Rush Fans? I mean, the real Rush fans -- Our thread

[beeline]

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I only saw Rush once, back in '86 during the Power Windows Tour. It was a good show, but I wouldn't describe myself as the biggest Rush fan. However, when I was 16 I decided to teach myself bass, and the first tab book I bought was Rush's Greatest Hits, so the first song I learned on bass was Tom Sawyer, which I think is a pretty damn good place to start, as far as basslines go.

[elfismiles]

There is also actual footage in Beyond the Lighted Stage of a teenage Alex Lifeson breaking it to his horrified family that he intends to be a musician. It's amazing!!! It comes from a 1973 Allan King documentary called Come On Children that young Alex Zivojinovich happened to be involved with.

I totally loved this documentary. Watched it back at the beginning of September (night before my kidney stone attack & hacker attack weirdly enough). Totally loved the doc.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1545103/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk8hbSxY0sE

And yeah, there are veiled references to their more, ahem, "extreme fans" ...

Can't have a Rush thread without reference to this:

[Belligerent Savant]

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My youngest bro is a huge Rush fiend -- took up playing bass as an homage to Geddy, and can likely recite the lyrics of 95% of their songs from memory, upon request. I've seen them live with him a couple of times.

As a former band member/aspiring musician [I still pluck away at the guitar from time to time -- Lefty], I certainly appreciated each band member's talents with their respective instruments and song-writing abilities, though Geddy's voice annoyed the hell out of me at times [his voice has deepened a bit as he's aged, however]. That high-pitched nerdy shriek was [depending on the tune] difficult to bear..

In my teens and twenties I was more into the heavier, head-banging stuff, but began to appreciate Rush's music more in my later 20s..

Always a bit interesting/comical to see the demographics of a Rush concert, as they certainly tend to appeal to certain type of Caucasian male -- much like my bro and 82_28, lol... you both seem to have some similar traits [of course, I'm only going by your posts, having never met you in person], and your ilk are LEGION at Rush concerts. Not a bad thing of course -- certainly preferable to a LEGION of Bieber fanatics, or whatever synthetic pap passes for 'pop' music these days..

[IanEye]

However, when I was 16 I decided to teach myself bass, and the first tab book I bought was Rush's Greatest Hits, so the first song I learned on bass was Tom Sawyer, which I think is a pretty damn good place to start, as far as basslines go.

pretty sure Madlib is a Rush fan.



Zappa fan too apparently...

[Searcher08]

I saw Rush in (I think) 76 in Manchester, when they did 2112. My greatest memory of the concert was the sound the crowd made when Rush came on stage. It was like an aural tsunami of adoration - it totally drowned the band out for about thirty seconds! The audience were in a state best described as err... frenzied!



I have taken up bass guitar in the years since and Geddy Lee is a bass hero of mine.

This is the grunty Rickenbacker sound of The Trees 1977


This is the round boomy Fender sound of Half The World 1996

[alwyn]

Never got to hear the band live, but I loved the music...great chops, all of 'em, and thought-provoking tunes, too

[ronin]

For me, when I listen to Passage to Bangkok, it begins right when the guitar solo starts. From the first time I heard that solo painted across the syncopated bass/drum lines, and every time since, I'm literally suspended from my day. There will be a persistent patina from that point on until I fall asleep at the end of the day. I don't dare try to explain it or analyze; it's far too delicious.

The Express will get you there,...

[IanEye]

Whoa. New movie about Rush I didn't ever hear of.

I just watched this movie today.

I was enjoying the film when all of a sudden I sat straight up and said, "Hey! That's Donna Halper!"



I was Ms. Halper's Teaching Assistant for a year while I was at Emerson. She was really cool and we talked about music all the time, but I had no idea she had such a strong connection to Rush. But she wasn't the type to brag about that kind of thing.

Small world.

[82_28]

^^^No fucking way!

I am considering flying out to Denver this summer for two nights of Rush at Red Rocks (well at least one night for me). Why the fuck are they playing at some hokey ass fairground 100 miles from Seattle up here, but kickin' it like kings down in my old hometown? I guess it's just the Universe telling me to go home and hang out with all the dudes who went on to be auto mechanics and construction workers I once knew who played drums on the side.



Apparently this tour is featuring Moving Pictures in totality. I'd rather 2112, but oh well. . .

[IanEye]

on the latest WTF podcast, the talk soon turns to the topic of the band Rush.

if you fast forward to 42:24 of the show, you can hear host Marc Maron get into it with guest Tom Scharpling and Ted Leo about whether the band from Canada has any redeeming merit.

enjoy, WhatTheFuckCanucks!

[Bruce Dazzling]

I've been a HUGE Rush fan since approximately age 11 (1980), which is when I first heard The Spirit of Radio at my local community swimming pool.

Up until then, I had only listened to the fifties music my parents played in the car, and The Beatles, who I loved since the moment I heard I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Anyway, back to Rush...

I had been playing the snare drum in my school band, and the opening prog-gasm of The Spirit of Radio hooked me like I had never been hooked before. The drum and bass runs in the intro made me completely rethink what was possible from a drummer's perspective, and it wasn't too long before I had convinced my parents that I needed, NEEDED a full drum kit.

I spent the next several years playing to Rush songs in my headphones, often slowing the records down so that I could dissect exactly what Peart was playing, and it was almost always mindblowing, although like most great musicians, he was also deceptively simple sometimes as well.

I haven't been thrilled with anything they've done since Test for Echo in 1996, but in their prime (1976 - 1984) they were a stunning combination of power, subtlety, chops, craft, and melody, executed with the catch-me-if-you-can, overconfident swagger of cocky greater gods. All while being the uber nerds that they are, which made them that much cooler.

For a D&D playing, geeky drummer, popular music doesn't get much more jaw-droppingly awesome than this.

[82_28]

Dude, you posted that on my birthday last year and I missed it because it was the last post on the page! That was beautiful! It goes to show you what a powerful song can mean. Anybody can cover anything, but some songs can just be moving and Subdivisions is one of them, in my book one of the most beautiful pleas for kindness from everybody ever written. Just the words make my spine tingle.



Middletown dreams is from their middling years in the 80s when they began to fully embrace synth and Peart was starting to use cheesy electric drums -- which most rock purists back then would have nothing of. One of my fave Rush songs and songs in general:

[justdrew]

ah, I thought that might happen 82_28, glad you like it, it's certainly a swell performance, he's got some other good stuff too.

and yeah, middletown's not a bad song, but that's about the era where I got off the rush bus, but their's still good stuff in even the later and recent rush. The whole Rand thing is unfortunate, but they leven that at times.

[Hammer of Los]

...

God I love Rush too.

Of their later albums, Presto really stood out for me. It was the lyrical themes throughout that captured my imagination.

Roll the bones!

I had been playing the snare drum in my school band, and the opening prog-gasm of The Spirit of Radio hooked me like I had never been hooked before.

Prog-gasm?!

I really don't know what to say in reply to that.

Except for...

Long Live Prog!

[82_28]

I don't think Peart was fully into Rand. I think he was young and it was a book pushed on me (Anthem) as well when I was young. It makes sense. But Peart makes sense of it in his lyrics. He was exploring freedom. He was free to explore and he did and took a lot of us along with him and lost two deared members of his family. He was always closer to the heart and a total thinker.

I'm sure he would agree with all of us nowadays of what a clown Rand was/is. At least that's how I idealize his living in the limelight ass as.

Peart is a simple idealist who is crazy talented and heartbreakingly heartfelt. I am glad to have spent time on Earth during his era.