I can't list anything from Moving Pictures as underrated because it's their best selling album and the only one they played front to back on a tour.
Side 1 for sure still gets airplay of all four songs and those four got put into tour set lists for years.
Camera Eye was the one we heard in Houston on the R40 tour - they would choose between that, Red Barchetta, or YYZ every night. It would be 3rd on my list out of those three.
Natural Sciences is a candidate. It didn't get the AirPlay that Spirit of Radio or Freewill got.
I saw Rush on the Snakes and Arrows tour in 2008. They played Natural Sciences, which was a treat because it wasn't a frequent tune on other tours.
A couple weeks later I had a surgery and ended up with a couple of bad bacterial infections afterwards. A drug they gave me for nausea (IIRC) had a side effect of lucid dreaming for some people. I had a dream all night that I was at The Woodlands watching Rush play Natural Sciences. Over and over. For hours. All night. It was the only song in my dream. It was like my dream was on a loop.
Pretty sure my older brother drove up for that Texas Jam. Do you happen to remember if Heart was on the bill as well? I had a roach clip he bought there but 10 yr old me had no idea what it was….
It wasn't super critically acclaimed, but I always liked New World Man.
It was literally the first single released off of Signals. I listened to the first play of it on Houston radio.
First time I ever heard "Countdown" was on a ladies shopping bus trip from my hometown in the Eastern Province to Al Khobar, KSA.
I was listening to it with headphones on a Walkman and when the helicopters fly over, I thought it was real because the sound goes from one ear to the other. So I was looking out the window to try to see the helicopters. It sounded so real.
Also from the Signals album, when I saw Rush at the Houston Summit in maybe 1990, they did this part where they extended "Subdivisions" out for what seemed like a really long time. It was awesome.
A couple weeks later I had a surgery and ended up with a couple of bad bacterial infections afterwards. A drug they gave me for nausea (IIRC) had a side effect of lucid dreaming for some people. I had a dream all night that I was at The Woodlands watching Rush play Natural Sciences. Over and over. For hours. All night. It was the only song in my dream.
That sounds funny but I can imagine the torture.
During the December 2020 LA Covid, I had a recurring fever dream related to computer programming.
In my dream, I couldn't get the syntax right but I was convinced that if I could figure out the correct programming syntax to make this particular Japanese customer happy, that my illness would be over. I had the same dream with the same result many times in a row. It was crazy.
Just wanted to share that I know what that's like and it's no fun.
I'll throw this one out there as some live in concert imagery that I can't forget. "Working Them Angels" from "Snakes and Arrows" in 2007.
I saw that show at The Hollywood Bowl and during that time, the USA mired in the war in Iraq.
During that song, they showed images of different people in different jobs risking their lives and the people all had angel wings on their backs.
The one that got me right to my core was the American Soldier on a machine gun (I think it was an M249 SAW but it might have been an M240) with Angel wings on his back.
So it was more the imagery than the song but it definitely was great as a total package.
Pretty sure my older brother drove up for that Texas Jam. Do you happen to remember if Heart was on the bill as well? I had a roach clip he bought there but 10 yr old me had no idea what it was….
Red Sector A is another great song live.
In 1984 it was
38 Special Bryan Adams Gary Moore Ozzy Osbourne Rush
Heart only played Dallas in 78 and 79 Texas Jams. They played a Houston Texas Jam in 1981.
Faithless The Wreckers (loved it live!) Bravado Vital Signs Second Nature Losing It (check out the live videos off this with different guest violinists, including Ben Mink) The Weapon
I'll throw this one out there as some live in concert imagery that I can't forget. "Working Them Angels" from "Snakes and Arrows" in 2007.
I saw that show at The Hollywood Bowl and during that time, the USA mired in the war in Iraq.
During that song, they showed images of different people in different jobs risking their lives and the people all had angel wings on their backs.
The one that got me right to my core was the American Soldier on a machine gun (I think it was an M249 SAW but it might have been an M240) with Angel wings on his back.
So it was more the imagery than the song but it definitely was great as a total package.
Working Them Angels is an amazing song both lyrically and musically. When combined with the images live, it's as emotionally moving as Losing It.
This thread gets me in the feels. When Neil passed it hit me hard knowing there'd be no more live Rush. It was something me and a couple of my buddies knew every year or other year we'd get to see Rush. Go see your music heroes live every chance you get - never know when you might not get that chance again.
We were lucky. We had Rush and then after Neil came back from walk about we had Rush 2.0.
Geddy and Alex have both been giving hints of something that might be Rush 3.0. It won't be called Rush I don't think but it may be something like the CA tour with an orchestra. They have both said if they do it they would not go as a 3 piece. The line of people willing to play drums would be long and distinguished.
That's some body of work. Surprised to see Closer to the Heart that high. I thought they had "retired" that song from tours a while back, but I guess I was mistaken. Really takes almost a lifetime of touring into context. They preformed that song over 1300 times!
In Geddy's book, he said that he sort of "spaced out" a few times on some songs during tours. I can believe it. Almost sounds like how you're driving and got lost in thought and can't recall the last 5 minutes of road time ("did I run a red light?").
Okay fellow Rush geeks, got a story for you. It's not very flattering, and it will probably be too long, but hopefully it will be worth the read.
