Such a moving song, and knowing it was nearing the end of their careers it was very poignant, all the more in hindsight. I was extremely lucky to be at the Toronto show where Ben Mink made the guest appearance for that song. All the other shows featured Johnny Dinklage (yes the brother of Peter Dinklage of GOT fame)

Yes they did ,,,,,song is sad but a true masterpiece!

The verses are in 11/8. One measure of 6 and a measure of 5 on Losing It. Ben Mink came from the Canadian Prog band FM. Ben joined on the second album,Surveillance in 1979. And it’s D major in New World Man no D minor chords anywhere. Alex plays the D scale ascending and it’s clearly an F# on the way up. Btw, don’t mean to burst your bubble but picture discs were never meant to be played just admired. The method of placing the picture in the middle of the vinyl absolutely kills the fidelity because you’re only hearing half the actual vinyl. 180gm sounds the exact opposite because it’s thick and heavier so there’s more resonance. I stopped buying pic discs around 1978.

We fortunate to have Ben Mink in Vancouver as well!@@94gtfour

1

Brilliant!

Humility

Thank you for this! I’ve listened to this album dozens of times and did not connect these dots as well as the points Doug mentions on side 1 and 2, Particularly Digital Man

Yes! I'm a 67 year old illustrator, now having trouble seeing and struggling with essential tremor. I try hard but I think my most productive years are behind me. This song hits hard.

I couldn't have said it any better. I'll be 55 in five days. I very much appreciated this song when I was a young man, but growing older just seemed so far off.

that line..."sadder still to watch it die..." gets me every time.

I'm so there with you, Sonny. It all still resonates and guides me as does Hold Your Fire.

Neil observed and studied people to understand them, and was a deep thinker. He read a lot and even though shy about the fandom thing, would often strike up conversations with random strangers. He could hear what was being said and what wasn't. The guy had empathy. Many of the more brief conversations were from the road between gigs on tour at least in North America - and it was a different road than the others took. Whenever possible, he a usually a buddy would ride their motorcycles through the back roads, stopping for fuel, snacks and a bit of talk at rural stores etc. He wrote books about those experiences. The world is a brighter place for Neil Peart having lived in it.

And it's not just three guys playing normal instrumental parts. They approach the songs with the instruments as part of a sonic atmosphere. U2 is excellent at that too. Amazing stuff.

I was at the Montréal Forum in '83 when they did the Signals tour and was very close to the stage. The song Countdown with the rocket launch on the screen man; i will always remember that moment! Epic!

I saw them play countdown in Boston Dec 6th 1982, saw them every tour after and they never played it again, my favorite piece

It helps that those are actually from NASA. They gave Rush permission to use them in Countdown.

One of my favorite tracks to play along to. It took me quite a bit of time to figure it out, as a 14 year old, at the time. It's such a unique part, but once learned, it made sense to me.

The guy who has remastered the 1984 audio and video on KZfaq has done a simply AMAZING job. (With Count Floyd intro). It's quite astonishing four decades on.

I saw same in Toronto. The Planetarium is long gone, now.

I went to the London Planetarium show too. The lasers complimented the music perfectly. Remember when lasers were cool and new?

Yes, Neil had an amazing talent for painting pictures with words. I've never had the pleasure to witness a launch myself, but Countdown almost makes me feel I did.

I also live on the space Coast and work at Patrick SFB. Nothing like a night launch! I've been lucky to see the space x boosters land pretty close.

@@gritter2112 We all know the booster landings are complex science but it looks like magic!

Very cool

favorite song on the album 🎻

Columbia now 39 nautical miles altitude 42 nautical miles downrange Columbia you are looking a little hot and all your calls will be a little early. Young and Crippen really moving out now velocity now reading 6200 feet per second. Jeezus!

They used countdown as a wake-up song on the space station...

Always loved Countdown.Cinematic and emotional.

Don't forget...."We enjoyed the music Bob, thank you!" This song is awesome as is Rush! Thanks to NASA for sharing with the greatest band ever. This should have been NASA's advertisement for the last 40 years!@@seely1320

"In fascination, with the eyes of the world we stare..." Some of my favorite Rush lyrics.

'Grace Under Pressure' had been my first Rush impression (in '89) which also got me instantly hooked to them 😊 The next album I heard was 'Power Windows', which I thought was a wee bit _too_ heavy on the synths by comparison, but still a great album 🙂

​@@mightyV444it was essential 80s prog. They later ditched the synths and returned to the guitar/bass/drum trio. It's all great though. I wouldn't want 70s Rush in the 80s, 90s, beyond...as far as new material that is.

@@Stoovey24 - I agree! It's great to have this huge variety of different Rush sounds to choose from! 😊👍

The whole notes on the Moog pedals were always amazing. Tooth rattling bass.

