Fly By Night
RIP Neil
Today’s article is about a band that is almost certainly the best Canadian rock band of all time. No, not the Tragically Hip. No, not the Barenaked Ladies (already did that one anyway). No, not Bachman Turner Overdrive. No, not Triumph. No, not Blue Rodeo. Drake isn’t a rock band. Neither is Justin Bieber. Quit guessing. It’s RUSH.
Rush was formed not far outside of Toronto by Alex Lifeson (guitar), John Rutsey (drums), and Jeff Jones (bass, vocals) in 1968. Jones lasted one show before choosing to go to a party instead of their second performance. (He would later go on to perform with Ocean, Red Rider, and Burton Cummings.) Lifeson and Rutsey would recruit Gary Weinrib to replace Jones, but this didn’t last long as their new manager disliked Gary’s image and vocal stylings. Several lineup changes and even a name change to “Hadrian” turned disastrous. Alex and John smoothed things over with their manager and Gary, reforming Rush by 1972 as a trio.
Gary had adopted his own new name at this point, using the sobriquet “Geddy” which was derived from his mother Manya’s pronunciation of “Gary” through her thick Polish accent. He changed his last name while he was at it, to “Lee”.
At first, Rush was a standard bar-band, playing what we now think of as classic rock covers with the occasional original in the same vein thrown in for good measure. Their own material at this point was essentially Led Zeppelin, but with John Paul Jones merged into Robert Plant and raised two octaves. Eventually, the band gained some notoriety as a group to watch out for, with skills honed through six or seven shows a week. Unable to secure a record deal, Rush released their debut self-titled album in 1974. The album caught on in America, which prompted a barnstorming tour and a deal with Mercury Records.
By this point, three things happened nearly simultaneously: Alex and Geddy started writing more complex material, John’s Type 1 Diabetes started having more complications, and John realized he disliked both touring and playing anything but simple rock music. Ultimately, John was unable to perform for several weeks, leading Alex and Geddy to split with him. After using fill-ins for the rest of the tour, they auditioned a handful of new drummers before settling on Hamilton, Ontario’s Neil Peart.
Almost immediately, Geddy and Alex handed over lyrical responsibilities to Neil, as he enjoyed it whereas the other two thought it was a chore. They began working on a new album, Fly By Night (title drop!) that was released in 1975. Their music transcended Zeppelin, veering more towards Uriah Heep or King Crimson with splashes of Yes or Floyd. The core was still firmly planted in standard blues-rock, though. It was a minor success both at home and in America, prompting a quick release of their third album Caress of Steel that same year.
Unfortunately, it did not resonate with audiences like the band had hoped, leading Mercury to consider dropping the band entirely. Their management did some fast talking, agreeing to release more accessible or commercial material in exchange for the resources to record another album.
A recurring theme in the history of Rush is that the band members don’t like being told what to do, by executives, marketers, or even their own audiences. Instead of making another Fly By Night, the band put together 2112 in 1976. They worked in secret from their management and the label, assembling a masterpiece of progressive rock that was at once uncommercial and obtuse while also being a monster hit with concertgoers and radio programmers working in album-oriented formats.
A lengthy tour of almost two years followed, including dates outside of North America for the first time. The live album from their Toronto shows All The World's a Stage captured them perfectly, resonating with audiences to the point where they had a Top 40 hit album for the first time.
Emboldened by the success of their new direction, Rush pivoted further towards a more complex sound with A Farewell to Kings in 1977 and Hemispheres in 1978. As the band matured musically, they made a conscious choice to rely only on their own performances during concerts. This meant that they each doubled on synthesizers, samplers, and bass pedals where necessary. Geddy was the principal vocalist, but Neil's occasional backing vocals were usually triggered off of a sampler attached to his ever growing drum kit rather than sung live. Most bands would rely on an instrument tech or a touring musician for these extra bits, but Rush is not most bands.
1980 saw the band attempt to find a middle ground between pure artistic whimsy and broad commercialism, as Permanent Waves featured shorter, radio friendly compositions rather than twenty minute long epics. Their live shows still incorporated the previous albums' longer songs, and frequently the shorter songs had improvisational sections. Due to the strength of their concerts, Rush was finally able to make money from ticket sales rather than merchandise and album sales.
