This Nation’s Saving Grace - You didn’t even mention Brix–I thought this was supposed to be the “Brixiest” of all their albums. Pretty good all the way through, can’t imagine not having the bonus tracks on disc. Easily my favorite album by them out of the seven or so that I heard, I’m not really a fan. I put the rest of their discography aside and didn’t bother to hear anything after 1985; the other albums I mostly just preferred to dig through and pick out whatever songs I liked and move on.

Muswell Hillbillies - Mmmm…Ray was 27, not 20, when this album came out (maybe 26), but I think the political sentiments on the album came from the heart and don’t sound like he didn’t know what he was talking about, nor did he seem youthfully naive. This was after all their tenth album; it’s easy to forget that bands from the 60s could be “grizzled veterans” before they were 30 (cough Clapton cough.) It’s a fairly good album; I probably underrated it at first because now it really shines after hearing all those godawful albums they did from 1973 onwards, Schoolboys In Disgrace excepted. I think the best two songs are “Oklahoma USA” and “Muswell Hillbilly” and I think it’s sort of the point that Ray didn’t have a particularly great grasp of American geography or culture or anything like that; he’s offering up a fantasy that probably got sneered at back in the day anyway, did it not? I mean, Oklahoma USA is fiftieth in education, and probably going to get even worse now that they’re going to force you to read the Bible or whatever the fuck it is they’re doing down there.

All The World’s A Stage - I can’t even remember if I listened to this or not. The live Rush I’ve listened to the most is their latter day version of “The Garden,” the Show Of Hands version of “Red Sector A” and Different Stages. I’m 43 BTW.