Artist: Rush
Label: Atlantic Records
Release: 1981
Running time: 40:02
Rating: 5/5
This is probably the best-known and best-loved Rush album ever. And without a doubt the most successful one! “Moving Pictures” is the record where Rush finally cut ties with their prog rock era, turning to shorter, punchier songs and further shaping a new musical voice, that specific Rush art rock definition! Every track on this album is a big Rush favorite that now carries the status of a Rush classic, and the vast majority of them became part of the iron-clad setlist on Rush tours. Just how beloved “Moving Pictures” is can be seen in the fact that by February 1995 it had sold four million copies, making it four-times platinum by then!
The gradual phasing out of prog rock figures was already well underway with its predecessor “Permanent Waves” (1980), and “Moving Pictures” just hammered the final nail into the coffin. The two main novelties, tied irreversibly to this change of musical voice like love at first sight, were Geddy Lee’s decision to stop using his frenetic, ear-piercing screech of a singing style, and the increasingly noticeable integration of the primitive sounds of early synthesizers, like the Oberheim OB-X model that happened to be handy in the studio at the time.
Work on the album began in late August 1980. The opening track, Tom Sawyer (used as a bumper during the breaks between periods at the 2008 Ice Hockey World Championship, Group A, in Canada), was among the first written for the album, and it came about in an interesting way: during Lee’s spontaneous noodling with synthesizer sounds in the studio. The song is still one of Rush’s best-known today, and it got so popular that it was used as a soundtrack for several films, as well as in a scene in an episode of the animated series South Park. Even though the song is built mostly on a dark atmosphere, sustained by the famous backdrop of the Oberheim synthesizer combined with the booming sound of bass pedals, Geddy Lee’s singing in a normal voice makes for an ideal counterweight. The feel of this duality is like a young man, a modern-day rebel (Lee’s vocals), caught in a hopeless storm (the howling tones of the synthesizer and bass pedals in the background) of all the conformism surrounding him, the conformism he’s supposedly forced to bow to. Whether that was the band’s intention or not doesn’t even matter in the end, because the effect is convincing, unique, even quirky, and thanks to its remarkably distinctive musical otherness, all the more appealing! Tom Sawyer was (as a trial run) included on the band’s fall tour in 1980, so Rush were already playing it live before “Moving Pictures” came out!
Red Barchetta paints a completely new picture: a fictional ride in a fast Ferrari, with Alex Lifeson stepping into the spotlight with a gradually building wall of guitar noise. The opening is fragile and rests on simple harmonics, then that innocent accompaniment almost imperceptibly swells into the famous racing riff, and it’s not hard to picture someone behind the wheel of a fast car, their foot getting heavier and heavier on the gas from one moment to the next! Lyricist Neil Peart took his inspiration for the verses from the story “A Nice Morning Drive” by Richard Foster! Lee, though, could have taken a quick crash course in Italian and stressed the word Barchetta by singing the “ch” in one of the verses as a “k” (Barketa) and not as a “ch” (“Barcheta”)! A charming slip-up.
YYZ is one of the best-known Rush instrumentals. The main motif is built on a repeated pattern of notes that represents the Morse code for the letters Y – Y – Z. The track stands out for the remarkable tightness of its seemingly quirky motifs, all woven together. This instrumental is probably the album’s finest proof of how exceptional the perception of the three musicians was in this period, and how, musically, they were three separate entities who nevertheless, despite differing views, complemented each other perfectly. The feel is “disconnected” and unpredictable, yet the band, as a trio, shows incredible control at every single point. I’d like to point out the dynamic ebb and flow of the mood, most effectively stirred up by Alex Lifeson’s adventurous, exploratory solo (with touches of arabesque), which then gets flipped on its head by the transcendental atmosphere built behind it once a simple synth motif comes in for a few seconds. After that, the song returns to its main motif! The abbreviation YYZ refers to the IATA airport identification code (which tells you where an airport is), and in this particular Rush case it’s the one belonging to Toronto’s airport (Toronto Pearson International Airport).
Limelight is the second single from this album. The lyrics deal with the unease of living as a popular star under the glare of the spotlights. And that’s exactly the role everyone around you dreams of. For Peart, a total individualist, this role, in a period when Rush’s popularity was skyrocketing, hit the hardest as the most sensitive member of the band, and he found it the hardest of the three to bear. Within these basic motifs, which are very positive and major-key-flavored given the defensive lyrics, Lifeson’s solo once again towers above the rest, representing a kind of loneliness of the musician in the role of a media-exposed star, stalked by a hungry crowd. That crowd is embodied here by the melodic, subtly seductive basic structure of the song, which isn’t hard to get into, so most people can take it in too. The song once again conveys this duality, this inner split in a person, in an incredibly subtle way, or the incomprehension of an individual who doesn’t accept the status he’s gained, the very status that is the secret wish of every ordinary mortal. The symbol that embodies the spirit of Rush’s legacy and represents the “individual facing a correctly standing pentagram (pressure of the masses)” gains that much more expressionist weight here!
