Top Ten Songs by Rush

Rush is a rock and roll pioneer, and their influence on other bands has led indirectly to many Top Ten chart-busting songs coming about. Compiling the top ten songs by Rush was yet another challenging feat for me to sort out, yet enjoyable. So here’s my personal top ten songs by the great progressive Canuck rock band Rush, descending all the way down to my favorite Rush tune of all time:

10. Manhattan Project, originally from the 1985 album Power Windows

Leading off my top ten favorite songs by Rush is Manhattan Project. The opening lyrics have lead singer Geddy Lee acting like your father as he begins to tell you a bedtime story (in such a soothing voice) about the building of the atom bomb during World War II�

“Imagine a time when it all began
In the dying days of a war
A weapon that would settle the score
Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst
They always had before”

âÂ?¦then the tune eventually breaks out into some really fast intense music. Then it’s time for another round of some more soothing story-telling by Geddy Lee.

9. Show Don’t Tell, originally from the 1989 album Presto

Sure, Show Don’t Tell is sung well and the music is, as usual, very qualitative in sound. But this song about finding the truth for yourself says it all in the refrainâÂ?¦..

(Show me, don’t tell me)
You’ve figured out the score
(Show me, don’t tell me)
I’ve heard it all before
(Show me, don’t tell me)
I don’t care what you say
(Show me, don’t tell me)

âÂ?¦which is why it’s great for Associated Content to make calls for anybody to write their own Top Ten Songs articles rather than relying on the dingalings at Rolling Stone, VH1, and MTV to “tell” us music fans what songs we oughta like the most!

8. Time Stand Still, originally from the 1987 album Hold Your Fire

There’s a strong guitar introduction to Time Stand Still, which wishes that those special moments would last longer. Time Stand Still ends with some real emotional pleading over this issue as Geddy Lee croons the wordsâÂ?¦

“Freeze this moment a little bit longer”

This was the first song of Rush that I really liked and led me to explore more of their works in detail during the late 1980’s.

7. Red Barchetta, originally from the 1981 album Moving Pictures

I like this tune, another of those story-telling song pieces by Geddy Lee, because it’s chased with some 1960’s intense psychedelic sound over an eventful countryside drive in an old car. Red Barchetta makes up part of a compilation of songs that are Rush’s most popular selling album to date, easily getting to a Top Ten place for album sales on the Billboard charts back in 1981 (Position #3).

6. Limelight, originally from the 1981 album Moving Pictures

Limelight closes out the first half of my top ten favorite Rush songs. This tune is really a quintessential radio airplay Rush song about the challenges of fame. Limelight has got a straight intense pace throughout it and really ends strongly and dead-seriously, which must be what the spotlight of fame can feel like.

5. Red Sector A, originally from the 1984 album Grace Under Pressure

Red Sector A is the first of three songs of this top ten list that come from my favorite Rush album of all time, Grace Under Pressure. You can feel the fearful urgency in this song, which is about those who fought to stay alive during the Holocaust. Red Sector A contains haunting march-like music in it.

4. The Big Money (Live Version from 1989’s A Show of Hands), originally from the 1985 album Power Windows

A Show of Hands took performances from Rush’s 1986 Power Windows and 1988 Hold Your Fire tours, and you can feel the energy of the crowd during the song. Geddy Lee is really interacting with the audience via this song, singing in a serio-comic way about the dark side of money, with no pun intended over Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon’s Money rendition!

3. Afterimage, originally from the 1984 album Grace Under Pressure

Afterimage honors a dearly departed friend. The tune isn’t a tear-jerker song though. While Afterimage’s lyrics are really poetic, the spirit of the tune is pretty straight forward and quickly-paced. Listening to Afterimage is more like being on an esoteric journey rather than sitting in a funeral home listening to a eulogy.

2. Closer to the Heart, originally from the 1977 album A Farewell to Kings

No group or performer reminds me more of being a teenager during the early 1980’s than Rush. So this song about man’s responsibility for positive change not only is philosophical in message, but is also very direct in the way it comes across musically. The renditions are straight to the point. This is the most crisp work by Rush in my opinion.

1. The Body Electric, originally from the 1984 album Grace Under Pressure

My top ten Rush song of all time begins with a strong drum set, and then this tune comments on society’s overdependence upon technology. Geddy Lee breaks out frantically via that memorable refrain full of digits:

“1 0 0 1 0 0 1
SOS
1 0 0 1 0 0 1
In distress
1 0 0 1 0 0″

The energy and urgency of the song Body Electric, the champion of my top ten songs by Rush, resonates with me all the way to the top spot. And anyway, what a way to end a Top Ten Songs article: full of 1’s!