Roll the bones is my least favorite of theirs. Vapor trails a close second. Hold your fire comes in the middle somewhere. I enjoy it as much as counterparts and presto. All 3 of them I still play and enjoy every now and then.
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If someone said, "Henry, you must listen to a Rush album right now," I think I'd choose Presto.Originally Posted by MudShark22
(This scenario is not likely to happen.)
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It's a better title for a Firehouse album.
Same snare sound as Dream Theater's Images & Words album.
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My first two Rush albums were Caress Of Steel and Hold Your Fire. Very different animals obviously.
I connected with HYF because it sounded more mature to my ears, and at the time the production didn't bother me.
Since then I've discovered the album in between, but I still like HYF very much for some reasons :
- Geddy Lee sings very well in a lower register, whereas his singing in the older albums is... well, more difficult to bear for me.
- I love the way the guitar finds its place in HYF (and the surrounding albums), leaving a lot of space for the rythm section and keyboards. I seem to remember Lifeson didn't like that so much though.
- There are some good melodies in there, whereas later albums were less inspired in that department IMHO.
I always wondered why this song wasn't more highly rated by Rush fans. It has to be Geddy's vocal peak.
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Rush’s Understated Hold Your Fire Cover Hides a Big Surprise, December 19, 2020
Hold Your Fire is one of Rush's most understated covers: three spheres in a triangular pattern, set against a red backdrop. Ironically, art director Hugh Syme saved his more intricate, eye-catching design for the inner package.
"To have the cover that sparse, with [a more intricate interior] - I liken it to the liquid center on a candy," he tells UCR. "When you finally bite through it, you encounter the unexpected."
The gatefold artwork is among the most famous from his vast portfolio with the prog-rock trio. On a rainy street, amid fire hydrants, stray cats and sewer grates, a disheveled, cigar-chomping businessman juggles three flaming orbs, which form roughly the same pattern as those on the cover.
And in the pre-Photoshop era, creating that detailed scene was an artistic challenge - full of tactile maneuvering and imaginative workarounds. He constructed the backdrop as a five-foot-wide miniature set, photographing it in the studio using "mini-mole lights," similar to theater lighting.
"That was a fun shoot," Syme recalls. "Building and painting that set was about a two-week process. We wanted the streets wet, and we quickly found out that, because we had made the asphalt out of heavy grit sandpaper - glued and taped to a Foamcore substrate, all of which was very porous and absorbent - the moment you started spraying it with water, it started curling up. We had to clamp the streets down. We reverted to mineral spirits, which stayed wet-looking for about 15 seconds under the hot light, so you had to keep spraying down the set to keep it looking recently rained-on."
To create the "airborne flaming orbs," Syme lathered some volleyballs with rubber cement and photographed them outside at night.
"I later composited those together," he says. "It was a process called emulsion stripping, where you take high-powered [binocular-type glasses] to better see where to cut the emulsion layer, and they actually float the color emulsion layer off the top of the clear acetate substrate. It's not as fragile as you might expect. It's not like it falls apart. But it's very flimsy because it's wet. They put one layer on top of the other, and you have to cut through the fire ball and through the background (at the same time). You pull a piece of background out and lay the fire ball into the background - it's all very analog."
Syme originally cast Dennis Hopper - who'd recently co-starred as the deranged villain Frank Booth in David Lynch's 1986 thriller, Blue Velvet - as the juggler character. But after the actor's "schedule caved in and ambushed our aspirations," they recruited Stanley Brock.
"Glenn Wexler, who photographed the elements for this image, had access to Stanley through a casting agent he was familiar with," Syme says. "He came in and was a real character. He suited the role perfectly. I always regretted the fact that it wasn't Dennis, but that's OK."
Despite the "arduous hard work" of assembling that scene, he still wanted to take a more subtle approach to the cover - and in a theme that ran throughout his decades-long Rush tenure, the higher-ups apparently weren't happy with that vision.
"To the dismay of management," Syme says, "I opted to do something really minimal and graphic on the cover" - choosing a "shape that would permeate through the marketing and the merchandising: the three spheres."
