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Subject: 06/20/91 - The National Midnight Star #269
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The National Midnight Star, Number 269
Thursday, 20 June 1991
Today's Topics:
Administrivia
Re: Subdivisions on ASOH
Van Halen listens to Rush
(none)
seye ruoy rof dab llits si msinataS >:)
Chance to get air time
Alex the speechless....
Hurrah for disk space!
Presto a bust???
Alex's Voice
Re: Subdivisions
Dreams, etc........
RS can SMB!!
p.s.
Alex speaks
Re: 06/19/91 - The National Midnight Star #268
----------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Administrivia
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 09:54:57 -0400
From: RUSH Fans Digest Manager <rush-mgr>
Hi all,
Well, the installation of the new disk occured yesterday afternoon,
and the new opsys was loaded (now Ultrix 4.2). Unfortunately, Syrinx was
down much of the later afternoon 6/19/91 for installation and loading of
software. If you were refused an ftp connection or if mail bounced, this
is why.
Things are kind of up in the air and non-final right now, but things should
even out by the end of the week. More details as they arrive.
Editor,
The National Midnight Star (RUSH fans mailing list)
rush-request@syrinx.umd.edu or rush-mgr@syrinx.umd.edu
----------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Subdivisions on ASOH
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 14:52:50 EDT
From: Christopher A. Briggs <briggs@ksgbbs.harvard.edu>
Seen in TNMS#267:
>I haven't seen this mentioned before, so:
>Does anyone know why in the ASOH version of "Subdivisions," that voice that
>says "subdivisions" for the chorus isn't there? Considering all of the other
>things they digitized for that tour, why wasn't that one of them? The song
>just doesn't seem the same without that voice...
>Herschel Gelman
>hag2@vms.cis.pitt.edu
I've wondered about this too. In fact, this sort of thing led me to a
potential-topic-for-discussion that I was going to introduce *sometime*,
and now seems good. How's this, kids?
Call for discussion: The overdub that wasn't, but should've been?
Let me explain what I'm looking for. Is there a song that just seems to
be lacking something because they chose *not* to sequence a part of it
live? and what part?
I have 2. The first is the bit in "Subdivisions" that Herschel already
mentioned. The other is in "Turn the Page." There's a keyboard bit
missing just before Geddy starts singing in rounds. I hope you know
the one I mean, the only other sound at that time is drums. I'd
specify a time but I don't have a cd player here at work. What do
you think?
Note: This is not meant to start a war along the lines of "real musicians
don't use sequencers live blah blah blah." I think (hope) we can all
agree that Rush are real musicians that just happen to write a little
more than can be reproduced by 3 unaided people.
And a warning: I have a few other ideas for discussions about their
live recordings, but I'll see how this one goes first.
-cb, lerxst@wpi.wpi.edu, briggs@ksgbbs.harvard.edu
"Things that I once dreamed of have become reality"
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Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 15:07:03 EDT
From: Joseph Maruschek <00063306@YSUB.YSU.EDU>
Subject: Van Halen listens to Rush
Apparently Eddie Van Halen has listened to 'Xanadu' at least once
since it appears to be the inspiration behind 'Pleasure Dome' on the
new Van Halen album.
In the intro, Eddie even plays the chords from the verses of 'Xanadu'
although he does 'ornament' them as only Eddie can. If nothing else,
we see that Rush has some fans that we'd never think of.
***************************
You know you're a Rush fan when...
> ...you always yell after Geddy sings, "Concert Hall!" in "The Spirit of
Radio" no matter where you happen to be.
> ...you seriously consider naming your son Geddy.
> ...you have a dog named Bytor.
> ...you can't understand why people can't dance in seven and five.
> ...you tape MTV all night to see the one time they play the new Rush
video
> ...you know who the "B-Man" is.
> ...you bought a house just because it was at 2112 Rush Blvd.
> ...you think that Paula Adbul should pay Rush for the use of their name.
