanding my drums, which would give us a great orchestration ability. Those subsequent albums are us learning to use all that, having fun, experimenting, as genuine as can be. When I look back on that it's an indulgent smile. We would later do better but there was nothing wrong with it. I described it once as young, foolish and brave... but as far as achievement I really think we started to bring it together a bit with 'Permanent Waves'…"
cygnus x1 book 2 is on hemispheres
Cool episode & al;bum,Jim. To answer your question.. try ' Beyond The Years' by Neal Morse Band. ;-) T
OOOPS...you already reacted to that one--my bad! Plenty more Morse epics to choose from,tho.. T 🙂
Please do not wait 5 months for Hemispheres!
He has to wait a whole year like we had to in 1977, lol
Fun!
I finally DID start my UA-cam channel.
Mostly artsy and weird collections, no music yet.
I will make a quick record room teaser and tag you! 🎉❤
Sound... good 👍
You want time signatures - you can’t handle the time signatures
What is better than Closer to the heart ? Closer to the heart live in Rio with 50.000 Brazilians singing and dancing.
Farewell to Kings is for me a Rush album, where they are on their way to (almost)perfectionism. Compared to later albums I feel like, it's a collection of songs, but it doesn't have a flow
like Permanent waves and Moving Pictures.
CX1❗️❗️❗️🔈🔉🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊👍😎
Nothing rose tinted at all Jim. Prog from the 70s will never be beaten, many try and there are some stellar modern bands producing fantastic music, but to me it doesn't come close to this, or Close to the Edge, Echoes by the Floyd or 70s Genesis.. Music from the 60s and 70s was all experimentation, it was still relatively new from 50s Rock n Roll. Even pop songs, will anyone ever top what the Beatles did? Rush were such a great live band in the 70s!
About your question, what came after Rush and was somehow the same direction: For me personally the heirs of Rush are Dream Theater, who develloped Rush''s Hard Prog into Progmetal
(I know they were not the only ones ... Fates Warning, Queensryche) but DT reached a certain point of being almost perfect. That the music is not that exciting anymore after 25 years is only normal, but I hope for a new push by Mike Portnoy, since the last albums sounded like, they use many elements, you've heard before in other songs.
But there are other bands, which follow the path of Rush and DT, the only problem is, that almost all of them are not really successful and so not known to the "average" music consumer.
One of my next mixtapes will contain a collection of Prog/Progmetal songs of the last 10 years 🤘
Parts of Cinderella Man and Madrigal sound Beatle-ish to me. Rush experimenting with soundscapes maybe?
Love this album. Jim, if you're looking for something more modern that is similar, look up a band called King Buffalo. They are currently making music and are really good. I won't go so far as to say they're the "new Rush", but they are keeping the spirit of this style of 70's proggy psych rock alive. Their album Dead Star will definitely give you this same vibe.
For me Rush did kind of perfect their art at the time. That is not a common thing. Usually there are all kinds of distractions, not to speak of a marriage of several artists, which is a band. Rush were able to maintain their integrity.
Next 3 albums are stellar. The live album ending that period is Exit Stage Left. That for me is the album where Rush had its tools at the sharpest.
If you want to listen to a guitarist that perfectly combines melody and shredding listen to IOU by Alan Holdsworth.
Try Crownlands
Props for trying another ballad with "Madrigal", but yeah -- Rush were not a ballads band! The end of "Cygnus X-1" needed a voiceover from Neil: "Tune in next week, for the thrilling conclusion of our exciting story..." In other words, Jim -- make haste to 'Hemispheres'. 😎
Re: the lack of old school prog these days, I'm guessing there are people making 'progressive' music today, but it's just not in the style of "Xanadu" or "Cygnus X-1". They're probably doing it in jazz, or EDM or, even pop music. We went through a 70's style of prog revival that lasted from the 1990's into the teens, but as the core audience (and the musicians) gets older the ability to keep that going is dwindling. What it takes is young musicians working with the music THEY love, but putting a new and creative spin on it that will then become the next truly progressive music wave. There will probably always be bands happy to re-create the sound and style of bands like Yes and King Crimson, but they'll only ever be as good as a carbon copy.
Can I name names? Dream Theatre. Coheed & Cambria. Sorry.
Hi Jim,
I hear you loud and clear and I also ear every crackle of the record.
Liked the first side so on to side B.
1st song. Yes, know this song very well from live concert albums. Great song.
2nd song. I recognize the chorus but that’s all. Not that interesting this song.
3rd song. Never heard this song before. And again, not that interesting and very very slow 🥱
4th song. I only know the Cygnus-A album by Robert Schroeder; synthesizer music of course 😊.
They’re all great musicians but this song is not meant for me. I miss structure and I find the part before the singing quite boring too.
All in all it’s a good album but I wouldn’t buy it because the b-side, except for the first song, doesn’t work for me.
I don't think side 2 matches up to side 1. Cinderella Man and Madrigal are weaker tracks, and even with Cygnus X-1 at the end it didn't get listened to very often. I think the music was of its time and I can enjoy it on that basis. There's more than enough music from the 1970's I've never heard, without chasing down new bands and trying to stay up-to-date. Occasionally I will hear something interesting or enjoyable, but nothing is ever going to match the excitement of hearing something like this for the first time.
I have the first eight albums by Rush, fantastic musicians. Modern music is sh*t. Try and listen to some Deep Purple from the early 70s mannn...
I hear you Jim.... I will throw in King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard in terms of ambition and consistency and excellence. In some respects they have pushed many artistic boundaries also in terms of scale, scope and production. 👑🦎🧙🪄👍