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What Makes Rush's 'Middletown Dreams' So Good? Reaction + Guitar Breakdown

RAYGO

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What Makes Rush's 'Middletown Dreams' So Good? Reactio

As always, thank you so much for your comments, likes, and support. You legends!

20 Comments

@RaygoAllThingsMusic Creator 1 month ago Pinned

I love Rush! There, I said it.

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@sarastromseth-troy 1 month ago

The studio version of this song is one of my favorites in the entire Rush catalog and I think it has one of Geddy's best vocal performances. The later-career live version, by contrast, is rather painful on the vocal. I would be curious to hear Geddy sing it on the current tour now that he has been taking vocal lessons.

One of my favorite parts of this song is Neil's lyrics. I think a lot of us can relate to living in a 'Middletown', sleepwalking through life. The urge to break out of the mundane can be a strong feeling.

As a child of the 80s, I love the synth. Personally, I think it adds a grandiosity to their songs in the 80s.

@jaycameronford 1 month ago

Middletown Dreams and Marathon are my faves from Power Windows. One of their best albums in my opinion!

@zweetvoeten 1 month ago

So many amazing songs. There will never ever be another band like Rush.

@leddygee1896 1 month ago

Rush Is Rush. There Is No Other. Never Since, Never Now, Never Again, Nevermore. Timeless...

@MarkNelson-u2k 1 month ago

In my top 10! Keep 'em coming

@jasonwilliams6005 1 month ago (edited)

I like the song you're working on. Btw...Power Windows is my favorite album. Amd that's my favorite song from it.. What Alex did was genius.

@lookingforward9678 1 month ago (edited)

I absolutely love this era of Rush-- So lush and fully orchestrated. That's not to take away from many acoustic ("stripped-down") songs that are absolutely beautiful, but I'm just a sucker for strings and synths and bells and everything else, especially growing up in this period when it was the spirit of the times. It was on the next album, Hold Your Fire, that this sound reached its most developed and sophisticated level, but Power Windows has such great power and energy. Marathon may be my fave from the album, with this perhaps number two, depending on the day :-) So glad you hit this, Joe!

@jazzmagoo 1 month ago

This album has some of Geddy’s most stellar bass playing using his Wal Bass. Alex’s guitars were so inventive, atmospheric, and had incredibly unique solos. I love all Rush and this is in my top 5 Rush albums. It’s just so good and so 1985.

@blazingsaddle166 1 month ago

I always loved the way Alex somehow made his guitar cut through all the keyboards. His sound developed massively during this era & was the best period I've ever heard him. Very original & distinct. As much as I hear the massive wall of synths, it's the distinctive, crisp sound of Alex's guitars I hear most of all. I don't honestly know what all the fuss is about.
Power Windows can easily go to No.1 album for me, when I listen to it. It often wrestles with Hold Your Fire & Grace Under Pressure. On another day, A Farewell To Kings goes top, along with Roll The Bones the following day :) I just can't win.
As for Middletown Dreams, well let's just say it's a majestic piece. This is prime 80's Rush & a clear sign of their evolution.
Rush fan here from 1976, so I've been with them 50 years.

@caryd67 1 month ago

Studio version: there’s that Wal bass again! I really want one of those…

@carlbusque 1 month ago

One of my favorite Rush songs. Thanks for doing this one.

@ljcalhoun 1 month ago

This is great song. I would drive from my grandparents farm in northern Indiana to southern Ohio and would pass a towns called Rushville and Middletown listening to this song.

@mikedown3219 1 month ago

Love this song and I loved the entire album. Could never understand the haters. I probably played this album more than any other back in the day.

@SkySoldier-y4u 1 month ago

Rush on a Wednesday, Hallelujah!
Excellent reaction and assessment, Joe. When Eddie Van Halen went on a keyboard fasination the rest of the band went along with it for one Album and then they moved back to the music that made the band great.
Rock On, dude!

@freddiejupiter442 1 month ago

Your work in progress sounds like a hit. 🤘

@1oriss 1 month ago

Rush fan since 1977 my fav band of all time, but it do go against the grain a bit, I like all Rush but 80's is may fav Grace under Pressure, Hold your Fire and Power Windows (my no1) are in my top 5.

@jacquesjrviens3384 1 month ago

Thank you my brother !!!!!! Maybe you'll do my next recommendation !!!! Marathon, same album !!! Great idea to do both the studio and THEN the live version. That's how it has to done!!!