Issue 2024-096
Richard James — On Track... Rush 1973 - 1982
For a band that comes third on the list of rock bands, after The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, that sold the most consecutive gold or platinum albums, Sonicbond have certainly bided their time in devoting an On Track volume on "The World's Biggest Cult Band" Rush. Not the whole nine centuries that Rush were apparently active, as the misprint on the back cover so curiously states. But well into the sixth year of the series I was sort of expecting the "every album, every song" exploration of Canada's finest to have happened a lot sooner. Now that the first part is here, which highlights 1973 up to the Signals album from 1982, I am sure we don't have to wait another six for the concluding book to arrive.
After having read my way through Richard James' engagingly written and honestly opinionated semi-page-turning take on the classic era of Rush I'm not entirely sure that particular sequel will live up to my expectations. Because my own fan-enthused preferences and thoughts in regard to Rush tend to differ with those of James at various times in this first book. Many of these harmless clashes are just down to taste. But I have to say that James, also author of the On Track book on UFO, does have a peculiar way of stepping on my die-hard Rush toes at times.
The first time we're not on the same wavelength takes place in the book's first chapter Enter Stage Left, which introduces Gershon Eliezer Weinrib, Aleksander Živojinović, and John Rutsey. Providing history with accompanying quotes by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, James appropriately addresses this line-up as Rush 1.0 and, in full spirit of the book's subtitle, highlights the band's 1973 single Not Fade Away. Although downgrades is perhaps a better used term. For according to James we should all be thankful that these two tracks, the other being the Rush original You Can't Fight It, have never been formally featured as bonus tracks on CD releases. I admit these tracks are galaxies away from the stunning Xanadu (see video) that Rush would record some four years later. But judging them as entirely dismissible feels like a received stab at my long-time Rush collecting heart.
James' appreciation for Rush' eponymous debut only gets marginally better. Perfectly entitled to his own opinions this is all perfectly fine. And Working Man is indeed one of the album's finer compositions. But some of his verdicts on this album I find to be a bit harsh. More importantly though is the fact that this chapter raises several questions towards James' choices and research. He for instance never mentions other songs performed and aired on radio during those days (e.g. Fancy Dancer, Bad Boy, Garden Road). And completely bypasses the Rush originals I've Been Runnin' and The Loser which to the heart-rate excelling astonishment of many a Rush fan were officially released on the R40 Completist box set in 2014. As I have no clue about the contents of the book's sequel I realise these songs can still be accounted for later on. But given the full absence of Rutsey upon his replacement by Neil Peart in 1974, effectively yielding Rush 2.0, this seems unlikely.
Thanks to his own definition of bonus tracks, James also omits to mention the additional tracks released on all the 25/40 years anniversary remasters. He furthermore steers fully away from informing about the official 1981 video of Exit... Stage Left which was properly released in 2006 as part of Replay X 3 DVD box set. In likeness to the separate evaluations of the live albums All The World's A Stage and Exit... Stage Left, he does devote a complete chapter on the 1999 released bonus disc of Different Stages which includes a rare 1978 recording of Rush performing at the Hammersmith Odeon. This makes me question as to why he ignores the 1976 recordings at the Capitol Theatre and other live recordings done at Pinkpop (1979) and St. Louis (1980) which were officially released in more recent years?
He makes up for it big time through the inclusion of the utterly brilliant and monumental Battlescar which Rush recorded in 1980 together with Max Webster for their brilliant Universal Juveniles album. But overall, I find James' discography spotlighting somewhat illogical, inconsistent, and worthy of improvements.
From a story point of view, James' narrative is however a sound one. I do disagree on his daring vision that a steel strung acoustic guitar would have been a better choice in 2112's Discovery. Or that the captivating The Camera Eye would benefit from some substantial editing. Seriously? But right from the start of 1975's Fly By Night and the greatly underrated Caress Of Steel, James' well-chosen words of insightful wisdom and musical analysis brings a great impression of the magic and musicianship that Rush brought onto the music world. As ever in the series thereby unlocking precious mementos in the process. One of the oldest being my own attempt at trans-typing the lyrics to 2112 at the age of twelve whilst listening to this newly discovered track during my first ever paid job as junior director of the local stone factory.
Now firmly writing following my same thoughts, James gets enthusiastically in the mood from A Farewell To Kings on. With academic precision he starts to also dissect compositions into chord progressions and odd time signatures whilst carefully weaving Peart's lyrics into his findings. Not a musician myself, these technical rundowns don't automatically resonate with me. As opposed to the inserted lyrics that within milliseconds activates my inner stereo for songs like Cygnus X-1, Hemispheres, Jacob's Ladder and Freewill. But these musical close-ups don't distract and interrupt James' easy to read and expertly sentenced narrative at all, and provide a fascinating and beautiful insight into the wonderful evolution that Rush was going through during those years.