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1991 12:04:31 +0930
From: Kevin Haines <haines@cs.adelaide.edu.au>
I was just scanning through the tour.dates.060891 file at the ftp site,
and this started me wondering if The Boyz have ever considered touring
Australia (or anywhere else for that matter). The list seems to show
that they tour the same places pretty much on each tour. From my quick
skim of the list, they have toured: the USA, Canada, England, Scotland
& Germany (Apologies to any patriotic Rushans whose countries I have
missed). I think that the Boyz would find that they have a much larger
following in Australia than they realize. Does anyone know if they have
ever considered a tour of Oz?
Also, I saw a mention in one the the rock-n-roll newsgroups about the
upcoming album Roll the Bones - It was stated that the album will have
a 10+ minute track on it. Anyone know/heard anything about this? (I
just finished reading "Gonna Roll the Bones" - unusual story - should
make for some interesting listening if this is what the new album is
based on).
As far as how much longer the Boyz will keep on touring/recording goes,
I don't know about the tours, but as for the music I feel that they have
yet to reach their creative peak. IMHO, they just seem to be getting better
with each album. And anyway, maybe listening to mediocre Ruch is better
than listening to no Rush at all.....? (Highly subject to personal opinion
of course)
Changing the subject yet AGAIN, I discovered Rush (I'm an Aussie) through
2 American girls whilst living in New Zealand. Nothing like going out of
your way to discover a new group to listen to! Both girls liked Rush, but
neither were fanatical about them - both had heard of Rush through past
boyfriends. This was about 1985 - the first album I heard was GUP, but as
soon as I could, got all of their back-catalogue.
Anyways, enough dribbling on from me.
-------------------------------------------
When we lift the covers from our feelings | Kevin Haines
we expose our insecure spots | haines@cs.adelaide.oz.au
trust is just as rare as devotion |
forgive us our cynical thoughts... |
------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1991 09:45 EDT
From: Matthew Barton <BARTON@ACC.FAU.EDU>
Subject: seye ruoy rof dab llits si msinataS >:)
Do you have any idea how much more difficult it would be if instead of
"satan", satan was called, let's say, "Cornelius", or "Englebert" ?
Realistically, how many words when reversed sound like the above. It
would seem the likelihood of being nasty word in reverse increases
inversely with the number of syllables. What if Twin Peaks fans took
over the music industry and started all kinds of claims to their
deity "Bob"? The Beach Boy's tune Barbara Ann would be their anthem!
My apologies for continuing the satanism thread on the Rush newsletter,
but it's always so much fun to poke fun at the buggers.
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 09:20 CST
From: BSUTESCH@wsuiar.wsu.ukans.edu
Subject: Chance to get air time
Dave, I am particularly fond of "Between the Wheels" and "Kid Gloves".
I don't remember these being "chart toppers" but I like them anyway!
Later,
-bRi-
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 10:40:34 edt
From: Marshall_Robin@CEO_SWD.ceo.dg.com
Subject: Alex the speechless....
I have on bootlegs, but it wasn't intentional.
I think it was Worcester (HYF), Ged was starting to introduce
the next song, when you heard Alex talking to a stage crew
member, interrupting him. Apparently the mike had been left on,
and Ged stopped the intro to figure out what had happened, when
he realized it was Alex and made a joke out of it "Ladies and
Gentleman, for the first time in 15 years, Alex Lifeson speaks!"
or something close to that.
I also heard him sing on a soundcheck...he sounds like a
lounge singer, and he was singing a "joke" song.
-marshall
"And you know....she has no HAIR!" - Alex (singing)
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 11:02:01 EDT
From: Doug White <dwhite@dsys.ncsl.nist.gov>
Subject: Hurrah for disk space!
I'm glad to hear the disk for syrinx has "arrived". :-) This is the last
time I'm gonna mention the audio files on tack.nist.ncsl.gov -- they
will be left on over the weekend, but then they have to go.
Mind you, I've already spun them off on tape - I'm crazy, but not stupid -
so I _have_ the files, but access will be limited.
