I'm very disappointed with the current generation of hardcore Rush fans. Not only are they not pushing the price of 30-year-old triple gatefold import vinyl albums through the roof, but consider a rarity like this. Max Webster were the band (there was no Max, go figure) who supported Rush on many North American tours thirty years ago. They were friends of the more famous band, and their lyricist lent his talents to Tom Sawyer, one of Rush's finest moments. And on one track only the two bands wrote and played together. That track, Battle Scar, ends Side 1 of Universal Juveniles and led me to buy the album, on import, from some mail order establishment of questionable repute that advertised in the back pages of Sounds about 28 years ago. It's not available in the iTunes store. (As for the Borat-suit that Kim Mitchell is wearing on the cover, you probably can get something like that at your local fancy dress party shop.)
At the time I listened to it quite a few times — there was no space for purely trophy/vanity purchases in my collection at the time — and tried to persuade myself that it had its own quirky charm. The passage of time has blanked almost all memory of the songs, and there can be no pretending any more. Indeed I could not bring myself to get as far as dropping the needle on Side 2.
After all, the less I play, the better it retains its 'mint' condition, right? Well there's my beef. For MusicStack has copies of the same original Canadian 1980 pressing for less than the price of a beefburger. Living as I do in the neighbourhood of the "gourmet" burger, it's actually less than half the price… I'd have been better off buying Lloyds TSB shares — though, as luck would have it, I did that too.
 MusicBrainz entry for this albumWikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to none of this album at Last.fm |
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