Rush 1973 - 1982 E-Book

Richard James

• Herausgeber: Sonicbond Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: On Track
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 259

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Rush, in their own words, ‘The World’s Biggest Cult Band’, started from humble beginnings: three suburban Canadian teenagers. Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, and John Rutsey formed a Led Zeppelin-influenced trio, eventually scratching a living playing the bars and clubs of their native Toronto. A hard work ethic, no small amount of talent, and a slice of good fortune enabled their first self-financed and distributed album to gain a foothold in the American market.
And then, on the eve of their first American tour, drummer Rutsey quit. Fortune smiled on them again when auditions for a replacement produced Neil Peart, who could not only drum like a demon but was adept at lyric writing. Sharing a love of the then emerging progressive rock scene, the trio embarked on crafting a series of albums from the ‘second’ debut, Fly By Night, to the career-defining and best-selling masterpiece Moving Pictures. Records which would secure them a permanent place in the rock hierarchy.
This book, the first volume of two, examines all these albums up to Signals, their 1982 release, which saw the band embracing keyboard technology and severing their connections with long-time producer Terry Brown, the unofficial fourth member of this remarkable trio.

Richard James immersed himself in music as soon as he got his first real six-string at the age of ten. Previously chained to a desk for a living, he broke free, armed with a music degree from the Open University and a Licentiate Diploma in Classical Guitar from the Royal School of Music, and proceeded to roam the East Midlands as a freelance guitarist and music teacher. He lives with his wife in Leicestershire, UK, and when not involved with music, he enjoys foreign travel and playing chess badly.

Leseprobe

Rush 1973 - 1982

Every Album, Every Song

On Track

Richard James

Sonicbond Publishing Limited

www.sonicbondpublishing.co.uk

Email: [email protected]

First Published in the United Kingdom 2024

First Published in the United States 2024

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:

A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright Richard James 2024

ISBN 978-1-78952-338-6

The right of Richard James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Sonicbond Publishing Limited

Contents

Social Media

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Rush

2. Fly By Night

3. Caress Of Steel

4. 2112

5. All The World’s A Stage

6. A Farewell To Kings

7. Different Stages – Disc 3 – 20 February 1978

8. Hemispheres

9. Permanent Waves

10. Moving Pictures

11. Exit – Stage Left

12. Signals

…To Be Continued …

The Best Of Brown

Social Media

Follow us on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SonicbondP

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sonicbondpublishing_/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SonicbondPublishing/

Linktree QR code:

Acknowledgments

My thanks are due to the following people:

Mike Rawsthorne, for reading everything I write and agreeing with me most of the time; Alison James, for explaining the long words and reminding me why grammar is important; Dotty Trippier, for being my best guitar student and introducing me to the music of McFly.

Introduction

Enter Stage Left …

Some school friendships last a lifetime. Bands formed in teenage years, however, rarely last into adulthood. If they do, any form of success is unusual. This puts Gershon Eliezer Weinrib and Aleksandar Živojinović in a unique position. Add in, slightly later, Neil Ellwood Peart, and you have a highly potent, exceptionally talented, progressive heavy rock trio, which would be eventually awarded the Order of Canada and be included in the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. In short, Rush.

The trio would become musical heroes to a massive fan base with statistics that may amaze those unfamiliar with their work. Over 43 million album sales, promoted by over 2000 concerts; a five-decade career; 20 studio and 11 live albums, and some of the best rock music ever recorded, is an unmatched record for a band which, with one early exception, maintained the same line up throughout their career. In terms of album sales alone, Rush are only bested by The Beatles (four members) and The Rolling Stones (five members). So, from a mathematical standpoint alone, they offer the highest ratio of talent per player to quantifiable success. Numbers and statistics really matter to some people. For the trio from Ontario, not so much. They just wanted to play the music they wanted to play, their way or not at all. It was only and always the music that mattered. Everything that followed (fame, fortune and occasional despair) was merely a consequence of doing what they were best at, a fact that many legions of fans across the globe can attest to.

