Neil Peart, the widely admired drummer and principal
lyricist of Rush, died on 7 January 2020, and this means that the band, on a
permanent hiatus, or retirement, for several years now due to Peart’s ill-health,
will never reunite even if the members are only in their late Sixties, and mere
puppies compared to many other classic rock acts who still tour, and release
records.
Although I knew of Rush from the Seventies, having
seen the distinctive album cover of Fly By Night in my local record store,
and reading sensationalist comments and
condemnations in the English music press, principally the NME, regarding the
purported fascist philosophy propounded by Peart’s lyrics, it was not the kind
of hard rock band I was interested in when I was a teenager and never developed
more than a passing interest in. ,
To the NME, Peart and Rush, ostensibly typical mild-mannered
Canadians, were right wing reactionary musicians and to be detested and
avoided. For me, their music was simply the type of Seventies hard and prog
rock that didn’t resonate with me; at least, that was my opinion without ever
having heard a note. Rush was not being played on South African rock radio and,
mostly based on the reviews in NME, I wasn’t going to waste my money on their
albums.
My mind was changed somewhat after I’d heard “Tom
Sawyer,” “Vital Signs” and “The Camera Eye” from Moving Pictures (1981),
all which had been played on The Hobnailed Takkie show, the forward thinking
rock show on Radio Good Hope at lunch times on Saturdays. These songs indicated
that Ruch were more than just another hard rock band, and if I still didn’t go
out to buy that, or any other, Rush album, I found a new respect for them.
Because I was wanna-be guitarist and had a general
interest in rock music, I bought all kind of music publications, including
Guitar Player, or similar magazines, and in at least one there was a feature on
Alex Lifeson, the guitarist, and possibly even something on Geddy Lee, the
bassist and singer of the band. From these articles It was clear that Lifeson
and Lee were highly regarded virtuosos on their respective instruments and were
more than simple hard rock bad boys who had learnt a couple of killer riffs.
This was impressive though virtuosity by itself has never impressed me or
influenced me to follow a band or musician.
I followed Rush peripherally through the years
following Moving Pictures, from album reviews or articles in the music
publications I bought, but it was very peripheral. As I’ve mentioned, I never
felt compelled to buy any Rush record, and after listening to more of their music
recently, that opinion hasn’t changed. I might like individual songs, but an
entire album is hard work.
As has so often been the case over the past few years,
YouTube has been a great source of information about Rush, from interview
clips, filmed concerts and at least one documentary. The Rush story is typical:
young guys with ambition and drive, but not yet great musical ability, form a
band, are motivated and hard-working, continuously study their instruments to
improve as technicians and strive to progress album by album, eventually,
through persistence and sheer hard work, not only producing music with great
production values and technical excellence but also develop a devoted fan base
and achieve critical and commercial success, while still being nice guys with
their feet on the ground.
I think of Rush as one of those quite successful bands
that were never ground breaking, far ahead of their time or influential on
younger musicians, apart perhaps from a worth ethic point of view, that will in due course fade and disappear
except for die-hard fans, with perhaps a handful of classic tunes that would
still pop up every now and then on classic rock radio, but will otherwise just
be another band from history.
Although I can appreciate the technical mastery of the
three musicians, and Peart’s complex, innovative drumming, Rush does not make
music that excites me viscerally. I prefer simple, punchy music with the minimum
of embellishment or “progressive elements” and the middle of the road rock albums
Rush has released, not quite hard enough, not quite exquisite enough, will
never find a place in my record collection. Moving Pictures was the only
album I thought of buying and that was only because of the three songs I knew,
but not even that motivated me even to listen to any of the other product, both
earlier and later releases.
