Every Rush Song Ranked (2 Viewers)

[Thunderchild]

Unless I missed it, Limelight isn't ranked,and it's my favorite Rush tune.

#7. They stuck the top 13 Neil Peart solos between 11 and 10 so if you're not careful you see the #1 solo and think you've hit the #1 song but there is actually 10 more songs left to rate. Kinda dumb the way they did that.

 

[faceman]

#7. They stuck the top 13 Neil Peart solos between 11 and 10 so if you're not careful you see the #1 solo and think you've hit the #1 song but there is actually 10 more songs left to rate. Kinda dumb the way they did that.

Thanks, I see it now.

 

[Andrus]

I pretty much agree. The only Rush song that I would exempt from that is La Villa Strangiato. That song should have been #1. It is unique and, technically, their best work.

I'll add an interesting comment about Red Barchetta. That song is actually based on a good SF short story called "A Nice Morning Drive," by Richard S. Foster. You can read it here:

The Story Behind Rush's "Red Barchetta"

For those who have heard it, "Red Barchetta", off Rush's 1981 album Moving Pictures, is probably one of the best and most iconic songs about driving and being a motoring enthusiast. The song is about a young man living in a dystopian future where cars have been outlawed. The young protagonist...

oppositelock.kinja.com

I love the song, it may even be my favorite Rush song. But it is not their best by any means.

I listen to Rush from time to time, but often end up focused in on Neil Peart's drumming. That dude is/was (due to now suffering with chronic tendonitis) sick good. Red Barchetta is good, but my favorite Rush tunes are Tom Sawyer, Spirit of the Radio, Freewill, Subdivisions, and Limelight.

 

[Eeyore]

Time Stands Still came out in 1987. There is no real excuse for the production value here. This looks like it was done in a cable access studio. Good lord.

Was it done in Canada though? That could explain a lot.

 

[saintmdterps]

Rock in the 80's started off strong with Dire Straits Making Movies, Springsteen's The River, AC/DC Back in Black, Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell, Motorhead's No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, and Rush Moving Pictures, Unfortunately that momentum was scorched by foolishness like REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity and Styx Paradise Theater, and then faded to crap like Starship's We Built this City. I began listening to Alt/Progressive in the mid-late 80's to get the energy back.

My number 1/2 Rush tracks will always be 2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx live...and loud!

 

[saintmdterps]

Geddy Lee's real name is Gary Lee Weinrib. He got the name "Geddy" because that's how his Jewish mother pronounced "Gary".

Lee's parents were Holocaust survivors. Neil Peart wrote "Red Sector A" based on their experiences at Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz.

All that we can do is just survive
All that we can do to help ourselves
Is stay alive…

Ragged lines of ragged grey
Skeletons, they shuffle away
Shouting guards and smoking guns
Will cut down the unlucky ones

I clutch the wire fence
Until my fingers bleed
A wound that will not heal —
A heart that cannot feel —
Hoping that the horror will recede
Hoping that tomorrow —
We’ll all be freed

Sickness to insanity
Prayer to profanity
Days and weeks and months go by
Don’t feel the hunger — too weak to cry

I hear the sound of gunfire
At the prison gate
Are the liberators here —
Ao I hope or do I fear?
For my father and my brother, it’s too late
But I must help my mother
Stand up straight…

Are we the last ones left alive?
Are we the only human beings
To survive?…

 

[faceman]

I listen to Rush from time to time, but often end up focused in on Neil Peart's drumming. That dude is/was (due to now suffering with chronic tendonitis) sick good. Red Barchetta is good, but my favorite Rush tunes are Tom Sawyer, Spirit of the Radio, Freewill, Subdivisions, and Limelight.

I can listen to Peart and Buddy Rich all day and never get tired. A good friend of mine played drums in a local band. I asked him who was his drumming idol. He said when it came to clean speed there was Buddy Rich and everyone else.

 

[DCSaints_Fan]

Geddy Lee's real name is Gary Lee Weinrib. He got the name "Geddy" because that's how his Jewish mother pronounced "Gary".

Lee's parents were Holocaust survivors. Neil Peart wrote "Red Sector A" based on their experiences at Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz.

All that we can do is just survive
All that we can do to help ourselves
Is stay alive…

Ragged lines of ragged grey
Skeletons, they shuffle away
Shouting guards and smoking guns
Will cut down the unlucky ones

I clutch the wire fence
Until my fingers bleed
A wound that will not heal —
A heart that cannot feel —
Hoping that the horror will recede
Hoping that tomorrow —
We’ll all be freed

Sickness to insanity
Prayer to profanity
Days and weeks and months go by
Don’t feel the hunger — too weak to cry

I hear the sound of gunfire
At the prison gate
Are the liberators here —
Ao I hope or do I fear?
For my father and my brother, it’s too late
But I must help my mother
Stand up straight…

Are we the last ones left alive?
Are we the only human beings
To survive?…

When I heard that song off their Greatest Hits compilation, I thought it was some science fiction theme like they were known for doing, only later did I read it was about the Holocaust. In fact if I didn't understand the lyrics to a Rush song, my default was that it was some sci-fi thing.

 

[superchuck500]

Not bad youngsters, not bad.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Not bad youngsters, not bad.

band is clearly good and she is very talented but sound a bit too much like carrie underwood or trish yearwood for me

 

[superchuck500]

band is clearly good and she is very talented but sound a bit too much like carrie underwood or trish yearwood for me

 

[buzd]

band is clearly good and she is very talented but sound a bit too much like carrie underwood or trish yearwood for me

Don't dis Trisha Yearwood. She made my sofa.

 

[Thunderchild]

Don't dis Trisha Yearwood. She made my sofa.

She made it do what?

 

[sfidc3]

Nice cover, the timing is off on some of the tempo changes but like most Rush songs, they are extremely difficult to play precisely....I liked her voice...

The more I think about it I believe the reason I stopped listening to Rush after Subdivisions is probably how the keyboards began to dominate the music...less guitar and incredible bass lines (because Geddy was mostly playing bass pedals by then) and more keyboards in most cases = disinterest....at least for me....

 

[Yatman]

Don't dis Trisha Yearwood. She made my sofa.

good to have a fallback after nashville and hollywood