In this case, surprise was essential to the visual experience. "That gatefold," he adds, "was intentionally meant to reveal a more elaborate image."
"Available Light" tends to be a fave from Presto, for good reason. I wouldn't call it Geddy's vocal peak, though. That comes earlier.
Ouch.
I would disagree when it comes to Power Windows. The keyboards may be over-the-top but the songs and crackling energy of the playing nullifies that. PW is more proggy than GUP and you'd have to wait all the way until Clockwork Angels for an album with that amount of signature Rush-y proggy bits.
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I saw the title of this thread a few days ago and thought, that can't be right! So I have been listening to a lot of Rush albums this week, especially 1984-1996. I think Hold Your Fire is an excellent album! I don't think it is quite as good as Power Windows and Grace Under Pressure, but it is far from bad! I think the playing, as always, is top notch by all three members. Neil drums his heart out on this album, and even though Alex's guitar tone is not my favorite, I still find his playing interesting. Only Geddy's hairstyle at this point in Rush history might be considered indefensible. I remember Geddy mentioning once in an interview that he was a bit embarrassed by Tai Shan but even though I do agree that song is largely a miss, at least it's a noble swing and a miss, and nowhere near as embarrassing as something like Illegal Alien by Genesis from the same decade. I like Presto quite a bit too, Alex's aggressive guitar in spots is most welcome. Short take: I don't think Rush made a 'bad' album. Some are less inspired but I still find moments I really like on each.
^ Hey, I like Illegal Alien. Those verse sections are insanely catchy.
haha ok that is a good point about the catchy verses! Perhaps I should have chosen Who Dunnit, although I thought that song worked ok in concert. I probably should have just left it at saying how strong an album I think Hold Your Fire is!^ Hey, I like Illegal Alien. Those verse sections are insanely catchy.
And I love "Tai Shan".^ Hey, I like Illegal Alien. Those verse sections are insanely catchy.
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Compare Firth Of Fifth to Illegal Alien and discuss the merits of both songs. I don't find IA catchy, I find it annoying.
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Of course you do. But you’re comparing apples to oranges.
I’ve never liked the vocal sections of Firth of Fifth. They always slowed the song to a crawl, for me, and the lyrics were sometimes really clunky (e.g. “like a cancer growth”). I just tolerated them because the rest of the song is great.
Not my favorite Rush, but I always liked this album. Time Stands Still, Prime Mover, Mission, Force Ten, Turn the Page...all pretty damn cool tunes to me.
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That's interesting. I don't see the vocals detracting from a lovely instrumental song in which both Steve and Tony shine.
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I don't usually skip songs as I like to listen to whole albums but with "Illegal Alien" I make exception.
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Really glad to see someone else here who likes "Time Stand Still". That's one of my favorite Rush songs.
Oh the instrumental sections of the song are amazing, I don't dispute that. The vocal sections are just a slog for me to get through, and always have been.
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One of Neil top drum songwriting.Really glad to see someone else here who likes "Time Stand Still". That's one of my favorite Rush songs.
Same here. The vocals keep this song from being more appealing to me, but yes, one of Tony's and Steve's finest moments. I really enjoy some of the 'piano only' covers on.YT.
I think it's his finest moment vocally. I'm not surprised it's not a highlight for many Rush fans. I think that if this song comes out in '85 it would have been a hit, bigger than Time Stand Still. I think that if it were covered by a (famous) female singer it could be a hit.
Agree - especially if it had been on p/G
it's my fave vocal of the run from PW thru/including Counterparts
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I’ve always thought that half of Test for Echo is great. Not “great for its time.” I mean just great.
It’s also the first Rush album I bought when it was released, so that likely influences my perspective.
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Test for Echo is a good candidate for "defending the indefensible" because it usually comes in last in fan polls. In a guitar magazine, Alex said T4E achieved what they were trying to do with Counterparts, but otherwise the band doesn't refer to it much. The final R40 tour didn't have any tunes from T4E. Its detractors have called it tired and uninspired, but I don't hear it. Yes, there are some cringey lyrics but Neil actually took drum lessons and changed his grip for the album, hardly what a tired, uninspired drummer would do.
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