Note: I am taking a look at my Rush scrapbooks, album by album (studio only). This is Part Eight, Power Windows.
In my write up on Grace Under Pressure, I pointed out that Rush did not go to England for that tour. They did, however, go there to record some of Power Windows, their 11th studio album. I read they would be doing so at The Manor Studio, north of Oxford. This was April of 1985, when I was still stationed at Bentwaters AB in East Anglia.
A buddy of mine, SSGT John Roberson, was not, if I recall correctly, a Rush fan. Nevertheless, he agreed to go with me to the Manor. I'm sure he knew it would be cool to see Oxford and check out a pub or two. John and I had become big fans of Sammy Smith and his Brown Ale.
On a Saturday morning, it took us about three hours to get there from Felixstowe, using the A12 and then the M25 and M40. Founded in 1542, Oxford, to say the least, is steeped in history. The university is the oldest in the English-speaking world. and it holds a remarkable landscape of spires and steeples to admire.
About a half dozen miles to the north of the town lies the Manor Studio. Once again, steeped in history. Artists who recorded there include Queen, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Van Morrison, INXS, The Cure, The Cult, Radiohead, and Rush in April 1985.
I’ll never forget pulling into the driveway. As we got closer to the large stone building, there was a place to turnaround.
At that moment, I was of two minds. One, how cool to be where they were recording. Two, all the things Neil had said in Limelight ("I can't pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend") and how weird and creepy it was for anyone wanting to find Keith Moon's hotel room.
What to do?
The entire place looked abandoned, save a few parked cars and a jeep. It was a Saturday, after all. Maybe they went to London or were still sleeping.
Right about then two Great Danes trotted up and came close to my car.
Message transmitted, message received.
We turned around and found a pub in Oxford...
In the fall of 1985, the Air Force sent me back to Pope. Part of me wanted to get stationed in some new place I had never been to before (Hawaii, we all dreamed), but the comforts of being 80 miles from my hometown and rekindling friendships at the home of the C-130 "Herky birds" was appealing.
I also knew I could see concerts again. Greensboro had been and was still the place to be. In a golden era from 1976 to 1984, I'd seen Led Zep there, as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Who, Queen, Van Halen, Kiss, Foghat, Boston, Rush and others.
Of course, it is never a sure thing getting leave when you are in the military. From time to time the wing conducted Operational Exercises and Inspections and that meant no leave or no time off. Lady luck was on my side, though, at least for Rush.
The band released Power Windows in October (nice birthday present) and came to Greensboro on April 22nd, 1986. Will never forget that one. In support was BOC, still my second favorite band. Robert and I talked about how Rush had been in support for them ten years before at the Piedmont Sports Arena. The Oyster Boys had parted ways with founding members Albert Bouchard (drums) and Allen Lanier (guitar and keyboards), but still sounded good, especially with Reaper and the Godzilla. Rush had many backup bands in its long run. For me, this was the best one-two punch.
Rush’s video projections were awesome. I recall the colorful one with the people singing for Marathon, and the grim and intense images for Manhattan Project. I know a lot of Rush fans thought about that song during the recent run of the movie, "Oppenheimer." In a review of Power Windows, Dave Dickson of Kerrang wrote:
Which brings us to the album’s killer (quite literally) track and Rush’s most cogent slice of invective yet released, Manhattan Project. This album would be worth buying for this track alone.
My memory of hearing any of the songs off PW on the radio is fuzzy. Raleigh had a good station and Greensboro had 92 Rock at some point, but I'm drawing a blank.
What I do remember was a thing called MTV. When one returns to the states from an overseas assignment, you catch up on cultural things. I remember watching MTV a lot. My Mom called the videos “mindless.” Good point, Mom, and they were all miming, but we ate it up.
I would turn MTV on and wait for Rush to be shown. I recall seeing the videos for The Big Money and Mystic Rhythms. MTV classified the videos with "heavy" and "medium" rotation. I think both were medium. I forget the typical wait time, maybe a couple of hours.
Anyway, Rush continued to get great coverage in the magazines so my hefty scrapbook is reflective of that.
I’ll begin with Kerrang, who were always good to Rush. They gave Power Windows a 4 out 5 rating and founder Geoff Barton reported on a big party that Geddy and Alex attended. And this was the Dave Dickson review previously mentioned.
Neil kept up his Q&A duties with 12 questions answered in the July 1985 Newsletter and 25 in December 1985. In the former he told his readers the band enjoyed playing in Japan, including the famed Budokan in Tokyo, and visiting Hong Kong, Macao, and China.
He also wrote the new album will be called “Power Window.” (Um, typo?)
Getting back to Kerrang (November, 1985) Mark Putterford wrote a terrific three page piece featuring Alex ("Pane and Pleasure"). The photo taken by Fin Costello is one of my favs.
One of his questions was — What do you do to amuse yourself on the road?