This book reviews the band’s output from their debut album in 1974 to 1982’s Signals – a pivotal album that saw the trio immerse themselves more and more in the prevailing musical trends of the period (New Wave, ska, and reggae). Signals was also the final album that long-term producer and unofficial fourth man Terry Brown would work on with the band. I refer to the incarnation of the band with John Rutsey as Rush 1.0 and his seminal replacement with Neil Peart as Rush 2.0.

Becoming one of the most successful power trios in the history of rock was not bad work for three adolescents who saw themselves as outsiders in their teenage Toronto suburbs, finding solace, focus, and a future in music. And even with all their accumulated fame and fortune, Lee, Lifeson, and Peart never felt part of the mainstream, revelling in being regarded as the ‘world’s largest cult band’. As musicians, Rush have enjoyed enormous respect and have consistently appeared at the top of critics’ lists for their instrumental mastery. They have been nominated for 35 Juno Awards; they were Canada’s ‘Group of the Decade’ in the 1980s and were named ‘Musicians of the Millennium’ by the Harvard Lampoon, the satirical magazine; a joke that the band were happy to receive as a foil to their perceived seriousness.

Weinrib (Lee) and Zivojinovic (Lifeson) met at Fisherville Junior High, in the Willowdale district of Toronto. They bonded over jokes, sports and especially music. In a 2016 interview with Classic Rock magazine, Alex remembered that they became best friends, while Geddy recalled:

We were sons of Eastern European immigrants who had left Europe after the Second World War to start a new life in Canada. So we were both a little bit different. My parents were Polish Jews, survivors of the Holocaust. They met when they were thirteen at a work camp, and they were both in Auschwitz for a time. My mom had such a strong Jewish accent, which is how I ended up being known as Geddy instead of Gary, my real name and basically, it stuck.

Alex continued:

I’m a first-generation Canadian. Both my parents were Serbian. They actually met in Canada after the war. They had come over as refugees. My father had been married before, to a Serbian woman. They had married in Italy, and my sister was born there. They tried to get into the States, but they were denied and then sent to Canada. In cities like Toronto, they didn’t really want these people, but Eastern Europeans could find work in the mines in British Columbia, and my mother’s family worked on a farm. My father’s first wife died, and some years later, he met my mother. We eventually moved to Toronto in the early 50s because there were greater opportunities there.

Across the road from the Lifeson family lived the Rutseys, and Alex befriended their son, John. Geddy and Alex soon acquired guitars and jammed together at school. Afterwards, they would frequently go their separate ways with Alex playing music with John, who had a set of drums. Alex and Geddy would perform together occasionally, especially after Geddy acquired an amplifier.

Rutsey and Lifeson formed a band called The Projection, with Jeff Jones on bass and vocals. It was Bill Rutsey, John’s brother, who suggested a name change to Rush. By the spring of 1968, Geddy, too, had joined his first band, a loan from his mother securing him his first bass.

In September 1968, Rush were offered a regular, paid gig on Friday nights at The Coff-In, a coffee bar in a church basement. While Rutsey and Lifeson were excited by the development, Jones didn’t share their enthusiasm and didn’t show up for the show. Alex called Geddy to fill in, and after a short rehearsal, he joined the band. It was also at The Coff-In that the band was noticed by a young promoter-to-be, Ray Danniels. In the Classic Rock interview, Geddy remembered:

I was a pretty shy kid. I didn’t really want to be a frontman. I was just the one with the best voice – or the most appropriate voice! So, stepping out in front was not a natural thing for me. I had to learn how to deal with it. John used to announce the songs, and he was totally good at it, really funny, a real acerbic wit. And in those early days, John was the leader of the band, to all intents and purposes. He was a very opinionated guy – about music, about what he thought the band should be, how we should look.

