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Okay I can honestly call Rush the best group of all time. They can play circles around the Beatles. The Beatles have simple melodies, chord progressions, and solos that don't last compared to virtuoso Rush. Some may argue that Van Halen is better but remember the more humble and less flashy Alex Lifeson handled the guitar without the help of an additional guitarist in Rush. Lifeson rocked without being arrogant. Joe Perry of Aerosmith also had a guitarist to help him out. Though Rush by the mid80s didn't have the guitar driven songs it once had, Lifeson broke ground with processor synthetic sounds of his guitar that complemented a more mellow melodic Rush. The title HOLD YOUR FIRE defines our deepest fears of the decade of the 1980s. A cold war, that being tensions between our beloved United States and the mysterious villian like Russia really made the decade "so thick with stress that you could almost cut it with a knife." In fact the US at this time stockpiled over 88,000 nuclear warheads to stop the atomic threat. Even more the media fed our fears of a Russian invasion in the movie "Red Dawn" in which Russia invades by not atomic forces but invading paratroopers. With that in mind along with the Space Invaders video game, Rush came out with the song "Tom Sawyer" from their Moving Pictures album in 1981.Still with so many anxiety filled news stories taking place Rush drummer Neil Part who is their main lyricist collaborated with Lifeson and bassist singer Geddy Lee to write important songs such as the Weapon, Between the Wheels, Distant Early Warning. The idea for the song Red sector A came from Geddy Lee's parents being in Nazi Concentration camp in World War II before they moved to Canada. However the song took a modern feel as the songs feel makes it seems the Russians or space aliens are the captors. Adding more fear to the decade was the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in late January of 1986. If one of our best rockets went down that way what's to stop a missile were sending to target Russia instead from falling down and hitting us? A few months later the nuclear mishap at Cherobyl happened with their nuclear reactors spewing out record levels of radiation. Hold your fire was really a plea from not only Rush but every American as it said that the doomsday clock was 6 minutes before 12. To get to the bottom of it this album along with Rush's Power Windows was COMFORT MUSIC for me during the 1980s. I still enjoy it as Force Ten was the fear of an atomic blast being as strong as an F5 tornado or hurricane. The song Time stands still is what we all want. Prime Mover as very inspiring song. Lock and Key faces all our fears of unleashing the dark side every one has within them. Mission is a very idealistic romantic song with a very beautiful soaring Lifeson guitar solo. The sustain and brightness makes it one of the greatest unappreciated guitar solos of all time. Turn the Page has one of the great philosophicall lyrics of all time in "everyday we're standing in a time capsule, racing down the river from the past." Geddy Lee's vocals soar and inspires. Alex Lifeson's guitar playing explores new textures. Neil Part, the greatest drummer in the world, drives it home with his inspired drumming. This is truly FUN and ENJOYABLE CD. I own it on vinyl, wore out the casette years ago as well as CD. A must own CD you have to get.Read full review
I've had a couple copies of Hold Your Fire on CD and Vinyl. The most recent disc got damaged. So to buy an album 3 times? It must be good. MY favorite on HYF is High Water. The Title track is one of Rush's classic inspirational tunes. Not inspirational as in Religion more like the "hang in there" type. In general RUSH is the one band for any one who likes great guitar, keyboard and percussion work, great lyrics or any combination there of.
This is absolutely without a doubt the weakest of all of the bands studio material. The band went in a direction in the mid to late 80's that seemed to be more in tune with pop music and stylized lyrics and writing that was an effort to open up the progressive/metal leanings towards a newer, younger more hip (dare I say) pop audience. I had been a fan of the band since I discovered them during the peak of their rock/progressive days in 1981 (Moving Pictures) so I was one of many people who really didn't care much for the direction that the band had began to move in during this time period. I bought this new the week it was released (cassette), and remember being very, very disappointed in it. Over all these years its kinda grown on me a bit, but it remains the least played of all of their studio stuff for me. If your new to the band or if you don't have the bands first 8 studio cd's yet then skip buying this and go further back into the catalog and get those earlier releases first. You'll be glad that you did.Read full review
I enjoy listening to Hold Your Fire and the 1997 Rush Remaster has a three dimensional sound quality to the mix. CD sound still rules the Earth and this album is a perfect example why.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I have my obvious favorites from Rush but somehow I overlooked the Hold Your Fire album. Aimee Mann does co-lead vocals on "Time Stand Still", backing vocals on "Tai Shan", "Open Secrets" and "Prime Mover". I never knew her but she used to live right down the road from me in North Chesterfield Virginia so I had to check out her collaboration with Rush. This is one of my favorite albums by Rush now. Always great to have something you haven’t listened to at least 100 times. 😎
Verified purchase: No
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