Rush - Caress of Steel

Caress of Steel was by all accounts very nearly the end of Rush (much like Tarkus for EL&P). It was a total critical flop, even though fans have really warmed up to it over the decades. It was called everything from "tentative" and "completely unfocused" to "i'm not going to review this crap!" and we need some reasons why. First is that Prog was a real threat to the American music industry. Simply put, Prog is anathema to corporate Pop. Complicatedly put, Prog is an artist/audience genre, not a marketable fad that you can sink a lot of dirty money into and magically extract more clean money than you started with. Prog is an actual market that behaves according to actual economics, not a manufactured/regulated hegemony of tit for tat. The most unknown band of total losers can walk out on stage and blow everyone away, but that won't necessarily translate into record sales. Plus, Rush has been touring in support of Kiss this whole time, with the clearly sarcastic song "I Think I'm Going Bald," so mainstream Glam fans aren't exactly going to gravitate to Canada's version of Jethro Tull. I don't think any critic actually said that, but they certainly might have at the time. The point of all that is just to highlight how Rush is discouraged and the label is seriously considering dropping them. Far cry from the wave they were riding going into it. Alex said this was the only time he ever seriously considered throwing in the towel. So, if i know me this will turn out to be lovely. Lovely can be underwhelming, sure, but it's still lovely. Let's give in some fresh ears. 

Well, Bastille Day is a killer opening. Major key Heavy Metal at its finest. More importantly, if you're going to do a gatefold then putting the lyrics there is a no-brainer. 

These first 3 tracks are kind of throwaway Hard Rock stuff like they're expected to do. Totally fine, but the real heart of the album is The Necromancer suite, and the full side 2 multi-movement work called The Fountain of Lamneth. Interesting liner note fact, the album is dedicated to Rod Serling, who died in 1975 while they were making this album. 

Now, some people hate the spoken narration of The Necromancer (a fableized version of Rush themselves at the mercy of the label saved by the mighty By-Tor, and a lot of marijuana). I think it is actually Neil, and you can certainly not like the execution, but the narration IS the song. Plus, once you have it in your head, you can imagine anyone reading it; Christopher Lee, James Earl Jones, Alex Borstein if you're just dying to bring Lois from Family Guy into it. As it stands though, it totally reminds me of the incantation from that record that accidentally opens The Gate. 

And that's why this album confused the hell out of everyone. This is Rush's version of Iron Maiden while Iron Maiden is literally forming in 1975. Rush is definitely not on the Doom side of the spectrum like Black Sabbath, and they can't really pull off the mythical English countryside with fairies and hobbits like Led Zeppelin, they're working from the goofy magical angle like Uriah Heep. This is absolutely fantastic, but even i can't pretend this could possibly be a hit record at the time; this was totally a cult album from the start. And yes, it's a gloriously dishevelled hot mess of pure awesomeness. 

Now for side 2! Lots of acoustics, those swells Alex (Lifeson, not Borstein) likes so much, and some thematic recurrence to bring it home. Superb. No, it's not 2112, because they haven't made that album yet, but it's the set up to the total wing and a prayer that 2112 actually was. We'll get to that tomorrow, tonight we'll just fully enjoy the Caress of Steel. Cake if you've got some too i guess, but mostly just some kick-ass Canadian imitation proto NWBHM a couple years too early. Delicious.