55 Years of Rock's Most Powerful Trio a360 Media Specials - March 6th, 2023 |
By any measure, Rush are one of the greatest
rock bands of all time. Their music is
uncompromising and unapologetic, their
technical skill top-tier and their longevity
rarely matched. Their fan base is a vast,
loyal and still-growing collection of enlightened
souls who prefer to lead rather than follow.
Since their formation in 1968, Rush refused to
adhere to whatever hit-making formula happened to
be in vogue at any particular moment. Instead, they
blazed their own path forward—a creative journey
that resulted in epic masterpieces with cryptic
lyrics inspired by Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead,
undanceable odd-time signatures that obscured the
beat, and solos that led to a well-earned reputation
as musicians’ musicians.
Bands including The Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica,
Rage Against the Machine and Foo Fighters all cite
Rush as a major infl uence. Critics, however, were
often stingy when it came to showing respect. In
a 1980 review of Rush live in Los Angeles, Rolling
Stone writer Steve Pond smirked: “For the record,
those three are drummer Neil Peart, who writes all
the band’s lyrics and takes fewer solos than might
be expected; guitarist Alex Lifeson, whose mile-aminute
buzzing is more numbing than exciting; and
bassist, keyboardist and singer Geddy Lee, whose
amazingly high-pitched wailing often sounds like Mr.
Bill singing heavy metal. If only Mr. Sluggo had been
on hand to give these guys a couple good whacks…”
While Rush were being dismissed by music tastemakers,
so were many of their fans—by society
in general. But out of this unfair marginalization
a powerful bond was formed. Rush spoke for the
under-represented in rock—the marginalized, the
intelligent and the “uncool.”
It was decades before the tide turned. In 2001,
RushCon—an annual gathering of Rush afi cionados
worldwide—was created as a space where fans could
bond. In 2013, the band was fi nally chosen to join the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, ironically by many of the
same “experts” who spent years putting them down.
What changed? Nobody knows and no one cares.
Perhaps the answer is simply an undeniable realization:
There was never anything “wrong” with Rush.
The only explanation for why some people refused
to give them their due was that there was something
wrong with them.
For Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, hearing songs recorded by musicians with backgrounds they could relate to helped shape their vision of what they could achieve by pursuing music.
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson started making music together at Fisherville
Junior High School in Toronto. “We were kids
then, but we had conviction,” Lee told Hit Parader
in 1986. “We went through different periods.
There was the Cream period, the Bluesbreakers
period, the Who period. But we always tried to do
originals to put everything we had into the music.”
For a Canadian act, the journey from formation
to fame wasn’t vastly different from what performers
went through in the United States. But it wasn’t
exactly the same, either. The path forward started,
of course, with talent. Canada had more than its
share, going back to the late 1950s. When rock ’n’ roll
was still shaking off naysayers who thought it might
be a short-term fad, Arkansas-born singer Ronnie
Hawkins and the Hawks—including teenage
drummer and vocalist Levon Helm—ventured
north to play clubs in 1958. The Canadian teens
they recruited to join the Hawks included Rick
Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Robbie
Robertson, all of whom eventually left Hawkins to
back up Bob Dylan in America after he infamously
decided to “go electric” in 1965. From there, they
stayed in the States and made their own name,
calling themselves simply, the Band.
Joni Mitchell was born in Fort Macleod, Alberta,
Canada, and started her career playing folk music
in Calgary as well as Toronto. In 1965, she moved to
the United States and began a decades-long career
that crowned her music royalty with nine Grammy
Awards. Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue, is considered to
be among the best of all time.
“As a young Canadian, I was very aware of Canada’s
folk legacy,” Lee told music and pop culture website
The Quietus in 2021. “Of course, Joni Mitchell loosely
falls into that broad category, although her music is
impossible to pigeonhole, really. Even as far back as
Blue, you could hear traces of jazz…oh, all sorts of
things. Everybody seemed to have this album.”
Arguably as iconic, Toronto-born Neil Young was
another native Canadian who achieved superstardom
after migrating to the States. Dubbed the “Godfather
of Grunge,” Young had a big influence on the sound of
the Seattle bands, including Nirvana and Pearl Jam,
who came to define the music of the ’90s.
Singer David Clayton-Thomas was born in England
and raised in Toronto. After moving to New York, he
joined Blood, Sweat & Tears. The band’s self-titled
second album sold 10 million copies worldwide and
won two Grammy Awards—including 1969 Album of
the Year, beating out the Beatles’ Abbey Road.
John Kay was born in Germany before moving
to Toronto with his mother and stepfather. After
making his way to the U.S., he founded Steppenwolf,
a very successful late ’60s band that sold more than
25 million records worldwide on the strength of hits
including “Born to Be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride.”
But not every Canadian musician needed to move
to America to find success. Born in Orillia, Ontario,
Gordon Lightfoot kept Canada as his home base
and became one of its most prolific songwriters. His
catalog has been covered by acts around the world.
Winnipeg’s The Guess Who also stayed home and
were able to generate international hits like
“American Woman” and “These Eyes.”
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson heard songs by musicians
with backgrounds they could relate to, which
helped shape their ideas of what they could achieve
by pursuing music. Lifeson, in particular, was taken
with the top 10 hit “For What It’s Worth,” by the
American-Canadian band Buffalo Springfield, which
included Neil Young. “The first rock song that had
a big influence on me,” Lifeson told Guitar World of
the song in 2006. “I remember hearing it on the radio
in my dad’s car when I was a kid…. This is still one of
my all-time favorite songs.”
Early on, Rush tried to follow similar paths—not
necessarily musical ones but ones to build a sustainable
career in the industry. But, even as a Canadian
band in Canada, they struggled to break through.
“lt was frustrating. We were turned down by all the
Canadian recording companies,” Lee told Graham
Hicks of the Brandon Sun in 1976. “We tried to hitch
up on cross-Canada tours with major groups but
were always being told that Rush had no commercial
potential—that was their favorite phrase.”
