FEATURED CD: Rush - Caress of Steel

[JeffCarney]

Sorry, but this is so bad it's painful.

I dig "Lakeside Park," but it's better on ATWAS anyway, so this album serves no purpose for my money. The arranging is often just pitiful. Fly By Night just KILLS this turd. For some reason I've always wanted to like this album, but last time I paid it a visit I just could not believe how bad it was.

1/5

[TCC]

I never understood the band's negative emotions on this one. It is a very important step in the band's development of its vision, they could not just go from Fly by Night to 2112 in one step.
"... its innocence - musically, lyrically - its raw sound"
" its groping in the dark attitude, its lack of perfectionism, perfectionism that eventually strangled their creativity.

Agree 100%!.

Zappathrustra,
You summarize my thoughts/feelings about this good record; haven`t heard it in ages ... right now I am, phones included, and it still moves me and like it!.

[Soc Prof]

This is my favorite of the "first sector" Rush albums. Love it. I can't even image how cool it would have been if Geddy had owned a Minimoog at that point.

Didn't Alex say some of the guitar parts were inspired by Hackett's Voyage of the Acolyte?

[brianh]

rock at its finest.

[Progatron]

Didn't Alex say some of the guitar parts were inspired by Hackett's Voyage of the Acolyte?

He has said that he was flat out copying Hackett's style on his solo in "No One At The Bridge". At least he's honest about it!

[Paulrus]

He has said that he was flat out copying Hackett's style on his solo in "No One At The Bridge". At least he's honest about it!

And I love that solo. It really was the first album where they started to visibly become a progressive rock band.

[spacefreak]

A far more worthy and enjoyable album than anything that came after "Signals".

[yesstiles]

I think "The Fountain of Lamneth" is one of the best things they ever did. I love it. And it contains the best guitar work Lifeson ever did imo.

I think the album might have fared better if the tracklisting was altered. Personally, I don't like the first two tracks and always skip over them. I think CoS would have worked better like this:


Caress of Steel

Side One

The Fountain of Lamneth (19:03)

Side Two

Lakeside Park (4:08)
The Necromancer (12:35)


....and of course edit out the narration on The Necromancer and remove Didacts and Narpets altogether. It makes the album a lot shorter but still longer than Permanent Waves.

A far more worthy and enjoyable album than anything that came after "Signals".

Ain't that the truth?

[spacefreak]

I never understood the band's negative emotions on this one. It is a very important step in the band's development of its vision, they could not just go from Fly by Night to 2112 in one step. Side A with Bastille Day, Lakeside Park and Necromancer should be at least equal in quality terms to 2112's side B, so the issue has to be the Fountain of Lamneth. I love its innocence - musically, lyrically - its raw sound, its groping in the dark attitude, its lack of perfectionism, perfectionism that eventually strangled their creativity.

Exactly!

[flowerking]

Very inconsistent album. On the positive side, Bastille Day is a nice rocker and Lakeside Park is one of their best efforts. Fountains of Lamneth and Necromancer have some nice moments but overall I think they did prog epics better with 2112, Xanadu, Cygnus and Hemispheres. And I Think I'm Going Bald was a mistake they should have recognized immediately after writing it.

[GuitarGeek]

Personally, I prefer Fountain Of Lamneth over 2112 itself. I used to be able to play that 12 string acoustic guitar part from the first section of the piece. Did they ever play anything from Fountain Of Lamneth live? I don't imagine they ever played the entire piece, given that they felt that they couldn't give half of their set over to 2112, during a time when they were still mostly supporting other bands on tour. But I'm not sure I've even heard of them doing anything from it live.

I remember someone on another forum griping that they stole the last section of The Necromancer from Baba O'Riley, because it has the same chord progression. I hastened to point out that if that were true that there's about a million other songs, both before and after Baba O'Riley that have the exact same chords.

[moecurlythanu]

I've always thought this one lack direction in writing, inconsistent and weak. I like some of it but find Fly By Night and 2112 much better efforts. Love the cover though.

Bingo.

[mellotron storm]

Well this was their first Prog-Rock album so the press hated it but the band loved it at the time being fans of Prog. It sold on par what the previous two album did but expectations were higher. Peart in the Guitar Legends magazine said this about Caress Of Steel. "It was weird. We loved it so much when we made it, and we were flush with the excitement of making it. Then when it didn't do well, we were kind of stung."
Peart goes on to say that in his opinion it doesn't stand up well, but then he feels their best music didn't start until 1980 and beyond. Personally I think seventies albums 2112, Hemispheres and A Farewell To Kings blows away everything after Moving Pictures but then most RUSH fans will agree with this.

