What Makes this Song Great? Ep.63 RUSH (#2)

hey everybody I'm Rick Beato on today's everything music it's what makes this song great episode 63 now I took a poll earlier this week on my channel as to what people want to see more videos of 56% say they want to see more videos like this what makes us hungry and then 36 percent said they want to see more of my advanced music Theory videos I want to give you what you want I like it all anyway so it doesn't matter to me but today's episode is on the band Rush and the song is limelight I'll tell you why I decided to choose limelight is that this is feels like it could be in seven but it's actually shifting time signatures you'll see bars of four bars of three which add up to seven four but because of the way that they're stressed and we'll talk about this when we get there they're actually felt a little differently all this is coming up next [Music] limelight was the second single off Russia's moving pictures album which was released on February 12 1981 the record followed permanent ways which was released a year before the songs co-written by all three band members and it was co-produced by longtime producer Terry Brown and the band let's talk about the introduction so let's talk about this opening riff starts out like this [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay so that opening riff is really cool that he does a staccato chord on the B power chord on the first phrase then he holds it the reson time this time [Music] [Applause] [Music] I love the reverb on the guitar those those reverb tails on it makes it sound huge and then when the drums enter here there's tons of reverb on the drums listen listen them what else do you notice about this let's say actually let me play the bass interest you can hear the bass tone it's amazing can you say mid-range that is such an aggressive tone we're gonna talk about the bass down here in a minute but I love this introduction okay so let's talk about these time changes that happen right here right in the very intro the intro is actually in 4/4 I'll count it for you watch [Music] one two three that's all for now one two three four one two okay so that's alternating bars of four and three four plus three is seven but it's not a seven like I said in outshine or in them bones Alison chains this is this is actually alternating meters and you can tell that by the way that it kicks in where you feel the stresses [Music] yes I could count in seven I could count it in seven four just as easily but I feel this more as alternating meters I love how this moves from the a part of the intro riff to the B part of the intro riff like this [Music] really really cool by the way I'm playing through a high watt custom 20 when I went and researched what Alex was playing through back then he was playing through high watts and he was playing through Marshalls but I imagine since the high wattage playing through he was playing through stacks probably hundred watt high Watts custom 100's those don't really distort that easily so I'm thinking that he was probably using pedals it's hard to find accurate information on this if any of you know what Alex was playing through put it in the comments let's talk about the bass next so during this time period moving pictures 1981 Getty was transitioning away from playing his Rickenbacker 4001 they had come out with the 4003 which I think he played actually both those paces on this record but he's also playing his Fender Jazz it's I think it's in 1972 or so it's got a badass bridge on it which actually makes a big difference in the bottom end of the bass if you've tried them those bridges really sound great he was really influenced by Chris Squire from yes that's why he started with a Rickenbacker and and really the types of lines that he plays the really busier bass lines to you know to make up for the fact that it's only a three piece and that's really part of his style but when you solo the bass it has that characteristic aggressive mid-range tone it sounds like my big SVT back here that I would be playing for this video if it wasn't for the fact that the head weighs 92 pounds and I just can't move it over closer so I'm playing through a smaller SVT here let's take a listen to Gettys bass by itself you can hear that it has a grit not just from the amplifier but it's really compressed and he's also he's also hitting the frets with the strings it sounds like it's kind of a John Entwistle thing and a Chris Squire kind of a thing right very mid-range e tone though let me play along with the track [Music] one thing that you might not have noticed in the intro check it out [Music] is that there's a clean electric guitar with chorus picking along check it out [Music] goes like this next let's check out Neil's drumming in the intro [Applause] I love how he keeps adding a snare each time in here [Music] all right first let's solo the vocals so you can hear Gettys tone i love Gettys voice living on a lighted stage approaches the unreal for those who think and feel in touch with some reality beyond the gilded cage to get incredibly good pitch first of all beyond the delivery which is excellent his pitch without any auto-tune back then in 1981 is just spot-on next let's move on to the verse guitars I'm gonna sole them for you so you can hear what chords alex is playing [Music] [Applause] okay let's talk about what's going on with the verse let me play along with it first [Music] we have a lot of cool courts here some of them you may not know we start out with beasts us poor I'm gonna G sharp minor 11 which i think is really great too after our major then so let me talk about Alex license cord vocabulary for a second so he was one of the first people that I heard that played these dissonant chords using open strings like in Xanadu for example a farewell to Kings if you think about the [Music] [Applause] [Music] these types of quarters be sus4 with the third in MV f sharp 7 with a sus poor and third in it those kind of chord shapes I had really never heard in rock music before I hadn't really hadn't heard him at all and and in this tune you hear chords like this is us - played like that great power chord play G sharp minor 11 these were not chords that rock players played and that's what makes his playing so unique in addition to all the other things that make it unique okay so those are the verse guitar chords next I'd like to move on to how to count the changing time signatures it's a bunch of shifting meters there's two bars of three a bar of four bar of to a bar 4 bar to 2 bars of 3 a bar o 4 and then into 7 or that alternating for 3 I'm gonna count it in 7 though it happens check this out 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 1 2 3 4 1 2 1 2 one two three one two three four one two five six seven one okay that is really cool it's very weird but very cool and then it repeats again the same set of time signatures when we move from the verse to the chorus we're going from seven four two three four let's check it out [Music] so there we've moved into four four to mean the highlight of the chorus is Alex's picking part with these beautiful chords and the little distances in them let me solo [Music] so we have this G minor Levin core but then he plays and when he hits that eleventh is beautiful right then he ran a cord goes to e Lydian you're that sharp war goes back to that G minor 11 so these Canaccord then she's not a Lydian quarter this G minor 11 sound these are just great great chords they're very moody and it makes the melody have even more weight let me solo just the guitar and the vocal melody [Music] I mean that right there together if you didn't have those little distances it would not have the flavor that it has the drums are great in there the bass is cool here's the bass and drums during the chorus but those are straight [Music] other than that the really cool ride work that that Neil is doing that's pretty straight and then we come out of the course back into four here [Music] same chords and then we're back to three one two three one two so we have a couple bars of three with the same picking pattern right and then we're back to the da-da-da-da-da [Music] back to that that's the interlude right [Music] that's really some pro arranging there when they do those little cuts the breaks with the with a bass and guitars listen let me solo the bass and guitars it's really cool that makes a difference these little subtle things arranged mentally really make a huge difference before we go on I want to just talk quickly about the structure of the chorus melodically so we have an a B parts of the chorus the a part is the picking part this one two three and then the B part melodically where the vocal moves up in range and it goes to four for only Rush can do these kind of things this was really nobody was doing songs like this where you have a chorus it obviously sounds like a chorus but it's in changes time signatures in the middle of the course who does that right that's why we're still talking about rush now moving on to the second verse high register vocal there's also this harmony part that happens check this out scoping camera okay that's a British accent so that's obviously the producer Terry Brown singing that part was not credited as a singer but I suppose he probably sings harmonies I bet he sang Herman he's done a lot of their songs and you just don't even realize it but that's definitely a British accent and he's definitely British the next cool thing is this Phil that Neil does in the interlude going into the second half of this verse [Music] check it out [Music] and there again on the second line of the verse he goes even higher melodically Getty always sings great melodic lines but here so he starts in the third of the B chord right and then on the G sharp minor and then he's singing that sus4 on the F sharp chord fifth to the third of the E major D major chord right so all these chord tones except then the f-sharp using--you the sus 4 then check out the fill that goes into the second chorus here I'm gonna play I'm gonna solo the bass and the drums listen just listen the drums by themselves I love this dicta to do oh so good then we're on to the second chorus which is very similar until this spot right here he does a 3 against 4 pattern check it out solo the solo is one of his best I think of any of the records it's a really beautiful use of the whammy bar in an incredibly musical way let's check out the first part [Music] killer let me so Louis you can hear what it sounds like listen [Music] just that fluid use of the whammy bar like that [Music] they're just Ram it down I mean let's not the base stuff is going on those free [Music] [Applause] [Music] love that there's a great video of Alex demoing this solo he actually goes through it note by note on YouTube you have to kind of fast forward it's it was done probably about I'd say ten years ago or so and he kind of he demonstrates it and talks about how he uses the whammy bar on it and shows how to play it it's really really cool so after the solo we're back to the chorus there's a couple other little things here that like this great bass riff I love this listen [Music] [Music] then this last thing is the high Vogel here at the end just great saying listen man so good let's hear this last few lines no relation oh so good so good and then we're to the ending listen Neil dose at three against four pattern again check it out [Music] [Music] who does endings like that come on let's check out that fill right here listen this this is amazing the drums that's why we're still talking about rush that's all for now please subscribe here to my everything music YouTube channel if you're interested in the be out a book or anything in my store that's what really helps me do these kind of videos is that that's that's actually how I make a living for this channel is through my store buying mugs buying t-shirts buying my be out of book you can find it on my website at wwlp.com follow me on instagram i'm going to be posting some extra material from these videos that's a trick B out of one or you can become a member of the B Auto Club that's like an artist funding patreon style way to support the channel as well thanks so much for watching [Music]