[ I'll try to remember to get back in touch with you on these. If you
have ftp, you can upload them to the 'rush/incoming' directory ONCE
I SAY SO. I'll post a general call for sounds in a couple of weeks, I
think. :rush-mgr ]
By the by - a girl I work with, who is a drummer, who I lent some Rush
CDs to, has come to the conclusion that Neil is the best rock drummer
alive. I have showed her Neil's equipment list, and she 'bout passed out.
People _do_ appreciate the finer things! Doug
Douglas White, National Institute of Standards & Technology
Bldg. 225, Rm A216, Gaithersburg, MD 20899
dwhite@dsys.ncsl.nist.gov / Voice: (301) 975-2182 / FAX: (301) 590-0932
"Wheels within wheels, a spiral array; a pattern so grand and complex..."
- Rush
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 11:03:00 EST
Subject: Presto a bust???
From: DSchmidt.311@postman.gsfc.nasa.gov!
Last weekend, I was in a record store in Annapolis, Maryland, and I
came upon the CD of Presto. It was priced $5.99!!!!!!
I have also seen it in other stores for dirt cheap prices. I hope
this is because of overshipments or something, and is not a
reflection of how well the album sold. Did the album flop big-time?
I thought it was one of their best! (But I think that of every new
Rush album)
Does anyone know if it went gold or anything? It would be neat to
compile a list of how many copies each album has sold- maybe add it
to the FAQL!
Dave Schmidt
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 11:11:56 EDT
From: Ross Allan Roberts <rroberts@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Subject: Alex's Voice
hey, not true! Alex does PLENTY on the mic... he was singing a lot of
harmonies on the ASOH vid, and although it was hard to hear his voice it
definitely _was_ there! Some songs, I think they even ran his voice thru a
processor for things like choral effects... I thought he even sang the line
'experience slips away...' in Time Stand Still, and vocally it's processed.
If you listen REALLY CLOSE, it doesn't sound like Amiee Mann, and in the vid
Alex is singin' into his mic...
As for his vocal ability... I read once that in a Canadian show Alex sang the
WHOLE SHOW because Geddy's voice was sore/irritated/something. The crowd was
AMAZED to say the least...
*******************************************************************************
*Ross Roberts <rroberts@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>|DoD#0340, awaiting that F2 *
*'The price of meat has just gone up, and yer old lady has just gone down... '*
*---------------------------------------------------"Cosmik Debris"----Zappa--*
*Post it! You're only costing the net hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars..*
*******************************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Subdivisions
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 11:33:40 EDT
From: mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Greetings,
Eric linden writes:
>The voice that says "Subdivisions" for the chorus comes through loud and
>clear on my ASOH disc. As a matter of fact, I almost prefer the live
>version because to me, it is clearer than on the studio. Maybe you have a
>bad copy, try listening to someone else's and see it your copy is the
>problem.
Eh? Anybody else seen this? On my disc, I get a distinctly non-digitized,
muffled "SUBdivisions" which sounds like some piece of hardware was busted.
If a copy of this album exists (remastered?) with the digitized voice present,
I want it!!
For the record, my ASOH is a Mercury/PolyGram cd, 836 346-2.
Thanks,
--Mike
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 09:35 MST
From: "Pat E. Perez" <PATEP@ccit.arizona.edu>
Subject: Dreams, etc........
Well, I shouldn't be sending this out at this time since I have a
paper due tomorrow, but - what the hell!!
As for Rush dreams - I had one a few days ago where the Boyz were
playing a kind of banquet dinner deal - not many people, a master
table & lots of wine & such. The weird thing (well, 1 of many) was
that the people at the head table were people from my dept. (most of
whom are too square to know what music is, much less know who Rush
are). The Boyz weren't really playing their instruments either - it
was like they had totally gone the synth route & had these massive
computer type things to play. So, they were sitting behind these
things just hitting buttons & stuff - looking pretty somber too - that
was distressing for me. Heh, it was so weird that it woke me up! Oh
well. At least the music was the same!
