Rush

[bgmnts]

Why don't they have a wider audience? Is it just the steretype of greasy nerds that like progressive rock and the only songs are about elves and wizards?

It boggles my mind, they are technically and lyrically one of the best bands in history in my personal opinion.


Is it just a progressive rock thing? If so, why are Pink Floyd so popular?

Or are they just a bit crap and my love is misguided?

Is anyone even interested?

[ASFTSN]

I don't have time to write a proper reply but you are not alone, I love Rush.

It's possible we are the only two on this board though, even the prog-heads seem to hate them.

I wouldn't say they've exactly struggled for audiences though?  Perhaps not as popular in the UK as elsewhere but they still draw huge crowds.

I have never seen them live but unfortunately Geddy's voice sounds a bit yelping now so maybe it's too late to do so...

[wasp_f15ting]

I keep hearing about Rush in whats in your bag show on youtube.
For a newbie which albums should I buy?

Cheers

[Neville Chamberlain]

I like the track Tom Sawyer, I'll give 'em that.

[bgmnts]

I don't have time to write a proper reply but you are not alone, I love Rush.

It's possible we are the only two on this board though, even the prog-heads seem to hate them.

I wouldn't say they've exactly struggled for audiences though?  Perhaps not as popular in the UK as elsewhere but they still draw huge crowds.

I have never seen them live but unfortunately Geddy's voice sounds a bit yelping now so maybe it's too late to do so...

Missed my chance to see them in Brum on the Clockwork Angels tour. Thought that was their last tour in UK?


And yes quite, they bave a rabid fanbase and just being around for long they will have accrued a big audience in that crowd but it isnt very varied and they are very unknown outside of that insular circle. I just always wonder why.

[bgmnts]

I keep hearing about Rush in whats in your bag show on youtube.
For a newbie which albums should I buy?

Cheers

2112, Caress of Steel, Moving Pictures and Hemispheres are my go-to albums. Moving Pictures probably the most radio friendly.

[ASFTSN]

^ I am going to respectfully add Signals to that list.  It's one of their most all-out synth poppy but every song is gold to me.

2112 gets recommended a lot for the incredible title track but I don't think side 2 is much cop personally.

[bgmnts]

^ I am going to respectfully add Signals to that list.  It's one of their most all-out synth poppy but every song is gold to me.

2112 gets recommended a lot for the incredible title track but I don't think side 2 is much cop personally.

Yes agreed if you like synth you will like Signals good shout.

I do suggest 2112 purely for the title track as its one of the best pieces of music ever written in my opinion but I would also argue Twilight Zone is a great track.

[greenman]

More listenable than a lot of prog but I get the sense its always on the verge of being interrupted by...

[sevendaughters]

have heard in tourvan pretty much every Rush album, our drummer adores them, and while they represent the more acceptable end of his cataclysmically awful taste in music (multiple Frank Zappa sidemen solo projects, err, no thanks!) I just can't really express how much I don't like them outside of the stuff that sounds like a slightly fancy take on 70s rock. I can live with A Farewell To Kings. What's that one I really hate? Power Windows? By christ. Phenomenal players all but no taste or discipline.

[grassbath]

Is it just a progressive rock thing? If so, why are Pink Floyd so popular?

Pink Floyd build gloomy, downbeat atmospheres over simple rhythms and sing about politics and mental illness.

Rush play complicated rhythms, sound 'triumphant' at all times (based on the two albums I've heard) and have a wizardy-looking singer with a high voice.

Not knocking Rush, brilliant musicians as noted upthread - there just seems to be a clear divide between 'acceptable' and 'nerdy' progressive rock. The rhythmic complexity seems to contribute a lot.

[QDRPHNC]

They're a Canadian institution here.

Here in Canada.

[Rocket Surgery]

They are shit though, aren't they?

Bloody hell.

[Famous Mortimer]

The one decent radio station in St Louis is classic rock, and they play Rush a fair bit. I've grown to like "Subdivisions" quite a bit, and it's always nice when they pop up on "Trailer Park Boys". Still don't like most of their stuff, mind. But...I never got on with them due to their love for Ayn Rand and hatred of socialism. There's an old interview where they happily defend that nonsense and show you should, perhaps, not get your philosophical beliefs from musicians.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/13/rush-nme-interview-1978-rocks-backpages

I know they've walked some of this back in recent years, but still.