In Martin Popoff’s book Contents Under Pressure, Alex gave an insight into the band’s earliest gigs:

We knew maybe seven or eight songs – mostly Cream and Hendrix – and we would just play them over and over, repeatedly throughout the night. And through the rest of the week, we would get together and rehearse and learn more songs. We started writing right from the beginning. And we continued doing that gig pretty much on a weekly basis until the spring of 1969. The first gig we played there, there were probably 30 people. By that spring, there were about 200, 250 people. The place was packed. And we had two solid sets of material, and that was a real treat; it was so exciting. We got ten bucks for that first gig. And by the spring, we were getting 35 bucks a week, so it was quite a big increase. Then we started playing high school dances, other drop-in centres, things like that. We continued doing that for the most part until ‘71, I guess when they lowered the drinking age to 18. And then, all of a sudden, there were all these bars you could play in.

The band started to write as much original material as they could, slotting new creations into their sets, which were otherwise dominated by the music of Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and The Who. In the Classic Rock interview, Alex noted:

It was a really great training period for us. At first, the gigs were indifferent, not much interest, maybe a dozen people. But the better that we got at it, we started to develop a following. Word spread, and we became a good draw. After a year of playing clubs, the shows were packed.

Danniels volunteered to be the band’s manager. Bookings flowed in, and rehearsals, repertoire, and equipment increased. The musical emphasis shifted from the blues-rock stylings of Cream to the heavier side of the Led Zeppelin sound, with Lee adapting his singing style accordingly. Lyric writing for the band’s growing repertoire of original material fell to Rutsey as neither Lee nor Lifeson were confident in their ability as wordsmiths. Belief in their songwriting grew with more of their own songs featuring in gigs, although Rutsey was less enthusiastic about the developing musical direction preferred by Lifeson and Lee.

Rush decided to turn professional. Soon, they were gigging most nights of the week, although venues reacted less favourably when they played at excessive volume or performed their own unknown compositions. By the end of 1971, they had a regular gig at the Abbey Road pub, which paid $1,000 a time. This meant an investment in better equipment and transportation.

By the end of 1972, the band’s reputation was building. Hard work on the live circuit ensured an expanding fan base, the balance between cover songs and original material was shifting still further, and they had enough material to record an album. A lengthy demo tape was sent to Canadian record companies, who summarily rejected the trio. Unrepentant, they continued with regular gigging.

In early 1973, Danniels joined forces with another promoter, Vic Wilson, to form SRO (Standing Room Only) Productions. Danniels and Wilson encouraged the band to release a single and created their own record label, Moon Records. Fearing that Rush’s own compositions might not be the winning hand to play, the band were persuaded to cover the Buddy Holly song ‘Not Fade Away’, with an original tune, ‘You Can’t Fight It’ as the B-side. These were recorded at Eastern Sound Studios in Toronto under the clueless direction of David Stock.

A few hundred copies were pressed, with Danniels going into promotional overdrive with record companies and radio stations, all to no avail. The single vanished into rightful obscurity, with the remaining copies being sold at a loss at gigs. The first time I heard these songs was thanks to a recording placed on YouTube. The single has never been formally re-released or added as a bonus track to a CD, which, in all honesty, we should all be thankful for.

Not Fade Away Single

‘Not Fade Away’ (Norman Petty/Charles Hardin) (3.15)

Buddy Holly’s famous song from 1957 gets an early mauling, the band taking inspiration for their performance from The Rolling Stones’ own cover version of the track released in 1964.

The vocals? Well, the word ‘helium’ springs to mind. Lee’s double-tracked voice sounds just plain weird in the context of this famous song. It’s easy to understand why this version of the band struggled to secure a record deal. As a piece of Rush history ‘Not Fade Away’ is an interesting curio, but it does nothing at all to suggest future glories. The recorded sound is weak and underpowered; Rutsey sounds like he is playing on shoe boxes, and while the guitar has some excellent power-chord moments, the bass merely burbles away in the background. This cover of a cover of a classic pop hit goes on for too long, illustrated by a curious ‘vocals only’ section at 2.10.

This is where it should have stopped, but then we are at least treated to an early example of Lifeson’s talent with a bluesy, distorted guitar solo in the overly long play-out.

