Greetings, SoC readers! In our latest symposium, Brad, Erik, Kevin, and Tad discuss a true prog classic: Rush’s 1980 album, Permanent Waves, with a side trip to their live album, Exit…Stage Left.

Tad: Gentlemen, let me state right off the bat that Permanent Waves is my favorite Rush album. I know it’s not their “best”, but it is the one I listen to most often. I love the way it bridges earlier albums like A Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres to future masterpieces like Moving Pictures and Power Windows. Also, it’s the first album where Geddy tones down his banshee wail a bit, paving the way for mass acceptance.

Erik: Tad – while Moving Pictures is my favorite Rush album, I certainly think a good case can be made for Permanent Waves.  And to give it due credit, I don’t think Moving Pictures can be made by Rush without them first making Permanent Waves.  As you mention, it serves as a bridge from their previous works to what they became in the 1980’s.  

One thing that Permanent Waves represents to me is Rush learning how to trim the fat, so to speak.  Over previous albums, Rush had become more ambitious in their musical output, from both a compositional standpoint as well as their experimentation with different sounds, including keyboards.  Although this phenomena began almost as soon as Peart joined the band, they really turned it up to 11 starting with 2112.  It culminated with Hemispheres, which included the side-long suite that gave the album its title as well as the incredibly complex instrumental, La Villa Strangiato (and I must mention it also contained my favorite anti-commie song of all time, The Trees).  When compared to these previous albums, Permanent Waves seems relatively stripped down. Indeed, members of the band stated that they were exhausted making Hemispheres and were looking to scale things back at the time they recorded Permanent Waves.

In doing such an album, Rush added the final piece to their repertoire that made Moving Pictures possible – the ability to be economical with their music and the balancing of that with larger ambitions.  Indeed, there were not-so-subtle hints that they were doing this on my two favorite pieces from the album, Jacob’s Ladder and Natural Science.  Both of these songs show the ambition that drives some of the best progressive rock, while also showing enough restraint to attain the aforementioned balance.

I have a few other observations I’ll make in my next entry, but for now, I’ll turn the floor over to one of the other participants here.

Brad: Dear Tad, Erik, and Kevin!  From the blistering guitar attack in the opening moments of Permanent Waves (Spirit of Radio) to the final, sighing ambient sounds (Natural Science), this album is a stunner.  It’s so utterly different from all the Rush albums that preceded it, and, yet, in some mysterious way, it’s a perfect continuation of Rush music and magic.

As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t come to Rush until the spring of 1981.  I was a seventh grader at Liberty Junior High in Hutchinson, Kansas, and I had done something to earn detention.  Detention meant an extra period after school in the school library.  None of this really mattered–my mom wouldn’t get home from work until 5, so she’d never know that I was in detention, and the library was my favorite place at the junior high.  

I don’t even remember what I did to earn detention, but I’m sure it had something to do with me talking too much in class.  

Regardless, my fellow detainees were Troy and Brad (a different Brad).  One of them had a Genesis Duke lapel pin (on his jean jacket), and we started talking progressive rock.  I was quite familiar with Genesis, Yes, and Kansas, but I’d never heard of Rush.  Troy and Brad assured me that I had to listen to Moving Pictures, the latest album from Rush.  Despite detention, I immediately went out and bought the album.  I was immediately hooked!

From there, I worked backward, encountering the beauty that is Permanent Waves.  I loved the six songs, I loved the cover and the artwork, and I especially loved the lyrics.

Strangely, though, it wasn’t until I first met Kevin McCormick that I became obsessed with the lyrics for “Natural Science”.  As a gift to me, Kevin (in his beautiful and distinctive penmanship) wrote out the lyrics of the song for me.  I carefully folded those lyrics and kept them in my wallet for decades.  Indeed, they shaped my whole outlook on life.  I’m a practicing Catholic, but, thanks to Peart and Kevin, I will also always be an idealistic Stoic.

Since I have the floor, I’ll also add this.  Tad, I love that you included Exit Stage Left in this discussion.  Rush, I think, at least up through Different Stages always bookended the various styles of their music with a live album.  After Vapor Trails, Rush began to release live album after live album, thus changing their previously careful M.O.  All to the good, I say, as I want more Rush rather than less Rush.

Still, back to Exit Stage Left.  If I had to list my ten favorite live albums of all time, Exit would be among them.  Maybe not number one, as I think the production values of the album sound dated at this point.  But, the music.  So glorious.  And, the transitions from song to song are just extraordinary.

