Thursday, August 30, 2012

Playlist Thursday: Most Appearances a.k.a: The Ultimate Rush Playlist

Another Thursday is here and that means two things:  We're one day closer to the weekend and it's Playlist Thursday!

This week's theme is "Most Appearances" but I might as well call it The Ultimate Rush playlist.  My playlist has at least 8 Rush songs on it.  I haven't actually counted them, I'm just going by memory.  It's no secret that I think these guys are a-ma-zing.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm a proud Geddy-corn.  Sure I was late to the party but better to be late than to never have arrived in the first place.  Right?   Rush is one of those bands that you either love or you hate.  I don't think there's really any in between.  If you like running to a beat, then chances are you probably won't like running to this music.  These guys are known for interesting time changes in their music which can make it challenging to run to.   Personally that's one of the things I love about it.  It's like music for people with A.D.D.  Oooohhh look at that flower! Ok, what was I talking about again?

For this weeks theme I'm going to dedicate the entire three categories to Rush.  Given that they've been around for almost 40 years, I've got plenty of stuff to choose from.   The only thing that sucks is that they don't always put out videos for their stuff.  Most of what is out there is live footage from concerts.  I'm also tossing in a couple of non Rush related Honorable Mentions. 

The "rules" of Playlist Thursday:
  
Something Old:  Songs that are at least 5 years old.  
Something Current:  Songs that have been released in the past year.
Something to Consider:  This is the wild card category.  Any song goes:  old, current, guilty pleasure, whatever floats yer boat.

Don't forget to head over to Brian's blog to check out all the other participant playlists!

Something Old:
Artist:  Rush
Title: Driven
Notable:   This song always helps me find that extra gear.  The opening guitar riff totally fires me up. 
Quotable:  "The road unwinds toward me, what was there is gone, the road unwinds before me and I go riding on."

Something New:
Artist:  Rush
Title:  Headlong Flight
Notable:  From their newest release Clockwork Angels, this was the first song released as a single on iTunes. Given that it's a whopping 7 minutes long, it wasn't fit for radio play unfortunately but it does make for a great running song.
Quotable: "I learned to fight, I learned to love, I learned to feel, oh I wish I could live it all again."


Something to Consider:
Artist:  Rush
Title:  YYZ
Notable:  YYZ is the code for Pearson International Airport in Toronto.  To quote Wikipedia:  The song's introduction, played in a time signature of 5/4 repeatedly renders the letters "Y-Y-Z" in Morse Code using various musical arrangements.  For me this song paints a vivid picture of people coming and going, with its various time changes and the stopping and starting of the beat.  It's also an instrumental which is a nice change of pace.  Although in this video, the crowd in Rio somehow manages to "sing" along to this.  Gotta love those crazy Brazilians!


Honorable Mentions:
There are a couple of other bands that also makes multiple appearances on my playlist.  Not as many as Rush but pretty close.  Say hello to The Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand.  I've always had a soft spot for British alternative music. Here are two of my favourites.

Artist:  The Arctic Monkeys
Title:  I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor
Notable:  Yet another song that helps me kick it in to overdrive.
Quotable: "I bet that you look good on the dance floor, dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984."


Artist:  Franz Ferdinand
Title:  Take Me Out
Notable:  This song will also get me out on the dance floor, no question.  I am patiently awaiting their new album.  Gotta be honest, the wait is killing me.
Quotable"Im just a crosshair, I'm just a shot away from you"



Who makes the most appearances on your playlist?

2 comments:

PavementRunner said...

I would expect nothing less... nicely done. 8? Nice!

Phaedra Kennedy said...

I just counted them. I actually have 13 Rush songs on my playlist! ha ha ha ha.