Permanent Waves – Released in 1980
Rush smashed into the next decade with a new, radio-friendly concept on the 1980 release Permanent Waves. This album, and the one behind it, are in this writer’s opinion, peak Rush. The near-perfect blend of rock and roll with synthesizer sounds would propel Rush’s music into the 20th century and beyond. What made this album uniquely different was the change in songs to make them more playable on radio. To find out why this was significant, I asked a friend who’s in the business:
“Sometimes a listener’s attention span doesn’t last long enough over the radio to handle a longer songs. The long songs are great, but tough for a radio format. Three to four minutes is good for the listener, for the station, and for the other artists being played during the show. Remember, a radio show is exactly that, a show. The programming needs to be in shorter parts to maintain enough variety.”
Matthew Jackson, from Afternoons with Matthew Jackson on Whiskey Country 105.1-FM, Bowman Media Company
Somewhere along their travels, Rush must have received similar revelation from an industry insider. They didn’t fully submit to the commercial gods, as three tracks on this cut pass the 5-minute mark, but listeners and fans loved it anyway. Permanent Waves went Gold in two months, then Platinum a few years later and made it to #4 on the Billboard 200. Let’s dissect and find out why.
Rush Permanent Waves: Track 1 – The Spirit of the Radio
The first track on this album registers as my 2nd all-time favorite Rush song. The Spirit of the Radio encompasses everything I love about this band. It has an opening shred that demands your attention, Neil Peart’s amazing and complex drumming, sharp lyrics and an overall beat that commands you bob along. Oh, and toss in a little reggae beat for good measure! The longevity of this hit is nothing short of remarkable. It still rocks radios to this day.
“We’ve always played around with reggae in the studio and we used to do a reggae intro to Working Man onstage, so when it came to doing Spirit Of Radio we just thought we’d do the reggae bit to make us smile and have a little fun.”
Alex Lifeson
This is one of those 10-or-so songs that is immediately identifiable even to part-time fans. If you like good rock and roll, you’ll never flip the dial until this song ends. Those that do are filthy, heartless, music-hating animals!
Permanent Waves: Track 2 – Freewill
What can you say about this one other than it’s awesome from start to finish. Freewill again combines deep, thought-provoking lyrics overlaid atop slick guitar and bass riffs and making this another lasting Rush staple. It’s hard to overshadow the drums of Neil Peart, but on this song, the string work of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson is nearly flawless.
Sonnets like, “A planet of playthings / we dance on the strings / of powers we cannot perceive“, and “If you choose not to decide / you still have made a choice.” I’ve pulled that gem out on my kids when they get that I’m-giving-up-can’t-win attitude. Those of you who are parents know what I’m talking about. These lyrics made me look like a psychological genius to them!
Rush Permanent Waves: Track 3 – Jacob’s Ladder
One of Rush’s shorter and final rocking epics, but an epic song none-the-less. Jacob’s Ladder is largely instrumental and tells the story of the battle between storm clouds and sunshine, taking a page from the success of The Trees.
Hear me out now—you don’t have to be chemically-enhanced to hear Lifeson’s growling guitar work and picture a wicked storm gathering that soon bursts into a rage. That is, until the synthesizer takes over with a new time signature and fills in when the sunlight quells the storm. The closing minutes just showcase why we love this band and all their nerdy greatness.
Permanent Waves: Track 4 – Entre Nous
An adverb translated as “between ourselves; privately”, Entre Nous is a beautiful upbeat song about love and human connection. Leave it to Neil Peart to find a way to marry science fiction to a love song, but he did. And it sounds great. This is one with a rocking beat, but the lyrics steal the show with the hook:
“Just between us / I think it’s time for us to recognize / The differences we sometimes fear to show / Just between us / I think it’s time for us to realize / The spaces in between / Leave room for you and I to grow”
Entre Nous by Rush
Rush Permanent Waves: Track 5 – Different Strings
This is a great, slower, almost-bluesy piece that fits a similar mold to Tears from 2112. The lyrics feel like fantasy to start with, but if you pay attention, it slowly reveals this is a song about two people that aren’t really getting along much anymore. “Different hearts / beat on different strings” can sum up the result of a lot of broken relationships. Only fault is I wish they would have drawn out Lifeson’s outro. That weeping guitar is such sweet music. Deep stuff put to a beautiful tune. I love it.
Rush Permanent Waves: Track 6 – Natural Science
I wanted you to see the lyrics in the video for Natural Science because they are some of the best written prose in Rush’s armory. This music is pretty dang good, too; blending in a lot of synth and effects with intricate melodies. There is some heavy rhythm-timing shifts going on in here that just plain astounds me they could keep up with it.
If you read the lyrics without the music, this whole song is a solemn reminder of how small we are in the great scheme of the universe. I walk away from this song with the upbeat reminder not to sweat the small stuff. This would be their last multi-part progressive rock epic before diving deep into their 80’s electronic sound.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best)…
I give Permanent Waves an 8 out of 10. While all the songs are good, the meat and potatoes are tracks one, two, and three. As much as I like Natural Science and Jacob’s Ladder, neither lived up to their epic predecessors. They felt like a good try to keep those long songs alive, but both left me wanting just a little more.
Entre Nous is a dark horse hit in my mind, but didn’t get the attention it deserved. Different Strings would be higher on my favorites list if they would have let it end naturally. It feels like it was chopped off for time before it really got cooking. Even with those criticisms, Permanent Waves is Rush approaching the summit and it is a rockingly righteous album.
“There were still a number of long songs, but there were quite a few shorter songs, and we condensed them more. We were more economical with them, and that sort of set the tone for at least the next ten years.”
Alex Lifeson to Billboard, 2004
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Nice review!
They played “The Camera Eye” on the “Time Machine” tour because the centerpiece of those shows was their playing of the entire “Moving Pictures” album. It was something they’d not done before.
Hi Kriselda, thanks for reading! I should have phrased that question better. What I meant to ask is why “Camera Eye” didn’t make it to more live sets until they played the full album for the tour. It’s a good track. My only thought is that the complication of playing it live with only three people was problematic, where in studio there lies the ability to do overlays. Either way, I love that song and I appreciate your comment!
They never played “The Camera Eye” because Geddy felt like it was too much of a Genesis knock off. But when it returned in 2011, he liked it enough to have it on at least one other tour, rotating into the set on R40.
I think the reason they didn’t play The Camera Eye much was because so much of the rest of Moving Pictures was represented in a typical show. Tom Sawyer and YYZ were in every show, essentially, while Limelight and Red Barchetta were in most of them. At that point, they’ve played half the album; when they have new music and other hits they want to get to, can they justify dedicating 11 minutes to The Camera Eye, one of their less popular long songs? It’s easier to play Vital Signs, as they did several times, or Witch Hunt (my favorite Rush song), as they did several times, since each is shorter.
Ultimately, as far as I know, they never played Cygnus X-1 or Hemispheres in full after the Hemispheres tour, since they were just so long and would chew up so much time. When they did play the song 2112 in full on the Test for Echo tour, I believe they advertised that they would be playing it because it was such a big deal that they were dedicating 20+ minutes to it. That’s the problem with having such a huge library of excellent music.
I think you’re right about Camera Eye. As you read, Moving Pictures is my penultimate Rush album. It’s rare you find one record where every song is a hit, and this one is it.
My buddy Matthew who works in radio told me that it’s unfair to play some of those long songs because it means someone else’s music won’t be played. In radio, time is real estate. As much as I would like Cygnus X-1 on the radio, it will probably never happen. Hallelujah for my iPod!