Side B of 2112 is five songs that definitely exist. Maybe. I forgot two of them already. It's almost unavoidable that the back half of a record would be a little flat when the first half is an obvious idea dump like the 2112 suite. But nothing will explain the decision to record two limp attempts at out-of-genre radio hits and a song that is built around the patently racist "oriental riff" from Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting". Join us as we try to figure it out.
We still love Rush but sometimes it gets a little hard.
[NOTE: Hey! This is the second part of our discussion of 2112, so if you haven't listened to the prior episode about Side A of the record, you probably should. Mostly because several conversations in this episode pick up from discussions there, but also because Side B of 2112 is notorious for being not very good. If you only hear this part, you're probably going to think all three of us are giant grumpy assholes.]
This time around, we're joined by Party World Rasslin's Tim Faust as we embark on the first of a two-part excursion through Rush's fourth studio album, 2112. The entirety of side a of this record is one song, divided into seven parts, and is nothing if not ambitious in its scope. It's also worth noting that the album functions surprisingly well as fanfiction about Rush, by Rush.
The song (or "suite", depending on how many of your jackets have patches on the elbows) tells the story of our hero, Canadian Future Boy Gord, and his brave fight to re-introduce rock and roll to a future dystopia as he comes head-to-head with Father Tom and the Priests of Syrinx. Only some of that sentence is made up. Only like two words, really.
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