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Subject: 09/17/91 - The National Midnight Star #340
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The National Midnight Star, Number 340
Tuesday, 17 September 1991
Today's Topics:
Administrivia
RTB Billboard debut!!
Re: A few thoughts
Thoughts on RTB
Setting the record straigt again...
Pratt isn't 40 yet...
I remember!!
Paula Abdul and RUSH
Neil's music credit
Keeping the Rush-MGR sane
Hey, wishbones!
neal and love songs
you bet your life
Neil and Lyrics
Re: SHIFT UP
A plea for help
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Subject: Administrivia
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 16:08:19 -0400
From: RUSH Fans Digest Manager <rush-mgr>
I have decided to offer all the files on anonymous ftp at syrinx.umd.edu
in an uncompressed text format. This includes all the special issues,
lyrics, and back issues of the NMS. I am currently running about 38M of
stuff, a large amount of which are sound directories. I'll be considering
them as I go along; they would be the first sacrificed in the event of disk
shortage.
Also, administratitive mail is caught up, so if you didn't receive a reply
that you thought you should have, try again...
rush-mgr
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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 91 18:41:48 -0400
From: Michael S Savett <savvy@chopin.udel.edu>
Subject: RTB Billboard debut!!
Greetings, all - this is my first post in a while...
I'll be posting my RTB review in the near future (like you all care) :)
In the meantime ... the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine
(with Garth Brooks on the cover) reviews RTB and gives it a ... B!
Also, in this week's Billboard magazine, RTB DEBUTS at No. 3!!!!!
Just behing Metallica and Natalie Cole's album. Not bad. It's their
best debut ever, and ties MP for the highest ranking Rush album ever.
Also, Dreamline is the country's No. 1 Album Rock Track.
Jack, relax ... yeah, boyeeee!
Michael
savvy@chopin.udel.edu
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Subject: Re: A few thoughts
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 91 21:43:45 -0400
From: mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Greetings,
In #339, Tero Valkonen (one@clinet.FI) babbles:
>Ain't it funny how it is: lots of people who have disliked RtB have
>backed up their opinions with the facts that Rush have become "just
>another three cord band" and that the musical identity and integrity
>are gone. However, people who have _liked_ the new album have often
>just said "It's great!", "It rules!" or something like that. We might
>draw some conclusions from this.
The only conclusion I can draw here is that Mr. Valkonen in incapable of
distinguising between "fact" and "opinion".
The people who disliked RtB are "backing up their opinions" with the
FURTHER OPINIONS that the band has become another three-chord band, and
that musical identity and integrity are gone.
People who liked the album have been voicing their opinions that "it's
great" or "it rules", and many of them have been backing it up with
FURTHER OPINIONS that the structure is tight, the lyrics are moving, and
the individual playing is superb, while fitting into a whole better than
some of the dueling-solo stuff from the past (which I also love, BTW).
Get it straight, eh? There is no such thing as a FACTUAL judgement of
the album either way. You like it or you don't. I like it. You don't.
Don't try to convince me otherwise.
--Mike
ORQ: "Funky as Canadians can get, I suppose." -Geddy
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Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1991 11:54:50 +0930
From: Kevin Haines <haines@cs.adelaide.edu.au>
Subject: Thoughts on RTB
Hiya folks!
Just something I noticed during the rap section on Roll The Bones,
I may be wrong about this but it sounds to me as though Alex's giutar
(whoops!) parts are backwards (ie Chain Lightning style). Maybe it's
just me but it does seem to have that backwards sound to it. Anyone
else agree/disagree/don't care/would like me to stop dribbling on/etc.
Where's My Thing? sounds to me like a great piece for improvising to
live. Maybe it's a way to give them a little more freedom when playing
live - just to give them a chance to let their hair down.
Kevin.
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 91 20:38:25 HST
From: hinano@ahi.pbrc.Hawaii.Edu (Hinano Akaka)
Subject: Setting the record straigt again...
Ok
To clear things up again -- Alex and Geddy both turned 38 this year,
Neil, 39.
Just trying to get on everyone's nerves...
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 91 20:22:39 HST
From: hinano@ahi.pbrc.Hawaii.Edu (Hinano Akaka)
Subject: Pratt isn't 40 yet...
Yo.
Just to clear things up --
Neil turns 39 this year. He hasn't hit the big "4-0" yet (!).
Maybe we should all send him birthday cards next year... (!!!) :-)
While we're on the subject of birthdays, ages and kids, I want to know
if I'm correct on the ages of their kids (inspired by the "who's the
kid on the album cover" debates...). Now please don't flame me for
posting something so trivial (by some people's standards), but I'm
a) trying to set the record straight, and b) trying to add something
different to the Digest (i like to keep things interesting and
trivial...) O.K.:
Julian: ~ 17 or 18 yrs old
Alex's oldest (Adam?): ~ 20 or 21 yrs old
Neil's oldest: ~ 13
Am I close? Nowhere in sight? If anyone is even caring to read this,
I'm basing these ages on
a) Ged or Neil mentioned "Geddy's 10-yr old son, Julian" in 1984.