Although the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
mandated that radio stations play a minimum percentage
of content from national acts, it was virtually
impossible to get any airplay on Canadian radio
unless a song sounded like it might become a hit.
In the beginning, Rush were told over and over
again that their music did not hold such promise.
The first song recorded by the band to get significant
airtime didn’t even break in Canada. Instead, it all
started happening for Rush in a magical, distant land
sitting on the southern shores of Lake Erie—a place
called Cleveland, Ohio.
“I met Geddy when were 13 years old, in our fi rst year in junior high school,” Lifeson said. “We were aliens in a class of conformity, and we became best friends.”
Before starting a career that would end up spanning more than five decades
with more than 40 million records sold worldwide,
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were boyhood pals
living in the Toronto neighborhood of Willowdale.
They shared a love of music, the experience of
being raised in immigrant households and the
harsh realities of not feeling “cool.”
Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib) was, in his words, a
“nebbish” kid, who faced the constant threat of getting
beat up for being one of the neighborhood’s few
Jewish families. Lee’s parents, Morris Weinrib and
Mary “Manya” Rubinstein, were Holocaust survivors
who immigrated to Canada after World War II, arriving
with $10 in their pockets. Lifeson (born Aleksandar
Živojinović) had a similar family experience. His
parents, Nenad and Melanija Živojinović, were
Serbian immigrants who emigrated from Yugoslavia
and met in Canada.
The lingering traumas of the war were close at hand
in both families. Lee and Lifeson understood and
respected what their parents had gone through—but
sometimes, it was all too much for the teenage boys,
who simply wanted to enjoy the more stable life
their parents had sacrificed to give them.
“We connected and we bonded,” Lifeson told
RollingStone.com in 2015. “In grade nine, for example,
in a class of 30 kids…we were not friends with anybody
in that class except the two of us. So we were
outsiders, but not in that sense of being ostracized or
shut out or something. We just kind of hung out, and
we felt like everybody else was a jerk. We were doing
our own thing, and we had the bond of music.”
Soon after they met, Lee and Lifeson got their first
guitars and put all their focus on making music. “I
was about 12 and I was hanging out with a bunch
of guys, listening to the Yardbirds,” Lee told Hit
Parader in September 1986. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t
it be neat to make some music?’ I figured out how to
play ‘For Your Love’ on guitar.” Later, Lee switched
instruments from guitar to bass.
Although Lifeson and Lee jammed together often,
in the early days they played in different bands.
Lifeson formed his first band, the Projection, in the
spring of 1968 with drummer John Rutsey and bassist
Gary Cooper, who lived next door to him. That
project evaporated after only a couple of months,
but in August of that year, Lifeson and Rutsey
started a new band with bassist-vocalist Jeff Jones
and, at the suggestion of Rutsey’s brother Bill, took
on the band name Rush.
Next came their first gig: a Friday night in
September 1968, at a place called the Coff-In,
which was set up in the basement of St. Theodore
of Canterbury Anglican Church. The following week
they had another show at the Coff-In, but shortly
before the show, Jones had to bail.
Needing a replacement on short notice, Lifeson
called Lee to cover the gig on bass and lead vocals.
Playing in front of a few dozen people, amplified
by a mic taped to a floor lamp, the band members
earned $10—but they were excited. They used
that money to go to Pancer’s deli afterwards, where
they officially decided to replace Jones with Lee.
Over sandwiches, they made plans to dominate the
world with rock.
Later that year, Lifeson invited keyboardist Lindy
Young to join. But just as the band was starting to
gain traction, Rutsey turned on Lee and got him
fired. Joe Perna was added and the name Rush was
dropped in favor of Hadrian. Lee founded his own
group: Ogilvie, later to be renamed Judd.
Ray Danniels, a fellow teenager, often attended
the Coff-In shows and became Hadrian’s manager.
He booked gigs for the band at local dances. In
addition, he also booked shows for Judd. By September
1969, both Hadrian and Judd had fallen apart.
Rutsey later reached out to Lee to patch things up,
which led to a reformation of Rush.
In this era, the band’s sound was most often
compared with Led Zeppelin. Rush became so popular—
and since Canada had lowered the drinking age
from 21 to 18 in 1971—they found work in clubs up to
500 miles away from home. Except for a few months
in early ’71 when Mitch Bossi was added as a second
guitarist, the lineup was Lifeson (guitar), Lee (bass
and lead vocals) and Rutsey (drums). Rush were a
trio, but not yet the “power trio” that would make
their improbable childhood dreams come true.
CREAM
Consisting of guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack
Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker—all of whom took
turns sharing vocal duties—Cream was a groundbreaking
power trio that melded blues, psychedelia
and hard-rock styles. Geddy Lee learned to play bass
by emulating Bruce’s bass lines, which he found
captivating because they were very active and took
the instrument beyond its conventional role as
background support.
JOHN MAYALL & THE BLUESBREAKERS
While they never had a mainstream hit in the U.S.,
the Bluesbreakers are considered one of rock’s most
influential bands. Many of the most important blues
rock musicians—including guitarists Eric Clapton,
Peter Green and Mick Taylor, in addition to drummer
Mick Fleetwood—had stints with John Mayall.
The band’s “Snowy Wood” was one of the first songs
Rush played in front of an audience.
JIMI HENDRIX
Hendrix rewrote the book on guitar playing
and is indisputably one of the most influential
guitarists of all time. Alex Lifeson was turned
on to Hendrix by original Rush drummer John
Rutsey, and he was immediately blown away. The
band has covered Hendrix songs such as “Purple
Haze” and “Foxey Lady,” but it added its own
unique spin to the arrangements.
Lifeson is shown here in October 1979, while recording Rush’s Permanent Waves album at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec. Le Studio was designed to serve as a temporary residence for artists using the space.