‘You Can’t Fight It’ (Lee/Rutsey) (2.52)

This is, strangely, more like it, but only given that ‘Not Fade Away’ is such a low bar to get over. ‘You Can’t Fight It’ is an energetic bluesy composition with an interesting ‘heavy country’ opening riff and Lee sounding more like, well, himself. Rutsey has some decent drum fills in the chorus, and Lifeson throws in another impressive solo, full of attack and melody. The track comes across as a heavy pop-rock shuffle with plenty of musical ideas allied to some truly dreadful lyrics: ‘Rock and roll ‘til you lose control. Go down, fall down, not too far’. Despite this terrible handicap, ‘You Can’t Fight It’ is markedly better than the A-side, although the clichéd, big rock ending does it no favours.

In the Classic Rock interview, Alex recalled:

It was a song that people knew and could identify with, rather than an original Rush song. The feeling from management was: let’s do something that people will get as an introduction. I think that was bad advice. Playing that song live was great. We played it quite heavy. It sounded really good. But the recorded version was terrible.

In the absence of outside interest, Danniels decided that the band should release an independent album as a calling card. This was recorded in five days, on a very tight budget, at Eastern Sound, with the inexperienced Stock once again behind the desk. By now, Rutsey was feeling pressure from two directions. A diabetes sufferer, the band’s punishing schedule was damaging his health, and he wasn’t happy with Lifeson’s and Lee’s emerging and preferred progressive rock direction.

Vic Wilson suggested a fresh pair of hands and ears might perform the required trick. Terry Brown had been an engineer back in the United Kingdom, from where he hailed, before moving to Canada in 1969. With his business partner Douglas Riley, Brown opened Toronto Sound in the same year. SRO provided the funds for a remixing of the songs. Brown also offered a critical ear and suggested that ‘Not Fade Away’ be dropped in favour of another band original, ‘Finding My Way’. ‘You Can’t Fight It’ similarly bit the proverbial studio dust. In Anthem – Rush In The Seventies, also by Martin Popoff, Geddy reflected upon the significance of Brown’s input and effect on the nascent Rush sound:

He just had this air of ‘I know what’s wrong with it, and I know which songs are lousy, which you should drop, and do you have any other songs?’ And we threw some songs together and played them, and he picked A, B, and C, and we thought, ‘This guy is really cool, this guy knows what he’s doing.’ And then we went into his studio and started re-recording some parts and recording the new songs, and they sounded how we wanted them to sound. And we were just so blown away by that; he became the father figure right away. He turned a terrible disaster into something we were proud of – he knew exactly what to do. He was kind of a wizard character to us. We thought he was amazing. He was so nice and so considerate and got the best out of us, and we immediately had this warm feeling about the guy. He became our mentor for a lot of reasons like that. He was always very decisive with us. And he was always so ‘This is the right thing to do; this is not the right thing’ He had a very responsible attitude towards work, and he would work all hours.

Chapter1

Rush

Personnel:

Geddy Lee: lead vocals, bass

Alex Lifeson: guitars, backing vocals

John Rutsey: drums, percussion, backing vocals

Recording locations:

‘Finding My Way’, ‘Need Some Love’ and ‘Here Again’:

Toronto Sound Studios ‘Take A Friend’ and ‘In The Mood’:

Eastern Sound Studios

‘What You’re Doing’, ‘Before And After’ and ‘Working Man’: Eastern Sound Studios, remixed by Terry Brown at Toronto Sound

Released: 1 March 1974 on Moon Records

All tracks by Lee and Lifeson, unless noted Produced by Rush and

Terry Brown

All songs composed by Lee & Lifeson, except ‘In The Mood’ by Lee

Chart positions: Canada: 86, US: 105, UK: did not chart

Terry Brown knew exactly what he was doing. He captured a far more immediate, aggressive and realistic sound of Rush 1.0 in his studio, and an excited band prepared to unleash their first offering on the world to initially very little effect…

When is a Rush album not a Rush album? Rush is the sound of a band, ahem, finding their way. For fans that joined post-Peart, this is the release that doesn’t sound ‘right’. My own early Rush buying experience went backwards in time, starting with All The World’s A Stage as a ‘taster’ and then, once hooked, buying the other four albums in reverse order, as it were. By the time I got to Rush, I did wonder whether the right vinyl had been placed in the single sleeve – it was that strange. Only Lee’s vocals and the pounding heaviness of Lifeson’s guitar convinced me that I hadn’t been sold a dud.

