Rush tried to change the program and fight the enemy within of blind frustration and cold war paranoia with the synthesized sheen of this progressive pop positivism. After recording ten consecutive albums with producer Terry Brown, the band decided to work with Peter Henderson for 'Grace Under Pressure'. Neil Peart would explain: "It was a vague thing because it didn't arise out of dissatisfaction with Terry Brown. It was simply based on our response to other people's music and how they were writing and recording songs. We wanted new inputs so we talked to a lot of producers and asked them how they got certain sounds and how they recorded certain groups. The decision to work with someone fresh came as the end result of this research. We felt we needed a new approach and a different chemistry...We recorded the album with the implicit idea of maintaining spontaneity...To me, the lyrical message is always secondary and the music is always first. I take as much trouble with the lyrics as I do because it's the old Anglo-Saxon adage of "if something's worth doing, it's worth doing well," as my father used to say. But I don't envision the lyrics as being the focal point of Rush - it isn't to most people. If I respond to a song musically, then I'll check out the lyrics. But if a song doesn't draw me musically, then it won't draw me lyrically either...My beautiful lakes up north are being killed by sulfurous emissions and so-called environmentalists are contributing to the problem. Then I think of friends and more universal problems. I'm not really an eternal pessimist - I'm on record as being an optimist - but I'm worried about the world's problems and I feel it's about time to face things. However, I'm not introspective. I find a lot of things Roger Waters writes are introspective and very dark. I'm not like that...'Grace Under Pressure' is a really important umbrella that has to stand over all these songs. Judged individually, some of the songs can seem to be too dark for words. But if you make a point from a humanistic point of view, the people in...say, "Red Sector A," the concentration camp, are being graceful under pressure. Despite those horrific conditions, hey tried to retain some semblance of normal living conditions - something they can hold on to. One idea for the album cover was someone reaching out from behind barbed wire to clutch a flower."
Alex Lifeson would express: "We just felt the need for a change. We'd made, I don't know, something like eleven records with Terry...and being 'almost a fourth member', that was what me problem was. We just thought we were at a point in our relationship where we felt we knew each other too well, there was nothing new happening. It was kind of a difficult thing, to break the news to Terry, but it had to be done...So we started hunting around...we started listening to a lot of records, produced by people we liked and admired. We ended up with a long list of potential contenders and started to contact them. After a long, involved series of interviews and discussions, we decided to go with Steve (Simple Minds, U2, Big Country) Lillywhite. He was interested and he committed himself at a certain point to producing us. Everything seemed to be going along just fine...then, at the eleventh hour, just as we'd started to write the new material, his office called and said that he'd changed his mind, that he didn't feel he was right for the project...So - panic. What'll we do? We decided to go ahead and continue writing and in the meantime contact a few other producers, to see if they were interested. It was tough, but eventually Peter Henderson took up the gauntlet. We met up and, I don't know, he just said all the right things...we talked and felt real comfortable with him. We just clicked...The Sound on this LP, I think, is denser and more aggressive than our last couple of records. That's what we needed. The balance of power has shifted once again. Neil's writing some excellent, astonishingly straight-forward lyrics now. I think we've got the essence back togethcr for this new record...Where you work as long on a project as we did on 'Grace Under Pressure'...it's like giving birth. We started on the album in August last year and worked through until the middle of March '84, with very few serious breaks. That took a great deal out of us, both emotionally and physically. It was a very difficult project, the difficulty compounded by the confusion and uncertainty over producers...but, by the same token, at the end of the day, it was enormously enjoyable and satisfying...So - 'Grace Under Pressure' was the most important thing in our lives for a long period of time. In their haste to condemn us, I'm not sure if people always understand that...'Grace Under Pressure'? Yeah, it is pretty apt, isn't it?"
Geddy Lee says: "We've just tried to sharpen the focus a bit...We as a band are torn because we're a performing band. We sit here and go 'Well, we like the way the Tears for Fears album sounds. It would be nice to get a similar sound on Rush records.' But after analyzing an album like that, we realize it was made with a machine that only sounds like it hits a drum on every beat. There are no other drums. No wonder all the synthesizers sound so clear - there's no guitar, or at least none that anyone's hitting with any kind of fervor...It's a different animal. We try to apply some of these things to Rush, but we have a drummer with the largest drum kit ever created. The guy likes to use everything, every overhead cymbal. So all of a sudden, you have this whole range of ferocity coming through in an area where these other bands and albums don't have anything. 'And now, here's Alex Lifeson, lead guitar player.' He's not content to have a sound that's not emotional, that doesn't move him. To try and get that soul with all this new technology and crystal clarity is a tall order. That's what we've been chasing. Making 'Grace Under Pressure', we realized part of that is just not meant to be."
The sessions were produced by Rush and Peter Henderson at Le Studio in Quebec with Geddy Lee on bass guitars, synthesizers, and vocals; Alex Lifeson on guitars and synthesizers; and Neil Peart on drums, percussion, and electronic percussion. After two consecutive number albums in their native Canada, 'Moving Pictures' and 'Signals') 'Grace Under Pressure' peaked at number four. It also charted at forty-three in Germany, twenty-seven in the Netherlands, eighteen in Sweden, fourteen in Finland, ten in the US, and five in the UK.
http://www.rush.com/
'The Body Electric'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Dju2i4FZw
'Distant Early Warning'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrDj5XvZXX4
'Red Sector A'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzXDi_f9PUY
'Afterimage'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aalJT3GS_m8
'Grace Under Pressure'
full album:
1. "Distant Early Warning" 4:56
2. "Afterimage" 5:04
3. "Red Sector A" 5:10
4. "The Enemy Within" (Part I of Fear) 4:33
5. "The Body Electric" 5:00
6. "Kid Gloves" 4:18
7. "Red Lenses" 4:42
8. "Between the Wheels" 5:44
live:
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