Alex Lifeson was born Aleksandar Živojinović on Aug. 27, 1953,
in Fernie, British Columbia, to Nenad and Melanija
Živojinović. After Nenad, a miner, hurt his back, they
moved to Toronto, where Lifeson’s love affair with
music began. Upon receiving a Kent classical guitar
for Christmas when he was 12, Lifeson learned to
play by ear, emulating what he heard on the radio. He
later got a Canora electric that he painted to look like
Eric Clapton’s psychedelic “The Fool” SG. Clapton,
along with other founding fathers of blues rock such
as Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, were Lifeson’s guitar
heroes. Page was a particularly strong influence.
“His style was very much what I wanted to achieve,
and for a long time I copied his riffs—played the
same sorts of things, went for the same sounds and
the same vibrato,” Lifeson told Guitar Player in 1980.
Later, Lifeson listened to Steve Howe of Yes and
virtuoso jazz/fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth,
which opened the floodgates for the more experimental
side of his playing. Holdsworth’s use of the
whammy bar was more saxophone-like and expressive
than the ubiquitous dive-bomb approach
to which many shredders defaulted with the bar in
hand. Lifeson also listened a great deal to classical
guitar masters like Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream
and Christopher Parkening.
Lifeson’s first professional-grade guitar was a 1968
Gibson ES-335, and Gibson guitars would play a big
role throughout his career. As a youngster, Lifeson
would go to Long & McQuade, Canada’s biggest
music store, every Saturday and play a Gibson
ES-335 or Les Paul for an hour, dreaming of the day
he could own one himself. Inevitably, he’d get kicked
out of the store every time. But week after week,
Lifeson would return to lust after these axes. Years
later, after Rush got their first record advance, they
went to Long & McQuade and Lifeson bought all the
Gibson guitars he had long dreamt of.
In his quest for creating the perfect instrument,
he later modified his Les Pauls, adding a Floyd-
Rose double locking tremolo system, piezo pickups
and stereo outputs to it. Gibson later released the
Custom Shop Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess, which
incorporated those features and retailed for close to
$7,000. Later, Epiphone, a sister company to Gibson,
released a more affordable import version for $899.
Lifeson would also add other string instruments
into his repertoire. On “Workin’ Them Angels,” he
pulled out both a mandolin and bouzouki. The latter
was attained while visiting a friend in Greece.
“When I was there, I bought one, and I would get
up every morning around 6 a.m., and sit on the edge
of this cliff with my feet literally dangling over,”
Lifeson recalled to Guitar Player in 2007. “I would
sit there with my coffee, strumming this bouzouki
and learning how to play it. These little fishing
boats would go by, and the fishermen would be
shouting and waving at me. It was awesome. So I
had to get it on [Snakes & Arrows, Rush’s 18th studio
album] somewhere.”
In the 1970s, Lifeson used a Gibson EDS-1275
double-neck (with a 12-string on top and a 6-string
on bottom) on songs such as “Xanadu” and “Something
for Nothing.” This instrument wasn’t one of his
main instruments but, perhaps because of its visual
flair, he was often seen in print with this guitar and it
unintentionally became a signature instrument.
“We were at a point when we were deciding
whether we wanted to add a fourth member to the
band to play keyboards or guitar, or whether we
were going to learn to use new instruments, which is
what we did do,” Lifeson told Guitar World in 1981.
“Geddy started using a Minimoog and I added the
double-neck. ‘Xanadu,’ which we were writing at the
time, was a perfect candidate for the 12-string in the
chorus, so I used the double-neck. I’ve used it on a
couple of songs in the studio but I only use it in one
song in the set, and I don’t particularly like playing
it. I guess I harbor ill will toward it because every
time I see a picture of me with a guitar, it’s the
double-neck!”
Now considered one of the most respected guitarists
in rock history, Lifeson finished third in a 2012
“greatest guitarists of all time” poll as voted on by
Guitar World readers. Eddie Van Halen was voted
No. 1 in that poll. What’s the difference between the
two? Van Halen’s style showcased his flashy pyrotechnical
approach to guitar playing, while Lifeson’s
is more focused on creating timeless minicompositions.
You’ll hear odd-meter phrases caressed with
effects such as delay, chorus and flanger, all crafted
to perfection.
“I’ve gotten away from trying to play as fast as I
can,” Lifeson told Guitar Player in 1984. “To me,
there is just no point to it anymore. I don’t enjoy
doing it or listening to it. I can’t listen to a record
like that. Eddie Van Halen, for instance: You can’t
say enough about what a superb guitarist he is, but
a whole Van Halen record of faster-than-lightning
guitar playing is too much. I’m impressed, but it
doesn’t have longevity to me, whereas the most
soul-wrenching kind of note, harmonic or melodic
solo passage that really moves and feels—that
lives forever.”
When the legal drinking age in Canada was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1971, Rush
graduated from playing basement venues to bars and
clubs. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson had just turned 18,
and this was a major turning point for the band.
“Rather than just playing one or two high schools
at the weekend, and maybe three or four gigs in the
course of a month,” Lifeson recalled in the 1984 book
Success Under Pressure, “we were playing six days a
week, with matinees on Saturdays—week after week
after week! We never stopped. You’d do a rotation:
play one club one week and then a series of others,
before ending up at the first one six weeks later.
There was never really a shortage of work and pretty
soon we made enough cash to go into the studios.”
Rush honed their chops on the Toronto scene,
with the band’s sound gradually shifting from its
blues-based origins to more hard rock. By the end
of 1973, the band had amassed a large fan following
as well—giving the members hope that if they made
a record, it would sell. First, they went to the studio
and recorded a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade
Away,” with an original, “You Can’t Fight It,” on the
B side. (The Buddy Holly cover was one of Rush’s
big hits in the bars, and their manager suggested it
be the band’s first single.) The recording was, in
Lee’s words, “really tinny,” yet it achieved some
success, reaching No. 88 on the Canadian RPM
Top Singles chart.