RE Neil's not-so-cool lyrics, etc. - Gregg Jaeger pointed out to the
Paul Simon fan out there that the lyrics to "50 Ways To Leave Your
Lover" aren't that artistically/poetically interesting. Paul wrote
that song as a rhyming exercise to amuse his then toddler son Harper -
he had no idea that it would become popular & only put the song on the
album at the request of his producer. I know that was not really
about Neil but I had to say something in defense of my other musical
god!! ;-)
If anyone's interested, I'm writing a paper analyzing "Jacob's Ladder"
in Jackendoff (yes, that's his real name) & Lerdahl's Generative
Theory of music. It's kind of an attempt to show why a casual
listening of the song separates the intro from the 1st section of
singing even though they appear together in the singing section. I'm
hoping I can explain it a lot better in the paper!! :-) I love writing
papers about topics I *really* care about!!!!
That's all....until later....
(uh oh - another one!)
You know you're a Rush fan when... near the end of _Backdraft_ when De
Niro knocks on that dude's door - the rhythym reminds you of the intro
to some Rush song...you start singing it...the person next to you
gives you a *very* strange look that promptly makes you forget what
song you were thinking of...you realize that what happened was purely
an unconscious action & that it would be a perfect entry for this
little summertime topic of ours - except that you just forgot what
song triggered the reaction. Oh well..... :-)
Pat
ps - oh -that was a cool interpretation of DEW, Gregg - the Faulkner stuff was
really interesting!
ORQ: Oy! Oy! Headache!!!!
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 12:43:49 EDT
From: jaeger@buphy.bu.edu (Gregg Jaeger)
Subject: RS can SMB!!
Greetings,
The _Rolling Stone_ review of Presto was a travesty, as we all know.
When it first appeared I wrote a letter to the editor of _RS_ which
was, of course, thrown in the waste basket -- `the truth is often
bitter' and `left unsaid.' Of course I was p.o.'d that the letter
never appeared. Seeing as the NMS is a truly free press, I thought
I'd post my letter here -- where I hope it will be more appreciated :).
From: Gregg Jaeger
36 Fresh Pond Pkwy.
Cambridge, MA 02138
To: Editor of Correspondence
Rolling Stone
745 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10151
Dear Rolling Stone,
I was happily surprised to find the band Rush mentioned in
the pages of RS570 (``Recordings''). What didn't surprise me,
however, was that the review of their new album was yet another
example of ignorant abuse of the band. Reviewer Mack had obviously
prejudged the work, centering his statements on matters of rock
history wholly unrelated to the album with which the ``review''
was presumably concerned and opining rhetorically about the
band's relationship to bands which no longer even exist (at
least in the lineups to which he was referring). One of the
few substantive comments made about the new album _Presto_ is
that he believes, falsely, that Rush has stolen melodies and
chord progressions to fashion it. Well, any listener may _show_
himself, by simply listening to the record, that what Mack
_tells_ us in his review is false -- there is nothing stolen
from old pop songs to make this album. As in any album by any
artist, there are influences (which, by the way, seem to have
been missed altogether by Mr. Mack), but nothing has been
_stolen_. Had he read any of the interviews of the band by other
magazines, Mr. Mack would have realized that artistic integrity
is foremost amongst Rush's concerns.
Reviewer Mack seems to have his brain stuck in the Seventies, as
the name of every other band in his piece is a Seventies band. If
the truth be known, the bands which have any significant influence
on the Rush of these days are bands of the mid- and late Eighties:
(Midge Ure's) Ultravox, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Living Colour,
> ... And, contrary to what Mack claims, Geddy Lee's vocals have not
been remotely shrill for ten years now! To suggest that Rush, a
band responsible for such melodic and harmonic richness as one finds
in _A Farewell to Kings_ and _Hemispheres_, is now mining Seventies
Pop to fill its compositional toolbox is absurd.