[Soc Prof]

And I Think I'm Going Bald was a mistake they should have recognized immediately after writing it.

Hey, I totally relate to that song!

[Garden Dreamer]

This is my favorite of the "first sector" Rush albums. Love it. I can't even image how cool it would have been if Geddy had owned a Minimoog at that point.

Watch this and you can see how Lakeside Park sounds with Taurus foot pedals!!!!



No triggered rhythm guitars, synths or backing vocals... sigh...

[Facelift]

Sorry, but this is so bad it's painful.

I dig "Lakeside Park," but it's better on ATWAS anyway, so this album serves no purpose for my money. The arranging is often just pitiful. Fly By Night just KILLS this turd. For some reason I've always wanted to like this album, but last time I paid it a visit I just could not believe how bad it was.

1/5

Agreed - it's a terrible album, and one of the worst I've ever heard by a band with albums I like and own. Spinal Tap couldn't do a funnier parody than this actual real album.

[JeffCarney]

Agreed - it's a terrible album, and one of the worst I've ever heard by a band with albums I like and own. Spinal Tap couldn't do a funnier parody than this actual real album.

And unfortunately even though they were so much better on 2112 and the albums that followed for quite a while, some of the bad habits from this album were kind of somewhere in the back of the arranging mindset.

I don't know how many times I listen to Rush's "epics" and think to myself: "Guys; when you run out of steam with ideas in a piece of music, reverting to the opening in a seemingly random spot is not a solution you want to lean on very often."

Just my taste, I guess. And I should point out that I have long dug these guys on many other levels.

[brianh]

Agreed - it's a terrible album, and one of the worst I've ever heard by a band with albums I like and own. Spinal Tap couldn't do a funnier parody than this actual real album.

Terrible? Worst?? Say it ain't so!

[Soc Prof]

Watch this and you can see how Lakeside Park sounds with Taurus foot pedals!!!!

Nice! Thanks.

[viukkis]

And I Think I'm Going Bald was a mistake they should have recognized immediately after writing it.

Neil Peart said in an interview some years ago that there are no unreleased Rush songs lying around in the vaults, because every finished song that they wrote went onto an album. I Think I'm Going Bald proves it.

[Trane]

LOVE it. Lakeside Park has a ton of memories for me growing up, partying on Saturday nights at "The Embankment", playing in a Rush cover band in high school.

Yup memories.... can't possibly remember the number of Lakeside pârties we had, but that was with Miss Issauga (around the water purifying station) and Etobicoke on the beaches around a firecamp .... High Park (no fire possible there) and Humber River (the Amazon) fire we did there were of course illegal)... A few male and female innocences were lost in those.
Generally after Lakeside park (which was mostly about Scarberia or Eastern Toronto), we played MMEB's Spirits In The Night (much preferable to Springsteen) and Echo Beach sprung up somewhat later (I was in Uni, then)


As for CoS: I never really warmed into it and I still tend to prefer much more FBN to it... But TBH, I really got into Rush's albums with 2112

[Plasmatopia]

Love this album for all the reason others have stated. The unevenness, the immaturity, Alex's guitar sounds. Those are the elements of it's charm.

[Koreabruce]

As the first Rush album I ever bought back in fall 1975, I have a soft spot for Caress of Steel. Believe it or not, I bought it after hearing a (very unlikely) song from it on the Cleveland radio station WMMS. Can you guess which song they played? (Hint: It turned out to be very prophetic for me if you check my profile pic...)

I remember taking this home, unwrapping it, and listening straight through whilst scanning the interior gate-fold art. My initial thoughts:

1. (seeing the picture of Geddy playing his Rickenbacker) Wow, that is one skinny dude!
2. Those drums are incredible. Who is this guy?!
3. I love the sounds the guitarist is getting. He rocks! And his long blonde hair looks really cool.
4. For a hard rock album, the lyrics are unusually well-written.
5. Okay, that guy's voice is really weird. It may take me a while to get used to. Don't know if I want to let my friends hear this one just yet...

I ended up loving this album but being even more enthralled at what came next. I've been a Rush fan ever since.

Years later I met a drummer who became a close friend, and he and I would always joke about certain parts of this record. Our favorite thing was to feign a smiling, eyes-half-closed, stoned-out look and recite in deep voice: "Shreds of black clouds loom in overcast skies..."

[Liquid Tension]

One of my favorites from them...

[miamiscot]

I love it - warts and all.