We get a feel for what they are saying and their pacing. Geddy and I spend a lot of time with the lyrics if we get them first. I often adapted my playing to the message of his lyrics. This is where Neil got a lot of input for his writing. All you heard was the breakdown in the arms negotiations, the KAL murders, all this stuff. We were up in Horseshoe Valley, just north of Toronto, for two months, and we got the Toronto Globe & Mail delivered to the door every morning. The guitar seems very lonely and translates the lyrics well, which were inspired by a newspaper. I like the feel of "Red Sector A" as a guitar song. I don't really have any favorite tracks, but I like "Red Lenses" - it's a real departure for us. Like any album, a month after I got away from it and had a chance to listen to it a little more objectively, there are a few things that maybe I would have done differently. THIS IS THE MOST satisfying of all our records. But Grace Under Pressure, Alex reports in the detailed Playback that follows, is the most interesting Rush album he's done. Since then, the band has issued a two-record live LP, Exit.Stage Left, and the studio releases Moving Pictures and Signals. By the time of Alex' June '80 Guitar Player cover story, Rush had released eight albums, including the million-selling All The World's A Stage and Permanent Waves. Moving toward a more high-tech sound, Alex added guitar synthesizer and Moog Taurus bass pedals to his stage setup, while Geddy split his time between bass, keyboard synthesizers, and bass pedals. In 1974 they issued their first album, Rush, after which Neil Peart replaced original drummer John Rutsey. They attempted to expand their range in the early '70s by adding another guitarist and keyboardist, but soon returned to the trio format. He gave Alex a freer hand, which contributed to the cohesiveness of the guitar tones throughout the album.Ĭanada's premier power trio, Rush formed in Toronto during the autumn of 1968. After trying out a dozen others, Rush settled on Peter Henderson, who had produced Supertramp and Jeff Beck and engineered at London's Abbey Road Studios for Paul McCartney. Recorded over a four-month period, Grace Under Pressure marks the band's departure from co-producer Terry Brown. Neil Peart reaffirms his place among rock's most innovative drummers. Singer Geddy Lee heightens the music's urgency as he layers swirling tracks of kinetic bass guitar and ethereal keyboard synthesizer. His solos pave uncommon ground, blending chorused tones, vibrato bar wangs, and lines and chords outside of the blues-rock vein. Alex Lifeson's taut, textural guitar approach mirrors the tension of the lyrics' concerns: the pillage of ecology, breakdowns in international communications, the spectre of nuclear war, and personal paranoia. The project is both provocative and highly energetic. charts at #38 upon its release last May, and firmed its place in the Top 10 within a month (where it remains as of this writing). RUSH'S GRACE UNDER PRESSURE may well become the trio's biggest album to date. Rush "Grace Under Pressure" By Alex Lifeson as told to Jas Obrecht, Guitar Player, August 1984, transcribed by pwrwindows
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