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 1,959,840

Keywords: rick beato, music theory, what makes this song great?, music production, everything music, hit song analysis, music analysis, rock mixing, rick beato what makes this song great, song analysis, music production tips, waht makes this song great?, Progressive Rock, progressive metalcore, Geddy Lee, alex lifeson, Neil Peart, neil peart drum solo, Geddy Lee Bass, Neil Peart Dums, Alex Lifeson Guitar

Id: 4P-yUOlOC5M

Length: 22min 11sec (1331 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/CoyFish2296]

Rick Beato is awesome! I love the way he breaks down songs.. his videos are great!

[u/mclark2112]

been watching his stuff for months. Rush usually makes it into all his Top 20 lists. He admits to being a big fan.

[u/Aweso1974]

Rick’s “What Makes This Song Great?” series is one of the best music related things on YouTube. My favorites are the ones for “Roundabout,” “More Than a Feeling,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Runnin’ With the Devil,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “Free Fallin,’” and “Outshined”

[u/Clockwork_Angel]

I don't agree with the "Terry Brown" bit. That voice is unmistakably Geddy, just slowed down.

[u/katsumii]

48 seconds too long. ;)

Kidding, this is this first time I've seen this guy. So glad I came across your post. He breaks out into Layman's terms what I feel across the music and could never explain, myself.

[u/BCJunglist]

Rick is awesome. His channel has really blown up over the last year or two.... He's been consistently putting out excellent music related content for a hot minute now.

[u/ImmediatePanda]

Yeah, Rick Beato is awesome.

[u/CrumblingAway]

I think he's also covered Closer to the Heart

[u/Geddysbass]

Very interesting break down of the song. Having a little recording engineering experience years ago and played guitar too, RUSH just always struck me as genius when it came to making music. It's beyond incredible.