[magval]

Rush are class.

My only two caveats are that I don't care much for the nostalgic appreciation that spread into American cinema for a few years about a decade ago and seeped into the band's live videos (like the shots of the guys air-drumming to Tom Sawyer on the Cleveland DVD - show me the fuckin drummer!). Aye, and 2, they have almost as many shite albums as the good ones, but the good ones are GREAT. Avoid Test for Echo and most of the 80s and you'll be grand. Ones with a worse rep than deserved are the debut and the original LOUD mix of 2002's Vapor Trails, which has a coarse power lacking from the later remix (which, to be fair, serves the nuanced playing far more appropriately).

They're three of the absolute best in class when it comes to musicianship. As a drummer meself, I reckon it says a lot about Rush that I spend most of my time listening to them air-jamming to Geddy Lee's bass lines despite the fact that Neil Peart is right fucking there, like.

Fly by Night is the easiest album to point to if you want something easily accessible that contains all the Rush elements before big-sales corruption set in (Moving Pictures is great but suffers a little from this - the fuck is "Vital Signs" playing at?) Fly by Night has straightforward rock songs, passages of muso-friendly jamming, and lyrics about wanting to be better and celebrating achievement. And Lord of the Rings.

Way til listen til Rush, good thread lads.

[Shaky]

Excellent band. Amazingly, their final album Clockwork Angels is well up there in their discography. Their heaviest work too. I avoided the 80's stuff like the plague until very recently but Signals and Power Windows are both excellent, even if (or because) the latter sounds likes Huey Lewis and the News at times. Big Money is cheese personified but those synths and that burbling bassline, holy shit.

And yeah... re the Ayn Rand stuff, two thirds of the band have/had little to no truck with that and Peart has called it a phase he was going through at the time. A cursory listen to lyrics and interviews in the decades since then reveals them to be very liberal chaps all in all.

[ASFTSN]

Still don't like most of their stuff, mind. But...I never got on with them due to their love for Ayn Rand and hatred of socialism.

Apart from "The Trees" I can't think of any of their lyrics that are overt about that, maybe I have missed some.

The lyrics to "Losing It" are what comes to mind when I think of Rush lyrics anyway. :(

[bgmnts]

Apart from "The Trees" I can't think of any of their lyrics that are overt about that, maybe I have missed some.

The lyrics to "Losing It" are what comes to mind when I think of Rush lyrics anyway. :(

Anthem definitely.

But its a phase. We surely all had a libertarian phase as teens or adults (it was a scary week for me) but most of their political songs are quite leftist from my interpretation.

Its not all lord of the rings and cyberwizards.

[ASFTSN]

Anthem definitely.

Oh yeah. Still, if those lyrics were in a Motorhead song ala "Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down", I'm not sure anyone would bat an eyelid.

[Endicott]

And of course, most of the track '2112' (re ayn rand) - I'm glad to hear it was a phase.

Moving Pictures was a disappointment for me (apart form Tom Sawyer), and so I haven't paid any attention to them since that LP came out in 1981. Mostly because my taste was evolving in to other directions at the time.

I'd add 1980's Permanent Waves as a very good LP to check out. That and Caress of Steel probably my favourites.

Lakeside park

and of course, perfect for CaB

I think I'm going bald

[Endicott]

Awsome. Thanks for the reminder.

Here Again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SojuN3Dg9Yc

[the hum]

I was almost singularly obsessed with Rush from my late teens until sometime in my mid twenties. Got to see them at the Glasgow SECC in 2004 on their 30th Anniversary tour. My interest began to dwindle sometime around or after Snakes and Arrows as I began to realise that their latter output, while still pretty good, had become quite samey.

Their best spell from me is around 77-85, the seven albums book-ended by Farewell to Kings and Power Windows. Yes there's good stuff to be found outside of that era, but not to the consistently same creative standard. There's a pretty remarkable constant evolution in their sound during this period, and a definite sense of a band trying to reinvent itself with every album. I can sort of see why people might diss Power Windows - it's very VERY eighties, but I'd say it's one of their pivotal albums. Hook-laden, concise, yet textually rich and rhythmically complex at the same time.