The above
noted coordinates get you the parking area. The cache IS NOT
located in this area. For that you have to endure a little history
lesson about RUSH!
Anyone who
knows me will know that I am a big Rush fan. No, I am not talking
about the ultra-conservative talk radio show guy, but rather the
Canadian Powerhouse trio that have been rockin’ the free
world since the early 70s!
RUSH has
been rockin’ the house since 1974 when they released their
first album simply entitled RUSH! The band started out with Alex
Leifson (guitars), Geddy Lee (bass and keyboards) and John Rutsey
(drums). However, John left the band shortly after the first album
was released due to medical reasons and the fact that he did not
want to tour. This opened the door for Neil Peart to step in as the
drummer and principle lyricist for the band. The band’s
lineup has not changed from that time to this day. It’s
almost unheard of for a band to last 30 plus years let alone
survive with only one change in their line-up.
Bands
surviving 30 plus years will undoubtedly have different
“musical” phases that they will go through for such a
long period of time. RUSH is certainly no exception here. Their
first three albums were their “finding their nitch”
period. Songs like “Working Man”, “Fly By
Night” and “By Thor & the Snow Dog” are fine
examples of tunes from their earliest period. The albums during
this period were RUSH!, Fly By Night and Caress of Steel. With the
departure of John Rutsey, Neal Peart not only took over the job of
playing drums but also took over writing of the songs for the band.
His writing style had a drastic change at the release of Caress of
Steel where the subject matter of the songs was moving into space
and fantasy genres. This became very apparent during the next phase
of Rush.
The second
phase of their span I like to call their “Progressive
Rock” period, changed their sound dramatically from their
“nitch” period both musically and lyrically. This
period of Rush ran from mid 70’s to 1981. Keyboards were
starting to show up in their songs which Geddy Lee was now playing
along with bass, and lead vocals. Lyrically, the content of the
songs were heavily into the space/fantasy genre. This was most
apparent on the “A Farewell To Kings”, “2112
& “Hemispheres”. These albums showcased lengthy
concept tracks that had complex time signatures and also showcased
the band’s highly technical style of playing and instruments
that they had not played on prior albums. It was during this period
that Neal Peart started to expand the massive drum kit that he has
today. The final two albums of this “Progressive
Period”, the band scaled back the length of their songs to
make them more “radio friendly”. The albums at the end
of this period were “Permanent Waves” and “Moving
Pictures”. These two albums scored Rush some bona fide
“hits” and did achieve the goal of getting radio play.
Songs like “Spirit of the Radio”,
“Freewill”, “Tom Sawyer” and
“Limelight” gave Rush some top 40 exposure. In
fact, “Moving Pictures” made it to No. 3 on the
Billboard 200 album chart and has been certified quadruple platinum
by the RIAA
The next
period of Rush is aptly titled “The Synthesizer
Period”. This period ran from 1982 – 1989 and featured
the albums “Signals”, “Grace Under
Pressure”, “Power Windows” “Hold Your
Fire” and “A Show of Hands (live album)”.
This period Geddy Lee was heavily not only into synthesizers but
also sequencers. Neal Peart also got into the digital age and added
Simmons Electronic Drums into his already growing drum kit. The
radio hits continued to flow with songs like “New World
Man”, “Subdivisions” and “Big Money”.
The sound on these albums were new wave and reggae influenced. Alex
Lifeson’s guitar playing tended to take something of a
backseat to the keyboards almost to the point of being
non-existent. This did not last long as another as another change
was due.
From the
very end of the 80’s through about 1997 was known as the
“Getting Back to the Roots” era. It was during this
period that was started to move away from the keyboard heavy sound
of the 80’s and the move back towards guitar-laden tracks.
The album “Presto” was the start of this era. The
keyboard did not totally disappear, they began to move being in
your face to more of being in the background. “Roll The
Bones” had even less keyboards and was full on standard three
instrument approach staying in a guitar pop genre with some
dabbling in some other genres like hip hop and even some jazz
influenced tracks. The rest of the albums during this period were
“Counterparts” and “Test For
Echo”.
After their
world tour following the release of “Test For Echo” the
band took a 5 year hiatus primarily due to the loss of Neal
Peart’s wife and daughter within a year of each
other. During this period of time, it was questionable if the
band would ever get back together. However, in 2001, Neal announced
to his band mates that he was ready to return to work and their
next album entitled “Vapor Trails” was released
following by a world tour. This album reminded me of their
beginning period as there were absolutely no keyboards on this
album. This was a straight-forward, in your face, guitar
driven, fast paced, up tempo album. The tour was awesome. I saw
them on this tour at the Gorge At George and was blown away by the
performance. The song that epitomized this album was
“One Little Victory” with its machine gun-like beat and
outrageous get-out-of-the-way guitar riff. This track signaled that
the boys were back in full force.
A live album
followed and then the current era has begun with 2007’s
release of “Snakes & Arrows”. This latest album
from the guys and the live album simply titled “Snake and
Arrows Live” are both outstanding releases.
“Snake” was touted as being a return to Rush’s
70’s period with little to no keyboards, guitar textures and
thoughtful lyrics. However, Alex plays a number of guitar-like
instruments of the acoustic variety on this release to include a
mandola, mandolin and a bouzouki. Geddy also is credited with
playing a mellotron, a first on a Rush album. “Far
Cry”, Workin’ Them Angeles”, and the instrumental
“Malignant Narcissism”. Geddy voice, which was
high pitched and shrilly at times in the early days, has mellowed
quite a bit now and sounds as good if not better than it did in the
70’s.
Overall, the
boys still have it 35 years later. They’ve had a few bumps in
the road and had some personal tragedies but these guys have
prevailed and remain on top of the game.
PUZZLE
Now that you
know a little about Rush, it’s time to dig into their music
and figure out this puzzle. To figure out the puzzle, you
will need internet help as you will need to figure out the songs
and albums the songs are off of to figure out the coordinates.
Amazon will be helpful here. For example, if I say A = 1974
release, track 4. The answer is RUSH! (album), “Here
Again” (song). “Here Again” has 9 letters. Thus A
= 9. I may also ask what track a certain song is on a certain
album. In that case the number is needed only. Simply
enough.
A = 1974
release, what track is “Need Some Love”?
_____
B = 1975
release, what track is “Rivendell”?
____
C = 1976 release,
track 5 ____
D = 1977 release,
track 2 ____ + 1 = ____
E = 1978 release,
track 3 ____ -1 = ____
F = 1980 release,
what track is “Spirit of the Radio”?
____
G = 1981 release,
track 1 _____ -3 = _____
H = 1982 release,
what track is “Subdivisions” _____
J = 1985 release,
track 1 ____ -6 = _____
K = 2007 release,
track 1 _____ - 4 = _____
47
AB.CDE
122
FD.HJK
CONGRATS TO JEFFMCGRIFF FOR THE FTF
