For some completely unknown reason* I have been listening to the complete Rush catalog**. Scary. Instead of linking all over the WWW, check out the Wikipedia on Rush. Not bad. Enough information without totally geeking out.

So first, let me establish the reasons why Rush matters:

• The musicians are incredible. There is no denying it; it’s no secret that Neil Peart and Geddy Lee are heralded as two of the most innovative musicians in post hippy rock. Every drummer I know – I mean every single one of them – respects Neil, at the very least. Some of the jazz drummers I work with count him as one of their biggest influences, athough thankfully they are not talking about his jazz playing. Geddy is a freak of nature. Trust me, it’s hard enough playing bass lines that are THAT detailed, that intricate, but then to sing with such precision on top of it? Oh, wait, and then to add various keyboard instruments to the equation as well? Yikes. And here’s what I love about Alex Lifeson: he’s not a guitar god, or at least, he shouldn’t be. As it turns out, to my ears anyway, he’s the glue. He holds everything together with some of the most incredible soundscapes, really they are fantastic. In that way he reminds me of Fripp, although his 1980s sound reminds me of The Edge. His solos, to my ears, are too diatonic, too scalar, too repetitive, and so drenched in delay that not one single note matters. Really, I think he’s great, but I’m more inspired by his comping than his soloing.
• The music was innovative. It was. I don’t know if it still is. The jury is still out on post-Presto CDs, as far as I am concerned. They are, well, fine and dandy, but I’m struggling to connect to them. I need to keep them in the rotation a little longer before I really commit to a strong view one way or the other. But vintage Rush is innovative, see their use of technology and the use of odd meters, melodic development, subject matter even. The kicks (that is to say, the moments where the entire rhythm section punctuates a rhythm together) are fascinating. The way they play together, the things they play, the kinds of lines that Neil Peart & Geddy Lee play in their solos (however brief they may be), all of these things plus countless other items place their music in the “Innovative” category, for sure.

The quality of the musicianship and the music itself are the only things that really matter to me. I should say that I don’t really see Rush as “relevant” anymore. By this, I mean to say that their influence is not being felt in the industry the same way that it did 15-20 years ago. I observe this not only in the impact of their music on that of other musicians (recognizing of course that their first CD of new music in 5 years just came out), and few – if any – of my students are mentioning Geddy as an influence. He used to be among the first names (of electric bassists) to be mentioned. Now, Geddy is known for being the long haired guy keeping score behind home plate at Blue Jays games, and for the elfin voiced singer/bassist at the end of that ESPN commercial.

Here is the catalog, listed in the order I listened to them recently, which is more or less alphabetical. And of course, I have a few comments:

A Farewell to Kings – I loved this record like crazy when I was a kid. Episodic. Incredible. After many years of having not heard this, it didn’t quite stand up to my memories, but it sure came close. Oh, and good for them for getting a hit out of Closer to the Heart. Not really my cup of tea. But the rest really is incredible, especially Xanadu.

A Show of Hands – The first Rush live album I ever got, and still the one that I remember liking the most (until R30 – see below), at least compared to All The World’s a Stage and Exit…Stage Left. It’s mostly 1980s material, so it’s synth-heavy. I really like the tunes on here. The drum solo, well to me it didn’t hold up as well after all these years, but he’s still amazing.

All the World’s a Stage – My least favorite of the live records. As will probably become apparent in my comments on the records from this era, I hear this music as still looking for direction. In some cases, I find the process of looking for something more interesting than what happens once that thing has been found. But to me, not in Rush’s case. I’m ready for what happened after 2112. Oh, and when Geddy shouts “Let’s see some hands” I think about Robert Plant – probably the only Rush:Led Zep comparison that works for me – “Does anybody remember laughter?”

Caress of Steel – I used to LOVE this record. The Necromancer was a big time favorite of mine when I was a young teenager. Hey, I was a big fan of Tolkein, so what’s not to love here? This recording, like the early stuff, just doesn’t stand up to my memory of it. It’s still good music, just not as incredible as I had remembered it. Geddy’s voice during this time doesn’t quite work for me the way it used to. And I Think I’m Going Bald is clearly not their best work.