Whilst the music is decidedly different to that of the early post-Peart performances, showing strong signs of the band’s early influences, the main problem is the lyrics. During pre-recording rehearsals, Rutsey, the main writer, destroyed his work at the last minute. Accounts vary as to why this happened; Rutsey was plagued by bad moods, he had health issues and Lee is on record as believing that Rutsey actually feared success. Whatever the truth, at this crucial stage in the band’s career, they had the music but not the words. The job was left to Lee. And it shows. Geddy takes much of the blame and credit for completing this race under pressure.

The cover, a garish affair, was by Paul Weldon. Of course, this being an album which did not have the backing of a major label, the cloth must be cut accordingly. At least the design leaves the purchaser in no doubt as to what they are going to hear; the artwork is as much ‘in your face’ as the sound is ‘in your ears’. Basic, but effective. The now iconic eponymous title logo is bright pink (the original pressing was issued in red), exploding towards us with cartoon-style debris in the background. Designed to portray the music’s power and energy, it just looks, unsurprisingly, cheap. On the reverse, the band are shown as individual black and white head-shot rocks flying towards us. Lifeson has a typical ‘serious rock’ look; Rutsey is, bizarrely, smiling, and Lee wears his best poker face expression. All three are backlit to suggest more power coming from (beneath, between) and behind them.

‘Finding My Way’ (5.05)

Things get off to a reasonably satisfying, if unspectacular, start. Notable mainly for the distinctive vocals and melodically aggressive guitar work, ‘Finding My Way’ is a solid lump of four-to-the-floor, early Zeppelin-esque, heavy blues rock.

It fades in with a riff panning left to right in the stereo channels; Lee makes a dramatic appearance with ‘Yeah, oh yeah’ and continues with the sub-optimal lyrics (‘Who am I? I’m coming out to getcha!’), straight out of the Robert Plant playbook. Bass and drums add musical stabs and a steady rhythmic tempo sets in at 0.46. Far away from the lyrical themes which Rush version two would explore, the chorus begins with ‘I’m finding, finding my way back home.’ Where, exactly, have you been? This conundrum is never resolved.

A second verse and chorus lead into a new ‘walking blues’ riff at 2.29, a further chorus line, and a first solo for Lifeson, which is played out over the verse chord progression. At 3.37, there is a more interesting instrumental section with some harmonised guitar lines in between Lee’s ‘Shah!’ vocals. Another chorus is followed by a brief repeat of the introduction. Verse one was so good that apparently it is granted a reappearance as the last instalment with a final chorus before the song comes to a tight close.’ ‘Finding My Way’ is a decent opener, but that’s all it is.

‘Need Some Love’ (2.19)

Oh dear. ‘I’m running here, I’m running there, I’m looking for a girl’ The rest of the first verse gets no better and ‘Need Some Love’ is a prime example of why record companies heard nothing to electrify the ears when they listened to the album.

This was the first original song to be recorded. According to an interview Lifeson gave to MusicRadar in 2011, it was written by Rutsey and Lee, although Lifeson is often credited as Lee’s writing partner for the track. Lyrics notwithstanding, ‘Need Some Love’ is a brisk little blues rocker which slows to a half-time feel for the choruses.

Interest is awakened after the second chorus with a heavy instrumental section (1.22 – 1.50), which features some excellent slide guitar playing and a suitably anguished-sounding, bluesy solo. After the third chorus, this section is briefly repeated, leading to another crisp ending. Unspectacular and mostly disappointing, at least ‘Need Some Love’ doesn’t trouble the ears for too long.

