2017 - July 29 - Between The Wheels

In 1984, the record company Vertigo, which was home to many great bands, released the compilation The Heavy Way. My friend Geir got it, and we spent quite a bit of time listening to it, one of the main draws being our own hometown heroes in TNT, which we also saw live right around this time. Their track, Seven Seas, was the single off their Knights Of The New Thunder album, and right after it was Rush with Between The Wheels.

Rush was a new acquaintance of mine at this time, and I had not yet come to realize just how great their album Grace Under Pressure was. Plus, I succumbed to peer pressure as well so I said that it was a weak song - the weakest of the compilation. I wasn't quite a fan of it either yet by then - being turned off by the severely phat synthesizer chords that open it - but now it stands out to me as one of the highlights on Grace Under Pressure, which I also find to be one of their most underappreciated albums. I love the album and I love this song!

December 1 - La Villa Strangiato

It's December, the last month of the year. I have 31 days left to meet my challenge to myself of writing one post per day, which I should be able to do. I have a plan for the next few days - it will be my musical advent calendar with a new question every single day until Christmas - a little bit of trivia hasn't hurt anyone yet... The answers can be posted in the comments here or on my Facebook page. I have a scoreboard page here (check right hand margin) where I will be keeping track of the score. The blog will be updated with a new post at midnight EST every day, while Facebook updates are manual and will typically happen a little bit later. The rules are pretty simple. I am looking for a connection between the artist of the day and another artist. It will usually result in a song, with some additional information required.

But before I get to the question for today, let me just say that I am very happy to play yet another favorite instrumental of mine. This time we are going to the album Hemispheres by Rush, which is one I picked up without having heard much from it when I found it at one of the few used vinyl stores in Trondheim in the 80s. This one was hidden behind EPA, which was a great department store that also sold my favorite soft serve ice cream growing up, because you could get a twist of vanilla and strawberry, and that, to me, was just spectacular. The song of the day is an exercise in self indulgence (that's actually the subtitle for the song), it is La Villa Strangiato by Rush.

Now, since I mention Rush, there is a link between them and a New Wave of British Heavy Metal band. That link is a 18th and 19th century British poet who inspired songs for both bands with poems written at the end of the 18th century. What I am looking for is the name of the poet, the name of the band, the name of the new band's song, the album it first appeared on, and what year that happened. Like I said, I will take the answers here or on my Facebook page. It shouldn't be difficult if you know your 80s heavy metal bands, but if you don't, please don't worry. There will be questions for you coming as well... But please enjoy La Villa Strangiato while you ponder away...

October 28 - BU2B

I was lucky enough to catch Rush both on their Time Machine tour and the Clockwork Angels tour, and once again I was blown away by them. Granted, I will admit that Geddy Lee's voice is and has been deteriorating (just listen to the last few live albums - I really have a hard time listening to R40, which was from their latest and possibly last major tour), but the power of the band is undeniable. On the Time Machine tour it was just the three of them, Geddy Lee on bass, vocals, and keyboards, Alex Lifeson on guitar and keys, and Neil Peart on magnificent drums and percussion.

While the Time Machine tour had them looking backwards, it also featured a glimpse of what we could expect on the next album, Clockwork Angels, which was a massive return to form for Rush. The song BU2B - or Brought Up To Believe - was featured in the first set, and it still blows me away as the best song they have done since... probably the Grace Under Pressure album. It's hard to tell, and it doesn't really matter, but it was so unbelievably good. And that's why it's making its way here today. Rush is one of the worlds best trios under any circumstance, and BU2B shows why!

October 18 - YYZ

I think we're in a week of instrumentals, at least for the time being. I have been drawn to them for a long time, and while this wasn't the first one, this was definitely one of the most important ones in my formative years musically speaking. I have had the pleasure of seeing Rush twice, and both times they played this classic from 1980's Moving Pictures, one of my all time favorite albums. It is a complex song, starting with a riff built around a tritone (C-F#), which also is known as the devil's interval (or diabolus in musica), as it is 6 semitones wide. It is hard to work in harmonically, as it sounds dissonant - but as an opening riff, it really works well. The rest of the instrumental is hard rocking and filled with short fills by drums, bass, and guitar - and the live version on Exit... Stage Left has a great early drum solo by Neil Peart. While his solos have gotten more and more melodic and expressive, I still have a soft spot for the solo from YYZ. However, today is a day for the original studio version of this fabulous instrumental - quite possibly my favorite instrumental ever. Here is YYZ, named after the airport code for Toronto International Airport.

September 2 - Witch Hunt

I love Rush. I mean really love them. And my favorite Rush album is undoubtedly Moving Pictures - which makes it even better that when I finally got to see them live, about 25 years or so after I first started listening to them, they were performing Moving Pictures in its entirety as a part of the Time Machine Tour in 2011. I remember the drive there - it's about 2-2.5 hours away from where I live, and I was warming up with a selection of their music - but making sure that the entire Moving Pictures album was played not just once, but twice - and then again on the way home, completely euphoric. I don't think there are many highs that can compare to the high I get from music, and this concert certainly was a highlight in that respect.