Counterparts – I’m still working on this one. I have heard the CD a couple of times, and all the music that appears on the live CDs, and it’s cool. It’s interesting. It’s growing on me. Stick It Out totally reminds me of the sound of the King Crimson CD The Power to Believe. There’s definitely a Fripp/Belew sound going on here, and the drumming is way Pat Mastolotto. Also, the top string on Alex’s guitar is flat on the opening to Cut to the Chase. The ghosting in Neil’s left hand on the intro to Alien Shore is fantastic. But don’t try to tell me that the opening to Everyday Glory doesn’t sound like U2.

Different Stages (3 CD set) – Turns out that the drum solos on the live sessions post A Show of Hands were not improvised. Ok, maybe that’s not being fair – they are not improvised, from the point of view of an improvising musician. Neil plays great, but he plays more or less the same stuff on drum solo after drum solo.

Exit…Stage Left – The truth is that I always prefered the studio versions of these tunes. Yes, Broon’s Bane is nice, but this otherwise unknown piece is not enough to make this a must-own, in my view.

Feedback – Ok, I know this may horrify some people, but…this CD is awful. I’m glad they did it, I think that it’s wonderful to revisit the music of one’s youth, and I strongly believe that they have every right to put out a CD like this one. Obviously, they went for it and everything sounds like Rush, even the Entwhistle bass lines that were appropriated by Geddy. But this CD totally did not work for me. Sorry cats.

Fly by Night – I liked this CD less than Caress of Steel back in the day. The pre-2112 Rush (or even, really, the pre-Farewell to Kings Rush) is just not really my thing. Except for the sound of Geddy’s Rickenbacker which is just amazing.

Grace Under Pressure – A very serious fave of mine from when I was a kid. I love the production, love the soundscapes, love the tunes, and even the sound of Geddy’s Steinberger, which is pretty thin compared to the Rick or the Fender he played before. Still, fantastic. Somehow it still sounds great after all these years – the technology IS outdated but that doesn’t really matter to me. Oh, one more thing: the reggae, the ska. It’s so ungrooving, so completely removed from the real deal, and yet somehow it’s killer. The groove on The Enemy Within, for example, it rocks. And yes, I’m a music nerd, so it’s completely normal for me to get a thrill from the delay on “a static charge, static charge, static charge” from The Enemy Within.

Hemispheres – Follow up to A Farewell to Kings, continuing the story of Cygnus. I totally loved this recording as a kid, and I have to say that the quality of the music and the production itself really have held up over time. I think The Trees is less interesting than I did when I was 15, but I suppose that’s probably more or less normal.

Hold Your Fire – This is where Rush started to lose me, although I think this CD is amazing. I loved it when it came out and even after many years of not having heard it, the CD sounds fantastic to me. But it’s sort of the end of a chapter, to my ears. I feel like this may be the culmination of everything they had worked toward, packaged up into a nice, neat, trendy-ish (for the time, and defined by them) l’il work. But what came after this, Presto and Roll the Bones, well those CDs were the beginning of their irrelevence as far as I’m concerned. Listen to the rap on Roll the Bones if you don’t believe me (see below).

Moving Pictures – This is the recording that started it all for me. I remember when Tom Sawyer was a radio hit, played on KGGO in Des Moines IA, like every 10 minutes or something. It freaked me out, I couldn’t believe that music as cool as this could exist. Music in 7 was not something I was used to, and it totally inspired me. I bought this, then learned every note that Geddy played on it. I also think that Alex was at the height of his lyrical “powers” at the time – his solos are so melodic that people who listened to this record memorized the solos. Check Rush in Rio if you don’t believe me, the audience sings along to everything, including the guitar solos. N.B. Don’t misunderstand my use of “lyrical.” I’m not saying that Alex wrote the lyrics, because he didn’t. I’m talking about the lyrical style of his melodic approach.

Permanent Waves – It’s funny, you know, this recording came out before Moving Pictures, but I always thought it was a follow up. Somehow, this CD seems to me to be more of a Signals minus 60% of the synthesizers than Moving Pix Phase 1. It makes more sense as 2112 Phase 3 or something, considering – again this word – how episodic some of the music is, Jacob’s Ladder for example.