I especially appreciate the transition on side three of the double album, Broon’s Bane to The Trees to Xanadu.  Heaven itself!  I realize that the album came from several different concerts, but I would’ve loved to have been at any one for the Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures tours.

Tad: Erik, I think you nailed one of the most attractive characteristics of Permanent Waves – there is absolutely no fat; it’s the leanest album of their career! Even the relatively long tracks, “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Natural Science” (7:27 and 9:19 respectively) are models of conciseness. Brad, I agree with you that “Natural Science” is a keeper. It is my favorite song on the album. When Alex starts an arpeggiated riff and Geddy first sings

Wheel within wheels in a spiral array
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time we lose sight of the way
Our causes can’t see their effects

is one of their greatest musical moments. And of course, I have to appreciate Peart’s hopeful take on humanity:

The most endangered species, the honest man
Will still survive annihilation.

Another favorite song – and this might be a surprise to you all – is “Different Strings”. It’s so unlike anything Rush had recorded before – understated, elegant, and, well, hushed in its sound. I love how Geddy utilizes harmonics on his bass to underline the melody, while Alex pulls off a lazy, loping guitar solo.

“Entre Nous” is simply a beautiful song, both in melody and lyrics. There is perfect balance in it between the heavy guitar riff at the beginning and Alex’s delicate touch during the chorus. Meanwhile, Neil’s lyrics are very mature – it’s impossible for two individuals to fully know and understand each other, but it is possible to grow close via mutual respect.

Erik: Great, stuff guys!  I am happy that we all have agreement on Natural Science and Jacob’s Ladder.

Another fond memory I have of this album was that it marked the time when I really started to hear Rush on the radio frequently.  I had been a Rush fan for about two years at this point, but only occasionally heard them on the radio, with songs like “Fly By Night,” “Closer to the Heart,” and “Working Man.”  I don’t recall ever hearing anything off of “2112” or “Hemispheres” on the radio in those days.  But starting with Permanent Waves, Rush broke through on my preferred FM rock station quite forcefully, starting with the ironic hit The Spirit of Radio.  I call it ironic because the song was basically a call for artistic integrity over going for the lowest common denominator to have hits, and yet this song might have been Rush’s biggest hit up to that time.  I certainly heard it on the radio much more than any of their previous music.  Entre Nous and Freewill also got plenty of radio airplay.  On the latter of those two, along with The Spirit of Radio, I was also able to get a preview of Permanent Waves when I caught my first Rush concert at Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY, in September of 1979.  Oddly, I remembered Freewill more than the hit song.

Increased radio airplay is another way that Permanent Waves presaged what was to come the following year with Moving Pictures, as it exposed Rush to a wider audience that was receptive to the follow-on.  Another aspect of the music that I noticed here was the incorporation of certain sounds not found on previous Rush albums, particularly the reggae-influenced interlude found on The Spirit of Radio.  Similar sounds found their way onto the next two albums with Vital Signs in Moving Pictures, and Digital Man on Signals.  I’ve read elsewhere that the members of the band were listening to The Police quite a bit around this time, and these reggae excursions are evidence of that.  They serve as more evidence of the manner in which Permanent Waves served as a turning point that teed up Rush for what was to come.

Onto Exit … Stage Left now.  If this is not my favorite live album of all time, it is certainly in the top five.  Between February and October of 1981, no album of mine was in more heavy rotation than Moving Pictures.  It took another Rush release – the live album we are discussing – to change things.  This was just such a stellar live album, great recording and great sound throughout.

Brad, you and I are going to be doing a Vulcan mind meld on what proved to be side three of the vinyl edition of Exit … Stage Left – Broon’s Bane, to The Trees, and into Xanadu.  While all four sides of that album received plenty of play by me, none received more than this epic side three.  And as for Xanadu itself?  This is my favorite version, which I strongly favor over the studio version.  The latter was a bit dry in its sound and production overall, while the live version here smoothed out the rough edges without losing any of the punch or dynamics of the original.  

But to give the other sides their due, mention must be made of a rousing version of Closer to the Heart, which received more than a little well-deserved airplay of its own.  Freewill and Jacob’s Ladder also make respective appearances, coming off well in the live setting.  And of course, we have the rousing intro on side one with The Spirit of Radio.  In short, Exit … Stage Left perfectly encapsulates the Rush era that played out between their previous live album and this one.  In sound, setlist, and performance, it’s really hard to find a better live album than this, and I’m not sure I ever have.  Insert chef’s kiss -here-.  🙂

Brad: Tad, I’m completely with you on Entre Nous and Different Strings.  Each shows a side of Rush rarely seen but always appreciated.  Erik, I really appreciate your enthusiasm, especially for the various sides of Exit. . . Stage Left. Somehow, the band just really captured its best self with that live album.  As much as I appreciate all Rush live albums (and I own them all in various formats), it’s always Exit. . . Stage Left that I go back to the most.  It’s one of my-all time favorite live albums as well.

