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Ep 78: Making Greatness with Ed Robertson
PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago54 min listen
Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies joins us to talk about Rush! Need we say more?
Highlights
- Rush pinball machine features two hours of music including full first side of 2112, Cygnus X-1 Book 1 and Book 2
- Geddy Lee specifically requested La Villa Strangiato over YYZ after band members each selected 20 songs and found 15 in common
- Ed Robertson voices the Federation Pilot character on the Rush machine, using Terry Brown's original Neil Peart vocal settings
- John Borg had unusual luxury of time to design Rush due to COVID shutdowns, allowing extensive layout tweaking
- Ed Robertson has not yet physically played the Rush machine as of the podcast recording, though he has been involved in every creative decision
- Rush and Geddy Lee required Ed Robertson's involvement as creative director as a condition of licensing the machine to Stern
- Lyman Sheets was an enormous Rush fan who repeatedly encouraged Ed to 'make it awesome'
Notable quotes
“Lyman and I spoke pretty regularly, and we actually spoke at length about his mental health. And I tried to be a resource to Lyman.”
“I never really feel like I'm in a deep hole but it's really wide... feels like a crater that's only it's only up to my knees but it kind of goes to the horizon sometimes.”
“The intensity that he's given so many pinball fans, the variety of emotions from humor to stress to euphoria, he has been the architect of so much joy for so many people.”
“I wouldn't put a Metallica record on ever, but it's one of my favorite pinball machines. It's one of my top three games of all time.”
“I wanted the game to beat you up and frustrate you... you'll often have a repeatable ramp shot or an easy combo you can make but I want the game to beat you up and frustrate you.”
“They're not pinball guys... Getty said, no, La Villa Strangiato is a way better song.”
“It might be Borg's best layout, calling that one early.”
“If you try to reinvent the wheel too much you just end up with a brick fest... it's about combining ideas that work.”
Entities
- Stern Pinball· company
- Rush pinball machine· game
- Barenaked Ladies· organization
- Rush· organization
- Alex Lifeson· person
- Ed Robertson· person
- Gary Stern· person
- Geddy Lee· person
- Jody Dankberg· person
- John Borg· person
- Josh Roop· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- Lyman Sheets· person
- Nicole· person
- Penny Sheets· person
- Raymond Davidson· person
- Scott Larson· person
- Terry Brown· person
- Tim Sexton· person
- Zach Sharpe· person
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