Born in 67, I grew up in the heart of disco, and I loved it. I bought tons of singles - 45's - songs like Heart of Glass, Le Freak, Play that Funky Music. I would send off for the K-Tel albums that had different hits by different bands all on 1 album. The first real album I bought was Saturday Night Fever. This was all in my pre-teen years.
Rush was not in my universe until the fateful day in 1981 when Limelight crashed into my life on Dallas radio. I was blown away. So I did what I had always done. I bought the Limelight single with YYZ on the B side. FINALLY, after hearing Tom Sawyer, I gathered up enough coins to buy Moving Pictures, and I wore out side 1. I listened to it over and over and over.
Fast forward to my senior year in high school, 1985. We had the coolest assembly ever. A group of guys from the Army formed a band and played at our school and many other schools, I assume. They were big Rush fans and did a great cover of Subdivisions. But before the show started, they had a video that played to introduce them. In the background was an obvious Rush song that I had never heard. I was sitting next to a guy who was an even bigger Rush fan than me, and I said, "that sounds like Rush".
He looks at me like I'm an idiot and says, "it is Rush". I said, "what is it"? He says, "it's The Camera Eye". I was again blown away by the music I was hearing and asked him, "what album is it from"? He says, "Moving Pictures".
I was such a dumbass that I argued with him, "that's not on Moving Pictures, I have Moving Pictures". Which was true, but I had NEVER in 4 years played side 2. I think I even bet him $5 or so that he was wrong. I lost $5,
Fast forward 30 years or so. My son, who was 18 or 19 texts me, "hey, this is a cool Rush song I never heard you play". I clicked on the link at near 50 years old to hear a song from 1977 or so for the forst time that my son, born in 1999, turned me on to.
I'm not proud of it, but I loved side 1 so much, maybe the greatest album side ever put to vinyl, that I just never played side 2. Remember, I was used to buying singles, and nobody ever played the B side of a single.
Also, I never bought A Farewell To Kings, mainly because I had bought Exit Stage Left, which had Xanadu and Closer to the Heart, so I didn't want to spend the money on songs I already had. So I was in my 20s when I finally heard A Farewell to Kings and Cygnus X-1, and as I explained, I was around 50 when I finally heard Cinderella Man.
Pretty pathetic, I realize. I was, and remain (although to a lesser extent), a cheap *******.
Lol. As bad as it sounds, I had other things going on in my life. Somehow I survived it all without hearing certain Rush songs. I regret not going to the Rush Texas Jam. The only TJ I went to was Boston Aerosmith Whitesnake Poison Tesla. Hit and miss on that one. Tesla was awesome.
Okay fellow Rush geeks, got a story for you. It's not very flattering, and it will probably be too long, but hopefully it will be worth the read.
Born in 67, I grew up in the heart of disco, and I loved it. I bought tons of singles - 45's - songs like Heart of Glass, Le Freak, Play that Funky Music. I would send off for the K-Tel albums that had different hits by different bands all on 1 album. The first real album I bought was Saturday Night Fever. This was all in my pre-teen years.
Rush was not in my universe until the fateful day in 1981 when Limelight crashed into my life on Dallas radio. I was blown away. So I did what I had always done. I bought the Limelight single with YYZ on the B side. FINALLY, after hearing Tom Sawyer, I gathered up enough coins to buy Moving Pictures, and I wore out side 1. I listened to it over and over and over.
Fast forward to my senior year in high school, 1985. We had the coolest assembly ever. A group of guys from the Army formed a band and played at our school and many other schools, I assume. They were big Rush fans and did a great cover of Subdivisions. But before the show started, they had a video that played to introduce them. In the background was an obvious Rush song that I had never heard. I was sitting next to a guy who was an even bigger Rush fan than me, and I said, "that sounds like Rush".
He looks at me like I'm an idiot and says, "it is Rush". I said, "what is it"? He says, "it's The Camera Eye". I was again blown away by the music I was hearing and asked him, "what album is it from"? He says, "Moving Pictures".
I was such a dumbass that I argued with him, "that's not on Moving Pictures, I have Moving Pictures". Which was true, but I had NEVER in 4 years played side 2. I think I even bet him $5 or so that he was wrong. I lost $5,
Fast forward 30 years or so. My son, who was 18 or 19 texts me, "hey, this is a cool Rush song I never heard you play". I clicked on the link at near 50 years old to hear a song from 1977 or so for the forst time that my son, born in 1999, turned me on to.
I'm not proud of it, but I loved side 1 so much, maybe the greatest album side ever put to vinyl, that I just never played side 2. Remember, I was used to buying singles, and nobody ever played the B side of a single.
Also, I never bought A Farewell To Kings, mainly because I had bought Exit Stage Left, which had Xanadu and Closer to the Heart, so I didn't want to spend the money on songs I already had. So I was in my 20s when I finally heard A Farewell to Kings and Cygnus X-1, and as I explained, I was around 50 when I finally heard Cinderella Man.
Pretty pathetic, I realize. I was, and remain (although to a lesser extent), a cheap *******.
Oddly enough, when I was introducing my son to the music it was Camera Eye that immediately resonated with him. In the bridge where Neil holds the high hat open for a half beat is what got his attention. It's still his favorite Rush tune to this day.