RUSH's Two Sides of the Brain

"An almost impenetrable opening side, a flawless side two, a 'perfect' instrumental and a naked man standing on a brain. Rush's Hemispheres, what's not to like?", says Steven Wilson.  He makes a great point or argument depending on your view.  This was Rush's perfection.  It was not my first, but it was an album I picked up early on.  At 40 years old this year and today being the anniversary I figure I write about it.

I got into Rush in early years of high school.  I heard them too many times on Classic Rock radio.  When I heard the radio songs I was told that they also make these lengthy epic mini masterpieces that just defy what Rock and Roll should be.  Those songs cannot be played on commercial radio durning the day, they have to be played late night while the DJ is on a smoke break.  To me these songs when played on the radio was the time I could get out my tape recorder and tape them so I can listen to them over and over again.  Once in a while Rush and other bands who had long songs would get played after hours on a radio station I liked listening to.

When I started listening to Rush the album Presto was out.  Presto was not a classic Rush album by any means, but it did turn me on to their music.  It was the combination of that album and the tunes on the radio station that got me going backwards in their catalog.  Rush's well crafted tunes on the radio made me listen to them again and again.  Around this time also was a retrospective called Chronicles.  This career overview was good for the new listener of the band.  What helped even more was a friend who loved them just as much if not more.

This friend and I would go record shopping on Saturdays looking for the coolest slab of record to place on our turntable.  I also got cassettes at the two record stores so I can listen on my Walkmen.  I do remember that I would always be upset that some albums were so short in length.  Rush was not the only guilty one.  The benefit was that at that time Rush put an album out every year.  Talking with my friend he was telling me that he got into Rush because of two songs "Tom Sawyer" and "Freewill."  He thought for a band of three excellent musicians it was hard to believe that these three could do such awesome music without help. When he heard this album he actually bought multiple copies and he still owns.  He bought the extra because of the artwork, he had one with a black boarder and one with out.  The colors were different.  This is where found out about different pressing of albums.

As for myself I got into Rush because of the album Presto.  I too like my friend liked the singles, and also went backward in their catalog to check out their stuff.  The album Hemispheres was a revelation that really knew how to make great complex music.  Not that their previous albums up to that point did not do that.  They continued to do so and make them challenging to the listener like my friend and I.  What was interesting was when we saw these tours growing up in the 90's they did not play those complex pieces.  We both wanted to hear this and see how hard it really was to play.  We saw them many times. Talking with my friend we saw every tour from Presto tour to the last in 2016.

Rush have many great albums, and you may go to the classics, like Moving Pictures, 2112 or Fly By Night, but Hemispheres is the one I go to again and again.  At 40 years it does not sound dated, it's influence is huge and technical prowess still shakes many heads.  When I grew up music might be something we all listened to, but it was Rush that got our attention that music can be intelligent.  Talking with my friend one last time on Rush, he told me has the lyrics of this album memorized and another memory was he used some of those lyrics in an English class in High School.  It's a testament to a band who 40 years later can make an album that we can still have awesome memories of.  Rush is classic, Rush is timeless, Rush is awesome.