"Drink heavily, umm...ha! Well, I got my pilot's licence a number of years ago and I occasionally do some flying when we have time off. I also took up scuba-diving a year ago… Also, Geddy and I play a lot of tennis because that's a great outlet for energy and frustration… On the other hand, I've started dabbling in painting…
Rush continued to be featured in magazines such as International Musician and Recording World. Their cover shot for a "Special Holiday Issue" in December 1985 is one of my favs.
Philip Bashe led off by telling his readers that Geddy was thrilled that his beloved Blue Jays were on the verge of winning the Eastern Division title (back then only the two division winners in each league advanced). It was becoming known more and more how much of a fan he was. Geddy had season tickets and can still be seen in his familiar spot two rows back behind home plate.
For all the Jays fans, 1985 was memorable in that the team had not made it to the post-season since becoming an expansion franchise in 1977. They lost in seven games to Kansas City, but had gotten a taste of October baseball.
Geddy talked about the making of Power Windows.
"We decided not to hold anything back. We wanted to develop the songs to their fullest, so for the first time we just said, 'Let's make the record and worry about the live show later.’”
Alex’s relationship with synths has probably been exaggerated a bit through the years, but then again, most of us don’t have our work recorded on an album.
Bashe noted that:
Lifeson concedes that he felt frustrated during the recording of Signals, and Lee says ruefully that the band consequently felt compelled to compensate on Grace Under Pressure.
On Power Windows, asserts Neil Peart, there's a better "time share" among the instruments. Lifeson's chordal parts, as on the album-opening "The Big Money," shimmer, and his solos blaze.
The article also included a diagram of their stage layouts. But they were so expansive, the magazine had to put in a note that said: "Due to space limitations, diagram connections may not be entirely accurate.”
Another terrific article was, "The Songwriting Interview: Neil Peart" by Bruce Pollock, Guitar for the Practicing Musician, October 1986.
Pollock acknowledged Neil as “today's quintessential songwriter.” Neil also gave a hint of what was to come with the seven books he would later write.
"For me, prose is where it's at," he says, a rare lapse into the vernacular. "I'd love to throw away the limitations of verse and be to express myself in a much broader medium. To be able to write in sentences and paragraphs and whole chapters and sub-chapters appeals to me greatly. Someday I would love to turn out just one good short story."
Guitar Player magazine published a long interview with Geddy ("Geddy Lee of Rush, Rock's Leading Bassist," April 1986 by Tom Mulhern.
Geddy explained why Power Windows was recorded in three places.
Well, we recorded the last four or five albums all in one spot. And Grace Under Pressure took about four-and-a-half months to make. Towards the end, we got a little claustrophobic. So this time around, we wanted to avoid that: Let's try to put some perks in there for our own interest. We divided the album into three projects, and for the middle we rewarded ourselves with a Caribbean stop. We said, "If we're good boys and get everything done in five or six weeks, we can go to Montserrat and record for three weeks." I tell you, it's really nice to look forward to that. Having worked in only one place [Le Studio in Toronto] for so many years, it was nice to move around. It kept everybody excited and fresh. It gave us an opportunity to listen to material in a different environment every few weeks. All those things helped make the record better.
Alex had a second sit down with Jas Obrecht ("The Evolving Art of Rock Guitar"). He wrote what is perhaps the best single paragraph written about Lifeson.
Alex Lifeson has a sharp ear for tones and a talent for editing to essentials. He shrouds Rush's lyrics with biting chords, chorused arpeggios, and striking sonic flourishes. Jagged yet lyrical, his solos are studies in innovation. He's unafraid to venture outside of well-paved blues-rock territories, using thick harmonics, whammy-inflected feedback, legato riffing, and other techniques to create a taut, textural approach..
Rush was well-known for their sense of humor through the years and Alex certainly had his share of fun. He caused quite a stir when he named one of his guitars - Hentor.
Obrecht asked him about it: "One of your Strats says "Hentor" on the headstock."
"Hentor" was the name that we had for Peter Henderson, the producer of Grace Under Pressure. When he wrote his name out to leave us his number, it looked like Peter Hentor instead of Peter Henderson, so we nicknamed him Hentor The Barbarian. I got some Letraset and put it on this white Strat that I had. It has a Shark neck--these are unlabeled replacement necks--so I threw "Hentor Sportscaster" on there. Amazing all the mail we used to get over that [laughs]: "Where can I buy a Hentor? How much does a Hentor cost?"
We will give the last word to Richard Hogan ("Rush's Mystic Rhythms Pulse in Canada," Circus, June 30, 1986). He interviewed them March 4, 1986, on a flight to the Montreal Forum. Hogan points out Alex "rents a Cessna airplane and pilots it on short jaunts." He also enjoyed scuba diving and had visited Belgrade, where his father was born.
Geddy was reading a baseball book and Neil was reading "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins.
Three great musicians always taking care of themselves. I’m so glad John and I left the Manor empty-handed...
Recent Comments