48. Moving Pictures by Rush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auLBLk4ibAk&list=OLAK5uy_mqiUUrmZRm1dwrX78OHxpnLU3bnDaRhSQ
Side 1 of Moving Pictures is about as awesome as one side of a rock album can be. Side 2, not so much. But then, how could anyone follow "Tom Sawyer" followed by "Red Barchetta" followed by "YYZ" followed by "Limelight?" I know all the lyrics to all four of these songs, except for "YYZ," because it has no lyrics, and thus was qualified to be nominated for a Grammy for best rock instrumental performance. In fact, the group was nominated in this category 7 times! But it only won that award a mere 0 times. That's right--0 times! "YYZ" was Rush's first Grammy nomination, and it lost to "Behind My Camel" by The Police. Now, I like The Police and I like "Behind My Camel." But there is simply NO WAY it is a better rock instrumental song than "YYZ." If you listen to both of the songs at the same time, you'll see what I'm talking about. "Behind My Camel" just fades into the background.
During my junior year of high school, Randy and I used to listen to this album while laying in our beds. We mostly listened to Side 1 and skipped Side 2. But every now and then, Randy would flip it over, and we'd listen to "The Camera Eye," "Witch Hunt," and "Vital Signs." I also remember looking at the album cover. The front features a group of movers in red onesies carrying art up the steps of a stone-faced building (perhaps a museum?) while a group of onlookers look on and weep at their beauty, eh?!
The back cover features a film crew filming the folks on the front cover.
This makes Moving Pictures one of the rare rock albums to ever pull off a triple entendre for the album title. Also, because of YYZ, it's one of the few rock albums to ever feature a Grammy nominated instrumental song with a rhythm based on any combination of Morse Code letters. ABBA did manage to get a hit with the song "S.O.S." but the rhythm of the actual Morse Code letters was not included in the song.
As documented in my entry for number 89 of my Top 200 songs, "Red Barchetta" is my favorite song on this album because...no wait...I changed my mind. It's because the title of the song it reminds me of cheese. I changed my mind because my wife says I eat too much cheese, so I guess I must like it. So at either a subconscious or conscious level (or both), I can't help but want the cheese-related song to be my favorite.
And now I'm thinking that the reason I like the Billy Joel song "Captain Jack" is because it might remind me of "Pepper Jack." Normally, I'm more of a Cheddar or Provalone or Jarlsberg or Muenster or Gouda or Havarti guy. Ah, but Pepper Jack will get me by tonight. Just a little slice, and I'll be smiling.
So, yeah. Cheese is good. But so is this album. And to be fair, the second side of the album has a good representation of their whole progressive rock thing with the nearly 11-minute long song "The Camera Eye." It would be the last time they featured a long song like this on their albums.
In my graduate school years, Julie purchased Vapor Trail when she went to a Rush concert with her brother. And I thought that album was good. But it just didn't have the emotional connection that this album has because I associate it with happy memories of hanging out with Randy in the basement.
And cheese.
"Secret Messages" by ELO and "S.O.S." by Dave Edmunds each feature some morse code, but neither of those songs nor the albums that spawned them won any Grammys, so I guess your point is valid.
ReplyDeleteI find some compelling similarities between the cover of "Moving Pictures" and the cover of the Styx album "Paradise Theater." (Maybe because, having been raised in Arimo, all big city theaters and museums look alike to me.)
The question of Rush is: who is better at their particular discipline? Geddy Lee has a distinctive and phenomenal voice, but is he a better singer than Neal Peart is a drummer? And what about Alex Lifeson's guitar playing? Pretty darn good! But is it better than Geddy's singing? Which one is the best at what they do?
The answer, of course, is I have no idea. They're just all too damn good.