The band's commercial peak was 1981’s Moving Pictures. “Tom Sawyer” was a bonafide chart topper and soon became a classic rock radio staple, as did “Limelight”. Demonstrating the ever growing paradigm of the band's sound, synthesizers and keyboards became more prominent to the point where Geddy's primary instrument shifted to his keyboards at the front of the stage. Another live album, Exit… Stage Left, was released in 1981, with some calling the versions on the recording the definitive takes.
Signals came out in 1982, with synthesizers and electronic instrumentation dominating the sonic landscape. The band's longtime producer Terry Brown grew uncomfortable with the shift away from traditional rock and roll, so 1984’s Grace Under Pressure saw the band co-produce themselves with assistance from Peter Henderson. Steve Lillywhite was initially tapped for the producer's role, but he ditched Rush for Simple Minds at the last minute.
Power Windows in 1985 and Hold Your Fire in 1987 continued the electronic experimentation, this time with production from Peter Collins. A third live album A Show of Hands came out in 1989, but critics were less than kind despite rabid fan approval. Presto in 1989 and Roll The Bones in 1991 were a return to more traditional arrangements, leaning less on synths and more on guitar. The band also loosened up a bit with form, utilizing funkier and jazzier ideas than previously. In particular, Neil began to train with jazz drummers in an attempt to refine his already formidable technique even further.
1993’s Counterparts and 1996’s Test for Echo were leaner, muscular albums, stripping away some of the electronic sheen in favor of more aggressive sounds. Unfortunately, the band took a hiatus in 1997 spurred by the death of Neil's daughter and wife in quick succession. Geddy worked on solo material during the break, releasing My Favorite Headache in 2000, while Alex continued his own excursions that be initiated in 1996 with the Victor project. A compilation of two different live performances was put out in 1998 entitled Different Stages, featuring tracks from many different concerts over twenty years of tours.
After regrouping in 2001, Rush released Vapor Trails the next year. It’s notable for two reasons: it’s the first album since Caress of Steel without any synthesizers or keyboards, and it’s nearly unlistenable in its original form as it was a casualty of the Loudness War in album mastering. The result is an album with no dynamics or variation in volume. Luckily, they remixed and remastered Vapor Trails in 2013 in a significant improvement.
In 2003 the band released a combination video and live album of their last performance on the Vapor Trails tour, Rush in Rio. It’s arguably the best concert crowd ever captured on film. If you click no other links in this article, click that one. It’s worth your time.
Rush took a little turn and recorded an EP of covers from their youth titled Feedback in 2004, followed by a worldwide tour celebrating thirty years of concerts aptly called R30. Snakes & Arrows came out in 2007, which launched another global series of shows. 2012 saw the release of Clockwork Angels, which would turn out to be the last new Rush studio album. In 2014, the band set out for a fortieth anniversary tour, this one called R40.
Alex, Neil, and Geddy were not getting younger, and their various injuries and ailments (Alex’s arthritis and Neil’s tendinitis chief among them) meant the end of large scale tours in 2015. By 2018, it became clear that the band would not be able to continue due to Neil’s then-private diagnosis of brain cancer, which would ultimately claim his life in 2020. Alex and Geddy have performed one-offs with guest drummers since, but both agree that it’s not Rush without Neil Peart. Thus ends one of the most technically proficient popular bands of all time.
Let’s get to the meat of the article: my top ten Rush songs of all time. As per usual, this is my opinion and my opinion only. If you don’t like it, get your own mildly successful music-centric newsletter. (No, seriously. Sign up here.) This list represents my capricious mood of the moment, and if you ask me twenty minutes later you’re liable to get a completely different list. I’m confining myself to original works credited to the primary artist, so no covers. Let’s get started, shall we?
10. Time Stand Still
Arguably the most mainstream-sounding song in the entire Rush catalog, “Time Stands Still” was the first single from 1987’s Hold Your Fire. For the first time, Rush incorporated another vocalist, in this case ‘Til Tuesday’s Aimee Mann. The song is still very Rush, though: the intro is in 7/4, while the basslines and drum parts are as intricate as any of their work.
