Rush Retrospective Part Eight: Moving Pictures (1981)

Entering the Lighted Stage

“A modern day warrior

Mean mean stride
Today’s Tom Sawyer

Mean mean pride”

The minute you hear that opening synthesizer note by Lee and Peart’s signature drum pattern, you know what song this is. This signature single, and this record as a whole, catapulted Rush to the commercial stratosphere. “Moving Pictures” is the band’s biggest selling album of their career, peaking at number three of the Billboard Top 100 LPs, and reaching platinum barely two months after its initial release.  This record shows the band’s culmination of seven years of experimentation, with its successes and failures, and demonstrates Rush at their peak of their abilities both as writers and musicians. Going forward with the successful execution of "Permanent Waves", the trio keep to the idea of shorter, more concise tracks, and just like that release the band is still able to showcase complex playing. In fact, this record probably showcases some of Rush’s most complex songs in their career.  Each member is on fire, producing a record that is timeless. Every Rush fan and their literal grandfather has praised this album as the band’s finest hour and it very much is.

The album opens with “Tom Sawyer”, a track so big in Rush's catalog that it barely needs any introduction. We have heard this track on the classic rock stations for god knows how many decades, and it’s going to always be like that. Despite how overplayed the track is, this one of the band’s best explorations into the philosophy of individualism, which was an already established element of Rush’s musical identity. “Tom Sawyer” represents what the ideals of individualism strive to achieve. He’s not one to be persuaded by greater societal forces that tell people to conform and be in line.  He’s a man who isn’t naive to the changes that the world presents, but he is ready to take on the challenges, “[To] ride out the day’s events...The river.” It is incredibly fascinating that an album that has a track such as this was able to be as successful as it was, another example of how unorthodox but effective Rush’s style of music was throughout their creative run.
Alongside “Tom Sawyer”, the rest of the first side of the record contains Rush standards.  The second track “Red Barchetta” is another great exploration of freedom, returning to the science fiction literary elements from the band’s earlier records, though in a far more subtle manner. The story is about a time where motor vehicles are outlawed. One day, while the main character is driving a red Barchetta that his uncle owns, he encounters another car, most likely one that the authorities of this world use. From there it's an adrenaline rush, and you feel like your pressing the gas off a high end car full force, outrunning law enforcement.  An interesting little note about the song is that it doesn't have a chorus of any sort, however the band is able to keep the track engaging and catchy, even without a catchy hook. It's probably the closest to a narrative that the band produces, similar to their late 70s releases, but ingeniously the band is still able to tell a coherent story in only six minutes. From there comes “YYZ” (for an aside the track is actually pronounced “Y Y Zed”), the band’s second major instrumental and is one of the most complex and at the same time catchy tracks that the band has produced. The track, whose name is taken from the Toronto Pearson International Airport's identification code, is frantic, bustling, and it gives the feeling of being in a chaotic busy airport. The instrumental has a constant energy to itself, with the band mates exhibited some of the finest dynamics of their career, though some of the most complex and on face value chaotic. But as stated, the band miraculously makes this track into something that is memorable on the first listen.

Side one concludes with perhaps the most personal song off the record, “Limelight”.  Written by Neil Peart, it explores how he felt unprepared for the fame that he has acquired over the past few years of his career. He describes fame as a "gilded cage", a lifestyle that while beautiful on the outside is confining and tightening on the inside. This entrapment is caused by how he is always "living in the limelight" how he's always the center of attention, a reality that he does not wish was the case. While being recognized is a sort of universal desire, not many people are ready for the sacrifices that this reality brings. Enhancing the message is the upbeat guitar riff, drum patterns create an atmosphere serves to effectively portray the situation. It comes off as glamorous, as larger than life and desirable, but as the chorus kicks in, the track becomes softer, more reflective, and in way, morose. Vulnerable, honest, but at the same time not alienating to listeners, in a lyrical context this is the best track off the album.

After the opening salvo of the first side, the second side of “Moving Pictures” is able to continue the momentum.  The side opens with the longest track off the album and the final track that Rush would make that had multiple parts, “The Camera Eye”. The song discusses the various movements and rhythms that Peart would notice when walking down the streets of New York and London, and the use of the guitar, synthesizers, and frantic drumming really helps give that sense of the hustle and bustle that both cities present. Next comes “Witch Hunt”, and this is the heaviest track off the record. It opens with a uneasy synthesizer piece, gradually building and building, giving the listener a great sense of fear and panic. The song discusses the dangers of mob like mentality and this is also the first part, though it’s labeled as Part Three of the “Fear” series of songs. "Witch Hunt" heavily relies on this uneasy atmosphere, with a spacious but heavy riff delivered by Lifeson. Whether it'd be against immigrants, or the non-religious, this mindsets perceive every possible facet of society as potentially corrupted by "the enemy", even if it's a vague notion and in reality the mob is the enemy. Lyrically oppressive and dark, and a track that isn't discussed that often, but has a lot of current day relevance with today's political landscape. The final track “Vital Signs” heavily showcases the reggae influences that were present on “Permanent Waves”. The synthesizers help give a futuristic feel to the music, and it's a gentle conclusion to the record. Discussing how people should deviate from the norm, and how that deviation in a sense makes someone go above and beyond what is expected with conforming. In a lyrical sense, "Vital Signs" is the return to the philosophy that opened the record with “Tom Sawyer”, about the importance of individuality.
To say that “Moving Pictures” was a smash hit would be a gross understatement as this was, and still is, the biggest commercial hit of their careers. While the records that will come after are excellent, for some fans Rush never quite achieved the same artistic heights as on their eighth release.  Seminal, iconic, and recommended. Rush was now in a new position with this release, and the only question now is with this newly obtained audience, how would they be able to top themselves after this monolith release?  Just one year later, audiences were about to be given their answer.