Yeah, it's a great album. That was about the third Laser's Edge release I picked up, back in the mid 90's.
Ken Golden could probably talk about this more clearly, but I recall him saying that one of the guys from Spirit Of Christmas felt that Alex Lifeson may have borrowed a few moves from their music (apparently, members of both bands attended the others concerts, so they both knew about each other).
Listening to the album, one does hear some similar chord sequences, by which I mean, the use of the open high E and/or B string mixed with a moving chord sequence on the lower strings (e.g. the Eminor to F#11th chord change during the first stanza of Xanadu, or the chords on the opening fanfare section of Hemispheres).
There's nothing that actually
sounds, not to my ears anyway, like any Rush songs, but if you're a guitarist, it's hard to miss the type of chord changes I'm talking about.
Of course, Pete Townshend did similar things in The Who (e.g. Substitute or I Can See For Miles), so one
could argue both bands appropriated it from him!
And I think Townshend admitted he lifted it fro listening to composers like Purcell.
Bookmarks