Is Rush really a Prog band ?

But the scene started in the UK, so with all due respect what it was called in Germany is irrelevant. You talk about a sampler which included Rush amongst Heavy Rock bands as if that settles the whole matter when in reality you are conflating marketing of the band with the reality of their music. Again Rush were very popular with Heavy Rock fans but that doesn't mean that they were just a Heavy Rock band.     

Dean wrote: BaldFriede wrote: Tony R wrote: When did Deep Purple ever record anything like Hemispheres, 2112, Xanadu, Fountain Of Lamneth, Cygnus x-1, La Villa Strangiato, The Trees, Natural Science, Jacobs Ladder, The Camera Eye, Bytor & The Snow Dog? Compare and contrast Red Barchetta with Highway Star or Spirit Of Radio with Smoke On The Water... Some people continue to rewrite history and confuse "Prog Rock" with progressive music. Rush were Prog Rock, they were just harder edged than most. Even worse some people who weren't even 10 when Rush released A Farewell To Kings are lecturing us on what "certain people in the 70s were calling Prog and what they were calling Heavy Rock". How does that work? You behave as if kids are stupid. If a kid is interested in that kind of music (and I was via my brother, who is rten years older than I am) then they will quickly get a lot of knowledge aboiut it.. You should also read what I wrote more closely. I did explicitely mention that the term "progressive rock" was not used back then at all, at least not here. And if there was a TV-ad for a hard rock sampler which had Rush included (together with Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and some other which I don't recall) it appears to me that this was how Rush were regarded here, don't you agree? Once again, no-one used the name "progressive rock" in the 70s; this term came up years later. Oh, and just to make sure I checked back with my brother, and he perfectly agrees with me. And he,  as already said, is ten years older than I am. I also do not doubt that Rush are a prog band at all. I am not too fond of them, but that's another matter.  De gustibus non est disputandum. The term "Progressive Rock" was used extensively through-out the 1970s in the UK where the genre originated and even goes back as far as 1969 as this newsletter shows:

Slap me if you like (cos I've quoted this before) but I still chuckle at what's listed on Dean's poster for Monday 1st September - the ultimate drag act ladies and gentlemen, please welcome 'Closed !'
(It's probably just me)

Tony R wrote: But the scene started in the UK, so with all due respect what it was called in Germany is irrelevant. You talk about a sampler which included Rush amongst Heavy Rock bands as if that settles the whole matter when in reality you are conflating marketing of the band with the reality of their music. Again Rush were very popular with Heavy Rock fans but that doesn't mean that they were just a Heavy Rock band.

The scene did NOT start in the UK; that's just another myth. It started in Germany at the same time. The only difference is that German bands did not make any albums before 1969. But many important German bands already existed in 1967.
And at least in 1973 there were several different names that existed for what today is called "progressive rock".  Just take a look at the rock encyclopedia "Rock Dreams" with illustrations by Guy Peellaert, which came out in 1973, and you will find several different names for "progressive rock" in it.


Edited by BaldFriede - March 21 2010 at 09:32

Is a

5 words:

Rush are NOT a prog band.

For them to be a prog band, they'd have to write long concept songs, or stretch ideas across more than one album, or play in odd time signatures, or have a song called Rivendell...or...or...oh bugger!

Absolutely Rush is a prog rock band.

Edited by DaysBeforeTomorrow - March 23 2010 at 09:33

Are Rush prog? YES

Kashmir75 wrote: People like to forget the word 'rock' in the genre progressive rock, don't they? Rock is just as much a part of the prog genre as the 'prog' part is.  Didn't the very idea of prog rock start with the intention of stretching rock into new unheard of places? Rush did just that.

Well,  I am not going to dispute Rush's classification as prog, I have already expressed my dismay that this is even up for debate but in general, isn't stretching rock into new unheard of places what the first wave of prog rock bands did anyway?  If it's taken to unheard of places, it will not sound like what is GENERALLY known as rock music.  Stylistically, what Rush did is not much different from Blue Oyster Cult or Deep Purple in that sense, their progginess lies more in the approach to constructing songs like Jacob's Ladder.

Yes they are, enough said