Rush secured their first big gig opening for the
New York Dolls at a Toronto concert hall, and they
blew away the headlining band. Despite the positive
momentum, record companies were reluctant to
sign Rush, deeming them unsellable in the commercial market. In 1974, Rush took matters into their
own hands and recorded their first album, Rush,
independently, budgeting things by spreading out
the recording, doing it here and there, then taking
a break for a month or two. They couldn’t get any
interest in Canada so they started their own label,
Moon Records. The release achieved modest success
by selling out the initial run of 3,500 copies.
Only when Rush hit the American market did
things really take off. And it all might not have
happened had Donna Halper, music director at
Cleveland rock station WMMS FM, not had an
ear for a good “bathroom track.”
Halper received the Rush album from Bob Roper,
of A&M Records of Canada who “didn’t normally
send me something he didn’t personally believe
in,” Halper recalled. “I put the album on my record
library turntable. I’d like to say I was immediately
impressed—I wasn’t, though. The single was ‘In the
Mood,’ and I just didn’t hear it for our station. But
there were some longer tracks, and we were an
album rocker, so I dropped the needle on a track
called ‘Working Man,’ and suddenly I understood
why Roper believed the band had potential.”
Running at more than seven minutes, “Working
Man” was the kind of cut a DJ could put on and
get enough time to hit the restroom. Furthermore,
Halper realized that it was a perfect, relatable song
for blue-collar Cleveland, which at the time was a
factory town. As Halper listened to the album more,
she recognized the potential others had overlooked.
“I took the record downstairs—my record library
and small office were upstairs; the studios were
downstairs—and walked in on Denny Sanders’
show,” she said. “Denny also had a good ear. I asked
him to listen to something, and he put the cut I
showed him—it was ‘Working Man’—on cue and
listened to it through his headphones. It didn’t take
long for him to have the same reaction I had. He
asked who the band was and where they were from.
I said I didn’t know much about them other than
that they were from Toronto.
“My love of Canadian music was a standing joke
at the station, but in this instance, Denny agreed
100% that this album deserved to be played now.
And he did play it. That is how I can say with certainty
that the first Rush song ever played in the U.S. was
‘Working Man’ because I was there, I handed it over
to Denny and he played it. Almost immediately, the
phones lit up with people asking when the new Led
Zeppelin album was coming out.”
America didn’t yet know Rush by name. But now,
with some positive momentum, things started falling
into place. Cliff Burnstein at Mercury Records
signed the band in June 1974—within eight hours of
hearing its album—giving it a $200,000 deal with a
$75,000 advance.
The band’s first U.S. tour was set to begin in August
1974, but just before the first show in Pittsburgh, John
Rutsey was ousted. Health concerns (Rutsey had
Type 1 diabetes) and differing musical direction were
the official reasons cited for his departure.
“He was a much more straight-ahead rock kind
of guy,” Lifeson recalled in the 2010 documentary
film Beyond the Lighted Stage. “He was more into
Bad Company, whereas Ged and I were more into
Yes and Genesis and Pink Floyd, and bands like
that. If we stayed on the Toronto local circuit we
probably would have stayed together, and that would
have been fine. But suddenly, things were turning
the page.”
The Prog Era (1974-81)
The arrival of drummer-lyricist Neil Peart in
1974 marked Rush’s shift from a blues-based,
hard-rock band to progressive-rock innovators.
Peart’s lyrics went far beyond common pop-rock
love themes. With Peart, a virtuoso drummer, in
the mix, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were able to
indulge in advanced musical explorations.
The Synth Era (1982-89)
Spanning the albums Signals, Grace Under
Pressure, Power Windows, Hold Your Fire and A
Show of Hands, this period was Rush at their most
polarizing for fans. The hard-rock aesthetic was
replaced by pop, new-wave and reggae sounds.
Songs were catchier and the keyboard overtook
the guitar. This era produced the band’s only U.S.
top 40 hit: “New World Man.”
The Guitar Era (1989 onward)
Presto, released in 1989, saw Rush bring the guitar
back to a much more prominent role. From that
album on, guitar and bass were used to write
songs, with keyboards employed only to add
color, as had been previously done on early Rush
recordings. By 1993’s Counterparts, with engineer
Kevin Shirley on board, the return to the heavy
and raw sounds of “classic Rush” was complete.
In an interview with RollingStone.com in 2015, Geddy Lee explained how he came to the instrument that made him famous.
“I had this attitude that nobody chooses to be a
bass player,” he said. “The rest of the band decides
that you’re gonna be the bass player—and that’s how
it was for me. I was playing guitar in a basement
band and our bass player’s mother wouldn’t let him
play in the band anymore, so we had no bass player.
So they all looked at me and said, ‘You play bass,’ I
said, ‘Well, I don’t have a bass.’ They said, ‘Well, go
ask your mother if she’ll lend you some money.’
“My mom loaned me 30 bucks. I worked it off
in her variety store on Saturdays and I bought my
Canora bass, and that’s how it started for me. And
then I fell in love with the idea of being a bass player
’cause nobody wanted to be a bass player.”
Born Gary Lee Weinrib on July 29, 1953, in Toronto’s
Willowdale neighborhood, Lee’s parents were both
Holocaust survivors. Morris Weinrib and Mary
“Manya” Rubinstein met in a Polish work camp
and later became imprisoned in Auschwitz. Morris
was then sent to Dachau and Mary to Bergen-Belsen.
After the war, they reunited and emigrated to Toronto.
Morris passed away early, at age 45, when his son
was only 12. He left behind Times Square Discount,
the store at which Mary worked to support Geddy,
his older sister and his younger brother. After his
father’s death, Lee was made to attend synagogue
every morning and evening, for 11 months and one
day, and he wasn’t permitted to listen to music. It
was a difficult sacrifice, because pop music was fast
becoming social currency with his friends. After the
mourning period was over, his mom gave him $50
to buy a guitar. Though he had dabbled with piano,
clarinet, trumpet and drums as a child, once he got
the guitar, he was immediately hooked.
“I was fortunate because I had this magnificent
obsession, when I was young I got into music,” Lee
said on the syndicated radio program Innerview in
February 1983. “It all of a sudden overwhelms your
life, so all your dreams are directed in that area. You
dream of being in a band first of all, you dream about
the kind of songs you want to write, about touring, the
whole lifestyle that comes along with being in a band
and being a musician.”