The Camera Eye is the band’s last long song ever! Over ten minutes. Those who know it consider it the last relic of the band’s prog rock era, though both in its production and in the general simplification of how its chosen motifs are folded together, it has a strong accent of art rock expressionism. With this track, the band tried to capture two entirely separate moments in the pulse of big cities: European London and American New York. Sequences of rock-driven communication between the trio and passages where the synthesizers take on more and more weight in building the sonic backdrop alternate with a dash of necessary unpredictability, and the element of “quirkiness” is once again buried deep inside, with a closing figure that works in Rush language as unique, logical, and completely under control. It’s the only song from “Moving Pictures” that the band never played live again after the tour supporting the album “Signals” (1982).
Witch Hunt is the third part of the famous Rush “Fear” tetralogy! The second part (The Enemy Within) is on the album “Grace Under Pressure” (1984), the first part, The Weapon, is on the album “Signals” (1982), and the fourth part only came out in 2002 on the album “Vapour Trails” under the title Freeze. The basic idea of this tetralogy is supposedly that most human actions and reactions in our society are driven by fear. So it’s not love or courage, but fear of being alone, fear of losing property, fear of illness, and so on… In other words, it’s about seeking control in order to achieve greater security. And the masses don’t even ask how much personal freedom (the freedom of the individual) is sacrificed for that. Which brings us back to the questions of Tom Sawyer at the start of the album, and the circle closes. Witch Hunt is the darkest moment on “Moving Pictures,” touching an almost fateful mood that the band weaves slowly and that hits its “crescendo” in the second half, when the background synthesizers and the guitar’s switch to a riff break open the eerie atmosphere of the opening buildup. The hubbub added at the start of the song is made up of several layered recordings of the band members whooping it up over a drink or two during a break outside the studio, in the middle of a snowy winter day. These recordings were made on the day John Lennon was assassinated, December 8, 1980!
The closing track, Vital Signs, is the album’s third single, which wasn’t a commercial success, since it didn’t chart at all. This song is extremely interesting because it foreshadows the band’s further shifts in expression. That’s hinted at by the reggae rhythm underneath the pre-chorus, a trick that showed up even more often on “Signals,” and one that was, at the time, a hugely attractive spice in art pop, which liked to bring in punk and ska elements (check out The Police’s body of work, for instance). Vital Signs is one of the simplest songs on the album, but also one with a strong message, which is driven home at the end of the song (and the album): “Everybody got to deviate from the norm!” That’s the familiar alarm bell that to find the right answers you have to turn inward and follow the voice of your own individuality first. Nothing new, but still always relevant. Especially considering that the number of “sold souls” and mass submission of the brainwashed is skyrocketing from day to day even now. Finding the strength and courage to stay true to yourself and defy the crowd while doing it. That has been the wisdom and the temptation of humankind since time immemorial.
The album “Moving Pictures” is a Rush moment where all the right factors came together in the right place at the right time. Musical ideas delivered in a strictly recognizable way, but still with an energy that the masses could easily connect with, and with the band’s power to offer strikingly colorful variety between the lead motifs of the individual songs, to deliver tracks that all hit the same level of quality and are, one and all, favorites of this album. A Rush moment that marked one of the peaks of the band’s creative career, and a moment that produced an album in which there isn’t a single factor you could improve on after the fact. It doesn’t get better than what “Moving Pictures” captured. It’s a perfectly finished product. With its avant-garde, forward-looking, exploratory, positive attitude toward development, “Moving Pictures” stays relevant for all time. An album like “Moving Pictures” always holds a special place in the universe of rock music. The place of a rock masterpiece!
Lineup
Geddy Lee – vocals, bass guitar, Oberheim OB-X, polyphonic synthesizer, mini moog, Taurus synthesizer pedals
Alex Lifeson – six- and twelve-string electric and acoustic guitar, Taurus pedals
Neil Peart – drums, percussion
Production
Rush & Terry Brown
Tracklist
1. Tom Sawyer (4:33)
2. Red Barchetta (6:09)
3. YYZ (4:24)
4. Limelight (4:19)
5. The Camera Eye (10:58)
6. Witch Hunt (4:44)
7. Vital Signs (4:36)
