Moving Pictures [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Rush | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 3, 1997)
• Original Release Date: 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Island / Mercury
• ASIN: B000001ESP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (422 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #1 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > Progressive Metal
  • #3 in Music > Rock > Progressive > Progressive Rock
  • #4 in Music > Classic Rock > Arena Rock

Track Listings

1. Tom Sawyer

2. Red Barchetta

3. YYZ

4. Limelight

5. The Camera Eye

6. Witch Hunt

7. Vital Signs

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With Moving Pictures, Rush's complex songwriting and musical virtuosity reached new heights. It's that rarest of creatures, a highly listenable progressive-rock album; even the all-instrumental "YYZ" is of interest to listeners besides musicians. The highlight of the album is "Limelight"; like many progressive-rock bands, Rush writes songs about the experience of being on-stage. The result is impressive, with almost orchestral arrangements that never overwhelm the actual music. "Tom Sawyer," another classic, is on this album, as well as the science-fiction-meets-road-movie "Red Barchetta," the epic "The Camera Eye," the cautionary "Witch Hunt," and "Vital Signs," which takes advantage of the budding digital sound technology available at the time the album was recorded. This is probably Rush's best album; it's definitely their most accessible. --Genevieve Williams

Product Description

CD =Remastered=

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

376 of 384 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Timing Is Everything January 6, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

Life changes occur every 7 years. By age fourteen, my life was under assault. I was in a new city and a new school. High school was intimidating, and my study skills were lousy. On top of that, my parents had split up, puberty was raging, and I was unprepared to deal with women, family, school, fights, adults, and authority. I was getting into small-scale troubles like shoplifting. My self-esteem was shot, exacerbated by pimples and the standard teasing. It was 1982.

Into this social and personal morass came "Tom Sawyer", the first rock single I ever paid attention to and the most important. Being black, I was used to R&B/soul/funk. Now I realize that the uninformed, uninitiated listener can find much about Rush to criticize, but to me, "Tom Sawyer" was a clarion call and a rallying cry. By the 3rd time I heard it on the radio, I had to buy the album (remember those?). When I was able to collect enough money (about $8.00 - remember that?), I went to the record store and was transfixed by the cool looking cover. I didn't get the depth of the cover concept - the "moving pictures" inside joke, but the surface appealed. Notice the gothic architecture, the recutrring theme of 3, the Clockwork Orange-looking men moving pictures, the burning witch, the black/red satanic lettering, and the 'bad seed-looking' little girls with their parents? Rush were the master manipulators here - luring teens in to ponder what evil lurks underneath, while affirming the teen desire to rebel, to piss off your folks, thereby reclaiming your desire for power. Then you turn it around and it's literally and figuratively the reverse - no evil intents, just a film shoot - a motion pic shoot. It's still one of the all-time greatest album covers for me.

Then the inner sleeve offers those oh-so-cool pose pix of them in motion laying down some of the wickedest and hardest music in rock. I was held captive to the stereo system with the first track, "Tom Sawyer". Another reviewer questioned why it was first on the album. He may as well ask why a the door to a building is on the first floor. It literally is a song intended for an audience like me then. Figuratively, it became the soundtrack for my teenage life. It suggests a dark, aloof cynicism, and a preternatural desire to avoid conformity. It has a sound that is singular, distinct, and unique. The middle keyboard part that morphs into that intense jam is like a drug trip. There is an obvious love of technical proficience, a holdout for artistic quality, and a very masculine love for gadgetry and technology. It tows the line between European lyricism and the African hypnotic beat. It also was complete - the images, words, rhythms, ideas all were dynamic and interplaying, and justified the high art of production. And it covered a wide spectrum of sound - the puglistic punches and the shimmering, brassy crashes of the percussion. That impossible-to-duplicate fat, distorted bass sound. I still marvel at Geddy's vocal performance on this record. Lifeson's solos in "Tom Sawyer", "Red Barchetta", and "Limelight" are classic, yet all of his work is incredible here. His effects are equally incredible - the digital delay ending his solo in "Limelight", and his dead-on 'shrieking tires' starting his solo in 'Barchetta'. That's one of those moments that make your arm hairs stand up. It's one of many moments on this album where you realize you're listening to true artists who have thought long and hard on how to manipulate our senses for a desired effect.

Then there's that feeling that you are a witness to the recording (just what are they whispering to each other before the solo of "Camera Eye?"). Read the credits and you'll note the album was recorded digitally - in fact they're probably the FIRST to do it - 4-5 years before CDs became the norm. And that production had a strangeness to it - a haunting sense of light and shade, like an Ansel Adams photograph.

Rush were a breath of fresh air for me. I wanted to be a part of the cool trip they were on then. I began to teach myself the drums, and I proceeded to collect every one of their albums and I studied them like a monk studying the New Testament. In 2 years I began to master Peart's power, and subsequently I discovered the Police, Zep, Iron Maiden, Yes, Ozzy, etc. I became a rock student and a musician, dabbling with the bass and the guitar.