(Now whether he had JUST turned 10 or was BECOMING 11, i don't know)
b) Alex had his first son when he was, I think, about 17? I may be
wrong about this (anyone know for sure?) and Alex is 16 years older
than me (and i made 22 this year), so just calculate that...
c) Neil made a reference to his 12-year old daughter around the time
Presto came out (was that on the Rush Profiled! CD? Forgot...) and
that was in 1990, of course...
Anyway, that's my meager and trivial thought for the day... Please
feel free to contradict my findings (no flames, please...).
That's a wrap!
puanani
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 91 20:43:27 HST
From: hinano@ahi.pbrc.Hawaii.Edu (Hinano Akaka)
Subject: I remember!!
Yes! I'm trying to take over the bandwidth!!!!!!
I was going to write this in, and forgot...
Z-Rock the other night played "A Passage to Bangkok" and then they
played "Dreamline"!! I was stoked -- I've NEVER hear anyone ever play
APTB on the radio. It was great. I mention it because Z-Rock is a
very good Rush-friendly radio station!! It's so nice compared to the
"Let's play the new song from 'Bad English's New Album' for the 40th
time in a row" stations over here...
puanani
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Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 00:39:12 EST
From: bigal@wpi.WPI.EDU (Nathan Charles Crowell)
Subject: Paula Abdul and RUSH
To Matt, who said he didn't like the idea of Paula Abdul
being connected to RUSH in any way, I think I'd ask them first!
Personally, I'D like to be connected to Paula Abdul in SOME way....
Nate (currently being beaten by my girlfriend for saying that)
OBRQ: "Winds are stirred by planets in rotation/
Sparks ignite and spread new information" - Chain Lightning
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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 91 18:41:27 HST
From: hinano@ahi.pbrc.Hawaii.Edu (Hinano Akaka)
Subject: Neil's music credit
Guten Tag!
Someone mentioned the fact that Neil doesn't receive music credit.
And rightly so. Contrary to "common sense" thought, Neil has
virtually no input initially to the music, just as Alex and Geddy have
no input initially to the lyrics. Alex and Geddy *do*, in fact, use a
drum-machine (gasp!), when they work out the parts but the
drum-machine is used only to give them a sense of musical direction
and/or rythmic base. They *DO NOT* write the drum parts for Neil
(altho I believe it happened on one occasion) -- it is only a tool for
them.
Hope that answers the question!
puanani
"The word is "No" -- I am therefore going anyway." -- ST III
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Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 00:50:13 -0400
From: jlang (~ Rush Fanatic ~)
Subject: Keeping the Rush-MGR sane
So tell us oh wise priest, your most humbleness, your great magistrate,
his most esteemed Rush-mgr :
Is it just me? or does everyone get the feeling that our Rush-mgr is
getting swamped by mail to the mailing list? And yet he manages to find
some time to filter out flames, keep people in line, and make sure messages
are still Rush-related before mailing out?
I have no idea how he does it but I must say he's doing a damn good job!!
I think I might have lost my sanity by now (hmm.. perhaps he is insane
after all? :-)
Keep up the good work!
-Jimmy
[ Puhleez. :-) :rush-mgr ]
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From: holtrf@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Russell Holt)
Subject: Hey, wishbones!
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 1:32:26 EST
Howdy-
Seems that lotsa people have been offering their suggestions as to the
identity of the "mystery rapper." To all of your conclusions, I say:
OH, YEAH?!! ... and force the following upon you:
My Top Ten Candidates for the "Mystery Rapper"
10. Arnold Schwarzenegger
9. Dan Rather
8. Bart Simpson
7. Clarence Thomas
6. Brian Johnson (of AC/DC)
5. Elvis
4. Bob Weir
3. Aimee Mann
2. Benoit B. Mandelbrot
1. ME!!!!!
And, while I'm being stupid, I will now offer MY :-) interpretation :-) of
the album pictures. This album is an obvious extension to p/g and 2112:
Rush is trying to tell us that after mankind has destroyed itself
("rolled its bones"), turkeys will emerge as the dominant species on the
planet, a clear indication from the large wishbones suspended above the
ocean. The album cover is obviously a depiction of the protagonist,
one of the lone human survivors, having been forced underground by the
turkeys, amusing himself by playing a hybrid game of soccer/ping-pong,
with a skull - he's "waiting for rescue," and just doesn't get it.
He struggles with himself, disbelieving the fate of the human race: "I
don't believe in destiny..." (which, by the way, is also a clear reference
to Terminator 2, ALSO about the end of the human race! What a coincidence!)
