Public service announcement: I'd forgotten how good A Farewell to Kings is

Andrew_McP · 20 Apr 2022 at 21:34

Obviously not a patch on modern musical geniuses like Harry Styles and <insert name of YouTube-sensation-I've-never-heard-of appearing on Sunday Brunch this week here> but when I hear the start to Xanadu again -- after all these years -- I can remember hearing it for the first time on my £60 (paid over weekly instalments) Grattan's catalogue record deck. It was all fields, etc, etc.

rids57 · 21 Apr 2022 at 04:52

Xanadu is in my top ten songs and that takes some doing (I've been around a while) - amazing album and my favourite by Rush.
I bought it when it was first released way back in 1977, when I was a 20yr old whippersnapper, I thought 2112 was the best album ever recorded and this one was even better. I remember sitting my girlfriend down to listen to Xanadu, the result was astonishment at first, followed by tears, lots of them - that just doesn't happen today.

PlacidCasual · 21 Apr 2022 at 06:54

I'm a very late arrival to Rush only getting into them after I read Ready Player One. I love Farwell to Kings, far more than I like 2112 which is what drew me to them. I've listened to Planet Rock for years but it does seem like there is a resurgence in Rush you hear them played a lot more often than I remember.

kinetic747 · 21 Apr 2022 at 09:44

Saw them live at Bingley Hall in Stafford, can't remember if it was 79 or 81. One of the bands the likes of which we're unlikely to see again.

Andrew_McP · 21 Apr 2022 at 10:30

rids57 said:
I thought 2112 was the best album ever recorded

2112 is where my brain goes to when I think Rush, but Xanadu's what made me a fan when a friend loaned me the album. I think it has just the right 'journey' as a listening experience. Lots of solid, heavy, pounding rock has never done anything for me, but the mix here's perfect.

PlacidCasual said:
I'm a very late arrival to Rush

I'm rediscovering a lot of my old musical pleasures, at least partly thanks to this channel https://www.youtube.com/c/rdouglashelvering. Watching him listening so some classic rock tracks reminded me I never stopped enjoying a lot of music, I just stopped listening to it.

kinetic747 said:
Saw them live at Bingley Hall in Stafford, can't remember if it was 79 or 81. One of the bands the likes of which we're unlikely to see again.

I've said in other threads that my only Rush concert was at the NEC in 1984, but checking their history, it must have been May '83. And I'm afraid I didn't get on with the whole stuck-at-the-back-of-a-big-stadium experience... or so much Rush in one chunk. Probably didn't help that I should have been revising for university exams! Of course I'd love to repeat that experience now... though I may need a toilet break halfway through.

Ok, two toilet breaks. And a nap.

Shamikebab · 21 Apr 2022 at 11:24

I've only ever listened to Moving Pictures and 2112, I should try more of their albums.

rids57 · 21 Apr 2022 at 18:11

Shamikebab said:
I've only ever listened to Moving Pictures and 2112, I should try more of their albums.

Try A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres and Permanent Waves, which are the albums between the two you have listened to. That whole sequence of albums captures them at their peak and that their peak covers five albums just goes to show how incredibly talented they were.

Meridian · 21 Apr 2022 at 20:29

kinetic747 said:
Saw them live at Bingley Hall in Stafford, can't remember if it was 79 or 81. One of the bands the likes of which we're unlikely to see again.

They toured England for the Moving Pictures album, which I'm pretty certain was 1981. I'm think that's where I saw them as well.