Sharing his love for Rush's masterpiece Moving Pictures, thereby taking plenty of time out for the iconic concert staples YYZ and Tom Sawyer, while praising long time Rush companion Hugh Syme's artwork, James' story finally arrives at the synth-heavy Signals. James fully admits this last engagement with producer Terry Brown to never have been one of his favourites. His substantiating self-explanatory description ("unfulfilling", "disappointing", "it's as dull as I've described") make it very clear. But personally, I hold this oeuvre highlight in very high esteem and I have a hunch that his position on Signals may well split his reading crowd into several opposing camps.
These campsites are likely to be formed as well in light of James' upcoming sequel. Because in his finalising "To Be Continued" statements, he deems Power Windows to be filled mostly with unspectacular material and sort of classifies Hold Your Fire as an almost unrecognisable shadow of their former selves. Not a particularly tempting starting prospect for this book's follow up as far as I'm concerned. But what we all can agree on is James' view that Hall Of Fame inductees Rush bowed out brilliantly with the magnificent concept of Clockwork Angels.
So in the end, I'm sure that once James has successfully rounded off his entertaining and knowledgeable diptych read, avid Rush fans and those casually interested in the band will all end up on the same page. Rush is a band and their music and musicianship will live on in the hearts of many forever. I don't know what you're doing after reading all of the above. But inspired by James I'm off to binge-listen/watch every single fantastic album heralded within this, all in all, bumpy ride but still recommendable book. Yeah, Oh Yeah!
Michael Kulikowski — On Track... Roxy Music
Once again here is a book from Sonicbond's well-populated On Track series that has given me an excuse to explore the career of a band that I should have become much better acquainted with. My guide this time around is Michael Kulikowski. In the daytime he teaches about ancient Rome and is already the author of several books on the subject. He contributes regularly to the London Review of Books as well. So he can write.
He also knows the topic of this, his latest book. Michael is keen to tell anyone who would like to listen that he has been following Roxy Musuc and its founder Bryan Ferry for more than four decades.
Now, most people who listened to the weekly chart shows in the 80s will know of Roxy Music only from their silky-smooth pop ballads such as Avalon, Dance Away, More Than This and the John Lennon-penned Jealous Guy. Thankfully prompted by the more-quirky singles like Love Is The Drug and Virginia Plain, my musical explorations have occasionally dipped an ear-lobe into Roxy's albums. So I know that there is much more to the Roxy name than the famous singles.
In ten short years between 1972 and 1982 Roxy Music released eight albums. They straddled that delicate boundary between arty-pretentiousness, boundary-pushing inventiveness and a profitable popular romanticism. Together Roxy's music has inspired artists from almost every corner of the musical world.
Adding saxophone, oboe, violin and the eccentric synthesizer sounds of Brian Eno to the standard rock-band format, Roxy Music pioneered the blending of elements of glam rock, early English punk music, new wave and electronic composition. They were progressive is the broadest-possible sense. Art-rock if you like. The group were also innovators in terms of imagery and branding, with some unforgettably glamorous fashions in their band photos.
What I really appreciated about this book is that Michael gives a detailed oversight of every track; both in its own right and within the overall Roxy discography. This is done in parallel to an ongoing commentary on changes in the line-up and the personal evolution of the surviving members.
For me this proved insightful in appreciating the depths of musical ideas in their often-diverse compositions. And if I did not always like the song any more as a result, at least I can now appreciate what others might like about it.
Top marks to Michael for also following the "every album, every song" obligation. I'm in no position to verify if the list is complete but there is enough coverage of live offerings, singles and B-sides, as well the side projects and post-Roxy output of its key members, to suggest that it is.
I had great fun, learnt a lot and have a few Roxy albums in my list to pick up next time I visit my local purveyor of previously-enjoyed records.
Trust me, Michael and this book will be a great guide if you wish to undertake a similar musical journey.
Andrew Wild — Remembering Live Aid
Ask me what I did last Tuesday and I for the life of me can't provide you with a straight answer. Ask me this for the day Freddy Mercury passed away, 9-11 happened, I got married, or when my son was born, and I will instantly share recollections of what I was doing (or stopped doing) at those specific moments in time. This is also very much the case for Saturday the 13th of July 1985. I don't exactly recall what I did in the early morning apart from probably walking my usual paper route. But like everybody else around me, I was staring fully superglued to the TV when at 13:00 BST (14:00 hours Dutch time) the biggest musical telethon of all time started; the unforgettable Live Aid!