I stumbled across the album at a used record store some time in the mid to late 80s. I got it cheap, and it cemented my appreciation for their music. I was drawn to the obvious songs, such as Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, and the instrumental YYZ - but my absolute favorite song was Witch Hunt, which had the intriguing subtitle Part III of Fear. What I didn't know yet at this point was that the other two songs in the trilogy had not yet been written - they came on the next two albums. Part II was The Weapon from the Signals album, and Part I was The Enemy Within from Grace Under Pressure.

The lyrics are unfortunately more appropriate than ever these days - the opening sets the stage and creates the dark foreboding mood that is echoed in the music.

"The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick and still
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torch lit hill"

April 1 - 2112

Today marks the 40th anniversary of an album that if it didn't change my life, it certainly significantly enhanced it. Somewhere in the mid-80s - probably right in 84-85, the year I have talked about at great length before - Heavyrockmagasinet, my favorite radio show, did a special on Rush. The hosts were huge Rush fans, and it didn't take me long to get converted, thanks to Jan Are and his brother Leif Ove. This was around the time of Power Windows, which Jan Are really liked and I never got quite into. I remember Jan Are and I walking to his house talking about the fact that there was going to be a Rush special - and after listening to it, I think both of us were very excited about raiding Leif Ove's collection to find a Rush album or two.

The album that I first really connected to was their massive breakthrough album 2112, which was released April 1, 1976 - 40 years ago today. The first side of the album was a suite called 2112, and it told the story of a society led by some mystical priests where music is outlawed - but the protagonist of the story finds a guitar and starts playing it. He brings it to the priests of the temple of Syrinx, who promptly shuts him down. That's the nutshell version. The music is mainly written by bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, with lyrics by drummer Neil Peart. The story is inspired by the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Rush thus took me into exploring objectivism, which was Ayn Rand's philosophy. I will say that while I was intrigued by the focus on individualism and following your own thoughts and ideals, I quickly became disenchanted with the cold disregard for others she espoused.

When I later, in a philosophy course I took, once again was introduced to Ayn Rand, I finally saw the hypocrisy she displayed. We looked at a couple of her philosophical tenets, and then we watched the movie The Fountainhead, which she also worked on, including writing the script. I found it very disconcerting that she, in a movie talking about individualism, allowed for very classical poses - poses that were anything but original or individual. Cary Grant was cast as Howard Roark, once again a safe choice, and very little in terms of originality and individualism. It was hypocritical to me that a movie about individualism and originality gave in to all the tropes making it suitable for mass consumption, and I have had a strong dislike of Ayn Rand ever since.

Anyway, back to Rush. When they went in the studio to record the album, the record company was very set on one thing: No epic suites. On Fly By Night, their second album, they had started working on longer pieces with By-Tor and the Snow Dog, and their third album, Caress of Steel had two epics: The Necromancer, which closed out side A, and The Fountain of Lamneth, which comprised the entirety of Side B. While Rush did receive some airplay especially after their debut album, their records kept on tanking, and the record company thought that shorter songs that really could be played on the radio was the solution. Looking at it now, I really love the attitude they must have had, deciding to write an epic and to say that this is who we are and what we want to do - thus really letting their artistic vision trump any record company desire for increased sales.

The beauty of it all is that their artistic vision did lead to increased sales. Not right away, but gradually. It became their first Billboard top 100 album, peaking at #61, and it was certified gold in 1977. By 2011, it had sold more than 3,000,000 copies in the US alone, which certified it to triple platinum status. I cannot help myself, and I am giddy with excitement for it, but I just have to play 2112 in its entirety today. It is a good day for some serious Rush!

March 31 - Afterimage

On my birthday, I heard the news of the passing of Karl Inge Refseth, a man who had quite the impact on me in my teens. When I was around 12 years old, I had my first encounter with role playing games, playing my very first game of Dungeons and Dragons with my good friend Jan Are at another friend's house. Jan Are and I had been exploring Fighting Fantasy books, which were like solo role-playing adventures where the books typically had 400 entries, and you read only the ones that you were steered to by your choices. For example, you could walk along a path and see a pouch laying on the ground. If you pick it up, you go to one numbered entry - and if you don't pick it up, you go to another one. Sometimes you ended up not making it through the adventure, and you started all over again. We were hooked on this, and we were really excited to try D&D. The first attempt didn't quite do it.

But not long after this, Trondheim's first gaming store opened up. It was called Spillspesialisten and it was housed right above one of my favorite record stores, Utopia. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Anyway, the owner of Spillspesialisten was Karl Inge. I remember looking at all the games they had, including Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (ADD), which I had started playing - and I had started liking it. I think my favorite memory was when 2nd edition ADD was released and Karl Inge and his assistant Ronny seem to have had to hold people at arms length as the boxes were opened. This was in 1989, way before any internet marketing campaigns would tell us what the differences would be - so we were all very excited about getting this new edition with updated and hopefully more streamlined rules.

