Down The Tubes
For every band that has a large and revered discography, there is always an album, possibly even a couple, that while not necessarily bad, are infamous. “Caress of Steel” falls into that category. Now for clarity, this is not a terrible album. There are many aspects to like about this record and even elements that are exhibited on this LP would help bring forth the high concept era of the band’s late seventies output. However, the execution is misguided in many aspects. “Caress of Steel” is the band trying to do long progressive epics similar to bands such as Genesis and Yes and man, they were totally out of their element on this release.
First, before I get into the flaws, I will acknowledge the strengths that this album does exhibit. The opening track “Bastille Day”, oh my god is it terrific. Fantastic aggressive riffs by Lifeson, pounding drums by Peart and Lee’s vocals that have a majestic quality to them, depicting the turning point of the French Revolution, a topic that I have always found fascinating. An underrated track by the band, and one of their best openers, able to brilliantly balance both aggression and a light majestic mood. The album transitions into “I Think I’m Going Bald”, which exhibits some very tasty bluesy riffs and is a more comedic track about what the title of the song suggests. Nothing grand or complicated but a fun little track. The last of these shorter tracks, “Lakeside Park” is a more mellow piece, with Peart really showcasing his influences from Bonham with a drum performance that focuses on establishing a groove. Coupled this drumming approach with a beautiful incorporation of acoustics, and the track really feels like a nice stroll in the park, giving a nice nostalgic atmosphere that really helps set itself apart from the rest of the tracks so far. 
The record transitions to the first of the two multi-part epics, “The Necromancer”, and from here the foundation starts to crack. Opening with some nice atmospheric instrumentation, the track goes through this dreamlike haze about...ok I’ve listened to this track so many times and I still have no idea what this is about. From doing research, I’ve gathered that the plot is about Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, but even then the story starts to get muddied when By-Tor, the main character from "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" shows up quite literally out of nowhere and slays Sauron...I guess. While the instrumentation is fantastic, especially around the second section of the track, ultimately it’s in service to a narrative that is half-baked and bordering on opaque. To reiterate, great instrumentation, but they haven’t done a good job yet of balancing the writing with the music quite yet.
Once we get into the second side of the album with their very first side long track “The Fountain of Lamneth” though...oh dear this is where the problems start to pile up. First, some positives: great instrumentation by the band, though of course this being Rush one should not expect nothing but fantastic performances. In addition, I can at least acknowledge and respect how this track opened the path towards greater epics that would come forth on subsequent albums. This was around the time when bands were still doing tracks such as what Rush were trying to attempt so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the band to go into this direction. So from here on, I want to make it clear that I can get why people may like this album and even this track.
Right, with that olive branch out of the way, holy hell this track goes absolutely nowhere. For over twenty minutes, this song just meanders from movement to movement, not logically connecting between these movements or feeling cohesive in the slightest. In addition, it suffers from the same lyrical failings that plagued “The Necromancer” although it’s almost worse. Here, the track goes through a man’s entire lifetime trying to find the Fountain of Lamneth...and that’s it. The real joke out of all this is that even the concept can’t keep its own story straight, with the fourth section, entitled “Panacea” all about the main character hooking up with a woman he meets after getting his ship wrecked. There is no progression to this man trying to find the fountain, so it could have been cut entirely. And when the track finally moves on from that, what’s the build up for almost twenty minutes? ...he finds the fountain and discovers that it’s not that special after all. What a pay-off. I maybe overselling my disappointment with this track, and again if one were to focus on the instrumentation, it is a superb in that department, but the band is clearly trying to depict an epic tale, and it just falls flat on the execution.
With these flaws, it’s no surprise to me that the album failed to catch on. So poor was the reception that the following tour for the record was dubbed as the “Down the Tubes” tour due to poor concert attendance numbers. The band was on the ropes, with the very likely possibility of their career ending before it even began. Compounding issues further, their record label was demanding that they construct more radio-friendly tracks, which in turn could sacrifice their artistic integrity. The band decided to take a huge risk, a record that would decide the fate of where their careers could head, and they eventually dropped that record the following year. Jesus Christ, what a record they would drop.
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