The songs "Neurotica" and "You Bet Your Life" just define the mood: the
odds are finally even again, between the humans and animals ("Just another
victim of the things he has done..."). The chorus "anarchist
reactionary..." in YBYL is the author reminiscing the now destroyed
variety of humans and opinions...
-Russell
"Because it's not there." - Gary Larson
----------------------------------------------------------
From: cfabrams@eos.ncsu.edu
Subject: neal and love songs
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 09:49:08 EDT
well, let me start by saying "Ghost of a Chance" is great song, but why are
people
"astonished" by the fact that neal is writing "love songs"? maybe i'm way
off the
mark hear, but what about a good oldie called "Tears"? i think neal
has ALWAYS had the
capacity to write "love songs"--hell, neal can write about *anything* he
wants...
a little though about "religion" (damn, people shouldn't get me started about
that--
i could go on forever...)--i think that religion isn't what neal is denying or
even
mentioning in "Ghost.."--he says he doesn't believe in "the stars or the
planets"
either--well, i believe they *exist*, but neal may be saying that they, along
with
whatever else mentioned there, don't *matter* or fit into the equation
if we believe in
the chance to find love. or maybe i'm wrong, but i thought i'd throw my
opinion in
before one of you objectivists unravelled it all for us :-)
later
~~cam
----------------------------------------------------------
From: Sridhar P. Rao <cfynx@wam.umd.edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 10:51:00 EDT
Subject: you bet your life
well..to those who cant seem to think of what you be tyour life starts
out as (or sounds like in the beginning)...it reminds me of a b-52s
song..although i couldnt really care less for the group (b52s that is)..
it has that artsy rock sound...song is still good though..although if it
wasnt a rush song id probably throw it in the corner..another peice of
evidence to support the hypothesis that neil really does sing for the
b52s on his off time!
as for the rest of rtb..i love it...i think where's my thing is incredible..
it just has this flow to it that seems to take you on an audial roller
coster tide...anyhow other favs..or songs that have grown on me or have
made an instant impact: dreamline, big wheel, roll the bones. Face up
sound alot like superconductor..when my mom notices that i guess it really
does.
cfynx...the analog kid.
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Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 11:03:42 EDT
From: jaeger@buphy.bu.edu (Gregg Jaeger)
Subject: Neil and Lyrics
Bob. Count me in on the bet -- one more vote for Jack Secret...
The TV (sorry I have a thing for Nabokov) writes:
>Gregg, I think you're finding too deep meanings in Rush lyrics. Neil
>himself has said that lots of people don't seem to understand that
>he wrote the lyrics only for fun.
I'd like to have a reference on that one! Some show don't tell please.
Neil has said that he _started out_ (before his Rush career started)
writing lyrics for fun. He has also said that sometimes people go too
far (meaning in _wacko_ or totally unpredicted ways) in interpreting
his lyrics. But as far as I know he has _never_ said that he writes
lyrics only for _fun_! I don't think anyone could possibly say, for
example, that the lyrics on p/g were written only for _fun_. It is true
however, that he likes writing lyrics. Neil is a serious person and
he talks about logical positivism the way many people talk about
MTV videos. Face it, Neil _is_ a deep guy. I mean, Geddy calls him
`the conceptual man' and `The professor'!
Gregg
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregg Jaeger (jaeger@buphy.bu.edu) ``Hold Your Fire''
Dept(s). of Physics (and Philosophy) ______/|/|
Boston University, Boston MA 02215 (_) \|\| Trystero?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 14:13 EDT
From: Eric Thies <ETHIES%UNCG.BITNET@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: SHIFT UP
Thanks to everyone for the positive responses. And no, I'm not Weird Al, but I
play one on TV. ;-)
-e
--- Eric Thies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro ---
--- ethies@steffi.acc.uncg.edu (internet) ethies@uncg (bitnet) ---
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 16:35:29 EDT
From: faulkner@acsu.buffalo.edu (shane p faulkner)
Subject: A plea for help
Just to step away from the RTB pro/con banter for a moment, I need everyone to
do me a favor. Go home tonight and put on your HYF disk and listen carefully
to Open Secrets. At about the 4:00 minute, shortly after the guitar solo, and
before the main guitar riff is repeated, there is a long vocal MOAN, which I
vehemently believe is Aimee Mann, but a friend swears up and down it's Geddy.
Please try to settle this dispute. MAIL ALL REPLIES TO ME, NOT TNMS!!!
Thank you for your support.
My address... faulkner@acsu.buffalo.edu
///////////////////////// The Gangster of Boats /////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/ Shane P. Faulkner | A to B - Different degrees... /
/ University At Buffalo | - Rush /
/ V127L2QZ@UBVMS.BITNET | /
/ faulkner@acsu.buffalo.edu | Rush - Marillion - Kim Mitchell /
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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Copyright The Rush Fans Mailing List, 1991.
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End of The National Midnight Star Number 340
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