Overall, though, I must state, as much as I love Permanent Waves (and I do), in hindsight, the album really feels like a transition album, itself pointing to something else.  In this case, it’s pointing toward Moving Pictures and Signals but, I think, also to the very angular Grace Under Pressure.  Power Windows and Hold Your Fire seem well beyond Permanent Waves, taking both new wave and jazz fusion in fascinating directions.

Natural Science, though, is the one exception to this transition idea.  It seems it could’ve only existed on Permanent Waves.  Nothing like it had ever come before and really nothing like it would ever come again.  Not only is the song perfectly constructed, but Neil’s stoic lyrics really hit the peak of his writing.  I think Camera Eye off Moving Pictures was probably an attempt at a sequel to Natural Science.   Yet, as gorgeous as Camera Eye is, it simply doesn’t possess the power (more refined than raw) of Natural Science.

Kevin: Hear, hear! To all you gents for your wonderful reflections on this tremendous recording and its live cousin! Once again I’m late to the party–but with good reasons. 1)It’s recital time for the guitar studio, so my time is limited and 2) I plan to give a more complete treatment of this masterpiece on these Spirit of Cecilia pages in the coming days. However, to this already detailed commentary here, I would just like to add that, for me, Permanent Waves is the masterpiece and Moving Pictures is the unusually powerful sequel.

Lemme’ e’splain…no, there is too much, Lemme summup: It’s not only that without Permanent Waves there would be no Moving Pictures, though Erik’s observation is true enough. But it is precisely the beautifully blended nature of the artistry of Permanent Waves where its genius lies. 

Moving Pictures captured a nearly global audience; its themes of personal independence and encounters with modernity make it universally relatable in the global modern age. This combined with the new-found confidence the band discovered upon really breaking through to regular radio play, as Tad so rightly states. Furthermore, Exit…Stage Left followed quickly on MP’s heels right when MTV was just launching. The engaging live videos from these songs suddenly reached an enormously broad audience they might have otherwise missed in the times of the radio ghettos of the early eighties. Neil Peart stated many times that this was when Rush had found its sound.

And as much as I love that sound, it’s heavy: musically, thematically, and aurally. I miss the whimsy of their earlier recordings. Permanent Waves retains some of that whimsy both in its sound and in the lyrics. There is a personal touch found on the album that I sense as more intimate than on Moving Pictures.  That touch certainly returns on subsequent albums, but there is something magical about the combination of sounds and wonders on Permanent Waves. Brad notes in his own inimical style, the opening flurry of Spirit of Radio–it’s brilliant! Not only musically, but it’s a bright, shimmering sound—“a shifting shaft of shining.” And it shimmers throughout the album.

Here these young travelers are forging through completely new territory as a band. They don’t know exactly what they are doing or where they are going, but that’s the genius of it. The magic is created through the instincts of three musicians who have spent countless hours on the road together.  They’ve tried to carve their own sound, but have gotten lost in the trees (and the fountain of lamneth). Finally they arrive at this creative space with all of their skills and ideas intact and they simply let loose!

The resulting work of art resounds with the spirit of youth, the confidence of the road warrior, and the slight uncertainty of the as-yet unwise sage. It’s a joy to listen to and still has an incredible power, both spiritual and musical, after so many years. So Hear Hear!: To the boys in Morin-Heights in that Canadian autumn weaving the fabric of our dreams!

Brad: Kevin, what great thoughts.  So glad you joined the conversation.  It wouldn’t be a Rush conversation without you!  I very much look forward to your fuller thoughts on all this.

Tad: One last thing I’d like to add – I love the cover art for Exit…Stage Left! I think it is the first time Hugh Syme incorporated visual puns, and boy, this cover is packed with them. There are images from every previous Rush album, and when I first saw it I was like a kid in a candy store.

Gentlemen, thank you for your wonderful insights into Permanent Waves and Exit…Stage Left. I think most diehard Rush fans would agree that this period in the group’s long career was a peak. And, it was nice to see them finally break through to a much wider audience. They never looked back, did they?