Now, false statements and abuses are bad enough, but Mack does
not stop at these. He goes on to demonstrate, even _more_
clearly, his lack of perception and understanding of Rush's
work. This he does by citing a stanza from the lyrics of the
song ``Mission'' (a song not even on the new album!), which
he claims -- imagine -- are the band members' statement that
their own music is substandard, when in fact it simply expresses
some (_single_!) narrator's appreciation of _beaux arts_. If
Mr. Mack wants to investigate the band's opinion of their own
work he should look to the lyrics of the song ``Grand Design''
from the _Power Windows_ album, where at least the fact that the
narrator is speaking in pronouns which are plural makes such an
interpretation plausible: ``Against the run of the mill/ Static
as it seems/ We break the surface tension/ With our wild kinetic
dreams.'' Mack did manage to make one correct statement; Rush
is concerned with being original. _Presto_, like all the albums of
Lee, Lifeson, and Peart, is quite original -- it could have been
made by no other band, for reasons of both uniqueness and musicianship.
This review demonstrates, as the new Rush single ``Show Don't
Tell'' suggests, that one must demand to be shown the evidence
for an opinion, not simply allow oneself to be told things and
to take them on faith. Luckily, _Rolling Stone_ contains a
``Charts'' section which has a direct connection to reality --
sales. With every new album from Rush, these charts show the
in or near the top ten. Perhaps some day, _Rolling Stone_ will
even have one of its more able reporters, such as David Fricke,
interview Rush. What a break with history that would be! I
am disappointed that _Rolling Stone_ would allow such hack
journalism as Mr. Mack's to appear in its pages beside such
brilliant work as that of P.J. O'Rourke and David Fricke.
Any adept writer would spend his (or her) time marvelling at
the anagrams in the lyrics of the _Presto_ song ``Anagrams''
than digging into ancient Rock history for tools of abuse.
Sincerely,
Gregg Jaeger
Gregg
-----------------------------------
Gregg Jaeger (jaeger@buphy.bu.edu) ``Truth is after all a moving target''
Dept(s). of Physics (and Philosophy)
Boston University, Boston MA 02215 ->>READ DOS PASSOS!(his books, i.e.)<<-
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 12:50:26 EDT
From: jaeger@buphy.bu.edu (Gregg Jaeger)
Subject: p.s.
p.s. when I said `redundant' yesterday, I misspoke; I meant `ambiguous.' G
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 13:05:16 EST
From: joezete@wpi.WPI.EDU (Peter John Chestna)
Subject: Alex speaks
Dave Schmidt asked in the last digest if Alex ever says anything into
his mike during a show. Well...
I believe that the show was in Providence on the HYF Tour, I'm not
positive, but anyway Geddy was talking to the crowd and
Alex: hello?
Geddy: What, Alex, was that you?
Alex has never said anything at a show before.
Alex: yes, this is the first time I have ever spoken live
and what do I have to say?
NOTHING!!!
Then Geddy proceeded with the show.
There was another time when Alex was fooling around during a show,
this was also the HYF Tour in Providence, during 2112...
Ged: We are the preists
Al: where are we from
Ged: of the temples of syrinx
Al: What do we have there?
Ged: Our great computers fill the hallowed halls
Al: Oh yea!
and so on. It was really funny to see Rush fooling around during
a song like that, it doesn't happen often but its great when it does.
thats all I got time for, later.
Pete
OBQ: "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it!" - S.Wright
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 91 16:20 EDT
From: HAG2@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Subject: Re: 06/19/91 - The National Midnight Star #268
One person in TNMS #268 said that on his CD of ASOH, the voice saying
"subdivisions" is lloud and clear; the other three or four responses said
that it was very faint at best. What's going on? My copy is on cassette,
one that was "Mfd. for BMG Direct Marketing, Inc. under license..." (I bought
it from the BMG tape club)..
Does anyone else out there have a copy with a loud and clear digitized voice?
Herschel Gelman
hag2@vms.cis.pitt.edu
----------------------------------------------------------
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The contents of The National Midnight Star are solely the opinions and
comments of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the authors' management, or the mailing list management.
Copyright The Rush Fans Mailing List, 1991.
Editor, The National Midnight Star
(Rush Fans Mailing List)
********************************************
End of The National Midnight Star Number 269
********************************************