‘Take A Friend’ (4.24)

If you ever need to organise a rock music trivia pub quiz, have this one on me:

What’s the connection between the 21st-century English pop-rock band McFly and legendary Canadian progressive rockers Rush?

The answer is the opening 30 seconds of McFly’s 2023 song ‘Land Of The Bees’ and the introduction to ‘Take A Friend’. They say ‘inspired by’; I say ‘carbon copy of, with a few extra notes added’. McFly have admitted to a strong liking for Rush’s music. Lee and Lifeson have yet to return the compliment. Despite this similarity, the listener’s attention is immediately engaged. Oddly, this is the only time, to my limited knowledge, that McFly have incorporated Rush’s influence into their music. True, their respective styles are not exactly congruent. True, this is an apparent one-off. Yet, it’s an intriguing link between two very different bands.

Okay, beer glasses down, back to the track. Initially, ‘Take A Friend’ shows real promise. A revolving, rising arpeggio pattern in 6/8 time fades in, adding some interesting parallel fifth and octave harmonies. This first showing of semi-prog inventiveness comes to an end 27 seconds in, as a medium-tempo riff of vaguely Lynyrd Skynyrd-esque proportions lumbers over the horizon and squats over most of the rest of the track.

The chorus has some nicely harmonised vocals, culminating in ‘So good!’ which a healthy dose of delay has added to it. After a second verse and chorus, Lifeson has a stirring solo despite the restrictions of the underlying chord sequence. By 2.49, it’s time for a third verse which maintains the lyrical quality established thus far: ‘Yes, you need some advice, so let me put it to you nice.’ Another chorus, then a fourth and a fifth (it’s not that good) verse follow, and then, suddenly, the music takes a savage and unexpected left- hand turn back to the introduction. The arpeggios slow, a lot of reverb is added to the mix, and the track slows to a puzzling, inconclusive close.

In a 2023 interview with Laura Cooney for Entertainment Forum, Danny Jones said ‘‘Land Of The Bees’ (was) our first ever song that was inspired by Rush. (It) has a 7/4 time signature in it, and if you don’t concentrate through that one, you’re gonna get lost!’

Seriously, though, give the McFly song a listen. It’s really good … and if you must steal, steal from the best. Yes, Tom Fletcher, I’m looking at you!

‘Here Again’ (7.34)

Ballad Warning! Slower of speed and more spacious in texture, with some unexpected acoustic guitar behind the verse vocals, ‘Here Again’ is a welcome change of pace and mood. Again, the blues is strong in this one, with Lee straining at the top of his range, full of emotion as he sings Lifeson’s lyrics.

There are some beautiful guitar arpeggios washing to and fro in the background, growing ever more powerful. Finally, at the end of the second verse, the music moves from its minor key (Em) into the relative major (G) for the soaring chorus. This is the best section of the track and the album thus far; it’s strong, highly melodic, and possesses an epic stature and power.

At 4.37, Lifeson steps forward for a lengthy, tasteful solo, which makes much use of the space between his notes and phrases to create an impressive atmosphere. Although being firmly rooted in the blues his playing shows plenty of sparks of genuine originality and feel. The lines rise and fall against the underlying chord progression, growing in intensity and complexity but never losing sight of the importance of a melodic structure. At 6.33, the chorus reappears to bring this impressive beast to a close with a final solo over the chorus chord sequence and a slowing to the last chord.

‘What You’re Doing’ (4.22)

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, will you please welcome back … Led Zeppelin!’ Well, obviously not, but Jimmy Page could lay fair claim to writing the excellent funk-based riff, which is the backbone of this track. Lee’s vocals and lyrics also have echoes of Robert Plant. After markedly derivative first and second verses, things become more interesting at 1.08 with a descending seven-note semitone-based riff with the guitar and bass playing in octaves. Verse three follows, with a guitar solo appearing at 2.03.