9. Fly By Night
The first single from Fly By Night, and therefore the first Rush song to feature Neil Peart on both drums and lyrics. The frenetic agility of Geddy’s bass in the pre-chorus is matched by Neil’s rollicking drum part, while Alex’s chunky guitar part slams through the countermelodies to Geddy’s vocals. I’d say it’s their best “early era” song.
8. Show Don’t Tell
One of the best intros to any Rush song, the nimble funk-rock in the beginning has shades of Faith No More or the Red Hot Chili Peppers before giving way to a deeply syncopated verse with traces of acoustic guitar and sweeping synths. Two separate solo sections follow, highlighting the instrumental acumen of the band. Presto gets a bad rap, as does most late-period Rush, but this is genuinely good music.
7. Subdivisions
“Subdivisions” was the first keyboard-centric Rush song, but it demonstrates the flexibility of the band’s approach to songwriting. The focal synth part, vocals, and “lead bass” fall to Geddy while Alex’s guitar locks into Neil’s drum parts to form the rhythm section of the song. The drum parts, although filled with Peart’s usual flourishes, are more straightforward and rock-oriented than typical construction.
6. Tom Sawyer
(Rest in peace, Kerry Von Erich.) From Moving Pictures comes the “definitive” Rush song. It’s a masterwork in terms of using negative space; there are long stretches for each instrument where no notes are sounded, but the intricacies of the drumline “fill in” the gaps for you. The half-shuffle stutter-step pushes the song along while the fizzling synth slows the meter down with startling inertia. The guitar solo might be the best of Alex’s “traditional” solos, but pay attention to how Geddy comps: there is always something interesting being played, even in the background.
5. Limelight
The hero of this song is Alex and his Floyd Rose solo filled with divebombs and unnatural bends. He calls it his favorite solo to perform live, and who could blame him? He uses the then-relatively new invention to transform his guitar into a pseudo-theremin, giving a ghostly eminence to the melody. Structurally it’s one of the most “radio-friendly” songs of the Peart era, with a clearly defined verse/chorus/verse and a runtime under five minutes.
4. YYZ
I had to include an instrumental song in this list, so it fell to me to weed through their vast array. In the end I chose the most enduring of their instrumentals, Moving Pictures’ “YYZ”. Based on the Morse code for Pearson International Airport, it’s almost certainly the most popular song in western music with a 10/8 time signature in B Phrygian. The song itself has become a staple in the songbook of every band to dare call themselves “prog” for good reason. How many instrumentals have ever had a crowd of 40,000 singing along?
3. The Spirit of Radio
Cascading arpeggios are the name of the game here, filling the verses and pre-choruses with waves (perhaps Permanent Waves?) of sound. The guitar parts bristle in front of a muscular bassline that’s grooved into a dense drumline. Then all of a sudden there’s a reggae section? It’s somehow more surprising than, say “D’yer Maker”, but it works better. Finally, there’s a false finish or two to wrap it up. A radio staple for years, understandably so.
2. Closer To The Heart
Radio-ready pop in the vein of light Zeppelin? Yeah, Rush can do that too. The album A Farewell to Kings marked the first inclusion of non-power trio instruments, so there are prominent uses of bells, synthesizers, acoustic guitars, and bass pedals in this song. A lot of material is crammed into the three minute runtime of “Closer To The Heart”, but with this song they showed they can write pop songs with the best of them.
1. Freewill
The most musically ambitious Rush song ever, which covers a lot of ground. Shifting time signatures make this song virtually impossible to play correctly on drums; the majority of the song is in 13/4, with bits of 15/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 12/8 during the solos. Alex said that this was the most difficult guitar solo in the whole catalog. Alex Lifeson said it’s a bit tricky, so mere mortals should run away screaming. I know my limitations on all of these instruments: I can play a bit of bass, guitar, keyboards, and drums, but I have no prayer of making it more than eight measures in before I throw up my hands in shame. The vocals are also a highlight, with the highest range in any Rush track. Simply a masterpiece.
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