So thank you, Rush. This album was the raft on the Mississippi for me. I was Huck and I was Jim, and the drumsticks were my paddles.

82 of 86 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Everybody got to deviate from the norm' August 19, 2004

By John S. Ryan

Format:Audio CD

It's a testament to the talent of this trio that one of their most accomplished releases musically and lyrically is _also_ one of their most accessible.

Lots of times, when musicians' musicians get together to record an album of 'prog rock', the results are interesting to their fellow musicians but leave the average listener in the dust.

The three members of Rush (Geddy Lee, vocals and bass; Alex Lifeson, guitars; Neil Peart, percussion and lyrics) don't work that way. They _are_ musicians' musicians (and they don't achieve their appeal by dumbing anything down), but they never retreat into technodazzle and flashy obscurantism; their music is just (or almost) as intelligible and enjoyable to a listener who wouldn't know 7/4 time if it bit him on the behind. (Even Geddy Lee's solo release _My Favorite Headache_, which you might expect to be filled with all sorts of at-last-a-chance-to-show-off bass theatrics, is on the contrary a fine collection of really good _songs_.)

Likewise, Peart's lyrics are intelligent and thoughtful, but they never talk down to us listeners or hide from us in a private, hipper-than-thou symbolic language. They're well-lit, with the clarity of sharp lights and shadows -- 'deep' without being hard to follow.

_Moving Pictures_ gets my vote as the CD to start with if you want to introduce yourself to this great band. Mind you, that's not because I share the common opinion that they jumped the shark in the mid-1980s; I may be alone in the world in thinking that these guys have never released a bad album, but that is in fact what I think.

No, the reason I name this album as the place to begin is that its quality is stratospheric even for Rush. This stuff is, lyrically, some of Peart's tightest writing, and the music (mostly by Lee and Lifeson with occasional contributions from Peart) is from start to finish as streamlined and clean-cut as a rocket.

Everybody has heard 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Limelight', so I won't comment on those. As for the rest: the futuristic road-warrior SF of 'Red Barchetta' is like a miniature _2112_; the magisterial and menacing 'Witch Hunt' is every bit as timely today as it was in 1981; 'YYZ' (the airport designation for Toronto -- tap it out in Morse code) is one of their finest instrumentals (and their last until a decade later); 'The Camera Eye' manages to turn two short 'snapshot' verses (about New York and London) into a sprawling eleven-minute epic that doesn't feel anywhere near that long; and the Police _wish_ they could have written and recorded the impossibly infectious 'Vital Signs'. The music is brilliant throughout, and Peart's incisive lyrics carry on his healthy celebration of individualism, liberty, and self-reliance without burying us in Ayn Rand references.

The bottom line is that if you're going to like Rush, you'll like this CD, and if not, not. Oh, you could do almost as well by starting with _Permanent Waves_. But most of their catalogue has _something_ on it that a Rush newbie might not appreciate (even _2112_).

This one is a gem, released when these guys had just broken through to the mainstream and were absolutely at the top of their game. If you have even a casual interest in Rush, don't miss it.

75 of 82 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New Way To Experience A Classic April 5, 2011

By Shredding_Bullets

Format:Audio CD

After buying Moving Pictures multiple times, one has to wonder when enough is enough and the sound just can't be improved any more. Unfortunately for your wallet that is not the case this time, the DVD-Audio is absolutely outstanding and hearing these songs in 5.1 definitely gives them new life. For the most part the surround is subtle (aside from obvious moments like the car in Red Barchetta, and yes, the triangle intro to YYZ does go through some speaker acrobatics) while still providing clarity, most of which can be heard in the clarity of every tom and cymbal Neil hits (and there's a lot of them!)

As for the whole complete package, the set comes with two discs, one being a CD for on the go listening, that for my money differs very little from the Remastered CD released years ago, with maybe slightly more clarity. The DVD has the album is Surround Sound and Stereo options, and as for extras there's a set of three extremely cheesy music videos (Tom Sawyer, Limelight, Vital Signs) and a small picture gallery that's interesting for around seven seconds. The set also comes in fancy cardboard case and includes a nice beefy booklet with an essay from David Fricke, a bunch of very cool pictures, and (now readable sized!) lyrics.

All in all if you have the album and are fine with it as is, there's no reason to spring for this set, most will likely not care about the improvement of sound quality. However, if you are am audiophile, enjoy DVD-Audio, or are interested in the idea, I can't recommend this set enough.

And let's face it, if you're a massive Rush fan, the type that has already seen them on the Time Machine Tour and listen to 2112 on a Saturday night at home instead of going out, you already were going to buy this, even just to hear Neil Peart's toms fly around you in Witch Hunt. And you'll love every minute of it.