Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)

Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Rush's eighth studio album, Moving Pictures, so I'm writing an appraisal of it and including relevant videos as well.

Motion: It permeates and pulses through Rush's 1981 album Moving Pictures without a break. Motion - constant, nonstop motion through life by all possible means - is the theme of this record, delivering driving, explosive music in the finest realization of the Canadian power trio's continuing obsession with the individual against the system. Released at a time of economic upheaval and political change in the industrialized world, Moving Pictures creates a world where nothing is static and where everyone has to adapt to new realities.

Rush were a different band in 1981 than they had been when their debut album was released seven years earlier. For one thing, they replaced original drummer John Rutsey with Neil Peart after only a year as recording artists. It proved to be a pivotal decision. For while Peart is an excellent drummer, he also turned out to be an astonishing lyricist inspired by the individualist theories of conservative philosopher Ayn Rand. As implausible as it may seem for a rock and roll band to endorse the kind of sociopolitical ideas rock critics imagine the music going against (and this clearly explains why Rush rarely gets critical acclaim), Peart's own interpretation of Rand's works are more libertarian than plutocratic, endorsing a freedom of spirit and conscience more than the accumulation of material wealth. The musings in Rush's songs have more social than political significance, explaining one's place in society and how one relates to others.

Guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Geddy Lee bring their crisp, inventive musicianship to Peart's lyrics through the music itself (which they wrote) and their heavy playing. Fierce guitar solos meld with the echoing waves of Lee's synthesizers and the steady pacing of his bass - topped off by Lee's own high-pitched, wailing vocals bringing life and a sense of weary, seasoned cynicism to Peart's lyrics. Having moved beyond the basic bar band riffs of their early recordings, Rush, with producer Terry Brown, achieve a more accessible sound that is no less powerful than the searing, slashing music of Fly By Night.

It's in this milieu that the direction of Moving Pictures takes one swerving turn after another. "Tom Sawyer," the opening cut, tells the tale of a modern rebel driven by a deep and wide sense of purpose, refusing to bend to any deity or dictator. Knowing that "changes aren't permanent / But change is," Tom rides Peart's slashing cymbals and Lifeson's angry guitar notes on a flowing river of synthesized waves. "Red Barchetta" imagines a futuristic society in which mobility is strictly controlled and automobiles have been overregulated. The protagonist defies the law by racing across the countryside in an Italian sports car now deemed unfit for motoring by the authorities; the forward propelling of Lifeson's guitar and the charged urgency of Lee's vocals puts the listener squarely in the driver's seat.

Opportunity and danger confront each other in the two-part song suite "Fear;" "The Camera Eye" follows the comings and goings of pedestrians in New York and London with an appreciation of "the sense of possibilities" in these bustling metropolises, while the plodding "Witch Hunt" foretells the arrogant tyranny of racist mobs against immigrant populations: "Quick to judge / Quick to anger / Slow to understand / Ignorance and prejudice / And fear / Walk hand in hand."

The fluid, pulsing synthesizers of "Vital Signs," with its images of people driven to distraction by technology, and the kinetic chaos of the Lee-Peart instrumental "YYZ" (the code letters for Toronto's Pearson International Airport), with shattering percussion and rapid guitar lines, demonstrates sophistication and innovation lacking in earlier Rush records. But the crowning achievement of Moving Pictures is "Limelight," a song ostensibly about fame but more about interactions with others on the stage of life. Its brooding guitar passages and its plodding mid-tempo beat make for pure, old-fashioned heavy metal, contrasted by Lee's restrained delivery of Peart's philosophical musings on emotional honesty and his paraphrasing of Shakespeare. All the world's indeed a stage, with everyone in constant motion performing and being performed for, "each another's audience" where "one must put up barriers to keep oneself intact." The gender-neutral third person betrays both a universal truth and fear of loss of identity. In exploring situations where people are always trying to stay on the move and resist collective tyranny - the Ayn Rand influence again - Rush made music that was as exciting to move through as it was daunting.

Below are video clips of two songs from Moving Pictures. The fist is a live performance of "Tom Sawyer" from Rush's legendary March 1981 concert at the Montreal Forum. The second is a promotional video for "Limelight."