RUSH

By Zach Doom Music 1010-020

THE BAND MEMBERS

Geddy Lee Wienrib

Born July 29, 1953 From Willowdale,

Ontario Lead Singer and Bass

Player Father died when he

was 12 Zealous follower of the

Jewish faith when young

Started out playing guitar.

Met Alex in Jr. High

Alex Lifeson

Born August 27, 1953 From Fernie, British

Columbia. Moved to Toronto, Ontario.

Lead Guitarist and back up vocals

First instrument was the viola

Got his first guitar for Christmas when he was 12

Started the band

Neil Ellwood Peart

Born September 12, 1952 Grew up in a farm next to

Hamilton, Ontario Lead Drummer and lyricist Loves to read anything he

can get his hands on Got his first drum set at

the age of 14 Had low self of steam in

high school but found an outlet in drumming

Was in the band J.R. Flood before Rush

Joined Rush on July 29, 1974

THE HISTORY

The Beginning

Started playing for high school dances Huge success in bars after lowering the drinking

age to 18 in Canada With help from Terry Brown, a sound engineer,

released their first self debut album called rush. Had to get a record deal in America to survive Their first major hit in America was “Working

Man” played on the radio in Cleveland, Ohio They were originally mistaken for Led Zeppelin

because of Geddy’s singing style Shortly after this hit, they were signed by

Mercury Records

After Record Deal

Got their first tour around America in 1974

Released their second album “Fly By Night” in 1975

Almost as successful as their first debut album

Contained their first epic “Bytor and the Snow Dog”

Caress of Steel

Came out after their first tour in 1976

Not as successful as “Fly By Night”

Almost ruined their career

Very different sound compared to the other two albums

Record company wanted them to make a more “Commercially” friendly album after “Caress of Steel”

2112 Came out in 1976 Huge risk for the band The main sond 2112 was too

long for radio so fans had to either buy the album or see them live to hear it.

The song 2112 lasted 20 minutes and consisted of 7 parts

Based on the writings of Ayn Rand

Gained a large amount of popularity with touring.

Credited for saving Rush’s career

Earned them the freedom to write the music they want

After Major Success

With the gain in popularity, Rush toured over seas in the UK

While in the UK recorded “A Farewell To Kings” and “Hemispheres”

Began to explore with a large plethora of instruments and sounds

New synthesizer sounds and percussion along with guitar effects

Started to play with complex time signatures

Early 80’s

Albums include, Permanent Waves (1980) Moving Pictures (1981) Signals (1982)

Hits include. Spirit of the radio Freewill Tom Sawyer Limelight

Changed their writing to more radio friendly lengths

Ended the Epic’s Era

Late 80’s

Albums Include, Grace Under Pressure(1984) Power Windows (1985) Hold Your Fire (1987) Presto (1989)

More of that iconic 80’s sounds

Largely Keyboard and electric effects driven

These albums made Rush lose grip on their older fans

Except for the exception of album Presto which is more considered their 90’s Phase

The 90’s

Albums include, Roll the Bones

(1991) Counterparts (1993) Test for Echo(1996)

Moved away from their 80’s style

More guitar driven Less keyboards

and effects

Conclusion

In conclusion, Rush is a great band to look at musically because you can really visualize them growing as the band did. All three of the band members are idols musically and have influenced many of the bands we have today in some way. I would really encourage anyone to check them out and enjoy them such as I have over the few years that I have known their music.

LISTENING EXAMPLE

Xanadu

Xanadu is about 11 minutes long Considered one of Rush’s Epics Off of the album “Farewell to Kings” The song is half Instrumental and half lyrical Based on the poem “Kubla Kahn” by Samuel Taylor

Coleridge Xanadu is the magical summer palace of the

Chinese emperor Kubla Kahn Written in the perspective of a man looking for

Xanadu to gain eternal life from the fountain within Listen to it here,

http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/rush/album/a-farewell-to-kings/track/xanadu

Listening guide

0:00 ,The beginning is all instrumental. It starts off with this spacy sounding guitar with some birds in the background. This builds up the magical feel of the place of Xanadu being described in the song. It is done freely with no set tempo or meter.

0:15, Here comes some percussion as wood blocks to just kind of give it the oriental feel.

0:35, Now the percussion enters with some chimes to give the piece a magical feeling.

0:45, The guitar now is starting to get some structure and is playing a melody and I believe is imitating the sound of a violin.

1:25, The guitar is starting to get less free and more structured. The Quadruple meter is starting to come into play as you can feel it coming together. The percussions come in with a bell and adds like a descending echo effect to it towards the end.

1:51, Electric guitar begins to fade in with the first motif of the song. It slowly builds and takes the listener out of the free feeling intro.

2:02,The rest of the band now joins in with the keyboards, drums, and bass. The guitar is still continuing the motif that it faded in with. The drums and bass are emphasizing the down beat of every measure making it easy to feel the pulse of the song.

2:53, Now begins the first theme of the piece with the guitar and bass share in sequence with each other. Even though the meter is 4/4, they have a nice pick up note at the end of every measure that kind of makes it sound like it is pulling you along through this part.

3:24, The guitar and the bass share the theme and have a descending conclusion to the first theme of the song.

3:35, The meter now chances to 7/8 and the tempo slightly increases. The guitar has the foundation of chords while the synthesizer plays a melody on top.

3:55, You can now hear the meter better with the bass and drums

Listening guide (continued)

4:18, The meter goes back to 4/4 but now it has a half time feel. This is the section of the piece that end the instrumental part.

4:52, The song still has the half time feel but now the lyric begin with the verse. I believe with the way the drums and bass blend it kind of imitates a man walking around heading off on his adventure to the holy land of Xanadu.

5:21, The half feel ends and the music increases with tempo and with intensity as the adventurer starts his treacherous journey over the mountains and the caves to reach the pleasure dome.

5:50, The tempo slows down and it goes back to the half time feel as the adventurer arrives at his destination. There is a nice magical feel to this part as he describes the pleasure dome.

6:58, It returns to that first theme of the song. I believe this part shows the excitement of the adventurer upon receiving immortality.

7:38, The verse returns as the adventurer describes the woes of being immortal and how it is now a curse and that he wishes for death.

8:52, The song goes back to the half time feel as the adventurer claims that he will never go back to Xanadu because it has turned him into a mad immortal man.

9:10, The song still has that half time feel. Now comes the guitar solo. the guitar solo comes almost as a conclusion to the song. This is where you can hear the musical ability of the guitar player.

10:14, The guitar now returns to the first motif to bring the song to an end and the bass guitar has a pleasing solo on top of the guitar in the background.

References

Banasiewicz, Bill (1990). Rush Visions: The Official Biography.   Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage Documentary (2010)

The official Rush band website www.rush.com  Interview of Alex Lifeson done by Guitar World Magazine (2008)

Interview of Geddy Lee done by Bass Player Magazine (2007)

 “Kubla Kahn”, University of Virginia Library. (1797)

Neil Peart (2002) Ghost rider: Travels on the Healing Road

Rush in Rio (2003) the Behind the Scenes  Alfred Music Publishing: Bass Anthology Rush