Rush’s ‘Moving Pictures’ Receives Richly Deserved Deluxe Re-Release Treatment – Opinion

You can say what you like about Rush. The Canadian progressive rock band was loved and hated equally. One thing is clear: despite the intricate time signatures they manipulated throughout their lengthy career, they can’t count. Evidence is how the re-release of the band’s most successful album Moving Pictures, which hit the shelves yesterday (April 15th), is labeled as the album’s 40th anniversary release. Problem is, the album originally hit record store shelves in February … of 1981. Granted, we all have a year in-between then and now we’d like to pretend never happened, but the calendar doesn’t lie.

Anyway, as an enticement for purchase by those who already have the album from one of its four, previous refreshed offerings, the re-release features a previously unreleased concert recorded in the band’s Toronto home base at the old Maple Leaf Gardens a month after the album’s release. We’ll get back to the concert in a bit. An album is first. Then, we’ll get back to the concert.

Rush started as a more-or-less straightforward ‘70s hard rock trio. Once drummer/lyricist Neal Peart joined guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Geddy Lee, the band began transforming itself by pursuing more adventuresome riffs and rhythms, while maintaining its foundation in the crunchier side of things. On the verge of calling it a day, Rush decided that if nothing else, it would go out on its own terms with 1976’s 2112Side One features a title track featuring multiple science-fiction-based titles.

The band made it; they were able to break through via underground radio stations and word-of mouth among geeks. They finally had a rock band that was hard-rocking without resorting to the unflattering excesses of chainsaw-crotch music. Rush continued to build strength after strength and ignore the criticisms, packing stadiums all over the country with their relentless pursuit of prog with a punch.

With its 1980 album “The Band,” the group mainstreamed a little. Permanent WavesLee left Rush’s shrieking vocals behind and focused on longer tunes which could get more airplay. Again, it worked; “The Spirit of Radio” became an FM mainstream rock radio staple. The following year’s Moving Pictures refined this new direction, as it cemented the band’s place in rock royalty no matter how much the critics howled in protest.

The majority of the 1980s were spent placing Lee’s synthesizer work front and center; this trend reversed with 1989’s Presto. Rush rode that wave for two and a half decades. While gradually becoming an older statesman, he still thrilled the faithful with new recordings and tours. The band effectively ended with Peart’s 2015 retirement, any hopes of a return dashed with his death in 2020.

Retour to Moving Pictures. It remains Rush’s best-selling album. “Limelight” and “Tom Sawyer” still feature prominently on every classic rock station’s playlist. Whether it was the band’s best album is a matter of opinion, but it is the album most likely to be found in the casual fan’s collection — and the one fans will first pull out of the stacks to try and win over the dubious and uninitiated.

Lyrically, Peart had not yet succumbed to the overriding, bitter atheism that permeated his latter work, although it seeped through on “Witch Hunt.” He emphasized the observational on songs such as “The Camera Eye” and joined the lengthy list of rock stars grumbling about what comes with being one on “Limelight.” Musically, Rush was firing on all cylinders of their red Barchetta, managing the neat trick of fusing crunch with adventures in timekeeping that would have done Dave Brubeck proud. The average pop-fan will run from horror convinced that the aliens have landed. But, for Gentle Giant and Led Zeppelin fans, they’ll be astonished. Moving PicturesIt is an oasis of music.

No matter how many copies you have, the newly-released concert is worth every penny. Moving PicturesThe number of Rush songs a Rush-fan has in their collection. The opening excerpt from “2112” was a bit ragged, but the band quickly settled into a massive, energetic groove laced with precision and power. Although Rush can be unpredictable live, this night they were hot and hard.

There you go. Perhaps a nostalgic exercise for the aging boomers. Perhaps. A little bit of nostalgia is always a good thing. The kids (which in this instance is anybody under 45) can have a little nostalgia. Moving PicturesGive it a chance. Perhaps you will learn something.

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