I have a friend who’s a big fan of Rush, and he suggested 2112 as an example of blending SF and Rock. I’m hopelessly retarded in matters of modern music (even stuff this old), so he loaned me a copy.
I’d appreciate any insights on this. I read the Wikipedia entry on it, and have listened to it repeatedly. My impression is that the music is pretty simple, and that’s one of the things that doesn’t impress me. He was startled when I said this, replying that the music is incredibly complex.
If so, I just don’t see it (hear it?) The “melodiers” seem to me very short and hopelessly repetitive. They don’t hold my interest at all, and they don’t seem to do much with the brief phrases they have. The lyrics are reptitive, too. The story’s pretty simple (and not terrifically believable), but I don’t hold that as a flaw – it’s par for the course with musical drama. You don’t want complex storylines when you’re supposed to be concentrating on the music.
So what am I missing? If it’s a question of technically dfficult chords, that’s one thing – but difficulty of execution doesn’t do much for me. I’ve heard other cases of admittedly difficult execution I could really appreciate, sinmce they were on instruments that I played. Nevertheless, they bored me to tears. Technical difficulty doesn’t equate with en joyable listening. Or are there, in fact, multilayer structures and underlying complexities that I, in my lack of experience with Rush’s ouevre, am simply missing completely?
I can’t critique the album, since I’ve never listened to it, but your post brought back a flood of memories of a few of my friends in high school who pretty much worshipped Rush, and especially 2112. I got the impression from them (who were in a garage band) that the music was incredibly complex, with all kinds of creative chords and unusual rhythms. Myself, I would just shrug my shoulders at them.
Rush was one of my fave bands back in the day (them and Queen). I and my friends just thought it was kickass rock and roll. The fact that the first side told a story was just an extra benefit. At the time I considered Rush to be made up of 3 pretty tremendously talented musicians playing a style of music that I really liked. And they put on a hell of a live show.
As a beginning bassist at the time, 2112, Caress of Steel, and their eponymous debut had plenty of neat basslines to cut your teeth on.
I think you’re trying to read too much into it. Sure, there’s a story to bind the songs on side 1 together, but it’s not some great SF masterpiece, it’s just rock and roll. There are some rockin’ parts, some mellow parts, and some enjoyable jammin’ instumentals.
Exactly. We were never into the “nuances” either - we were too busy drinking beer and getting into other general mischief. It was just kick ass music. If I wanted to “desconstruct” Rush or any other music, I’d be in class.
“Incredibly complex.” Snort. Play that boy some Elliot Carter and watch him blow a gasket.
Now I do like Rush, although they’ve never been one of my favorites. But the fanboys tend to wildly overstate the complexity of their music (Ooh! They play in odd time signatures! Scary!) and their virtuosity on their instruments. “2112” is good fun, nicely ambitious, but pretty adolescent in both lyrical content and musical construction.
We have assumed control. We have assumed control. Snort. “Danger, Will Robinson!”
I agree mostly with Biffy here: their fans interpret the ability to play in 7/4 and 5/4 as mindblowingly incredible but I think for rock musicians, they can be considered virtuosos. At least Geddy Lee & Neil Pert can be. Alex Lifeson can keep his pointless, reverb soaked leads elsewhere.
As for the “story” aspect…um…I just don’t think Rush is a lyrical band. I mean, the drummer’s writing the lyrics fer Chrissake (low blow alert) and Geddy Lee’s voice doesn’t really inhance the non-poetry of the words. They’ve always seemed a little cheesy to me. Enjoyable but cheesy.
You could always buy that Styx album with Mr. Roboto on it. That’s Sci-Fi as all get out…and utterly horrendous. It basically destroyed their career.
What you are talking about is what has become known as Progressive or Art Rock. Bands from the 60s, 70s and 80s like Rush, Yes, Jethrow Tull and others attempted to “elevate” rock above mere testosterone music. They created various concept albums and wrote lyrics about various sci-fi, fantasy and socially relevent topics.
I don’t know much about 2112, but the Rush song Red Barchetta is a typical blending of SF and rock. It’s a story about a boy who borrows his uncles classic muscle car and goes tooling around in his futuristic world that consists of “air cars” and “Turbine Freights”.
Mr Roboto by the Styx is another obvious example, as is Iron Man by Black Sabbath.
Not only that but ‘Red Barchetta’ is actually adapted from a story called ‘A Nice Morning Drive’ with a futuristic setting. It originally appeared in ‘Car & Driver’ I seem to recall.
As for 2112 yes, it’s SF in music but not certainly one of their best, for all of me. It is a complex piece to play, though there’s certainly harder pieces, but it was early in their careers.
