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Rush was formed
in Toronto, Canada in the late 1960s. The original members were
Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and John Rutsey. Eventually, Geddy got
kicked out of the band and was replaced by Jeff Jones. After a
while, John contacted Geddy about reforming the band. The band
reformed with Geddy on the bass guitar and vocals, Alex Lifeson on lead
guitars and backing vocals, and John Rutsey on percussion and
backing vocals. The name Rush came before they went out to play a
concert. They needed a name, and fast. They got the name Rush
because they were in a "rush" to come up with a band name. Their
first professional recording was done in Toronto, Canada in 1973. It
was a 7" LP with two songs. The songs were Not Fade Away (A
cover of the Buddy Holly song) and one of their own, You Can't Fight
It. The record didn't do very well. It sold a few copies and
got no air play. They thought a good way to promote the band was to
come out with a full length album. Their self-titled album, Rush was
released in 1974. The album did fairly well and received some air
play. Their manager at the time, Ray Daniels, passed a copy to his
friend, an A&M Records representative. It eventually landed in
the hands of Donna Halper, a program director for a radio station in
Cleveland, Ohio. She asked the DJ to play their song Working Man to
see how it went over with the listeners. The audience loved
it. Arrangements were made to get the record distributed to
Cleveland. Cleveland couldn't get enough of Rush. Daniels
managed to get Rush an opening spot for a ZZ Top concert. Not long
after, Rush signed a deal with Mercury Records and a 5 month supporting
tour was being planned. Just two weeks before their first major US
Tour, John Rutsey announced that he was leaving the band. His
reasons were his health conditions (he suffers from diabetes) and he
didn't have the same ideas about the band's direction it was going
in. Now they needed a new drummer. During the second day
of auditions, Neil Peart showed up. He was a much better
drummer than John. It took Alex a bit of convincing from Geddy to
accept Neil into the band, but on July 29, 1974, Neil Peart became a permanent
member of Rush.
Rush has come out with many albums. Twenty-eight to be exact. Their second album was Fly by Night. During this time, they started to create a style of their own. During the same year, they came out with their third album, Caress of Steel. In 1976, they came out with 2112, their fourth album. This is often called Rush's Breakthrough Album because this is when the world really started to take notice of Rush. This album probably has Rush's best song ever, 2112. It is a long, epic song that is over 20 minutes long. Later that year, Rush wanted to come out with a fifth album. They thought they had finished their first chapter as a band, so they decided to release a live album to celebrate. The album was called All the World's a Stage. In 1977, Rush came out with A Farewell to Kings. It reached the top 40 in the US. The most popular song on the album, and maybe their most popular ever was Closer to the Heart. In 1978 they came out with a sequel to A Farewell to Kings called Hemispheres. Two popular songs from that album were The Trees and La Villa Strangiato. The band achieved even greater popularity with the their 1980 album, Permanent Waves. Now Neil was starting to write shorter, less epic songs. Even with the change, the songs The Spirit of Radio and Freewill became instant classics. Permanent Waves was probably their second most popular album. Their most popular album came a year later in 1981. The album was called Moving Pictures. The song Tom Sawyer is probably their most popular and well known song. Other very successful songs were Limelight, Red Barchetta, and YYZ. Their next album was another live album called, Exit...Stage Left. Now Rush was starting to get a new sound. They were moving to more of a synth 80's sound. This can be seen in Signals' (1982) Subdivisions, Grace Under Pressure's (1984) Distant Early Warning and Red Sector A, Power Window's (1985) The Big Money, and Hold Your Fire's (1987) Force Ten and Time Stand Still. Rush released a third live album after Hold Your Fire called A Show of Hands. Now, reaching the 90s, they started to return to their heavy rock roots. They released 1989's Presto, 1991's Roll the Bones, and 1993's Counterparts. After 1998's live album, Different Stages, the band took a break. Neil was in the middle of a crisis and had officially left the band for a while. Six years later, in 2002, they came back with Vapor Trails and toured the US, Canada, Europe, and South America. They even released another live album called Rush in Rio. In June of 2004, they released Feedback, a cover album of all the songs that inspired them as children. Rush has won many awards, and has even been nominated for Grammy Awards in the past. The awards that they were nominated for were Best Rock Instrumental for YYZ in 1982, Best Rock Instrumental for Where's my Thing in 1991, Best Rock Instrumental for Leave that thing Alone in 1995, and Best Rock Instrumental for O Baterista in 2004. |
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