Are RUSH actually Prog?

Is RUSH more prog than PF? Is KC the standard? Is YES the archetype?

How many progs is 1 prog, and whom has the most OF it...?

Actually, it was GABRIEL who invented the concept, by fooling around and playing Levin's bass strings with drumsticks in the studio once! 

I was actually paraphrasing Levin's own words from an old interview, i.e. Funk Fingers allowed him to emulate Squire's attack.  Thanks for the additional information!   

Saga's nowhere near as proggy as those other bands, though. Saga's first three albums are wonderful, like a hybrid of Yes and early Styx with a dual keyboardist format and an almost exclusive reliance on Moog synths. I mean they used just about every Moog that was available at the time: MiniMoog, MicroMoog, PolyMoog, MemoryMoog, Liberation, you name it. You can see them in the Silhouette concert footage. So if you're a Moog freak and you haven't heard Saga's first few albums (Saga, Images at Twilight, Silent Knight, Worlds Apart), give them a listen.

Saga transitioned away from complex arrangements during the recording of 1983's Heads or Tales. Behaviour and Wildest Dreams (which saw the exit of two key members) sound, er, worlds apart from what they'd done before — very FM friendly. But they never regained the momentum they had with Worlds Apart and they've never toured the US. After a few duds, they were back in form with 1999's Full Circle, an album I regard as one of their best. They resumed the "Chapters" and an approach closer to Silent Knight and Worlds Apart for the first time in years. The next few albums are really good!

A friend of mine went to bassist Jim Crichton's Van Nuys studio (before he moved back to Canada) and met the line-up that recorded Trust. They were all there, in the midst of recording! They let a few select fans stop by one afternoon. I was stuck far away at work and couldn't make it.

Too me, Rush were always more like Classic Rock--like The Who, Thin Lizzy, Queen, REO Speedwagon, 707, Loverboy, Journey, Foreigner, Boston, Ted Nugent/Damn Yankees, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi.

It's like John Mayer saying he doesn't like Jimmy Page's guitarwork because Page plays Gibson (Mayer is a "Strat guy").  The specificity of it can get quite ridiculous, he makes it sound like a Strat is a totally different instrument and not just a different make.

They are totally different in how they are used.  I play with both fingers (all five on both hands) and Herco plectrum, i.e. Squire, Strater and many others. 

Greg Lake said it best....he played round-wound strings with a plectrum to "emulate the lower notes of a piano."   A close listen to his music with ELP and KC bears this out. 

Squire was the master of the plectrum technique....during one part in "The Revealing Science of God," he plays a fretless Guild bass with a plectrum, and emulates the sound of an orchestra tympani drum, including its change of pitch.  Absolutely brilliant and haunting! 

When Tony Levin filled in for Squire in the ABWH project, he had to invent a way to duplicate Squire's staccato attack, so he invented what he called "funk fingers" - short drum-sticks that he held onto his fingertips with rubber bands, allow him to hammer onto the round-wound strings as rapidly as Squire could play with a pick! It was brilliant to watch him onstage with ABWH!  

BTW, Chris Squire and Stanley Clarke were huge fans of each other's techniques!!