Again, individuality raises its worthy head at 2.31, where his repeated descending phrase is matched by some thunderous drumming (this is the first time where Rutsey has sounded like anything more than necessary aural wallpaper), and this idea is repeated at 2.41, and again, very briefly, at 2.50. The repeated, descending semitone riff makes a reappearance before the fourth verse at 3.27, ending with a section of big power chords and some fretboard flurries.

‘What You’re Doing’ has some genuine moments of inspiration, but these are swamped by the band wearing their influences so openly on their sleeves. There’s nothing wrong with admiring Led Zeppelin, of course, but ‘What You’re Doing’ has more going for it and would be stronger if Rush’s latent creativity was front and centre of the composition.

‘In The Mood’ (Lee) (3.33)

‘And the award for ‘Dullest Song on the Debut’ goes to …’ Well, it’s a close run thing, but ‘In The Mood’ just clinches it. Whether it’s the sluggish opening riff, the irritating cowbell, the general lack of genuine rock energy, or the woeful words, there’s very little here to raise the pulse rate.

The chorus, while musically strong, is lyrically awful: ‘Hey baby, it’s a quarter to eight, I feel I’m in the mood. Hey baby, the hour is late, I feel I’ve got to move.’ Without wishing to pick unnecessary, if glaring, holes, ‘a quarter to eight’ is not, unless you are very elderly or seriously infirm, a late hour. ‘In The Mood’ is your standard blues-rock stop-gap, and even Lifeson’s solo at 1.40 sounds like he is merely playing through the motions, not helped by the underpowered tempo or the overall sense of underachievement in all departments.

Another chorus, a repeat of the main riff, and a final verse including the painful words ‘I just want to rock and roll you woman, till the night is done’ sets up the ‘can’t come too soon’ ending of a brisk power chord finish.

Bearing in mind this is the ‘Terry Brown enhanced’ mix, one can only imagine how woeful ‘In The Mood’ would have sounded if the calloused and clumsy production fingers of David Stock had got to grips with this track.

That’s one mix I would pay good money not to have to listen to.

Strangely, ‘In The Mood’ would feature in the band’s live set for far longer than it should. It’s fair enough that during the very early years with Peart, the band would play material from their debut album on stage, but almost any other track from Rush would have been a preferable choice. Yes, ‘In The Mood’ would sound better and more energetic in a live setting (almost any song does), but it’s still the low point here.

‘Before And After’ (5.34)

‘Before And After’ is two songs in one, each independent of the other. It is also the first song which hints at where Lifeson and Lee had their sights set. The opening part (which lasts until 2.17) is entirely instrumental. It is quite beautiful, with an evocative blend of guitar arpeggios and ‘natural’ harmonics (the bell-like tones produced by touching a string directly above a fret rather than pressing the string into the guitar fretboard). The music builds until at 1.11 where a distorted guitar develops the chord progression, with Lee taking a more prominent role in the mix. We can hear here Lee’s development of the bass as the integral, melodic element of the band’s future sound. The music quietens again at 1.48, with a nice interplay between bass and cymbals. The chords grow in power and suddenly, we are into the second song at 2.17.

And it is at this point that all that is good is swiftly undone with the return of the blues-rock sound. There’s nothing wrong with this chugging rocker, but this section lacks the creativity and melodic strength of the ‘Before’ section.

The track becomes heavily drum-centric at 3.16 and is helped by a soaring contribution from Lifeson at 3.48. The final verse features the lines ‘Now my story’s over’ and it was at this point when writing my notes for this review I realised I hadn’t been paying a blind bit of attention to what the lyrics were about, which speaks volumes. The song reaches an excellent climax with Lee putting his voice under maximum stress for the final rising ‘Yeah’!

‘Working Man’ (7.10)

And here it is! This is the perfect example of saving the very best until the last. ‘Working Man’ gave the band a foothold on success. It opens with a crushing guitar riff of industrial proportions and ferocity. This introduction alone pushes the majority of the rest of Rush