Lee joined Rush as their bassist-vocalist in 1968
when pal Alex Lifeson called him in a panic to fill in
for original bassist-vocalist Jeff Jones. The band’s set
consisted of a mix of blues-based originals and covers
of songs by John Mayall and Cream. Lee was very
familiar with this material. In his formative years,
after switching to bass, he played along with Cream
records, emulating bassist Jack Bruce’s very active
style, which filled up the holes in a power-trio format,
particularly during a guitar solo.
“You have to provide enough noise behind [the
lead guitarist] to keep it from sounding empty,” Lee
explained to Rolling Stone in 2020. “So it’s a license
to be a bit obnoxious, which I always appreciated as a
bass player.”
Other early influences included Pete Townshend
and Jeff Beck. Prog bands such as Yes and Jethro
Tull also played a role in shaping Rush’s sound, with
odd meter riffs later becoming a Rush staple.
“Originally it came from people like Genesis,” Lee
explained to Guitar for the Practicing Musician in
1984. “They used to do ‘Apocalypse’ in 9/8. Then we
started hearing things from the odd fusion band and
we just got clued in to it. For a while all we did was
think in odd meters—5’s and 7’s. We just started experimenting
and it was a great tool, because you’d figure
out some rock riff and think how abstract it would
sound to play it in 7. We fell in love with 7’s. It’s very
hard to find a Rush album that doesn’t have 7’s on it.
They’re all over the place, but why not? Most rock
albums are in 4, so why not use 7’s?”
As a vocalist, Lee had a very distinct style that often
employed the upper extremes of his three-octave
vocal range, making use of his signature falsetto.
Lee’s first Canora bass copy was replaced by a
Hagstrom, which he later traded for a 1968 Fender
Precision bass. After Rush got their first big advance,
Lee—inspired by Chris Squire of Yes—picked up a
Rickenbacker 4001. His Fender Precision bass was
then cut up into a teardrop shape, with a set of jazz
pickups added, and refinished to look like a 1957
Chevy. A 1972 Fender Jazz bass that he found at
a pawnshop for $200 later became his main stage
instrument throughout most of his career. Lee’s bass
collection has grown to include over 250 vintage
basses, which are documented in his book Geddy
Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass.
A white Corvette pulled up to Dalziel Equipment in St. Catharines on the south
shore of Lake Ontario, where co-owner Glen Peart’s
son Neil, the parts manager, was working behind the
counter. Corvettes coming to a farming-equipment
shop was rare, so the Pearts knew something was
up. Their intuition turned out to be right: Rush had
arrived to take Neil—who was drumming for a local
band called J.R. Flood—out to lunch, at which they
invited him to audition.
Neil was conflicted. He didn’t want to leave his
family’s business, especially as it entered the busy
season. But his father gave him his blessing to give it
a try. He could always come back—his job behind the
parts counter would wait for him.
Peart loaded up his mom’s Ford Pinto and went to
the audition. As he entered the room, Geddy Lee
and Alex Lifeson’s first impression was that the
short-haired Peart was kind of goofy-looking and
not cool enough to be in Rush. Once Peart started
playing, however, everyone was blown away.
“We had two or three drummers before Neil and
we had one after Neil,” Lee said in a February 1983
interview on a syndicated radio show. “After we
heard Neil play, there’s no one that can come after
the guy, you know? So, we were pretty convinced, at
least I was in my own mind, that Neil was definitely
the drummer for the band.”
They jammed on what eventually became “Anthem.”
Peart thought the audition was a disaster, feeling he
played a small fraction as well as he should have. But
the chemistry was undeniably right, and on Lee’s
21st birthday, July 29, 1974, Peart officially joined Rush.
Given just over two weeks to learn all of Rush’s
material for their Aug. 14 show at the Pittsburgh
Civic Arena, opening for Uriah Heep with special
guest Manfred Mann, Peart was thrown into the fire.
This was Rush’s first U.S. show, and the band played to a crowd of 11,000 people. During the year, Rush
played with acts like Blue Öyster Cult, Rory Gallagher
and KISS. By the end of 1974, Rush had sold
75,000 copies of their debut album, marking a very
successful year for the newly formed lineup.
In addition to his drumming prowess, Peart also
became Rush’s main lyricist, and his presence was
immediately felt on the band’s next recording, 1975’s
Fly by Night. An avid reader, Peart brought a widerange
of lyrical themes, influences and topics to the
band’s hard-driving sound. “Anthem” had words
inspired by the writer-philosopher Ayn Rand, and
the lyrics to “By-Tor and the Snow Dog,” consisting
of several parts and clocking in at almost nine
minutes, were like a novel. While record companies
were befuddled by the progressive musical direction
Rush were taking, the band won a Juno Award
for Most Promising Group of the Year. Their next
release, Caress of Steel, featured Rush’s first attempt
at a concept song with “The Fountain of Lamneth,” a
nearly 20-minute suite that took up an entire side of
the album, and “The Necromancer,” which clocked
in at over 12 minutes and saw the return of Prince
By-Tor. Unfortunately, Caress of Steel was a flop, and
the album’s tour, with its downgrade in venues and
crowds, was dubbed the Down the Tubes tour.
While the record company was putting pressure
on Rush to write more commercial material, the
power trio “would rather go down fighting than
make the kind of record they wanted us to make,”
Lee said in the 2010 documentary Beyond the Lighted
Stage. For their next album, 1976’s 2112, Rush doubled
down on their approach and defiantly
composed a seven-section, 20-minute-long title
track. This time they were vindicated, as 2112’s
theme of the individual against the masses resonated
with people and gained sales momentum through
word of mouth. Not only was 2112 the breakthrough
album that put Rush on the map, it gave them the
clout to freely pursue their creative vision.
A live album, All the World’s a Stage, followed.