@@porcelainthunder2213 - I had that same experience at The Police's concert here in Wellington/NZ in January 2008, when every now and then the whole stadium was vibrating from low-frequency synth bass notes coming from a Moog Taurus played by Sting 😁

Hold Your Fire was my first purchased Rush album. I got hooked by a copied cassette of Exit...Stage Left. I honestly enjoy everything they have ever done. They aren't afraid to experiment.

It was 80's Rush that had made _me_ part of their fanbase! 😄

Hate to be pedantic but... It should be fazed, not phased.

@@ryanjacobson2508 …..Your pedantic sentence would be written better like this: “I hate to be pendantic, but the word “phased” should be “fazed”. 😉

Grace Under Pressure is a mixed bag for me, but Power Windows and Hold Your Fire are in my opinion even better than Moving Pictures, and Signals is not far behind.

I bought it the week it came out in Our Price in Chichester. I was down there for my interview for the music course and would spend the next three years there. The band really influenced my early playing.

Ditto, except I was 15 and it was a cassette. I did buy it on vinyl too, but I wanted something I could play in my Walkman and didn't have a good cassette deck to tape the LP with. Wore that cassette out.

Usually, I don't focus on Alex (sorry) when listening to Rush but it's these two very albums on which I cannot stop admiring the accompanying guitar work and the zillions of tasty licks and their variations.

Can't stop at Power Windows. The most underrated album in all music history is Hold Your Fire. Only Tales From Topographic Oceans is a finer masterpiece, and it's very likely that nothing better will ever be made by any band now that Rush is retired and Yes is all but retired. But younger blood is slowly taking over Yes. Hold Your Fire was Rush' creative peak.

My eyes are losing it. At 1st glance I thought you wrote R & B band. 😅

Hold Your Fire is my 2nd favorite album in all music history. Criminally underrated is an understatement for the finest music ever written or recorded since Tales From Topographic Oceans.

Hold Your Fire was the first Rush album I bought...the first CD I ever bought, in fact. I started my Rush experience with a copied cassette of Exit...Stage Left. I love how experimental Rush was throughout their career, but Hold Your Fire is my favorite, for sentimental reasons and because it is so emotional, so personal.

One thing I’ll never understand is why the guys dislike “Tai Shan” so much. 😊

​@@philsmith2444I think it's mainly because it was based on a personal experience of Neil's that Geddy and Alex never really felt themselves.

Rush was my first real introduction to odd time signatures in the late 80's and I've never looked back.

'Subdivisions' is another great example for this, and also 'Limelight' 😊

Yes; the solo section is in 11 then 6 then 5 then ends on 4. So seamless you hardly even notice.

@@mightyV444 Subivisions is an amazing construction. It uses the changes in time so well to reinforce the lyrics and meaning of the song. I never realised how many time changes it had until I specifically listened for them. That's a mark of effortlessness.

​@@tested211I love how subdivisions changes from 7 to 8 so seamlessly, with the same basic rhythm but just picking up a beat on each bar.

I welcomed Rush with open arms when hearing them for the first time via 'Grace Under Pressure' in '89, also because of the sound similarities to The Police, who'd been one of my favourite bands but of course weren't putting out any more new music, sadly. There still was heaps more to come from Rush though! 😁

The bass and guitar on PW are also astounding if you concentrate on listening to them!

I remember feeling the same way and even the cover art pissed me off Oops didn't plan that pun haha. I hated New World Man because it was all over the damn radio and had NO GUITAR SOLOS and just felt like a lame attempt at a commercial hit single. This was the first RUSH album I waited awhile to buy and even then I really felt it had only one good song "The Analog Kid" but obviously over the years and with repeated listens it's grown on me more and more to become one of my top faves. Yes it's different and a major upset of a departure from Moving Pictures and everything prior to it...but Signals has its own undeniably special magic 🌟 its still RUSH, and it still kicks ass. Just in a completely different direction, Exit Stage RIGHT 🥴 I'm still not a fan of The Weapon though. Something about that weird dissonant chord progression makes me nauseous 🤪 I also distinctly recall us RUSH freaks becoming C😎😎L for a couple years after MP blew up in all the Haters faces like a stick of dynamite, and suddenly we were thrown back into the Nerd pigpen when Signals dropped 🥸🤡🙄😝

Wishing you all the best as you fight on.

My take on the music of New World Man is RUSH writing a Reggae song in the style of The Police. I think that Losing It is the first RUSH song to ever have a featured guest musician.

Especially knowing about Alex's arthritis, it hits extra hard now.

I've gotta disagree. Sure Geddy lost a lot of range. But even though Alex & Neil were playing through pain, they were playing at a peak. I put the earbuds in and was stunned. My favorite live Rush album

In an interview with the engineer who mixed the final live album / video said there were no mistakes on the recordings. He also said the bass on Losing It (a very rare Zematis) was one of the best bass sounds he had heard.

I have a helluva time picking between the three. I think it just depends on my mood of the day

It is fantastic. It has plenty of synths but also lots of crazy good guitar, drums and bass!

agree 10000%.