The Rush appreciation thread

I received Chronicles (double CD) in '93 at my 15th birthday, already having borrowed moving pictures on cassette and taken it everywhere. So I started with the: Tom Sawyer - Red Barchetta - YYZ - Limelight pathway.. also I remember having listened to 'Where's my thing' with great interest before that. After that it was long hot summer afternoons on vacations listening to fly by night on a recorded cassette.

Then obviously I went to review all the 70's albums one by one and I ended up stationed there for good. When I listen to Rush, I look for Alex Lifeson distorted strumming (and solos obviously, but those perfectly tuned up, distorted strummings always fascinate me; I play guitar and I don't find it easy to make the electric guitar sound so neat strumming entire chords, or chords progressions like an acoustic guitar, with distortion), also his unusual power chords and arpeggiated transitions (ex. Anthem), his solos with that blessed wrist for the vibratos and all kinds of color with harmonics.    Geddy's screams and bass, and Neil Peart's (a hero) clockwork drumming; for me there's nothing like that. It fulfils all my musical power needs and I think with Yes is the progressive rock band that I have most consistently listened to through the years.

On that matter I can also remember a period when with friends it got into our heads to start loathing Geddy's voice.. now I find that ridiculous (no offense to anyone but me), but you know, perhaps is one of those 'acquired tastes'. Now I simply love Geddy's voice (screams I like most). Take for example 2112, Temple Of Syrinx.. after all that instrumental introduction he starts the song screaming at max!    Wow..     I was in a band called 'Jacob's Ladder'.. and we had fun playing some of the more "playable" Rush songs.. but when it came to singing them… there was our problem..   much later I reunited with another friend and put effort to play subdivisions and YYZ...   there I attempted some singing on subdivisions (plus the guitar) and there you can really appreciate Geddy's singing (screaming sometimes) and seemingly unrelated bass playing!   other-worldly.

That's also why I like best records like Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, and I suppose I'm a rock-driven progressive kind of fan (Close To The Edge, Hemispheres, Relayer, and Bruford era King Crimson) I like 'hard' progressive rock, that flows with momentum (I like the other kind also). In that sense Rush is not a beginning or 'introduction' to other bands, but an end on itself; it is for me the culminating point of hard rock with perfect musicianship, awesome and clever fantasy/sci-fi lyrics and perfectly employed bits of synthesizer. That's it!

I couldn't quite get there in terms of appreciation until I heard the Roll The Bones album. If that sounds like a joke it isn't. At the time prog was still in long term hibernation and I was just looking for a band that wrote songs that actually meant something. It was only then that I went back and gathered up the back releases. 

Moving Pictures remains a favourite album. The first four tracks are sheer perfection. Rush were the finest rock band ever in terms of tightness and just nailing the damn thing! But the lyrics of Neil are probably what elevates the music just that bit higher.

I was talking to a young lad at work yesterday and he was gutted to find out about Peart. We had a good natter but it also illustrates how this band were still making inroads into audiences much younger than them. A very special band that we will never see the like of again imo.

 

It's a never before released song by Rush though. You didn't say "no covers allowed."  In case you forgot they did a whole album of covers called "feedback."

Great pix, Catcher! 

Catcher10 wrote: All eras of Rush are excellent, that has nothing to do with being a fanatic but a lover of great music and the brilliance of change.

 

That's right.