I do get some of the "retire already" opinions with regard to Rush and all other bands milking out their back catalogs every anniversary (35th anniversary? Really?) mostly because I'm in a band trying to get the scraps left from prog fans pockets after they've bought all their favorite prog albums for the 5th time (remaster, hi-def, bonus tracks, super deluxe versions, etc.) but that all said, "let the marketplace decide" I guess.
milking it to me to is taking advantage of people in way - but its hardly that - we're all smart enough to know better - and yes - the market is the decider - just because something is put out 100 times doesnt change anything for me - buy - or do not buy - not much else to say other than "I dont like these people because they have something that could sell again." Sounds quite petty to me. I hate Rush now because they have the nerve to release something again in a different package - or with some small change - welp - you are in control of your own OCD collectors tendencies and have to make a choice. Its not on them. Maybe the label is responsible - but its YOU who whine about it - and their retirement is their business - not yours. anyway - soapbox now removed - I'll go away.
Yeah with Rush it's more about the packaging and the OCD. They famously do not have ANY b-sides and their audio quality improvements upon remaster with the anniversary releases -with the exception of the Vapor Trails remix-are nil.
I love Geddy and he's hardly Gene Simmons and the way they went out with little fanfare and practical secrecy is to be commended. I do buy all the Blu-ray videos however as I think every tour was different even if they don't take many liberties with their live versions of songs.
As for this book, it does appear to have its own angle and is not just another bio so that's cool.
I've never looked into it, but: Does Rush have any commercial videos available of a 70s concert?
Ive bought and read most of Neils books, and I will continue to buy anything Rush shoves in front of me. I cant imagine not wanting to hear what these guys want to say. I missed a lot of Rush tours, because I was playing when they were touring, or was too poor to afford to see them. Just want it on my Nook. I don't really do physical books any more. Hopefully they will do that. I am waiting for Geddy's big beautiful book of Bass to be available Electronically. He may never do it, because it doesn't lend itself to that format, but I will get it one way or another.
I got nothin' :
...avoiding any implication that I have ever entertained a cognizant thought.
live samples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwbCFGbAtFc
https://youtu.be/AEE5OZXJioE
https://soundcloud.com/yodelgoat/yod...om-a-live-show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUe3YhCjy6g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VOCJokzL_s
This list is several years old so it's missing a few:
Books
Books: Biographies, Criticism, Analyses
Rush, Brian Harrigan (Cherry Lane Music: 1984)
Success Under Pressure"", Steve Gett (Cherry Lane Books: 1984)
Visions, Bill Banasiewicz (Omnibus Press: 1988)
Mystic Rhythms"", Carol Selby Price and Robert M. Price (Wildside Press: 1999)
Merely Players"", Robert Telleria (Quarry Music Books: 2002)
A Simple Kind Mirror, Leonard Roberto, Jr. (iUniverse (vanity press), 2002)
Contents Under Pressure, Martin Popoff (ECW Press: 2004)
Chemistry"", Jon Collins (Helter Skelter Publishing: 2005)
Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class, Chris McDonald (Indiana University Press: 2009)
Rush and Philosophy, Jim Burti and Durrell Bowman, editors (Open Court: 2011)
Rush: The Illustrated History, Martin Popoff (Voyageur: 2013)
Rush FAQ, Max Mobley (Backbeat: 2014)
Rush: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Excellence, Robert Freedman (Algora: 2014)
Experiencing Rush, Durrell Bowman (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)
Books: Neil Peart
The Masked Rider, ECW Press: 1996
Ghost Rider, ECW Press: 2002
Traveling Music, ECW Press: 2004
Roadshow, ECW Press: 2007
Far and Away, ECW Press: 2011
Far and Near, ECW Press: 2014
African Drum Neil’s 5 early privately published travel memoirs, 1985-1988
Two glaring omissions as I'm reviewing the list is:
Rush -- Album By Album (Popoff)
The Rush Chronology (This one is great because it's a compendium and I figure Wandering the Face of the Earth might be similar to this which would be great.)
The thing is the journey has ended and everyone has moved on.
They really aren't involved in things anymore. Why they might have a final sign-off, they've been done with the day to day for a long time now.
At this point it's just others trying to make money off of the name MOST of the time. That said, for me this book will be totally worth it.
A book or doc with Billy Corgan and/or Taylor Hawkins explaining how great Rush is? Not so much.
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
To be fair to the guys, I don't think they are directly involved in any kind of marketing plan. They're simply consulted by the label, and then a chap called Andy Curran takes over and oversees the end product. (Curran was bassist in the Canadian band Coney Hatch before moving to work with the Anthem organisation.)
They've been pretty straight on the reissues, with only one a year, and we may not even get one this year, as the 40th of Permanent Waves is next year.
My problem is with the way the contents are marketed:
- Steven Wilson goes to the trouble of creating a 5.1 mix of Kings, but the only way to get it is through a vinyl box set at £100
- Same with Hemispheres 5.1 mix, another expensive vinyl box set, although I gather those who heard the 5.1 bluray were disappointed at the way Rich Chycki positioned the music
- the bonus Pink Pop cd was ok, but then why pad it out with a bootleg take on 2112 from another gig because the Pink Pop tape ran out at that point. The 2112 source is from the acclaimed Desert Passage gig at Tucson, which has a complete show with the whole Hemispheres/Cygnus pairing.