Power Windows – Totally loved this record. Really. The Big Money is so cheezy but man, somehow it’s great. Or, at least it’s better than Peter Gabriel’s Big Time. Manhattan Project is fantastic, and I read somewhere that Neil read like 10 books on the topic in order to be sure that he was getting the information right (ooooo, wwooowwww, I’m so impressed…)

Presto – Not. My. Cup. Of. Tea. Actually, I remember thinking to myself, “self, I’m never going to buy another Rush album after this one.” Then of course, I bought Roll the Bones, and the rap ended it all for me…until now, I guess. I do sort of love Superconductor and Anagram for Mongo. Superconductor reminds me of Kid Gloves, maybe combined with a drop of Analog Kid. The toms on Anagram are so, so, so great and power ballad-y, and cheezy and wonderful. Hand Over Fist is great, too. And what could be better than a song named for photography (Available Light)? I guess, in retrospect, it was more my cup of tea than I thought.

R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour (2 CD set) – The Overture on Disc 1 is EXCELLENT. Reminds me of a band that Dweezil had a few years ago, when the band played like 30 seconds of every rock classic ever. Brace yourselves: I think (repeat, “I think” – I have no proof, I’m just speculating) that Geddy Lee might have some hearing damage, or perhaps he had some work done on his teeth, has a bridge or something. In listening to these sides, I noticed that when he sings in the lower register, there is less forcing, and his diction is much, much better. In the upper register, he strains to hit the notes, and is encumbered by something – there is something keeping him from really hitting those notes, so he strains more, but in the meantime, he annunciates with much less precision than in the lower register. It could be a stylistic thing, but I doubt it. Listen to The Spirit of Radio, Force Ten, Red Barchetta (“it used to be a farm,” “excitement shivers up and down my spine,” “tires spitting gravel”) if you don’t believe me. It impacts his pitch, too.

Roll the Bones – Ok, first thing’s first: a bad rap does not a good record make. Ok, fine. Dreamline is incredible. But back to the rap – this is Alex? It sounds like 2112: Grand Finale Phase 3 (the voice of “Subdivisions” is Phase 2), and it is totally ungrooving. And man, I’m hip to the jazz vernacular, but I just don’t see how “you dig” fits any rap, you dig? If there is one thing I like about the title track, it’s the Hammond kicks.

Rush in Rio (3 CD set) – Now this would have freaked me out if I were Rush. It was the first time in Rio, or so I understand, and they have like a zillion people in the audience, and they all are singing back every single line – the lyrics, the synth stuff, the guitar solos, the drum solos – that’s scary. It’s amazing really. This live recording makes up for All the World’s A Stage, Exit…, and A Show Of Hands. Really, it’s pretty amazing. Personally, I’m not totally signed up for the newer material, but it really is an incredible sounding gig. I don’t notice the diction issue so much on these CDs, so hmmmm, something must have happened to remedy the situation.

Signals – Well the technology sounds a bit more outdated here, but the writing is so amazing, who cares? I guess this was one of the first all digital, or mostly digital recordings, so it’s no wonder that the thing sounds so compressed and weird. But really, the writing is amazing.

Test for Echo – I first heard this last summer, when a student of mine lent it to me. He was getting his bass playing back together after having “retired” for about 10 years. Showed up one day and played A Passage to Bangkock perfectly – it was pretty amazing. Anyway, this is another good one, from the 1990s that I’m still chewing on. It’s fine, I have nothing particularly bad to say about it, but it hasn’t freaked me out the way the midperiod stuff did.

Vapor Trails – Ok, here we go. This is the first time I have ever heard this CD. The online consensus seems to be that it’s great, a heavier record than usual, but the mastering is bad. My first impression (at 1:12 into the first track) is that this is an update of Ozzy-era Sabbath. Took 6 years, a solo project or two, thousands of miles logged on a motorcycle, and a few live album releases to get this thing made. Ok, so what do Rush & Tom Waits have in common? Check Tom Waits’s CD Real Gone for another example of rough edges. But wait, this Rush CD – take track 2 for example – is not roots music. But then, roots music was never really their thing anyway. This reminds me of the Replacements a bit, even U2 in some ways, well mostly the bass line – check Ceiling Unlimited for an example, but you know, not at the end of the tune when Geddy is going all nutzo. (Later:) Checking back in here, on track 12 of 13, this CD is sort of growing on me. Not a bad outing, really. OH, WAIT, no, no, no. It ends with the lyrics (chanted over and over) “Endlessly rocking.” No, no way, strike 3.