Karl Inge was also very instrumental when it came to me feeling at home in Hexagon, Trondheim's gaming club. I don't remember when I first went, but I remember going with Jan Are and feeling completely lost walking in the door. However, thanks to Karl Inge's generosity - as well as the generally open and accepting atmosphere in a club where I think Jan Are and I at that point were among the youngest, as most were college students, at least it seemed that way, and we still were in middle school - we felt quite at home and continued going for a long, long time.

My last memory of Karl Inge was one of the last times I was in Trondheim. I am thinking it was when I was there for Elin's wedding, which was in 2006. I saw a new gaming store I hadn't seen before - I think it was called Outland. I popped in and there he was again. Karl Inge. Just like he had been when I first started gaming. We chatted for a while - and as usual we touched on one of our shared favorite bands: Rush. So today's song is in memory of a very warm and generous man. It is also the one song that stands out to me when it comes to loss that has been written and recorded by Rush. From one of my personal favorite Rush albums, 1983's Grace Under Pressure, here is Afterimage.

February 9 - Jacob's Ladder

I will be cheating a little today, because I instantly liked this song even though I still have a hard time counting it when I feel the rhythm (yes, I count to find meters). However, this is to me a very accessible song that illustrates a lot of what I listen for in music.

Speaking of what I listen for - I still remember being back in middle and high school learning about literary analysis, thinking it was stupid and a waste of time. First and foremost I was convinced that nobody thought of all of the literary elements when writing, because all writers did was tell a story. I was also convinced that with so many different possibilities for interpretation, it was really just left to chance - because, again, writers only tell stories, right? And finally, I was convinced that looking for all of these literary devices took away from the experience of reading. Here's the thing: at that stage it probably did take away from my reading experience - and I was never any good at it.

When it comes to music, I can see the same argument unfold. Analyzing it you listen for meters, chord progressions, melody line, lyrics, timbre and more. In the beginning, it is probably a big struggle - but for me, this process was driven out of interest and not as an academic exercise, and that made it a lot more organic than when I learned literary analysis. And, lo and behold, for me, listening to all these elements enhances the experience rather than take away from it - even when it gets difficult to unwrap the many layers of a song.

So today's song only has one difficult element to listen for, and that is the meter - or the time signature. Well... Actually, there are a couple of things, which we'll get to in a minute. However, the beginning of the song has an odd meter to it - or rather two of them. It alternates between 5/4 and 6/4. Explaining odd meters (or time signatures) is a little tricky, but I'm still going to try. A lot of traditional pop music uses 4/4 as a time signature, which means that there are four beats to a bar. A lot of pop/rock music use accents on the 1 beat to develop a pulse where you can count ONE two three four ONE two three four. It can (and will) be subdivided further (add an and in between every word to see how it works), but the basic pulse goes to 4, then repeats. Think about the Beatles song She Loves You for an example of a song in 4/4 (especially the verse).

The other time signature of my elementary school days was the good old waltz tempo, which is in 3/4. ONE two three ONE two three. And then... In band, we'd sometimes encounter 6/8, which is kind of a hybrid meter in that you really are counting ONE two ONE two - but the notes are subdivided in threes, so it becomes ONE and-a two and-a ONE and-a two and-a. The differences between 3/4 and 6/8 are used to great effect in the song America from West Side Story ([6/8:] I like to live in A[3/4:]me-ri-ca) - which counted in 8ths becomes something like ONE two three Two two three ONE two Two two Three two. I know - it's somewhat complicated to write it out - but listen to America again (I know you know it) and you will hear the difference.

Then I started encountering Rush - but before I did, I listened to Pink Floyd. The song Money from the fantastic Dark Side of the Moon is in 7/4, and you can detect that when you start counting the riff that goes over the cash register sounds - it repeats itself after 7 beats. It is artfully done - and what's even more skillfully done there is the switch over to 4/4 for the guitar solo before it goes back to 7/4 again.

In Jacob's Ladder you will encounter two odd meters: 5/4 and 6/4. Just count the beats contained within the guitar arpeggios in the beginning (arpeggios is really a fancy word for the picking Alex Lifeson does - it goes either ONE and two and three four five or ONE and two and three four five six with the three being the highest note he reaches before descending again in either pattern). Now I wish that I could stop here, but that would take away one other very effective element of the song - something I will revisit later this week as well - and that is the polyrhythm. When Geddy Lee sings, he sings in 4/4 on top of Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart continuing their 5/4 and 6/4 pattern, which creates an eerie effect.

Now I want to stress that you can listen to the song without worrying about all this meter stuff and still be perfectly fine. That was how I started listening to it as well. However, there is something else that pops up when you start finding the meters, and that is what I hope you do. We will get into other meters later this week - at least I have a feeling we will...