Rush

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.