2112

In '76, the last thing I was listening to was Rush. I had been through Yes, ELP, Genesis, KC and who knows. In fact, fusion was the thing for me then. My metal/hardrock years were well behind me by then, even Zeppelin and Deep Purple was getting very little notice from me.

This ended up being the first Rush album I ever listened to in it's entirety, and that was 2 years after it's release in '78 when I was in college! The first words out of my mouth were crap! Amatuerish attempt to be some sophisticated "arty" metal band band borrowing heavily from Yes and Zeppelin. The lyrics were laughable, not to mention cartoonish. Come on, a guy in the future finds an ancient guitar and thinks he can change the world and when he doesn't, he kills himself! Ho-ho! The rest is nothing but filler.

Well, after re-visiting this album after few gray hairs growing and guess what? It's still crap! I can't believe some people still worship this album! The production is thin, Peart's drums have no kick at all. I still crackup over his lyrics, thank God he matured later on Permanent Waves when I really started to pay attention to these guys. But after being exposed to Close to the Edge, Relayer, Brain Salad Surgery, Hamburger Concerto etc. in '78, this album was pretty hard to swallow! Especially trying to swallow a beer and listening to this dribble without laughing.

Sorry Rush fans, but these guys at this time were still seeking and not doing a very good job of it. Just ripping-off other artists before and current. But I will go far to say that there was something there in terms of shear musicianship. Yes as a drummer myself, Neil's drumming did raise my eyebrows a bit. But not to the likes of Billy Cobham, who I still think he can blow the skins off of Neil to this day!

Fortunately for Rush, they did catch on to a lot of current trends later and adapted them into their music later on and FINALLY make a sound of their own.

Unfortunately 2112 is NOT a good example of this. Just too early for this old fart! 2 stars and that's the best I can do. 'Nuff said!