Then Rush released A Farewell to Kings, which saw
the band expand its instrumental arsenal. Peart employed
chimes and orchestral and tubular bells while
Lee brought on a double-neck bass and bass-pedal
synthesizers. “We needed to expand our sound
because we felt constricted by the end of 2112,” Peart
told The Georgia Straight in September 1977. “We
knew we had to do something. The live album gave
us that time to make the necessary changes without
adding the obvious fourth man, which would have
been taking the easy way out.”
While the lead single, “Closer to the Heart,”
achieved moderate success, “Xanadu,” which
clocked in at over 11 minutes, kept Rush’s tradition
of epic prog tracks alive and well. The band’s next
release, 1978’s Hemispheres, took Rush’s penchant
for complexity to the extreme. Thematically and
structurally, the tracks were particularly ambitious
and demanding, even for Rush. The nine-minute
instrumental “La Villa Strangiato” reportedly took
more than 40 takes to pull off. Rush had planned
to record the track live in one take but it was such a
treacherous piece to navigate that after 11 days, they
gave up and recorded it in four parts.
As a reaction to Hemispheres’ overwhelming intensity,
Rush changed directions again, moving to a
simpler style with more new-wave and reggae influences.
This became 1980’s Permanent Waves, which
featured shorter, accessible songs including “The
Spirit of Radio” and “Freewill.” That was followed
by Moving Pictures, the band’s best-selling album in
the U.S., led by cuts “Limelight” and “YYZ,” as well as
Rush’s signature song “Tom Sawyer.” For many fans,
Moving Pictures represents Rush at their all-time best.
10. “SUBDIVISIONS”
The beginning of
Rush’s polarizing
synth era, which featured
more keyboards
and less guitars.
9. “LA VILLA STRANGIATO”
Recording was so
demanding that afterward
Rush opted to
write simpler material.
8. “THE TREES”
Inspired by Ayn Rand,
Neil Peart would later
say he evolved into
a “bleeding-heart
libertarian.”
7. “THE SPIRIT OF RADIO”
This jab at modern
radio ironically
became one of Rush’s
biggest radio hits.
6. “XANADU”
Despite many complex
sections, the 11-minute
song was recorded in
one take.
5. “RED BARCHETTA”
Inspired by Richard
Foster’s short story
“A Nice Morning
Drive,” it tells of a
future where cars
are banned.
4. “WORKING MAN”
The first Rush song
to be played in the
U.S., on Cleveland’s
WMMS-FM.
3. “LIMELIGHT”
Neal Peart was notoriously
private. This
song expresses the
strain of success.
2. “2112”
The record company
wanted commercial
material. Rush gave
them a 20-minute
epic.
1. “TOM SAWYER”
The definitive Rush
song, born when Neil
Peart added his magic
to Pye Dubois’ poem
“Louis the Lawyer.”
“There are those nights,” Peart once wrote, “when the three of us lock into a musical symbiosis that transcends our earthbound humanity and sweeps the audience into a momentary spell. That is the timeless magic of live performance.”
With unmatched skill, Neil Ellwood Peart is arguably the greatest rock
drummer of all time. He also served double duty as
Rush’s primary lyricist. Born on Sept. 12, 1952, in
Hamilton, Ontario, Peart started drum lessons at 13.
His early influences were Gene Krupa, Keith Moon,
John Bonham, Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell.
Peart’s formative years were primarily spent playing
in rock bands, but he also fell in love with R&B, particularly
the music of James Brown, Wilson Pickett
and Otis Redding—which helps explain the origin of
the occasional funk elements in Rush’s catalog.
“He sat down behind this kit and pummeled the
drums, and us,” Geddy Lee told The Guardian in
2018 when asked about Peart’s 1974 audition. “I’d
never heard a drummer like that, someone with that
power and dexterity. As far as I was concerned, he
was hired from the minute he started playing.”
Peart’s abilities went far beyond the level of most
rock drummers. His solos and fills showcased superhuman
technical abilities while being performed
with machine-like accuracy. “La Villa Strangiato,”
“Bravado,” “Xanadu,” “Tom Sawyer” and “YYZ”
contain some of Peart’s most impressive work.
The odd time signatures of Rush’s songs also made
the band a favorite among music aficionados. The
tricky thing with incorporating odd time signatures
is making them sound natural, as they can often
come off as forced or contrived. When it’s done right,
you might not even notice that a beat is missing or
added. Peart was so good at making odd meters flow
seamlessly that even jazz drummer Tony Williams
remarked about “Limelight” in a blindfold test: “This
is the first one that I’ve really liked. Even though it’s
a 7/4 here and goes into 3 over there, it feels really
relaxed. I get an emotional feeling from it.”
Just as over-the-top as his playing, Peart’s
mammoth signature drum setup consisted of more
than 30 pieces on a rotating riser. Additionally,
he also had electronic drums and a MIDI MalletKAT
percussion controller to manipulate samples of
marimba, xylophone and other instruments.
Peart was also a deep thinker and the published
author or co-author of seven nonfiction and sci-fi
books. He was anointed early with the sobriquet
“The Professor,” though Peart later clarified that the
nickname came about not because of his intellectual
prowess but rather because his demeanor was like
that of the character the Professor on Gilligan’s
Island. (Peart was also nicknamed “Bubba.”) Regardless,
as a lyricist, Peart was leagues above most,
and he never dumbed down his writing. He was a
well-read man who absorbed the writings of J.R.R.
Tolkien, John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John
Steinbeck and Ayn Rand—the controversial Objectivist
was, in particular, a major influence. Rush’s
“2112” was greatly inspired by Anthem, Rand’s 1930s
dystopian fiction novella.
Throughout his career, Peart earned a reputation
for being a recluse. In reality, he was simply a private
person who preferred to spend time with his family.
