Forty Years Since Permanent Waves, and One of Rush's Iconic Songs
Last week, I wrote a post on the news of Neil Peart's death, but earlier week was 40 years since Rush issued their seventh LP, Permanent Waves. The record that helped bring them to commercial status and marked the start of producing radio friendly hits.
About the Album...And the Cover
Pictured above is the cover of 1980's Permanent Waves. Take a look at the newspaper in the lower-left of the picture. Of all the aspects of the cover, that was the most controversial as the headline read "Dewey defeats Truman," a reference to the 1948 Presidential Election in which New York Governor, Republican Thomas Dewey, lost to Harry Truman.
Being an incorrect reference, the Chicago Tribune, shortly after the record was issued, requested a repackaging to ommit the headline. Anthem Records negated this by replacing 'Dewey," with "Dewel," or in some cases, a blank or randomly blurry headline.
Despite the controversial cover, the band went platinum. The album hit #3 in their native Canada and the UK, while south of the 49th, it was one rung below at #4.
What was That Song?
The album's most successful song, the opening The Spirit of Radio, is considered a lament of free-form radio before radio went commercial in the late 70s. Many believe the song pays homage to CFNY, and the title refers to the station's slogan in the late 70s/early 80s - around the time of Permanent Waves. Of note is that Rush were not able to get much airplay anywhere but on CFNY, and CFNY was known as being among the first, and few, radio stations to play new wave and the then relatively new alternative genre.
All That Reggae
You'll notice at the end of the song, that there is a ska/reggae outro. According to guitarist Alex Lifeson, the band had been experimenting with such riffs and had even come up with a reggae intro to their 1974 hit Working Man used during tours. After the success of Spirit, the band used reggae on the their next three records: 1981's Moving Pictures, 1982's Signals, and 1984's Grace Under Pressure.
Parodies!
The track is also notable for two parodies, or better yet "mocks." In the third worse, "Not so coldly charted/It's really just a question of your honesty, yeah your honesty," Geddy Lee pronounces "honesty" akin to Billy Joel in his 1978 same-titled single.
But the "parody" happens at the afforementioned reggae outro, parodying part of the last verse of Simon and Garfunkel's 1965 smash hit, The Sound of Silence "And the words of the prohets were writen on the subway walls, concert halls/Echoes with the sounds of salesmen. Took me a while to figure that out the first time I heard it, and no it is NOT from a live recording.
Although not released as a single, Freewill is still considered a major song by Rush, and receives airplay on classic rock radio. The song basically focuses on the philosophical notion, and in the whole song, my favorite line is "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
Permanent Wavs is a great album for the die-hard Rush fan. It is really a "transition" album and sets the standard of the next few albums such as 1981's Moving Pictures. For the "new' fan, the album's closing track, Natural Science is a three-part suite that recalls 2112 Overture, and whose third part is titled, you guessed it - Permanent Waves!
About the Album...And the Cover
Pictured above is the cover of 1980's Permanent Waves. Take a look at the newspaper in the lower-left of the picture. Of all the aspects of the cover, that was the most controversial as the headline read "Dewey defeats Truman," a reference to the 1948 Presidential Election in which New York Governor, Republican Thomas Dewey, lost to Harry Truman.
Being an incorrect reference, the Chicago Tribune, shortly after the record was issued, requested a repackaging to ommit the headline. Anthem Records negated this by replacing 'Dewey," with "Dewel," or in some cases, a blank or randomly blurry headline.
Despite the controversial cover, the band went platinum. The album hit #3 in their native Canada and the UK, while south of the 49th, it was one rung below at #4.
What was That Song?
The album's most successful song, the opening The Spirit of Radio, is considered a lament of free-form radio before radio went commercial in the late 70s. Many believe the song pays homage to CFNY, and the title refers to the station's slogan in the late 70s/early 80s - around the time of Permanent Waves. Of note is that Rush were not able to get much airplay anywhere but on CFNY, and CFNY was known as being among the first, and few, radio stations to play new wave and the then relatively new alternative genre.
All That Reggae
You'll notice at the end of the song, that there is a ska/reggae outro. According to guitarist Alex Lifeson, the band had been experimenting with such riffs and had even come up with a reggae intro to their 1974 hit Working Man used during tours. After the success of Spirit, the band used reggae on the their next three records: 1981's Moving Pictures, 1982's Signals, and 1984's Grace Under Pressure.
Parodies!
The track is also notable for two parodies, or better yet "mocks." In the third worse, "Not so coldly charted/It's really just a question of your honesty, yeah your honesty," Geddy Lee pronounces "honesty" akin to Billy Joel in his 1978 same-titled single.
But the "parody" happens at the afforementioned reggae outro, parodying part of the last verse of Simon and Garfunkel's 1965 smash hit, The Sound of Silence "And the words of the prohets were writen on the subway walls, concert halls/Echoes with the sounds of salesmen. Took me a while to figure that out the first time I heard it, and no it is NOT from a live recording.
Although not released as a single, Freewill is still considered a major song by Rush, and receives airplay on classic rock radio. The song basically focuses on the philosophical notion, and in the whole song, my favorite line is "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
Permanent Wavs is a great album for the die-hard Rush fan. It is really a "transition" album and sets the standard of the next few albums such as 1981's Moving Pictures. For the "new' fan, the album's closing track, Natural Science is a three-part suite that recalls 2112 Overture, and whose third part is titled, you guessed it - Permanent Waves!
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