Note: I am taking a look at my Rush scrapbooks, album by album (studio only). This is Part Nine, Hold Your Fire).
Hold Your Fire, the band’s twelfth studio, was released on September 8, 1987. I was still stationed at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. I’ll never forget the release corresponded with a trip I made to Cincinnati that weekend. My roommate was a Reds fan and I am a lifelong Giants fan. We drove up on Friday and took in the game that night and the Saturday afternoon game at Riverfront Stadium. Going into the series, the Giants were 5 games up on the second place Reds. They lost Friday night and were 4 back with about 20 games left in the season. San Francisco won on Saturday and Sunday and never looked back for their first division win since 1971.
Anyway, in those days, Tuesday was release day for records. After work, I drove to the Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, and walked to the trusty Record Bar. I bought the CD, which might have been my first time. Either way, it was so fun listening to Hold Your Fire in my car with this new technology that was replacing tapes.
It’s also worth noting that CDs gave bands more room for songs. The average time from 2112 to Power Windows was about 39 minutes. HYF came in at 50:21 and the average through to Clockwork Angels was 56 minutes.
Hold Your Fire did not go platinum, but I thought it was just so brilliant in terms of Neil capturing certain aspects of psychology and human behavior. And Rush continued to sell out the arenas. Robert and I saw them in Charlotte and Raleigh. The German band Nena ("99 Luftballons") would have been impressed, as part of the show was the release of a bunch of red balloons. I kept one and put a piece of it in my scrapbook.
As I turn these pages, I’m reminded this was Rush’s sports jacket era. Geddy always admitted style was not their thing, but the lads looked rather dapper, I'd say.
I count a dozen articles, mostly on Geddy and Alex. Not sure why Neil is not there. Perhaps I missed those magazines or maybe he pulled back a bit.
Still, another bounty of coverage. Neil faithfully kept up the Q&A and appeared in an ad “Tradition and Technology” for Zildjian. They always had a way of capturing him in a studious way. We can chuckle now at the computer he is seen with in this photo, but I'm guessing that would have been the latest.
Alex drew the respected John Stix, Editor-in-Chief, Guitar for the Practicing Musician (“Classical Precision, Blues Touch). The spread of four pages included two great photos of him.
Rush was known for striving to make their songs in concert sound as close to the recording as possible and Alex touches on this.
It was important for me that we play live as we recorded. We never put a rhythm guitar in where it wasn’t going to be live. Now, even though we’re throwing a lot of stuff in on our music, it’s still important to capture what’s on record live. It’s difficult but the payoff is it’s very complex and people hear it that way on record.
Geddy must have been pleased to sit down with Robin Tolleson ("Bass is Still the Key," Bass Player, November, 1988). Born in San Francisco, he wrote for Bass Player, Guitar Player and Modern Drummer, Downbeat, and Mix (Sadly, Tolleson passed away in 2019).
Geddy once again touched on the basses he played.
A Rickenbacker has a particular kind of top end, and bottom end as well. It has a particular kind of classic twang to it. I found that I wanted to get a little more subtlety in the sound, and I couldn't quite get it out of the Rick.I wanted to change the top end a little bit, get a little different shaped bottom end.
Then I moved to a Steinberger, which really gave me a totally different sound. The top end didn't range as high and twangy, and the bottom end was quite a different shade. I liked it a lot, and used it onstage, and on the Grace Under Pressure album.
But on Power Windows I got introduced to the Wal bass, made by a small company in England. Our producer, Peter Collins, had one and suggested I try it out. I used that bass on Hold Your Fire, and I'm very pleased with the results and its flexibility.
Geddy also talked about the difficulty of singing and playing simultaneously.
It's not the easiest thing in the world to do. You have to put a lot of hours into practice. As a matter of fact, on this tour I had a major problem with "Turn The Page" [from Hold Your Fire]. It's a very busy bass part, and the vocal part doesn't really relate to it very much. Eventually I got it, but it took a lot of practice. You can do those things, but you have to practice them a lot. You have to split yourself, as they say. Split your hands. Split yourself in two really, and let your hands do something, and let your voice do the other.
For a cover piece (Together Again in Rush"), John Swenson and Matt Resnicoff sat down with the two.
Geddy talked about Hold Your Fire.
I feel really good about the album. It marks a point to me that almost says we are a different band than we were. Every once in a while we do a record that says to me we're evolving into something. This is an arrival record, like we climbed up a hill and now we've gotten to the top and we have to decide where we go from here.
Swenson observed:
While many contemporary lead-bass players rely in great part on thumbing and snapping, Lee remains faithful to his rather singular fingerstyle, using three right-hand fingers to blend percussive snaps with powerful and complex lines.
Geddy:
When I snap and pop my strings, I don't use my thumb, I use my fingers. On the right hand, I use three fingers a lot of the time and if I do want a brighter, harder sound, then I'll use one finger, and I'll use my fingernail to get a little more edge on the string. I know Entwistle used a pick from time to time, but I never felt comfortable using one - I just used my fingers. Everyone used to say you can't get that bright kind of snappy sound without a pick - not true. That's my sound, the style I went after. I think Entwistle wasn't using a pick on some of the better things he was doing anyway, but his influence held me until Chris Squire came along.
Alex talked effects.
The temptation for me is to make it better. It's not just to keep up with the latest thing. I just wanted it to be better. Actually, Geddy started this whole thing with me. He said, 'Why don't you get an AMS? It sounds great, so throw out everything else.' The T.C. Electronics 2290's, I think, come very close to the AMS. The frequency response specs out pretty much the same. While they're not a fraction of the cost, they're certainly cheaper than an AMS, and in live application they're great.
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