So if the producers had access to the whole bootleg why not issue the whole thing, because they must know that's a setlist fans have been craving for years. The producers did a good job tweaking the bootleg 2112 to nudge the excellent source audio to the next level, and if they'd invested just a little more time and mixed the whole show they would have produced an outstanding Hemispheres anniversary set.
I'd imagine fans are hoping for a full PWaves set with that 40th, but I wouldn't be surprised if the producers simply tart up the St Louis radio broadcast, which is missing half the show.
And it's a shame really, because Ged has admitted that he has an archive of mixing desk recordings (he contributed excellent live material to the 2012 reissue of 2112).
I can understand the band not wanting to revisit it all over again, and I wish them well in their retirement, but I do wish that Anthem would invest a little more time and care with the legacy.
I think its Neils intention to do more books - on varying subjects. Just not to play live concerts. I cant imagine any of these guys not putting out books. They still have a LOT to say, I am still hoping to hear Geddy/Alex do something. If not, so be it, but I don't begrudge them doing whatever they feel like doing (GOSH!) I do wonder how the front office is taking this. If they are pushing for something new or not. I don't imagine Geddy and Alex can be forced to do anything they aren't into.
they are the goose that laid the golden egg for many people.
I got nothin' :
...avoiding any implication that I have ever entertained a cognizant thought.
live samples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwbCFGbAtFc
https://youtu.be/AEE5OZXJioE
https://soundcloud.com/yodelgoat/yod...om-a-live-show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUe3YhCjy6g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VOCJokzL_s
Hi Folks,
I'm new to the Forum, and am one of the authors of this upcoming Rush book ("Wandering The Face Of The Earth"). Eric Hansen is my co-author - you all may know him as the guy who runs the excellent Rush fan site "Power Windows."
Just wanted to quickly provide a bit more info/context, as well as address some of the specific questions that have arisen...
This project has been a labor of love and has been in progress for almost ten years. It started quite honestly as a conversation between Eric and myself, as we were collaborating on research to further flesh out the historical tour dates listing on his site ("Wouldn't it be cool if there was a book of this info, along with road stories, other data, etc.?").
It took a while, but we eventually got the blessing of the band's management, which led to access to their archives, as well as the ability to interview a lot of the road crew (past and present) for anecdotes and stories from their 40+ years of touring.
As others have pointed out, a lot of information on the internet is either incomplete or wrong, and we've taken great pains to get things right. To be fair, some of the band's own data had gaps, so a TON of original research went into this effort. This book literally contains some dates that no one has documented/published before (and, in some other cases, corrects previously stated inaccuracies).
To answer someone's question, yes, we also include ticket prices, attendance/capacity figures, and grosses (whenever this data can be unearthed). Did we bat 100%? No - some things are simply (at least at time of publication) still lost to the mists of time, and 40+ years is a huge amount to cover. But I can honestly say that this is the most comprehensive record of the band's touring history that has been done thus far. And that was really what motivated us --- i.e. a desire to own a book like this as a fan. (What to do if you want a book and the book doesn't exist? Spend 10 years writing it! LOL)
Someone else mentioned the Kiss book as a potential comparison, I believe? That book was absolutely one of multiple reference points that helped drive the vision. So, yes, if you enjoyed the general concept of that book (i.e. a detailed accounting of tour dates), then I do believe you will enjoy what we've compiled here.
Anyway, I just wanted to shed a little more light on what this is, and how it came to pass. Rather than being some cynical, marketing driven cash grab, it really was a labor of love from a couple of hardcore fans, who eventually got the band's blessing (and thereby the "official" title). We're beyond excited about it finally coming to fruition and seeing light of day here in a couple months, and I hope people will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together!
Cheers,
-Skip
Last edited by skipdaly; 08-14-2019 at 12:36 AM.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
Very interesting point here, and something that we grappled with in compiling the book. Skip Gildersleeve (RIP), Geddy's bass tech for many years, once said to me that, up until AFTK, the early tours were really more like "endless strings of dates" rather than formal "tours" per se. For example, in January, 1975, at least one show was played while the band was still working on the album (i.e. between recording and mastering)!
As for ATWAS...a lot of fans dispute that there ever was such a "tour" at all, arguing that it really was still all just "The 2112 tour." (This is a very valid argument, and one that I don't necessarily disagree with).
When putting a book together though, it becomes handy to delineate the "strings of dates" into chapters as best one can. Hopefully we will be forgiven for dividing the dates as best as possible, based on the album being worked/promoted at the time, looking for obvious division points in dates/studio sessions, etc. There's also a desire to maintain consistency, and in later years (e.g. S&A Live), they did actively promote the *live* album on the tour.
To your point about that August, 1976 date...we classify some dates from that time frame as being "All The World's A Stage" as well, based on the fact that the touring never really stopped in those days, and the delineation that the ATWAS album mixing was completed in early August, 1976 (that few days "off" - i.e. in the studio - was really the only short break in dates!).
Not claiming our approach on this was "correct" or the only way to look at it - it's an interesting bit of ephemera to chat about. But we did the best we could with things like this, and I do feel we're presenting solid data.
Cheers,
-Skip
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