Rush (eponymous debut) – The literature seems to suggest that this album received some heavy Led Zeppelin comparisons, but truthfully, I don’t hear it. Yes, Geddy’s voice is high, but it’s not as smooth as Robert Plant’s – too screechy. His bass playing is strong, with some very hip lines, just like John Paul Jones, but the grooves are just a little bit more generic than what Zep would go in for. Bonzo played circles around Rutsy (the only non-Neil Peart album). And the guitars are completely different sounding. Alex is too clean a player to be compared to Page. On the whole, this should be a great record, but it’s not on my top 10. But then again – as I write this, it’s a day later and I’m finishing up listening to this CD, and man, you know, it’s terrible, but it’s not as terrible as I remember. What You’re Doing, in particular, has some moments – too much reverb on the voice, but the groove is killer, and the guitar sound is fantastic.

2112 – Saving the best for last? Well, it sure is good. By now, I have listened to I think 3 live versions of 2112, and can now remember every moment in the work. I remember being a kid and cranking this recording up my cassette walkman to listen to while mowed the lawn or shoveled snow or something. It was a major motivator for me as a youth. I have been imagining an Either/Orchestra version of this. Too bad the Bad Plus has released a CD of prog music. It would have been nice to beat them to the punch… Wow, man. Side 2 seems like a throwaway (read the discussion of 2112 on Wikipedia), but it rocks. Twilight Zone is underrated. The bass part in the rockin’ section of Lessons is fantastic (even though it’s only a scale).

Some thoughts
So with this undertaking, I have listened to every note this group has released to the US audience on CD, and it’s been very interesting to me. Let me reiterate that I loved this band when I was in my teens, and that by the time my 20s rolled around I had lost interest in their music. So a return to this music may say more about me than it does them. But let’s keep the focus on Rush…

I think that Rush and Miles Davis have lot in common. The early recordings show promise but not everyone was that impressed (don’t forget that Miles was not a star instantly, and that his recordings with Bird were not exactly loved at the time). The eponymous Rush album is, well, not that happening, and if it weren’t for a lucky break – a radio programmer in Ohio – they may not have had a follow up. Miles needed a series of events in order to get himself established, and it really wasn’t until about 10 years into his career that he hit the big time. For Rush it was sooner, in the sense of being “established” but about the same in terms of widespread commercial appeal – the big time. Once they hit their stride, they never looked back, and neither did Miles. The 1960s in Miles’ career is what I think of as the late 1970s/1980s for Rush. They were both heading in a more commercial direction. I grant that thinking of Agharta as “commercial” is a bit of a stretch, but don’t forget that the idea behind this period in Miles’s career was to reach a wider, younger audience. Whether Rush was doing this as a matter of artistry or commerce is unknown to me, but the fact remains that from 1976 until 1991, nine out of 13 albums went platinum. In my view, the next period in Miles career is analagous to some overlapping years in Rush’s career (1989-present). I think that around the time of Presto, the commercial bent was in full force, and my observation is that this period is the most polarizing for Rush fans. Miles’s career in the 1980s includes dozens of big concerts, and although he didn’t rehash the old material, his music did include songs from Cindy Lauper and Scritti Politti; his producer/bassist was often Marcus Miller, of Grover Washington Jr. and Luther Vandross fame. To me, this later period includes some real magical moments, but it’s not my favorite period overall – this goes for both Miles’s music and Rush.

But what does it all mean? Well, to me it means that Rush is doing the very thing that they should be doing, and that all though their music is not really relevent to today’s 15-year-old (en masse), they are finding ways to keep their music engaging for their ever aging audience, while allowing the possibility for new listeners to connect to their music. This process of audience building is an important one for all musicians regardless of genre to master. Perhaps Geddy & Co. should start hitting the master class circuit.

So that’s what I have to say on this particular subject.

Enjoy,

Rick

*Actually, it’s known. I used to love Rush because Geddy is an absolutely incredible bassist. By the time I moved to Boston, I could literally play every note Geddy ever played on record (up to the album Presto). For the past couple years, I have been working a lot with drummer Pablo Bencid, who makes no apologies for his passion for Rush’s music. His influence has been wearing off, and now, here I am listening to the music of my youth once again. When we first started working together, I started to ease back into this whole Rush bit by picking up a few LPs – I had given away/sold off my Rush collection over the years because I figured that I had memorized everything so I didn’t really need to hold onto the CDs anymore. All in all, I guess I have purchased everything as many as 4 times over the years.

**All the CD’s, no DVD’s, although I have been checking out the CD versions of R30. Oh, and I haven’t heard the new CD, Snakes & Arrows.