moving picture

Moving Pictures
Studio album by Rush
Released	March 12, 1981
Recorded	October - November 1980 at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec
Genre	Progressive rock, hard rock
Length	40:04
Label	Anthem (Canada), Mercury
Producer	Rush and Terry Brown
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Rush chronology
Permanent Waves (1980) Moving Pictures (1981) Exit...Stage Left (1981)

Moving Pictures is the eighth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush. The album was recorded and mixed October to November 1980 at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec and released March 12, 1981.

Moving Pictures became the band's biggest selling album in the U.S., hitting #3, and remains the band's most popular and commercially successful studio recording to date. The album was certified quadruple-platinum with four 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 as radio standards "Red Barchetta" and "Limelight".

Moving Pictures is one of two Rush albums listed in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2112 is the other).^[1]

Background

Work on the album began in August 1980 at Stony Lake, Ontario. "The Camera Eye" was the first to be written, followed by "Tom Sawyer," "Red Barchetta," "YYZ", and "Limelight." "Tom Sawyer" grew from a melody that Lee had been using to set up his synthesizers at sound checks.

At Phase One studios with producer Terry Brown, they began recording demos. "Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight" were polished in October by playing them live on a warm-up tour (although both songs had slightly different arrangements on the album than were played on the tour^{[citation needed]}), and then they started the main recording at Le Studio in Quebec. "Red Barchetta" was recorded in one take, while others took many. There were problems with equipment failures and they finished three days behind schedule.^[2][3]

Songs

With a title reference to Mark Twain's fictional character, "Tom Sawyer" is an abstract commentary on a free-thinking "modern day warrior".^{[citation needed]} One of Rush's most well-known songs, 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". The lyrics were inspired by the short story "A Nice Morning Drive"^[4] by Richard S. Foster. Peart, however, has reported that the car that inspired the song's title is a Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta.

Next is the Grammy-nominated instrumental "YYZ". The track'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.

"Limelight" is another perennial radio favourite. The lyrics are autobiographical, based on Peart's own dissatisfaction with fame and its intrusion into personal life. The song contains two self-references: the first, the line "all the world's indeed a stage, and we are merely players", references their live album All the World's a Stage (as well as the famous line by William Shakespeare), while the line "living in a fish-eye lens, caught in the camera eye" references the next track, "The Camera Eye".

Side two of the original vinyl release opened with "The Camera Eye", Rush's final extended song, as well as the last to be longer than ten minutes. Lyrically and musically it is an attempt to capture the energy and moods of two of the English-speaking world's great cities: New York City (first verse) and London (second verse). Unlike all the other songs on the album it has never been performed live since the Signals tour of 1983. The title and theme of "The Camera Eye" lyrics were borrowed from the work of John Dos Passos, one of Peart's favourite authors.^{[citation needed]}

The sixth song, "Witch Hunt", features voices during the intro (that according to Alex Lifeson on In the Studio with Redbeard, which devoted an episode to Moving Pictures, were recorded outside Le Studio in sub-zero temperatures with the band and crew ranting and raving in a humorous way) and sound effects made by Lee's Oberheim keyboards, before jumping into the rock section of the song. It features graphic designer and musician Hugh Syme on keyboards (Rush's longtime artwork creator), and the entire drum part was recorded twice in one verse, with a percussion section created by recording each sound differently. "Witch Hunt" 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.

The last track on the album is "Vital Signs", which starts off with a distinctive sequencer part made by Lee's OB-X synthesizer, showing distinct reggae flavour. Reggae influences began on Rush's previous album Permanent Waves and would later creep into tracks found on the band's next studio release Signals.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Neil Peart except where noted, all music composed by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee except where noted.

1.^ Lyrics written by Neil Peart and Pye Dubois.

2.^ Music written by Geddy Lee and Neil Peart

Personnel

• Geddy Lee - Bass guitar; Minimoog; Oberheim 8-voice synthesizer; 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 - 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

Sales Certifications

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles

^[5]

Cover art

The Ontario Legislature, circa 2006

The album cover is a monument to triple entendre. On the front cover there are movers who are moving pictures. On the side, people are shown crying because the pictures passing by are emotionally "moving". Finally, the back cover has a film crew making a "moving picture" of the whole scene.^[6] The album cover was taken in front of the Ontario Legislature Building at Queen's Park.

Remaster details

Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs issued a Gold CD remaster in 1992 that is currently out of print.^[7]

A Mercury Records 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 capital letters just to the left. All remasters from Moving Pictures through A Show Of Hands feature this logo, originally found on the cover art of Retrospective II.
• The remastered CD restores all of the original artwork found on the vinyl copy of the album as well as the lyrics, and includes the moving picture of drummer Neil Peart which was missing on the original CD issue.

The first pressings of Moving Pictures on compact disc were missing the first beat of "Tom Sawyer" by mistake. This was corrected in subsequent CD releases.

References

1. ^ 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
2. ^ Moving Pictures Tourbook
3. ^ Power Windows http://www.2112.net/powerwindows
4. ^ A Nice Morning Drive
5. ^ Rush Discography
6. ^ The Rush Frequently Asked Questions on the Internet File
7. ^ Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab