Book Review: Rush at 50 by Daniel Bukszpan

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Rush are one of my favourite bands in classic rock. As a huge fan of progressive rock and hard rock, it’s no surprise I’m a big fan. Everyone in the band is a master of their craft, amazing technical skills, what’s not to love? I’d spend days watching Neil Peart’s drum solos – amazing what humans can do! They have a solid discography with amazing live albums. Sadly I never had the chance to see them live. Naturally, I got into Rush while living in Toronto and attending university there. I’d always make it a point to play “2112” on 21/12. Wherever I move, I try to learn about the 60s and 70s music from there. 

As you may already know, I’m a big fan of these retrospective rock band coffee table books (in my personal collection, I particularly love the ones I have about The Who and Queen) and 1974 marks 50 years since Rush’s self-titled debut album, so a book called Rush At 50 is coming out this month. Like the Springsteen @ 75 book and the Van Halen @ 50 book, this book has 50 different stories from the band’s history and it’s divided into six sections. As you can expect from a Quarto coffee table book, this is a well put together book chock full of photos and memorabilia of the band. I’ve watched the Rush documentary Beyond The Lighted Stage and I loved it so I have high expectations for a coffee table book about Rush. 

With there being a wealth of information about Rush out there in book format, what makes this book stand out is that it’s a curated book by Daniel Bukszpan, a Rush fan who is the author of The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal, with his own opinions on the band peppered throughout. So I’m confident he know what he’s talking about. In the back of the book is the band’s discography, sources cited, photo credits, and acknowledgements.

The Story of Rush

Rush started off in the late 60s as a power trio made up of secondary school friends Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and John Rutsey. Two of them came from immigrant backgrounds. Geddy Lee was born to Holocaust survivor parents Morris and Mary Weinrib. Alex Lifeson was born to Serbian immigrants Nenad and Melanija Živojinović. In a way, they were ahead of the curve, predicting the multicultural flavour of Toronto. 

In 1973, after years of gigging, they finally recorded their first single, a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” b/w a John Rutsey original “You Can’t Fight It”. While I personally love this single, I can understand why the band weren’t happy with how it had turned out because it sounded too poppy and the production left a lot to be desired. Record labels could tell that they hadn’t found themselves yet, even though they’re clearly very talented. Personally, I just love hearing the earliest recordings of bands I adore and I’m a huge Buddy Holly fan so I love hearing everyone’s take on that Texas rock and roll legend.

Still, the young rockers were not about to give up on their dreams so they got into the studio to record their debut album, hoping to get that record deal south of the border. Their manager Ray Danniels believed in them and he ponied up the money to record Rush. To keep costs low, they recorded during off peak hours. Terry Brown produced the album and made the band’s vision come to life. As a result of the upgraded production value, a single from the album made it in the US, “Working Man” – popular in Rust Belt city Cleveland, Ohio. Unsurprising because it’s working class and people could relate to the lyrics. By this point, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple were popular and this was the latest hard rock sound, but this time from Canadians. Much like the other hard rock bands, critics had their quibbles calling them derivative and unoriginal, but fans loved them. Rush’s debut was so in demand that they got signed to Mercury Records and it got distribution worldwide. Rush weren’t finished evolving yet, they needed one more thing.

Much like The Beatles, The Kinks, and The Who the band’s beloved drummer was the last to join. For Rush, Neil Peart was more than just the drummer, he was the lyricist too, writing intelligent, thought provoking lyrics. That’s why he’s known as The Professor. Who said that classic rock couldn’t be intellectual? 

After touring the US, they started working on their sophomore album Fly By Night. Much like Led Zeppelin, there were Lord of the Rings references in particular in “Rivendell”. There was also an epic in “By-Tor and the Snow Dog”. Even with incredible musicianship, they didn’t shake the Zeppelin comparisons just yet with one critic describing them as “like Led Zeppelin with lobotomies”. Makes no sense to me because they’re intellectual and nerdy.

1975 was a busy year for the band with two album releases, the second one being Caress of Steel. The band weren’t happy with the album cover, which is confusingly in gold rather than silver because their record label wanted it to have more shelf appeal. Businesspeople and artists having different visions? Many such cases! Commercially it was a flop even though it had strong songs like “Bastille Day” and “The Necromancer”. The tour to support the album was also a flop, with the band dubbing it the Down the Tubes Tour. It was so much of a flop that they couldn’t afford to pay their crew or themselves. Not every tour is profitable.

In 1976 they had a comeback with their masterpiece 2112. While no chart hits came of it, the fans went wild! The title track was genius and there were some solid songs like “Passage to Bangkok”, “The Twilight Zone”, and “Something For Nothing”. Soon after that, they released their first live album, starting a tradition of releasing a live album after a few studio albums. 

After touring 2112, the band went to the famous Rockfield Studios in Wales to record their next album. Finally after proving themselves, their label were happy to let them record in new surroundings instead of their hometown of Toronto. That next album was A Farewell to Kings and this would take the band to the next level. What if instead of an epic taking up one side of the album, you release part one of the epic on one album and then release part two on the next album? Meet “Cygnus X-1”! Give the fans a cliffhanger that makes them buy the next album Hemispheres, which has “Book II” taking up all of side 1. This album went to English class with “Xanadu”, further cementing the band as really smart. Hemispheres had a masterpiece, “La Villa Strangiato (An Exercise in Self-Indulgence)” and overall side two of the album is excellent. Fans loved the album, but Rush wanted to change directions in the new decade: shorter songs. They were not going to be that band that makes series of albums just like each other. The sign of a true artist is one who is always innovating and changing and adapting with the times. You fail to do that and you become irrelevant.

After some well-deserved time off the band got to work on their album to kick off the 80s, Permanent Waves, hailed as the first major musical event of the 80s. The music scene was changing and they listened to new wave from bands like The Police and Talking Heads. The shorter songs means it’s more radio friendly than their previous work, but it’s still substantial, intelligent, and full of great musicianship. Some songs on that album like “The Spirit of Radio” and “Freewill” are still played on classic rock stations today. Commercially the album was a smash hit, selling a million copies within the first two months – flying off the shelves!

After that came the band’s most successful album Moving Pictures, which Alex Lifeson said was the greatest record that they have ever made. Classic rock radio and fan favourites “Tom Sawyer”, “Limelight”, and “YYZ” are on the album. After that, Rush released the fan favourite live album Exit… Stage Left. It’s an excellent primer for the peak years of Rush and a great introduction for newbies.

Synthesisers were big in the 80s and Rush incorporated them more in their 1982 album Signals. Some purists weren’t fans, but the album was still strong. I personally love the song “Subdivisions” and I’d find myself quoting lyrics from it. They kept going in this new wave and reggae inspired direction with their 1984 album Grace Under Pressure. 

Every band goes through a slump at some point and Rush had this moment with their 1987 album Hold Your Fire. They had a vision and made the album they wanted to make, but fans felt like it was a drag. Once again after a few more albums, it was time for a new live album, this one called A Show of Hands. At this point, touring had gone from being a joy to being a grind. After a six month break, the band recorded their last album of the 80s, Presto, this time on a new record label, Anthem, founded by manager Ray Danniels and Vic Wilson.

In the 90s they tried rap on “Roll The Bones” and even had a “grunge album” in Counterparts, released in 1993, so they were keeping up with the trends and putting their own spin on new sounds. The late 90s were a difficult time for Neil Peart, with him losing his daughter Selena in a car accident in August 1997 and his common law wife Jackie to breast cancer 10 months later. To cope with the pain, he rode away on his motorcycle across North and Central America and spent time alone for a year. He wrote about this time in his life in Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. 

Would Rush come back and release another live album after four studio albums? While Neil Peart was taking a mental health break, Geddy and Alex were hard at work listening to recordings from the Test for Echo tour selecting the best ones for Different Stages. A call from Robert Plant, who had lost his young son Karac in 1977, helped motivate Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson to figure out the next moves for Rush. Geddy Lee released a solo album called My Favourite Headache and Neil Peart fell in love with a photographer named Carrie and married her and later they had a child together. Finally in 2002, Rush released a new album Vapor Trails and this time their new approach was no keyboards, their first album without a keyboard since 1975. It would be another five years until their next studio album Snakes & Arrows. Not because they didn’t want to record, but because they were busy. Like all other classic rock bands, the 2000s and 2010s were their legacy/recognition decade with them getting recognised for their contributions to rock and roll. In 2012, they released their last ever studio album Clockwork Angels – their only concept album, which they considered their best work. Their last live album was R40.

On 7 January 2020, Neil Peart passed away. Much like David Bowie, he kept his cancer diagnosis private.

Final thoughts

This book is a journey through the band’s history and really covers it all. I’m not sure if it’s an essential if you have a bunch of books about Rush in your collection, but it is a really good read. Each story about the albums contains a review and there’s good storytelling and lots of interesting quotes from Geddy, Alex, and Neil. If you’re a big Rush fan, it’s worth picking up. You might know a lot of the stories and the trivia, but there might be some new things you’ll learn from the book.

Top Ten Takeaways

I love writing these for my book reviews, so here are some takeaways from Rush at 50.

1. There was a hiccup when recording Rush.

There’s always a hiccup when recording albums and that has happened to Rush many times over the decades. John Rutsey wasn’t happy with the lyrics he had written so he withdrew them at the last minute, ripping up the sheets of paper they were written on, and Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee had to scramble to write all new lyrics. They always got compared to Led Zeppelin with this album, but personally I think the better comparison is Budgie: also a power trio with a bassist/frontman, Burke Shelley, who looked a lot like Geddy Lee.

2. Neil Peart’s pre-Rush life

Before joining Rush, Neil Peart lived in London and worked for his father selling tractor parts. He was also a bookworm with a really big vocabulary. About two weeks after joining Rush, he opened for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. Originally, Geddy and Alex had no idea that he was a strong lyricist besides being an incredible drummer.

