From: jaeger@buphy.bu.edu (Gregg Jaeger)
Newsgroups: alt.music.rush
Subject: Re: The BIG change -- a new thread?
Date: 27 Sep 92 15:28:49 GMT
Organization: Boston University Physics Department

In article <1686F9534.PRAETHE@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu> PRAETHE@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (Ethan Evan Prater) writes:

>> >According to the _Chronicles_ liner notes, Rush wanted to make more
>> >radio-oriented songs.  (some may feel that implies selling out)

>>Seeing as I own all non-compilations, I don't own this set. Who
>>wrote these liner notes (Mercury records?) and/or is there a copy
>>of them online somewhere?

>>Gregg
 
>In italics at the end of the liner notes is the name John Swenson. I've never
>heard this name before, but maybe that shows ignorance. His name is nowhere
>else in the liner notes.

Anyone know this guy? 
 
>Relevant excerpt--

>It wasn't until the 1980 album Permanent Waves, though, that Rush made the
>most dramatic transformation. Having gone through heavy metal and art rock,
>the band emerged as an arena and FM radio-oriented band, spinning catchy yet
>thoughtful tunes like Freewill and The Spirit of the Radio [note--THE Radio--
>ethan]. Lee, always a stupendous bassist, suddenly took center stage with his
>extraordinary synthesizer work.

(Not so suddenly! Did this guy ever listen to _Hemispheres_?!) 

>"It was time to stop the concept stories," Lee said. "What you have to 
>say ends up being very nebulous, because you're concerned with the big 
>story. You try to make the story right, you try to evoke the right moods, 
and invariably sixteen different people come up to you and tell you 
>sixteen different things about what you're trying to say. That's fine, 
>but for us it was time to come down out of the fog for a while and put 
>down something concrete."
> 
>--End relevant excerpt
 
>So this says pretty definitively why the shift in style, I think. Are the
>quotes in these notes new, or are they taken from some interview that everyone
>knows?
 
I don't know of this interview myself. It's a very interesting comment
by Ged. While it may explain the shift in style, I don't see it as
supporting the idea that Rush wanted to make `radio-oriented songs'
as Ron (5150) recently suggested. Swenson is clearly presenting this 
in the typical rock-journalist style, being sure to relate everything to 
airplay considerations (who gives about that stuff, eh?), so
his interpretation should hardly be taken as the _band's_ interpretation
of what they were doing.

Now, what is Ged saying here? He seems to be talking mainly about
lyrics (he talks about _stories_). I agree with what he was saying 
about nebulousity; I mean the lyrics to 2112 can be viewed in an 
incredible number of ways, from being about totatitarianism to 
being a metaphor for rock radio. Ged seems to be talking less about 
music and more about the _meanings_ of their songs. Obviously the 
two are related to some extent, but can the change in music been 
seen entirely as a matter of helping the lyrics to transmit a message?


>I hope this was of interest---
> 
>--Ethan

It sure was. Thanks!


Gregg

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Gregg Jaeger    (jaeger@buphy.bu.edu)     | Tristero?   ______/|/|  Treestero?
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Newsgroups: alt.music.rush