I heard this by chance on the way to work this morning, and have known the song since it first hit the airwaves circa 1982. Suddenly I think it’s a masterpiece of songwriting.
This is one fantastic piece of art, IMHO.
That’s all.
This is one of my favorite songs of all time. Not only is the synth line perfect for the content, but the lyrics are masterfully insightful. I really identified with this song growing up.
Excellent song. One of Rush’s best, possibly the best, IMO.
It’s very reminiscent of Quadrophenia, another of my passions.
“Conform or be cast oot…”
Great song, and Jacob Moon also does a great version here.
It’s not my favourite.
I was never crazy about it until I saw Rush play it live a few years ago. Geddy plays the signature riff on keyboard and switches to bass for the solo, which is pretty impressive.
I dismissed Rush for years mainly because most of the boys in my Grade 8 class were huge fans. Years later I came to Rush and decide that not everyone I went to Grade 8 with was a complete idiot. (some were, Rush fans or not.)
Rush is my favorite band. Well, them and Ozzy.
I agree. I’ve always liked Rush but over the years I’ve come to really love them.
I once heard Eddie Trunk call Rush “chick repellant” which I find amusing as a woman who knows a few other massive Rush fans, who are also women.
Copies of Signals should be attached to all future space probes to prove our intelligence to any aliens that should happen across them.
Briefly in college I was a radio DJ for the Dorm radio station. My first day on the job, this was the first song I played. People kept telling me the rest of that night it was a perfect way to start. Love that song.
I know who Rush is. Who’s Eddie Trunk? Does he matter?
Well, I don’t know if he matters… but he’s a DJ who I appreciate because he is one of the only ones who plays hard rock on the radio. Plus he hosts That Metal Show on VH1, which I like. Plus plus he’s also a big Rush fan.
Perhaps he was referring to that Limbaugh of yours.
I too agree that this is one of Rush’s best songs. I also tend to think of Signals in a broader sense…to me it marked the transition of a fundamental change in their sound. To me, their music after Signals became more clinical sounding. In my mind a lot of it had to do with Alex Lifeson’s guitar sound getting away from the heavier, fuzzier-toned sound he used all the way up to Moving Pictures to a more choruse-y, cleaner, compressed tone. Signals was a departure, sonically in some respects. And its weird: I have not liked a single Rush recording much after the Signals recordind and I like literally everything before it.
Weird. Maybe there’s nothing to what I am saying.
Nope, I’m with ya on this: Signals is the apex of their recordings. It’s more focused than anything that came before it, and more directly relevant, lyrically, to the world around them. After this, the focus actually began to hurt the band’s art, as it meant they were always coming closer to straight-ahead pop/rock conventions in their songwriting. And lyrically, the esoteric quotient began to decline, as more conventional subject matter took hold.
I am with you guys. I have heard it said that Signals is a Rush fan’s least favorite Rush album. I do not know why that would be. I like most of their stuff prior to Signals, as well as Grace Under Pressure, but after that they were taken over by the synth for a number of years. Just part of their evolution, I guess.
And to the OP - agree, Subdivisions is one of their best and one of my favorites.
Good tune. But they have better ones. My two favorite Rush songs are Something for Nothing and By-Tor & the Snow Dog. The former for the lyrics and the latter for musicianship. *Awesome *stuff.