3. John Rutsey left Rush for two reasons: health and creative differences

John Rutsey left the band for two reasons: He didn’t agree with the direction Lee and Lifeson were going with their music and the other reason was his health. He was diabetic and his condition made it difficult to tour the US. Even though he was only with Rush for one album, he still made important contributions. He and Alex Lifeson founded the band. He helped style the band and motivate them to practice. Geddy Lee called him the leader of the band in their early days, there’s a video of the band performing “Working Man” in their early days and John Rutsey introduced the song. After leaving the band he got into bodybuilding and even helped Alex Lifeson lose some weight in the late 80s.

4. 2112 was their “Bohemian Rhapsody” moment.

2112 was their go big or go home moment. Mercury Records gave them one last chance to record an album. Even though the record label wanted them to make something more commercial, Rush wanted to do things their way and record something that they’d be proud of. Rush genuinely believed that this would be their very last ever album so they wanted to go out with a bang if that was the case. The album has a 20 minute long sci-fi epic of the same title which had no chance of being played on the radio. Screw the radio!

5. When Rush recorded “Cygnus X-1 Book 1: The Voyage”, they didn’t have “Book II: Hemispheres” completely ready just yet. 

Neil Peart said in a 1978 interview that Book II had only been half written when they entered the recording studio. Even though Rush were experienced recording artists, there were some bumps in the road when recording Hemispheres because they had written songs that were too high in key for Geddy Lee. Plus their approach was to record songs in a single pass all the way through because stitching different bits together is taking the easy way out. Knowing that makes me admire Rush’s early work even more. Neil Peart later said that the album had nearly killed the band. Geddy Lee called the process of recording the album the worst two weeks of his life. Lesson learnt, just record multiple takes and splice them together. Work smarter, not harder.

6. Neil Peart regretted his libertarian phase.

When he was younger he got into Ayn Rand and some of her writings like Atlas Shrugged inspired songs like “Anthem” and “2112”. In the liner notes of 2112, it said “With acknowledgement to the genius of Ayn Rand”. This got the band labelled as Nazi fascists, which is a wild accusation considering that Geddy Lee’s parents were Holocaust survivors. Neil Peart was never dogmatic about Rand’s philosophy and over time his views changed when he realised that hard work doesn’t always equal success and you never know what unfortunate events could happen in life that completely throw things off course. Decades after 2112, Rand Paul played a Rush song at his rally and they sent him a cease and desist letter.

7. Signals signalled the end of an era

It was the last album with Terry Brown as coproducer. Brown is considered the fourth member of Rush. Rush wanted to go more into a synth-y direction and move away from hard guitar rock and it was time for a new producer. The band were classy and didn’t air their dirty laundry or make the split into drama. It was just about the music and being bored with their sound. Finding a new producer for Grace Under Pressure though was tricky. Alex Lifeson liked Steve Lillywhite because of his work with Big Country and XTC. Peart referred to him as “Mr So-and-so”. Lillywhite backed out last minute because he didn’t like their use of odd time signatures and he wasn’t keen about the music. I guess it’s better to back out if you’re not passionate about the project, but don’t take a job that you don’t really want to do. Peter Henderson, who co-produced Supertramp’s Breakfast in America, stepped in, but just for that album. Peter Collins produced Power Windows and this time he was their first choice.

8. Geddy Lee the rapper?

Geddy Lee tried his hand at rap on “Roll The Bones”, the title track of their 1991 album. This song is about taking chances in life and the title is a reference to dice rolls. At the time, Neil Peart was listening to LL Cool J and Public Enemy and was inspired to experiment and write a rap section for Geddy Lee, whose pitch was lowered and effects were added on top to make him sound different.

9. Neil Peart started taking drumming lessons in the 90s. 

I’m sure you’re just as confused as I am. Why would one of the GOATs take lessons? Well, he always wanted to get better and better and so he was inspired to take lessons after playing a concert with the Buddy Rich Big Band. Freddie Gruber taught Neil Peart a new style of playing drums and he first played in that style on the Test for Echo album and kept playing that way for the rest of his life. Makes sense because jazz is the roots of prog rock.

10. Rush weren’t wild and crazy like The Who or Led Zeppelin.

Geddy Lee smoked weed and tried cocaine in the 70s, but he’s always a professional and music came first. He later spoke out on the evils of cocaine and how addictive it is. Alex Lifeson wasn’t a fan of cocaine either, even though he had tried it in the 70s, he called it “the worst, for everything” and he said that marijuana is a “creative agent”, but not the best for if you want to be productive. The wildest Rush ever got was Alex Lifeson getting arrested at a resort in Naples, Florida in 2003 because he got into an altercation with police, drunkenly hitting a police officer. The police officer had broken his nose and tased him and his son. Five years later, they had settled out of court. Neil Peart also used drugs from time to time, but later gave that up. They would keep each other grounded.

Rush at 50 comes out later this autumn.

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