The Spirit of Radio

Some things do go far back into time, specifically my teens and one group I always liked was the Canadian power trio Rush who originated from the Greater Toronto Area who were more well known for their albums rather than singles starting with the self titled album from 1974.

A common feature of many of their albums  up to 1978's Hemispheres was the long, sometimes side long composition on a theme with many changes in tempo and very intelligent, often thoughtful lyrics.

Later albums were to have shorter songs but much of the essence of that - the impeccable playing and lyrical composition - remained from numbers like Freewill, Subdivisions, Red Sector A and Time Stand Still.

Thus they were handly the sort of group that slot on a five or six track a side Greatest Hits set so you bought each and every album.

That said, if you were looking for something that showed ability off, this double album  greatest hits set released last week some years after the initial cd is it coming complete with an insert aleven though coming in at £28 from Juno, this is a lower mid price issue.

It does contain the first two parts of the magnum opus, entire sidefilling 2112 but let's be honest, for that the thing to do is get the whole album - plenty of decent used copies can be had on vinyl as it was a steady seller during the vinyl era and ditto A Farewell To Kings for Cygnus X-1, the space thriller set to music.

I don't think there would be another trio of brilliant rock musicians who could do any better than the magical musical output of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. They became iconic musicians in progressive rock history long time ago and I believe here you can listen to a great compilation of their works to understand why.