Shortly after the Test for Echo tour commenced, on
Aug. 10, 1997, a tragedy changed the course of
Peart’s life forever. His only child with his commonlaw
wife Jacqueline Taylor, 19-year-old Selena, was
headed for college, and Peart rode his motorcycle
part of the way, to guide her. Later that day, Selena’s
Jeep rolled over on Highway 401 near Brighton,
Ontario. She did not survive. Devastated, Neil
and Jacqueline left Quebec to escape everything
that reminded them of Selena. Jacqueline suffered
a breakdown.
“It soon became apparent that Jackie’s world
was completely shattered forever,” Peart wrote in
his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road.
“She had fallen to pieces, and she never came back
together again.” Jacqueline would pass away from
cancer a year later in Barbados (where the couple
had vacationed with Selena), though Peart
believed the cause of death was a broken heart.
The tragedies left Peart lost and, with his two
bandmates supporting their drummer, Rush took
a sabbatical. To try and find some form of healing,
Peart hopped on his motorcycle and embarked on
a 55,000-mile journey. His trip started from his
mountain home in Canada, which was his sanctuary,
went through Mexico, and concluded at the border
of Belize. He ate at diners and slept in motels along
the way and, to his delight, was rarely recognized.
Gradually, Peart’s life came back together.
Through Rush’s photographer Andrew McNaughton,
Peart met Carrie Nuttall and fell in love. They
married on Sept. 9, 2000, and in 2009, their daughter
Olivia was born. In January 2001, Rush started
playing again. It was a slow process as Peart started
regaining his chops. After 14 months, Rush released
Vapor Trails on May 14, 2002, and a comeback
was in full effect. At the conclusion of the first
show of the Vapor Trails tour in Hartford,
Connecticut, on June 28, 2002, all three members
hugged for 10 minutes.
Later, in 2015, Rush started the R40 tour, which
commemorated Peart’s 40 year-anniversary with
the band. During this time, Peart was dealing with
physical issues including tendonitis and shoulder
problems. As the R40 tour came to an end, Peart
took the occasion to formally retire. Less than a
year later, Peart found out he had brain cancer
(glioblastoma). The drummer passed away on
Jan. 7, 2020, leaving Lee and Lifeson to carry on
the Rush legacy without him.
In 1991, Peart performed with Journey’s Steve Smith
at the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship concert
in New York City and noticed something different in
Smith’s playing. “He had always been a fine drummer,
but suddenly it seemed he had become a master,”
Peart told Modern Drummer in 1995. Smith’s secret:
he’d studied with legendary jazz drummer-educator
Freddie Gruber, a close friend of Buddy Rich.
“I spent a week with Freddie and completely rebuilt
my drumming from the ground up,” Peart told Rhythm
in 1995. “I feel like I’ve started over as a beginner.”
Peart’s drumming gradually went through a subtle
but distinct transformation. As Peart said in 2010’s
Beyond the Lighted Stage, “There was a different
clock at work.” In 2007, Peart began studies with
jazz-fusion great Peter Erskine. With Rush’s final
album, Clockwork Angels, it all came together.
“I am playing the way I always wanted to play,”
Peart later wrote in an email to Erskine. “Meaning
that for all these 47 years I have been working
toward this combination of technique, power and
feel—‘chops and groove.’ That’s a nice feeling.”
“Every album is like a time capsule,” Geddy Lee said in a 1983 radio interview, “and the circumstances surrounding an album somehow creep onto the vinyl. I don’t know how, but it does.”
With a career spanning more than five decades and upwards of 40 million albums sold,
Rush are one of the most influential rock bands of all
time. Both musicians and fans appreciate how good
they were. It just took a long time for a lot of critics
to catch up.
“If I had to pick a favorite band of all time, it would
be Rush,” Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci
told Guitar World in 2014. “Once I discovered 2112,
it opened me up to this whole concept that rock
music could be bigger than just a tune—that it could
be used as a vehicle to tell a story or to transport
you to some other world.
“I was also blown away by how a three-piece band
could sound so majestic and huge, and play in a style
that’s inherently rock and roll yet still pushes the
boundaries of what they’re doing musically—this
idea of being experimental, using different time
signatures and not really being concerned about
song length and traditional constraints. I can’t tell
you how huge of an impact that had on me: 2112
basically set the course for my musical career and
how I approached Dream Theater.”
Though the Rush influence isn’t immediately
apparent in the music of some newer bands, ones
like Meshuggah absorbed the complex rhythmic
ideas that Rush introduced and used it to pioneer
the new vocabulary heard in djent/math metal.
“That was the band that I always kept going back
to, though I didn’t ever try to play Rush,” Meshuggah
drummer Tomas Haake told Vice in 2014. “That was
the first band in my teenage years where the drummer
was writing the lyrics—like what the hell, how
is that possible? In that sense, Neil Peart was who
made me get into writing lyrics and reading books,
and getting inspiration from books.”
Rush’s intelligent lyrical content also resonated
with The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, who
told Far Out in 2022, “The thing I loved about Neil
was that he took very complex, metaphysical themes,
and he was able to put them in a way that everyone
could understand. Whether he was ripping off
Shakespeare or quoting his own heart, he was able
to do it in a way that never felt snobby. It always felt
like he was in the room talking to you.”
Even if you weren’t a Rush fan, you had to admire
their guts. In the 2010 documentary Beyond the
Lighted Stage, KISS frontman Gene Simmons said,
“What makes Rush unique is fearlessness. It’s the
quality of starting to write a song and not caring
about what’s popular and what’s not.”
Thrash-metal giant Anthrax’s co-founder and
guitarist Scott Ian told Prog in 2018: “They never
pigeonholed themselves as being one thing: They’re
Rush. We, as Anthrax, have always felt that same
way. We started out as a heavy-metal band but we’ve
never been afraid to push the boundaries. You have
to do these things for yourself and hopefully everyone
else will come along for the ride.”
In Rush’s case, everyone eventually did. On April
18, 2013, Rush was inducted into the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame, introduced by Foo Fighters, a band
with which Rush had recently developed a close
relationship. In 2008, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
had jammed on “YYZ” with drummer Taylor
Hawkins at a Foo Fighters’ show.