Also witnessing the event held at both Wembley Stadium (London) and JFK Stadium (Philadelphia), was a 19-year-old Andrew Wild. Nowadays, an experienced author with, among others, various books on Queen, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and Phil Collins to his name. Surpassing me in this effort he passionately watched the entire 16-hour BBC broadcast and simultaneously recorded sets from the BBC 1 radio shows. In apparent mint bladder control condition, for he only took a break during George Thorogood's set to fetch himself a cup of tea.
Extensively researched, accurately chronological, engagingly told with many sympathising words and smile-provoking anecdotes, packed with detailed (quoted) information. This effortlessly unlocks memories of the event. In Remembering Live Aid, Wild looks back on what happened before, during, and after that landmark day. Thereby perfectly illustrating as to why 1.9 billion spectators and 160.000 extremely fortunate concert-goers (give or take a few) will forever remember this unique event as the greatest show on earth. Simply because it was, although I confess that some 40 years later there are quite a few performances and related aspects I had forgotten about.
This forgetfulness does not involve the horrendous starvation pictures that convinced powerful persuader Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats) that something needed to be done. Something he, together with composer Midge Ure (Ultravox) and many participating artists, did in the form of Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? — the second best-selling single in the UK of all time. And quite obviously the American USA For Africa hit single We Are The World, written by Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, is equally iconic. This one is pleasantly presented by Wild with a complete rundown of vocalists and their individual vocal lines. Also iconic is the heavy metal stars involvement Hear 'n Aid with Stars that featured members of Y&T, Blue Oyster Cult, Queensryche and Judas Priest to name but a few.
My memory however falls fairly short when it comes down to the actual TV broadcasts which, living in Holland, where televised on the first public channel by broadcasting company VARA. Thanks to Wild, I now do recall a Japanese involvement recorded the day before and aired somewhere in between. But I have no recollection at all of BB King airings from The Hague, or any of the projects that were recorded for Live Aid especially, Austria For Africa, Yu Rock Misija, and those submitted from Moscow and Cologne. I probably went for a drink or a toilet break during those moments.
Freshly starting anew on a page for every act performing on the day, Wild encompasses them all with Swiss precision. Thereby providing information on whether recordings have been officially released, are to be found on YouTube, or are forever locked in a vault to never be seen again (nice try Led Zeppelin). This together with a healthy dose of dry witted humour, a quick introduction and description as to who was involved, what the (visual) "impact" of their performance looked like, and occasional complementary anecdotes of what happened to the artist(s) in question afterwards. With seventy-plus artists performing some 200 songs on the day, it must have been a massive undertaking reconstructing the timeline. But Wild pulls it off brilliantly within the books 126 pages.
Wild's chapters on individual performances take a more opinionated look. Status Quo (Rockin' All Over The World), INXS, Spandau Ballet, the infinitely beguiling Sade, Sting with Phil Collins in London, U2, Dire Straits (with Sting), the immortalising concerting jukebox of Queen, Simple Minds, The Who, Phil Collins in Philadelphia, and Eric Clapton, to name but a few. He highlights many others that due to conflicting broadcast times were never directly aired onto our European TV screens. Artists like The Four Tops, Black Sabbath, Rick Springfield, Reo Speedwagon, and Judas Priest. They were all performing while we in Europe were watching Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones and Bryan Ferry.
Apart from his tea break, Wild doesn't share many personal experiences of the day itself. Which up to a point is quite understandable for after 40 odd years I also don't remember my feelings and immediate reaction when, for example, we in The Netherlands were forced to watch the news and weather forecast during Queen's magnificent set. In hindsight, I'm relatively sure it wasn't a majorly positive reaction on my part. Regardless of this personal touch though, Wild perfectly recreates the proceedings of the day and through authority in researched knowledge shows how vastly important and big in scope Live Aid actually was.
Following Geldof's honorary knighthood in 1986 the event spawned a whole world of other fundraising events, like Bob Dylan's Farm Aid, Ferry Aid, Sports Relief, Live 8, and Comic Relief which in 1986 paired Sir Cliff Richard with The Young Ones to yield the hilariously funny Living Doll. Even after almost 40 years, Live Aid continues to live on thanks to movies like Bohemian Rhapsody and the 2024 stage musical Just For One Day which highlights songs performed on that once-in-a-lifetime day.
Grossing in an estimated total of £150 million for famine relief over the years as a direct result of the concerts, there is still some criticism and controversies that Wild objectively weaves into his tale. If however you want to find out what these are then I urge you to get hold of Wild's book and simply found out yourself whether you nowadays agree with them or not.
What I think we all can agree upon though is the fact that the 13th of July 1985 was and will always be remembered as the day that music made a real difference and mankind (kind = showing a friendly, generous, and considerate nature) united for all the right reasons in ways never before experienced. If only it was Live Aid day every day...
All royalties and publisher profits from the sale of this fine read by Wild will go directly to the Live Aid Trust. Which makes my end conclusion overall a fairly easy one. Order your copy today and make a difference!