Rush and the Canadians

After living in Canada for almost 10 years, I can easily say that Rush is quite popular here.  I'm an avid vinyl collector/trader/etc. and Rush is always an easy sell and you can fetch a lot of $$$ for excellent copies.  All of the reissues are selling quite well also according to my "new vinyl" sources.

From what I've read, they're about as popular in Canada as they are in the US, which is a lot. When you mention prog to people who only know a little about it, Rush usually comes up, pretty much all across the Americas.

Born and raised in the Great White North less than an hour from the origins of  the band I can say with absolute confidence they are known...and highly thought of. It's a generational thing, but they are probbaly the most popular Canadian rock band after The Guess Who.

JD wrote: Born and raised in the Great White North less than an hour from the origins of  the band I can say with absolute confidence they are known...and highly thought of. It's a generational thing, but they are probbaly the most popular Canadian rock band after The Guess Who.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - December 06 2020 at 15:25

I can't say I'm familiar with how kids get exposed to music these days, but if they've spent any time listening to Canadian rock radio, they're bound to hear some Rush (as well as some other Canadian bands you rarely hear outside our borders). I went into the car of a younger university classmate (~20) and she was playing Permanent Waves from her phone, if that's any indication of what the average Canadian band geek these days might listen to.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Paul, you forgot Sarah McLachlan, Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette, Gordon Lightfoot, Shania Twain and Celine Dion. ;)

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: JD wrote: Born and raised in the Great White North less than an hour from the origins of  the band I can say with absolute confidence they are known...and highly thought of. It's a generational thing, but they are probbaly the most popular Canadian rock band after The Guess Who. I don't see how The Guess Who could be considered more popular than Rush in Canada especially if we are going by album sales. Maybe among people who are a bit older but over all I seriously doubt it.

I believe that Gordon Lightfoot is more popular than both The Guess Who and Rush in Canada.

verslibre wrote: Psychedelic Paul wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Paul, you forgot Sarah McLachlan, Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette, Gordon Lightfoot, Shania Twain and Celine Dion. ;)   That was just a list of Canadian bands - not solo artists.  What, no Crash Test Dummies, Platinum Blonde or Toronto?

I'm Canadian and I don't know how popular Rush is in Canada overall across various demographics. It has been a staple here on rock radio stations (especially classic rock ones) and I would expect that most middle aged men into rock music would be more than passingly familiar with music by Rush in Canada, especially if they also listen to rock radio stations (Tom Sawyer in particular has been a staple of rotation in Canada, and we can find Canadian content guidelines for Canadian media which leads to more Canadian content being played).

Rush is popular in Canada, at least. I don't think it's as iconic as, say, Neil Young (he's as iconic as Molson beer and much tastier), but well-known none-the-less.

I would not say that the Guess Who is bigger than Rush, but I would suspect that many more people would know the song "American Woman" than "Tom Sawyer", even if they didn't know who wrote the song (A.W. is a radio staple and been used in other media quite a lot). Some, I expect, will have confused the Canadian The Guess Who with the British The Who and Doctor Who (as well as Abbot and Costello's Who's on First etc.), and some will have confused the Canadian band Rush with the American conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh. My friends got into the band Rush at the same time that they got into Rush, the isobutyl nitrite product that they would sniff (please don't ever try this -- it can lead to even worse headaches than hearing Geddy Lee caterwaul, and is even worse for your health). ;)   Half-kidding there. But seriously kids, say no to Rush -- the popper I mean; the band is optional.

I don't want to not mention Canada (aka the Great White North) and Geddy Lee without referring to this:



By the way, when I was a teenager I got into Rush (that was in the 80s), but mostly lost interest in the band subsequently. It did seem to mostly appeal to the stoners and auto mechanics crowd at my school (not that I was into auto mechanics). I mostly appreciate the Quebec (Francophone) Prog scene.

The Tragically Hip is another Canadian band that is a lot bigger up here than most places.  The lead singer passed away not too long ago.