There is what I feel is an incorrect narrative about Rush’s music that I think too many fall for, even myself at times. And that is, “From Farewell to Kings until Moving Pictures, they had the exact right amount of synthesizers, but from that point on, you couldn’t move for the amount of synthesizers, jaysus it was terrible!” Yes that is the least Canadian way of saying anything ever, but basically, the point of view is that, the synths used to stay in the background, and not get in the way of the guitar too much, but by the late eighties, it was pandemonium, the synths had taken over and were telling the guitars what to do and forcing the guitars to bring them cups of coffee.
This I feel is an over-simplistic way of looking at it for a few reasons. Firstly, Tom Sawyer, which is considered one of their best songs and rightly so, is very synth heavy. What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Tom Sawyer? That’s right, mew-mew-mew-mew-mew-mew, mew-mew-mew-mew-mew-mew. The classic synth line. Sure, you might say, the synths played some memorable riffs, but the guitars still handled the solos. But it was the same in the synth heavy period of the late eighties, this period had some of Alex Lifeson’s best guitar solos! And a much greater discussion could be had about how maligned eighties music has been over the decades, being equated with bland, corporate crap. Fortunately this point of view seems to have changed a bit in the last decade or so, more and more people are saying that they are proud fans of eighties music. But I think what happened for a long time was that people dismissed all eighties music because of Stock Aiken and Waterman, which makes no more sense than dismissing all nineties music because of Hanson.
Rush have talked about how the synth heavy period of their music had to come to an end, and they were right. After Power Windows came Hold Your Fire, and while where it’s good, it’s very good, like Time Stand Still or High Water, where it’s bad, it’s, Tai Shan, arguably Rush’s worst song ever. But I think the fact that Hold Your Fire, when bad, was very bad, had more to do with the fact that Rush was never the kind of band that thrived by staying in one musical genre too long. The eighties stuff produced some great music, but by Hold Your Fire it had run its course and it was time to explore new musical territory.
So let’s get into it, why is Power Windows such a good album?
The album opens with The Big Money, and I’ll grant that some of the synths on this sound a bit dated when listening to it with 21st century ears. But at 28 seconds in, the bass guitar comes in and, wow, and you’ll say wow a lot, because throughout this album, the bass tone is one of the sweetest bass tones I have ever heard! It’s got this very soft and comforting tone, but at the same time is strong and forceful, easily commanding as much attention as the guitars, drums and synths. Geddy Lee has the distinction of being one of the most celebrated bass players in music history, despite the fact that he is also the band’s singer, and synth player, and occasionally even second guitarist!
On this one, the vocals and chord structure shows why I love the later Rush songs as much as I do the overtly prog rock stuff, such as on the albums A Farewell to Kings or Hemispheres. They never stopped being prog, they just found ways to take all of those adventurous musical ideas and fit it into a song that was only just over five minutes long. This song easily takes as many weird and wonderful twists and turns as Xanadu or Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres. The period of extremely long songs of ten to twenty minutes had to end, just like the synth period would also have to end. But they found ways of fitting the adventure of a twenty minute song into a length of no more than five or six minutes.
Manhattan Project is a song that is a challenge for me. I love the song, one of my favourite Rush songs in fact. But where it’s difficult for me is, based on interviews I’ve heard with the band, it seems to agree, at least partially, with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is hard for me to hear a song that seems to support the use of nuclear weapons against entire cities, where the killing of many innocent people is an absolute certainty. Nevertheless, I can’t deny what a great song this is, one of my favourite vocal performances from Geddy Lee.
And speaking of the singing on this album, let’s talk about that. If you listened to 2112, and then immediately listened to Power Windows, you can tell that something has changed. Around 2112, and for a few albums after, Geddy Lee, is for all intents and purposes, singing in the mezzo soprano range. (It is very rare for a man to possess this vocal range, if you hear a man singing this high, it is usually the case that he is using advanced vocal techniques to push his voice higher than his “normal” range, which is probably what Geddy Lee was doing during this time.) But during Power Windows, all of the super high notes are gone. Don’t get my wrong, he’s still singing higher than I can sing, but he’s singing notes that are more typical for a tenor as opposed to pushing higher than that. When Power Windows was recorded, Geddy Lee was 32, and while this isn’t that old, his voice still wasn’t as young as it was on 2112, so I think, whether consciously or unconsciously, he decided that the days of super high vocals would have to wind down, and this is where we start to see him get very creative with his vocals.
And that I think is part of the reason why you hear simple but very effective vocal harmonies on The Big Money. On the older Rush recordings, there was no vocal overdubs, but here they’re all over the album. On Manhattan Project, Geddy accompanies his own lead vocal with choir like background vocals. Rush has always been about musical change, and as such the one vocal track of high pitched vocals of the old days has been replaced by lower pitched vocals, but a lot more of them, Geddy overdubbing as many vocal parts as he wishes, creating a very rich and memorable sound.
So, is there not enough guitar on Power Windows? Nothing could be further from the truth! Territories has some of the most exquisite pinch harmonics I’ve heard from Alex Lifeson. If you’re not a guitarist, you’ll just have to take my word for it that pinch harmonics are the best thing in the entire world. On Marathon, Alex uses the guitar’s whammy bar to make the notes sometimes glide gracefully and sometimes jump around frenetically. I’ve always been a bit envious of whammy bar players, they sound great in the right hands but I never got into them. For non guitarists, a whammy bar is a device attached to a guitar that allows you to quickly bend the note you are playing up or down, I would like to have a guitar with one but they cause a lot of tuning problems.
And as always, if you’re a drummer, Power Windows is a veritable feast. It’s got what you always expect from Neil, that fantastic precision on the high hat, those lightning fast fills, and just as important for a drummer, the ability to stay in the background and not dominate when that’s what the song needs. But, as has been expected since the days of A Farewell to Kings, Neil Peart wasn’t just a rock drummer, he was skilled at a wide variety of percussive instruments, and Power Windows features African drums, Indian drums, and bongos. And what’s going on on the Big Money, is that Neil Peart beatboxing in some parts? Not exactly. That “beatboxy” sound, came about because Neil sampled his own voice, and then played that sample using an electronic drum kit. With his combination of skill and creativity, it’s no wonder he’s considered one of the best drummers in the world.
And if that wasn’t enough, Neil Peart was also the band’s lyricist, and I think Middletown Dreams contains some of the finest lyrics I’ve ever heard from him. On this song he channels Bruce Springsteen with his tales of despair at the humdrum of daily life, and wanting so desperately to escape. And Geddy’s soaring voice compliments the lyrics beautifully.
So, if you’re a Rush fan, don’t pass up Power Windows. Sure, it’s eighties as all fuck, but those synths and that pristine production perfectly suit the songs that were written here.
Here is a really informative article where Neil Peart talks about the recording process, with some contributions from Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee:
http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/powerwindows.html#tourbook
Now, for the love of God, stop listening to me droning on and listen to Power Windows!
Ponderings Of An Autist 