RUSH
Permanent Waves
40th Anniversary Super
Deluxe Edition
(Anthem/Mercury/UMe)
With the passing of beloved drum virtuoso
Neil Peart early this year, the days
are gone when Rush fans can anticipate
new music from the Canadian progressive
rock heroes. However, it’s a great time to
celebrate Peart’s memory and rediscover
the band’s rich catalog. The trio has
already overseen lavish anniversary reissues
of the groundbreaking 2112 with its
side-long philosophical/sci-fi title track,
88A Farewell to Kings with buoyant single
“Closer to the Heart,” and Hemispheres
including class-warfare metaphor “The
Trees” and challenging instrumental “La
Villa Strangiato.” This summer brings an
elaborate package honoring the 40th birthday
of the band’s popular breakthrough,
1980’s Permanent Waves.
The album remains a fixture of classic
rock radio thanks to the muscular riffs of
anthem “Freewill,” featuring a brief,
spine-tingling return of Geddy Lee’s top
tenor range at the song’s climax. Peart’s
lyrical perspective eschews the divine and
foreshadows the individualism of Moving
Pictures’ “Tom Sawyer.” Chart hit “The
Spirit of Radio” and its major chord guitar
heroics still hint at Alex Lifeson’s reverence
for players like Jimmy Page and Jeff
Beck, but spotlight Lifeson himself as a
fully-fledged and influential guitar hero.
The song cribs a line from Simon &
Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and
nods to New Wave contemporaries The
Police with a dash of reggae. “The Spirit of
Radio” encapsulated Rush’s canny shift
from expansive soundscapes toward more
accessible and compact song structures,
while still putting prog-rock acumen on
display. Permanent Waves’ remaining
tracks didn’t storm the airwaves, but most
of them remained fan-favorite live tracks
through the band’s final R40 tour date in
2015. The brooding “Jacob’s Ladder” conjures
heavy weather before breaking into
aural sunshine. Peart’s lyrics for “Entre
Nous” explored the simultaneous bond
and distance between himself and Rush’s
audience, later re-examined in Moving
Pictures’ “Limelight.” The album concludes
with the intricate prog-rock suite
“Natural Science.” Lee’s propulsive bass
shares space with Lifeson’s guitar as the
lead instrument during the song’s frenetic
“Hyperspace” movement. Lee gives an
open-hearted vocal performance, championing
art as expression over commerce,
the virtues of science if applied with
integrity, and the most endangered species
of all: the honest man. It’s heady stuff, but
the trio’s taut power and melodic, invigorated
arrangements send tough lessons
down with a heaping spoonful of sugar.
The album’s only song to not be publicly
performed is Lee’s “Different Strings.” The
gentle song peels away layers of unnecessary
interpersonal conflict in order to
reach the loving heart of a relationship.
The song features elegant piano by Rush’s
steadfast art director Hugh Syme. The
Super Deluxe box features the main album
on heavy vinyl, accompanied by a two-LP
set of live tracks recorded during Rush’s
1980 world tour. The bulk of these dozen
songs (11 previously unreleased) is composed
of performances from Manchester
and London, with “Jacob’s Ladder” as the
outlier recorded on a US date in Missouri.
Other Permanent Waves tracks include
“The Spirit of Radio,” “Natural Science,”
and “Freewill.” The band sounds particularly
feral during a rowdy “By-Tor & the
Snow Dog,” as Lee nimbly drives a deep
bass groove while Lifeson creates slashing
cacophony on guitar. The London crowd
cheers in time as the trio’s unison fills
count down toward the conclusion of a
titanic battle. Peart meticulously guides
“Xanadu” and the sprawling bookends
“Cygnus X-1” and “Cygnus X-1 Book II:
Hemispheres,” drawn from the band’s
prior two albums. “Closer to the Heart”
finds euphoric communion between Rush
and its Manchester audience. With a pair
of replica tour programs and three backstage
laminates, you can listen to the live
set and imagine you’re a VIP at the shows.
Other bonus items include replicas
of Peart’s hand-written lyric sheets, a
notepad from Quebec’s recording haven
Le Studio, and a large poster featuring
cover model Paula Turnbull on one side
and Rush themselves on the other. A 40-
page hardbound book houses a pair of
CDs, including one with the first digital
version of Permanent Waves’ 2015 LP
remaster and another with the 1980 live
tracks. Also featured are new artwork by
Syme, a comprehensive essay by Ray
Wawrzyniak, and previously unseen photos.
Just before the credits, the tightly-knit
band includes a dedication to Peart that
names him as “husband, father, son,
friend,” and most tellingly, “brother.”
– Jeff Elbel
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20 illinoisentertainer.com june 2020