Music Blog 5

Rush: “2112” (1976), “Free Will” (1980), “Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta” (1981), “Subdivisions” (1982)

One of the most striking things about Rush is that fact that their songs, in fact, do repeat the same theme in a variety of ways, yet Rush is still considered an authentic progressive band. All of their songs sing about and to the white, middle-class male in suburbia. Rush utilized the concept of drawing on things present in the current culture and society, made music surrounding those concepts and subsequently “hailed” a huge number of fans who fell into those categories and felt connected to the music on an extremely intimate level. This new level of fan-fare isn’t something we see much anymore.

Artists such as Lady Gaga, however, are following in their footsteps by re-creating the business model and finding ways to directly relate to large amounts of the general public to achieve a fan base and ultimately success. What is ironic about this comparison is how eerily similar the two models are. Rush plays to the middle-class white man in the mainstream 70s culture who lives in a cookie-cutter lifestyle and they feel like they just don’t fit in. Maybe they’re a little nerdy or geeky, but they aren’t popular and they don’t fit in with the cool kids. Lady Gage plays to her “little monsters,” who are generally a female popular who feel like they don’t fit in because of the way they look or the things they’re interested in. Gaga refers to herself as their “Mama Monster,” because she’s playing off experiences from her childhood when she was picked on and teased by other kids for her physical appearance. Similarly, Rush bases their music around their personal experiences and the tribulations they are undergoing. For instance, they emphasize the importance of family and continuing your career and progressing in said career throughout your life. That’s exactly what they’re doing in their own careers as musicians: growing as a band, having families, trying to get ahead as three guys from Canada who belong to immigrant families. Therefore, Rush in particular represents the American Dream of the 70s through their music and the motivation for suburban males.

Rush is able to maintain their authenticity and fame with this audience, despite essentially re-writing the same songs over again due to their incredible talent musically. Not only does Rush incorporate the modern technology of synthesizers, but they also display their extreme talent as musicians through their music by playing music that others musicians refer to as some of the hardest music to play. They also maintain the concepts of progressive rock within the group through songs such as “Tom Sawyer,” where the synthesizer has its own solo that displays the technology and a spacey sound similar to that of Pink Floyd. This is followed by a guitar solo which is noticeably complicated and filled with speed, exemplifying the talent these musicians have. All the while Rush has these musical talents, Neil Peart provides intellectual lyrics that to this day mesmerize audiences with their complexity. Also, I find it interesting that Peart would be considered and intellectual and his parents recollect him always reading as a child. Peart is then able to take these concepts from the books he has read and incorporate them into the music in an understandable manner, thus causing the audience to seek out these various literary devices to further expand their progressive nature as fans.

Overall, I would venture to say that Rush is the last of the true progressive artists, and possibly one of the best in my opinion based on their musical ability and intellectual lyricism combined with their recreation of the music model and fan-following.

Marillion: Misplaced Childhood (1985) & Flower Kings: Unfold the Future (2002)

I find it funny in a way that Marillion has been characterized as the first tribute band to the progressive rock era despite not being a self-proclaimed tribute band. It’s not surprising, however, because of their inability to adhere to traditional progressive rock norms such as singing about bigger concepts outside of the self, concept-oriented pieces of music that defy traditional lengths of a track, and the schizophrenic style of progressive rock that avoids melodies and is intent on shocking the listener and creating music that is unexpected with strange time signatures. Instead, Marillion sings about the difficulties they face as a band, such as drug and alcohol addictions. The include long pieces of music in the style of progressive rock, but they are not concept-oriented pieces of music. Here they simply missed the memo on why progressive artists such as Genesis and Yes incorporated long pieces of music to expand on the concepts that weren’t meant to fit into 3-4 minutes tracks. Lastly, Marillion is extremely melody-oriented, such as in “Misplaced Childhood,” thus creating a more jam band style to their music with hints of progressive rock. As a whole, Marillion in my opinion lacks the entire concept of progressive music but simply sounds like the music created in the 70s.

Dream Theater: Greatest Hits, Porcupine Tree: Stupid Dream (1999), Opeth: Still Life (1999), The Mars Volta: Frances the Mute (2005) & Steve Wilson: Insurgentes (2009)

Other bands such as The Mars Volta have successfully incorporated progressive rock influences into their music with talented musicians and a high pitched voice that sounds very similar to the original progressive artists, namely Yes. What is more interested in the acceptance into the underground society in modern society of The Mars Volta. Before this course I had heard many acquaintances and friends recommend and speak about the band as thought they were very influential in their lives. This may be perhaps due to factors that The Mars Volta is aimed at a similar audience that Rush hailed in the 70s.

The Mars Volta also has similar characteristics as foreign progressive artists such as the Italian, Swedish and German artists of pat generations. For instance, The Mars Volta has the ability to sing in both their foreign language and English, thus optimizing their acceptance and fame among different cultures around the world. Even songs such as “l’via l’viaquez” are catchy despite any knowledge about the words being sung. I like how cultural techniques are introduced into this song as well. At one of the bridges, the songs takes on a very south american or cultural sound lacking electric instruments and resorts to percussion instruments that create an ethnic sound along with chimes.

Another thing I noticed about The Mars Volta was the presence of very long songs through their album. Rather than just a few long songs, many of the songs are either very long or very short. For instance, one track is less than one minute but another is over 13 minutes. The variety of lengths was a very interesting choice in my opinion but creates a much more fluid sound to the album that could be interpreted as a concept album as a whole.

Radiohead: Kid A (2000)

I’ve never been interested in Radiohead despite their popularity during my teenage years and the (what I would call) infatuation with them among teenagers in the early 2000s. “Kid A” beings with a technologic beat produced by synthesizers that seems very familiar in comparison to the ambient sounds created by minimalist artists in the progressive era. The mechanized voice in the beginning is somewhat frightening and confusing but makes sense coming after the grunge era of the 1990s. In a number of ways, Radiohead takes on this minimalist approach, both through their lyrics and musical styles. Songs such as “Kid A” and “How to Disappear Completely” provid and very vague rhythm of music and very simplistic lyricism which incorporating progressive techniques produced in the studio, such as a similar spacey sound of movement as familiarly hear in Pink Floyd’s “On The Run.”

Also, I think Radiohead was influenced, probably indirectly, by Rush in the fact that they appeal to a loner person who does’t quite fit in. I gathered this from the lyricism in “How to Disappear Completely,” which states “That there, that’s not me/I go where I pleaseI walk through walls” i float down the Liffey/I’m not hear/This isn’t happening/I’m not her, I’m not here.” While some of these lyrics promote a self-sufficient vibe, the vocalists sings in a depressed drone that is more sad than anything else. There is a clear emphasis on the music and the lyricism as well, rather than the quality of the vocals. Synthesizers stream throughout the song moving back and forth through the song in no apparent fashion creating somewhat of a melody for listeners to follow, but the lyrics are the focus of the song overall.