The ultimate Sci-Fi meets rock band is Voivod. Instrumentally, they pummel Rush into a series of oily smears (and I’m a Rush fan). And their music, compsitionally, puts their chops to full use much more often than Rush’s does. Lyrically, it’s all space, interdimensional travel, and robots, baby.
The albums to look for are Killing Technology, Dimension Hatross and Nothingface.
I wonder if it also depends on *when * you hear it in life, under what context.
Rush 2112 was the first real “rock” album I’d ever heard. (OK, 8-track). I was about 13 years old.
It was a magnum opus back then to these “virgin” ears.
I still have a copy of it (on CD), and play it occasionally. Nowadays, it’s more the nostalgia thrill, not the complexity of the music (although, IMHO, Rush does put out some rhythmically interesting music and they at least try for “loftier” themes despite not always succeeding).
2112 is an impressive piece of work for what it is. Is it the most musically complex piece of music ever? No, and it isn’t Rush’s most complex music ever either. Working in odd time signatures and other complexities and being technically superior is not all that unusual across the entirety of music.
It is very unusual for three guys in a power rock group producing popular music.
To fail to understand that is, in my humble opinion, the developmentally immature position to take.
What other music of that time (or today) does it compare to? What other music produced for a rock audience uses other than common time or considers thematic content like Anthem? Genesis’ Supper’s Ready has some pretty fun time shifts and generally strays from common time. Much of Yes’ music does the same. And I’m a big fan of all that as well. I also like music that rocks hard, and 2112 does that very well.
The lyrics are fairly simple, particularly compared to a lot of other Rush songs. But to regard it as an example of science fiction is a superficial understanding of it. Like Ayn Rand’s Anthem, it’s much more a political commentary than a science fiction story. Now, I think Ayn Rand’s philosophy is particularly juvenile, so I’m not all that thrilled about it or Neil Peart’s interest in it back in the 70’s.
But, as with all things about slamming Rush, my bottom line is: Go for it. Don’t like it? Well, I guess they won’t start spending all the money they’d have gotten from sellling records to you. I would suggest that you don’t forget about how bad Geddy Lee’s voice is next time. That’s always a good one.
Want me to stop liking it? You’ll have to do better than ill-informed arguments and ad hominem remarks.
If you don’t have a jones for disliking Rush, may I suggest that you give the album Permanent Waves a listen? It may be the single album that best demonstrates Rush’s musical and lyrical talents.
I’d have to say that 2112 really isn’t SF. I’d call it “futuristic”, but in reality it’s simply an allegory that happens to be set in the future. For honest-to-goodness rock+SF from Rush, you’d want to check out the Cygnus X-1 storyline, which begins on side 2 of A Farewell to Kings and concludes on side 1 of the next album, Hemispheres. The first part (“Cygnus X-1, Book I: The Voyage”) describes a man flying a spaceship into a black hole. The second part (“Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres”) tells of what he found on the other side: the black hole has sent him back in time (I won’t spoil it here).
A lot of the complexity of Rush’s music isn’t necessarily in the difficulty of the individual parts, though I can vouch for the fact that Geddy’s bass lines are extremely difficult - I’ve been trying to master them for years. The complexity often lies in how those parts are assembled; the overall structure of the compositions, how the different instrumental parts complement each other, how the parts twist and turn around each other. The three members of Rush manage to simultaneously play individually complex parts, somehow making it all fit together without stepping all over each other.
Example:
The instrumental break in “By-Tor and the Snow Dog” (from Fly By Night) musically describes a fierce battle between the two main characters, one portrayed by Lifeson’s guitar, the other by Lee’s bass. During the preceding verses, Peart’s drumming and Lee’s bass parts are complex, while Lifeson’s guitar part is relatively simple, just filling out the sound. During the “battle” section though, Lifeson and Lee go wild, and Peart abruptly lays back and provides a relatively simple beat behind them. Figuratively then, you can easily imagine two combatants circling each other and trading attacks (represented by guitar and bass), surrounded by a crowd of spectators urging them on to victory (represented by the steady, supportive drumbeat).
Frankly, although I’m a huge Rush fan, I actually don’t usually recommend 2112 if I want to emphasize the complexity of their music. For that I point to Hemispheres and Permanent Waves, the album that introduced me to the band. The song “Freewill” from PW is also the song that made me into a bass player. Before I heard that song, when I was about 14, I wasn’t even really aware of the bass guitar as a distinct instrument; it was just another guitar. When I heard the way Geddy played on that song, it was a revelation. And also the coolest thing I’d ever heard up to that point.
Also, by Hemispheres, Geddy had stopped shrieking and begun to become an actual singer
I think the most legitimate criticism of 2112 would be Alex’s sartorial choices and the overly revealing pose, reminiscent of the foil-wrapped cucumber of Spinal Tap.
