Xanadu - Rush

Coleridge was perhaps one of the earliest headbangers.

Long before Iron Maiden started raiding Coles’ Notes for their song lyrics (‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner'), Rush delivered this superb epic. I think, as an adaptor of classic literature, Neil Peart manages rather better than Steve Harris.

Musically, this is Rush at their early best, with grandiose riffs and exquisite instrumentation. Vocally, Geddy Lee is at his most piercingly insane. As a kid, I was initially turned off by Rush because of the voice, but I eventually got used to it. You realize at some point that it suits the music. I read on some website that the vocals make the sound that much more ‘otherwordly,’ which I think sums it up.

The introduction to this song is so exhilarating that I want to become a feature filmaker so I can use it to score some panoramic opening shot. The rest of the song is, like a lot of early Rush, pieced into easily digestible and recurring sections.

The knock on Rush, especially in their early days, is that they are self-indulgent. Once you get past the length of the ‘songs,’ though, you find that they are a very spare, tight outfit. There is actually not much self-indulgence in this stuff at all.

Their breakthrough album, ‘2112,’ features a side-lenth opening ‘track,’ yet if you listen to it it is pieced into memorable two and three minute parts. Their early work reminds me of the lean, nicely-paced version of ‘Tommy’ that The Who serves up on the ‘Live at Leeds’ album.

In fact, one can say that Rush actually became more self-indulgent later in their career. I’ll gladly take an 18 minute ‘song’ divided into a half-dozen well-constructed pieces over a quartet of four or five minute tunes based on less interesting music.

The other thing about mid-to-late Seventies Rush is that they really were kind of freakish. With songs like Xanadu, and politically charged pieces like 2112, they conveyed a sense of overweening ambition, even fanatacism.

Nowadays, they seem embarrased by it, but it gave them an edge that is elusive to a lot of Canadian bands. Most rock fans (internationally, at any rate), don’t really buy Canadian groups in the conventional rock role as debauched, dangerous badasses.

Rush went at it from another direction. They were dangerous because they were unapolagetically smart, and because they seemed to have a specific world-view that unnerved a lot of people.

On one hand it’s kind of reassuring that they appeared to grow out of their more strident characteristics, and in fact they likely would not have endured so long had they not matured.

But one can’t help but think that their music lost something along the way as a result.

Played a show at the Railway last night. 21TR was the last band on a four band bill. The previous bands had stuck the bass rig over on stage left.

Now, usually that's my side. I switched to the right for the show, and the first song was a bit of a wreck for me. I'm thinking "Here we go; this is what happens when you disrupt rock band feng shui."

Things settled down, though, and it ended up being a very solid set, which led me to think I should be on the right side all the time.

I remember Smash and I used to argue about which side to go on. He seemed to like the left as well, though he generally played on the right most of the time. I tend to like the left because it's the side of a lot of the guitar heavyweights of Yore (and not so Yore). Page, Iommi, Townshend, Van Halen, Cobain, Morello, Buck, Clapton (in Cream), Frehley, (Steve) Jones, May, Hammett, to name a few...all stayed on the left side.

Keith Richards was also on the left, though he was generally outflanked on that side by Bill Wyman. Nowadays, the Stones' bass player stays back, and Richards really does look like he's playing left wing (though, to use a soccer analogy, it's probably best to call him a midfielder).

There have been some notable right-side guitar gods. Hendrix comes to mind. Of course, Hendrix played left handed, and thus sticking to the right allowed him to more easily face the rest of the band. Given that he did a lot of queueing on the fly, this may have been the most expedient positioning.

Alex Lifeson plays on the right, as does Govt. Mule's Warren Haynes.

So I don't know. Is it better to be part of the left side tradition (if it is a tradition), or would it suit me more to be a right side exception? Or is there a different tradition for multi-guitarist bands, as opposed to single guitarist bands? I'll have to hire a consultant for this.

******

About two songs from the end of last night's set, a guy who had been teetering around in front of the stage for most of the show caught my eye and said, in an offering, enquiring tone of voice: "I play guitar."

But of course you do. You want to come up and take over? Do you figure my arm is tiring in the late innings?

This is part of a growing trend. There's a movie called 'Wedding Crashers;' well, now we have a class of people I'd call 'band crashers.'

I remember playing with Stoke at the Cottage Bistro some years back. A guy who was a co-worker of the drummer's wife came up and asked if he could be the lead singer.

"I wanna be a star," he said, in a quiet, pleading voice.


UPDATE:

I'm thinking of The Edge and Johnny Marr, both of played on the right side. Maybe this left side guitar thing is not a such a tradition after all.