“I picked up so much from listening to Neil Peart,”
Hawkins told Prog in 2014. “You can imagine how
nervous I was, but I got through ‘YYZ’ with them.
Even though they told me I was playing too fast! The
nerves I was going through; here I was replacing Neil
Peart in Rush—well, almost!”
Neil Peart retired in 2015, several years before his
death on Jan. 7, 2020. Taylor Hawkins also passed
away, on March 25, 2022. Given the close ties between
the bands, it was fitting that on Sept. 3, 2022,
Lee and Lifeson performed with Foo Fighters’ frontman
Dave Grohl (and jazz drummer Omar Hakim)
for the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at Wembley
Stadium. The band tore through Rush numbers like
“2112 Part I: Overture,” “Working Man” and “YYZ.”
Lee and Lifeson had reunited a couple of weeks
prior, on Aug. 10, for a South Park 25th anniversary
show, where they played “Closer to the Heart.” Back
in 2018, Lee had predicted to Rolling Stone, “I would
say there’s no chance of seeing Rush on tour again as
Alex, Geddy, Neil. But would you see one of us or two
of us or three of us? That’s possible.” When the two
lifelong friends who met as geeky teens in Willowdale
finally reemerged, many wondered: Are Rush
ever really over?
The hopeful answer is “no.” Through their music
and the bands they inspired, Rush are forever.
STUDIO ALBUMS
RUSH, 1974
After “Working Man”
received airplay on
Cleveland’s WMMS-FM
things changed
forever. Mercury
Records signed the
band soon after.
FLY BY NIGHT, 1975
The world’s
introduction to new
drummer-lyricist Neil
Peart, with longer,
multipart songs and
fantasy-themed lyrics.
CARESS OF STEEL, 1975
Rush’s blues-based,
hard-rock style was
replaced with all-out
prog, and the album
flopped.
2112, 1976
Undeterred by the
disappointing sales
performance of Caress
of Steel, Rush went
even more prog with a
title track that’s a little
more than 20 minutes.
A FAREWELL TO KINGS, 1977
Recording in Wales,
Rush incorporated
new instruments such
as bells, chimes and
a Minimoog analog
synthesizer.
HEMISPHERES, 1978
Featuring the epic
nine-minute, 12-section
instrumental “La Villa
Strangiato,” which
required more than
40 takes to get right.
PERMANENT WAVES, 1980
Rush’s first album of
the ’80s was marked
by radio-friendly
songs “Freewill” and
“The Spirit of Radio.”
MOVING PICTURES, 1981
With “Tom Sawyer,”
“Limelight,” “Red
Barchetta” and “YYZ,”
Moving Pictures is the
definitive, must-have
Rush album.
SIGNALS, 1982
The beginning of
Rush’s synth era with
keyboard-driven,
poppy tracks such as
“New World Man”
and “Subdivisions.”
GRACE UNDER PRESSURE, 1984
Longtime producer
Terry Brown was
replaced by Peter
Henderson. The dark,
synth-heavy album
went platinum.
POWER WINDOWS, 1985
A showcase for new
sounds including
samples, a real string
section and a chorus
consisting of “pregnant
women and old men.”
HOLD YOUR FIRE, 1987
One of Rush’s least
successful releases,
it did feature ’Til
Tuesday’s vocalist
Aimee Mann on
“Time Stands Still.”
PRESTO, 1989
A return to guitardriven
songs, and
the end of Rush’s
polarizing synth era.
ROLL THE BONES, 1991
Commercially
successful, with a title
track that even had a
rap section.
COUNTERPARTS, 1993
Legendary engineer
Kevin “The Caveman”
Shirley was enlisted
to give Rush a heavier,
rawer sound.
TEST FOR ECHO, 1996
Neil Peart had
reinvented his
drumming by
studying with jazz
great Freddie Gruber.
VAPOR TRAILS, 2002
After Neil Peart
suffered the tragedies
of losing his daughter
and then his wife,
Vapor Trails marked a
triumphant comeback.
SNAKES & ARROWS, 2007
Co-produced by
Nick Raskulinecz, it
debuted at No. 3 on
the U.S. Billboard 200
chart.
CLOCKWORK ANGELS, 2012
The grand finale of
Rush’s glorious career.
It won the 2013 Juno
for Rock Album of
the Year.
LIVE ALBUMS
ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE, 1976
Rush’s first live album,
it was used to buy the
band more time as
they worked on A
Farewell to Kings.
EXIT…STAGE LEFT, 1981
Features lives cuts
from the tours of
what many consider
Rush’s peak albums:
Permanent Waves and
Moving Pictures.
A SHOW OF HANDS, 1989
A set list of 1980s
Rush, with tracks
from the Hold Your
Fire and Power
Windows tours.
DIFFERENT STAGES, 1998
Released after
Neil Peart’s family
tragedies, this contains
cuts from the Test for
Echo, Counterparts
and A Farewell to
Kings tours.
RUSH IN RIO, 2003
When they recorded
Rush in Rio, Geddy
Lee recalled, during
“YYZ,” the Brazilian
audience sang along
with parts they had
made up.
R30: 30TH ANNIVERSARY WORLD TOUR, 2005
Commemorating the
band’s 30th year
together, this touched
on all periods of
Rush’s career.
GRACE UNDER PRESSURE TOUR, 2006
First released as Rush
Replay X 3, a 2006
box set, before its
standalone release
in 2009.
SNAKES & ARROWS LIVE, 2008
This double disc was
recorded over two
nights at the Ahoy
Arena in Rotterdam
in October 2007.
TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND, 2011
Peaked at No. 4 on
the Billboard U.S. Top
Hard Rock Albums
chart.
CLOCKWORK ANGELS TOUR, 2013
Recorded in
Texas, featuring an
eight-piece string
ensemble led by
conductor David
Campbell.
R40 LIVE, 2015
Rush’s last live album,
commemorating
the band’s 40th
anniversary. It was
recorded during the
band’s heart-wrenching
final tour.
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