Rush, their self titled debut album is rather raw and derivative, although still quite an entertaining listen. It features original drummer John Rutsey who left soon after for various reasons, chief among them his diabetes and his dislike of touring. Bassist Geddy Lee had to write the lyrics at the last minute before recording as John had failed to come up with any, and, as a result they do sound rather, ahem, rushed. Most of the songs are inspired by the sort of bands Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson (guitarist) were listening to at the time (like most bands I suppose) but it’s all performed really well and you can tell the trio had a lot of potential. One track in particular, “Working Man” struck a chord with radio listeners in Cleveland, Ohio where the album sold rather well. And so, after the track listing we’ll get on to my first two choices of ships, and then onto some more thoughts on this fine debut!
No prizes for guessing what the first ship will be though.
- Finding My Way
- Need Some Love
- Take A Friend
- Here Again
- What You’re Doing
- In The Mood
- Before And After
- Working Man
Sidewinder
And so we have our first ship! Of course she would be the Sidewinder – it’s the first ship you start with. And so I’ve named her the “Finding My Way“. It’s a phenomenally useful little vessel. I’ll be using her until I can leave the Pilot’s Federation Permit area. Maybe later in the game I’ll engineer her to bits to see what she can really do.
Hauler
Next I bought a Hauler. The “Working Man” proved to be a wonderful wee ship and allowed me to run cargo and courier missions once I had left the beginner’s area. Really enjoyed using this vessel. She felt a little bit like a Reliant Robin van. Maybe I should paint it yellow and daub, “TROTTER’S INDEPENDENT TRADING COMPANY” on her. Maybe I should ask Frontier Developments if they could release that paint job? Once I’ve unlocked some engineers maybe I will unlock the exploration potential of this great little ship!
And, if you read on, you might just see…
“Yes, you think you’re all right
Rush – Take A Friend
But now you’re lonely every night
Well, you need a friend
Someone on whom you can always depend”
You know, every time I give this album a spin it surprises me how fresh and well performed it is. It is a must have LP in anyone’s casual Rush collection (if you can call any Rush fan casual – once you’re hooked, you’re hooked) It makes me wonder about just how different music history would have looked had John thrived under the Atlas like burden of touring rather than withered. I can’t blame the guy. I was a drummer too and, knowing what I know now about how gruelling touring as a young band would have been, all squashed together in a tiny van, instruments and all, I would never had coped. I think ten shows would have been my limit. Accounting school would have looked like a far more rewarding option.
They seemed to have been going in a glam rock direction at the time rather than prog, it would have been very interesting indeed! Would Rush have lasted as long as they did? Would “Fly By Night” have been as successful if John had still been drumming? By some accounts he wasn’t as into prog bands as Geddy and Alex were, and it was reflected in their writing of the second album.
Alex, at least stayed in touch with John until about the early 90’s. He had got into bodybuilding apparently, but since then Alex hadn’t heard from him. John died on May 11, 2008 from a suspected heart attack. A lot of credit has to go to him; his brother is credited with coming up with the band name in the first place, and he drove the band like no other in their early days. By all accounts he was really strict about practising, about being the best that they could be I suppose. Now, there’s another famous drummer with that ethic. It’s no surprise that he would replace John later on.
I think it’s fair to say that if it hadn’t been for John Rutsey, there would be no Rush.
Hauler Exobiology Vessel
“Well, I get up at seven, yeah
And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin’
Yes, I’m workin’ all the timeIt seems to me
Rush – Working Man
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that’s why they call me
They call me the workin’ man”
Well, I’ve finally managed to get back around to engineering the Working Man and I thought she might make a rather good Exobiology survey vessel. After engineering the FSD I’ve managed to get a rather good 35ly out of her. Now I could then go on to add a grade 3 Guardian FSD booster but with her limited slots it would mean either sacrificing a planetary vehicle hanger or a shield generator, and I really want both! And 30-35ly is plenty. Besides, the more systems I have to visit the better.
Shields have been engineered to grade 5 enhanced low power and stripped down. Thrusters have also been upgraded to grade 5 dirty with the drag experimental giving this little ship a whopping 660 m/s boost! I got Cmdr Leeya Geddy to take the ship out to the system where everything began – PLIO EURL KR-W d1-18a. My very first “First Discovered” system. I then plotted a course back to the Bubble, sent The Garden ahead and then plotted a course over the 499 ly back to my fleet carrier. The plan was to do this for the almost 2000ly (4 hops for the carrier) it would take to get back to inhabited space but it turned out I only really needed to do it once. So high is the payout for exobiology these days!
It didn’t take long before I began to realise that she was an extremely capable ship. She was able land almost anywhere, even on some of the most rocky terrain where most ships struggle to find anywhere to put down. She could get up really close to the specimens and it was effortless to land, disembark, scan, embark, take off and fly immediately to the closest viable specimen.
It fact, I almost regretted bringing an SRV. I didn’t really need it. It was quicker to just get back in the ship and fly to the next site. If it wasn’t for the fact that some species, such as tussock and fruxeta, are easier to spot from the ground than from the air. But even then its easier to spot them from a small ship like the hauler than it is from even an ASP explorer. Still, occasionally it was slightly more convenient to use the SRV.
There were, however, a few small drawbacks. Although they were rather minor ones. Occasionally the blue distribution patch for a species occupies a very small area of the planetary body and, being used to exploring in an ASP Ex I can just look straight up as I orbit the planet, waiting for the tiny blue patch to show itself. The canopy of the hauler only allows you to look straight ahead and a little to the sides, so both orbiting the body and keeping an eye out for the patch to show itself meant continuously looping towards the planet to look for said patch, then away and around a little, then back in to look again. A bit finnicky but not too bad.
The other thing you will have to watch when exploring around systems in a hauler is your fuel. A hauler has a small tank. I found that flying from body to body in a system, especially if I had neglected to fuel scoop in the previous couple of systems, uses up a far greater percentage of your fuel than I was used to. It was a good thing I had already filtered the galaxy map for fuel stars only on my route, If my next jump had been to a brown dwarf I might have needed to call back The Garden to refuel.
But those points are niggling ones. Ones that can be easily solved if you’re aware of them. The overall result is that the Hauler is an extremely fun craft to use for Exobiology expeditions. I only took her on a twenty seven jump trip, and when I turned the data back in at the carrier I was around 750,000,000 credits richer!
It’s rather annoying that a couldn’t get a screenshot of the actual amount as I got kicked out of my carrier’s Vista Genomics room the second I’d handed it in with a report stating that the service had immediately been suspended but I was still able to walk straight back in, Which was strange, and a little annoying but there we go!
There was a surprise instore for me once on my final jump back to the carrier. Three NSP’s (Notable Stellar Phenomena) just so happened to be sharing the system too. So, of course, off we went to investigate and, sure enough, Lagrange clouds containing living crystals! Such a lovely note to end the journey on!
Elite Dangerous RUSH FLEET 