Moving Pictures (album)
|
Neil Peart's drum kit, Moving Pictures tour |
Moving Pictures is the eighth studio album by
Canadian rock band
Rush, released in 1981 (see
1981 in music). The album was recorded and mixed at
Le Studio, Morin Heights,
Quebec.
A classic rock album,
Moving Pictures became the band's first Platinum selling album in the US hitting #3 and remains the band's most popular studio recording to date (certified Quadruple Platinum (4 million copies sold) on
January 27,
1995).
Following the formula of their previous album,
Permanent Waves,
Moving Pictures follows a more radio-friendly format and includes the hit single "
Tom Sawyer", as well other radio standards such as "Red Barchetta" and "
Limelight".
With a title reference to
Mark Twain's fictional character, "
Tom Sawyer" is an abstract commentary on a free-thinking "modern day warrior". Likely Rush's best-selling single, it is also a mainstay in Rush's live show. Lyrics for this track were written in collaboration with Max Webster lyricist Pye Dubois.
The second song on
Moving Pictures is "Red Barchetta". Displaying
Neil Peart's literary style of lyric writing, "Red Barchetta" is a futuristic tale of a youth who's uncle has kept hidden a classic sports car. The lyrics indicate that driving, just for the sake of pleasure, has been outlawed. While driving the car, the youth encounters the authority figures in their "alloy air-cars". They engage in a race in which the authorities are determined to capture the youth. The youth escapes by driving across a small bridge in which the authorities cannot cross, due to their double width. The youth races back to his uncle's where he exchanges his story. Lyrics were inspired by the short story "A Nice Morning Drive" [
1] by Richard S. Foster. Peart, however, has reported that the car that inspired the song's title is a
Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta.
Also included on the record is the Grammy-nominated instrumental "
YYZ". The song's title is the
IATA Airport Code for
Toronto Pearson International Airport. It is played repeatedly in
Morse code (-. --..) at the beginning of the song. A staple within their live-performance repertoire, "YYZ" is widely seen as a signature Rush song, and the band's most popular instrumental.
"
Limelight" is another perennial radio favorite. Lyrics are autobiographical, based on Peart's own dissatisfactions with fame and its intrusions into daily life. The song contains two self-referencesâ€"one, the line "All the world's indeed a stage", references their live album
All The World's a Stage (as well as the famous line by
William Shakespeare) while the line "caught in the camera eye" references the next track, "The Camera Eye" which would become Rush's last song to clock at over ten minutes. Limelight also contains, considered by most fans, one of Alex Lifeson's most classic guitar solos.
The sixth song, "
Witch Hunt" initially features voices(that according to Alex Lifeson on In the Studio with Redbeard, which devoted an episode to Moving Pictures, were recorded outside Le Studio in subfreezing temperatures and the band and crew were ranting and raving in a humorous way) and sound effects made by Geddy's
Oberheim keyboards, before jumping into the rock section of the song. The song would become a part of the Fear series of songs, which includes "The Weapon" from
Signals, "The Enemy Within" from
Grace Under Pressure, and "Freeze" from
Vapor Trails.Rounding out the album, "Vital Signs", which starts off with a distinctive sequencer part made by Geddy's OB-X synthesizer, shows distinct
reggae flavor- the experimentation with which was likely inspired by
The Police. Reggae influences would later creep into tracks found on the band's next studio release,
Signals.
# "
Tom Sawyer" â€" 4:33# "Red Barchetta" â€" 6:06# "
YYZ" â€" 4:24# "
Limelight" â€" 4:19# "The Camera Eye" â€" 10:56# "
Witch Hunt (Part III of 'Fear')" â€" 4:43# "Vital Signs" â€" 4:43
*
Geddy Lee - Bass guitar; Mini Moog; Oberheim polyphonic; OB-X, Taurus pedal synthesizer, vocals
*
Alex Lifeson - Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Taurus pedals
*
Neil Peart -
Drums,
timbales, gong bass drums,
orchestra bells,
glockenspiel,
tubular bells,
wind chimes,
cowbells, bell tree,
crotales,
plywood * Paul Northfield - Engineer
* Hugh Syme - guest appearance playing synthesizers on "Witch Hunt", art direction, cover concept and design.
* Deborah Samuel - photography
* Robbie Whelan - assistant engineer
* Bob Ludwig - mastering and remastering
* Peter Jensen - digital mastering and editing
Album -
Billboard (North America)
| Year | Chart | Position | | 1981 | Billboard's Pop Albums | 3 |
|
Singles -
Billboard (North America)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position | | 1981 | Limelight | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 4 |
| 1981 | Tom Sawyer | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 1 |
| 1981 | Limelight | Pop Singles | 55 |
| 1981 | Tom Sawyer | Pop Singles | 44 |
|
# At â€" 8:56 into "The Camera Eye," a background noise can be heard; some people think that this noise is Geddy Lee burping and stating "Oh God..." However, most Rush fans believe this is an English greeting: "Ello" with the response, "Mornin' Gov'."# On the cartoon
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, the album was used as the highest alert level of a parody of the Homeland Security Advisory System.# In Brazil, the
McGyver television series used "Tom Sawyer" as its theme Music[
2]# Incident at Channel Q, 1986. This movie, directed by
Storm Thorgerson, the man responsible for the
Pink Floyd covers, is about a quiet suburban neighborhood that declared war on a heavy metal music VJ. During a chase scene they are playing "The Camera Eye" as one of the characters is wearing a Rush t-shirt.[
3]# "The Camera Eye" has not been played live since 1983.(05-25-83-Royal Highland Exhibition Centre. Edinburgh, Scotland)# The album cover is a monument to triple meaning. On the front cover there are movers who are moving pictures. Then there are people crying because the pictures passed by are emotionally "Moving". Finally, the back cover has a film crew making a "moving picture" of the whole scene.[
4]# The album cover was taken in front of the Legislature Building in
Queen's Park, Toronto.# The making of the album cover was paid by the band since the record company had said it would cost too much to create.# In the first CD pressings of "Moving Pictures" (released in August of 1983) the first beat of "Tom Sawyer" was omitted by mistake.# In the original album, credit was given to "Love Man and the Love Machine." In the re-issue this was clarified to credit Peter Jensen and Digital Recording Systems Company. The "Love Machine" was the band's compliment to the sound of the Sony PCM-1600 digital recording system run by Jensen ("Love Man").--
A remaster was issued in 1997.
* The tray has a picture of three fingerprints, light blue, pink, and lime green (left to right) with THE RUSH REMASTERS printed in all caps just to the left. All remasters from Moving Pictures through to Hold Your Fire are like this. This is just like the cover art of
Retrospective II.
* The remastered CD restores all of the original vinyl artwork including the lyrics plus the moving picture of drummer Neil Peart which was missing on the original CD issue.
