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THOUGH not widely
recognized among rock critics with breaking any new ground, the
Canadian power trio of bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and
drummer Neil Peart has experienced tremendous success since its
formation, notching twenty-three consecutive gold and platinum
records, the third-longest string behind the Beatles and the Stones
(and tied with KISS) in popular-music history.
Formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1968, by Lee,
Lifeson, and original drummer John Rutsey (who departed with an
illness in 1973), Rush began as a cover outfit, playing material by
such bands as Iron Butterfly and Cream. With the addition of drummer
Peart in 1974, the band began experimenting with more adventurous,
often epic-length song structures, and essentially became progressive
rockers. All three members were adroit, even virtuosic musicians, and
Peart also brought with him a flair for intelligent, mythological/fantasy-based
lyrics. The trio went on to make inspired art rock, with a kind of
King Crimson-meets-Led Zeppelin dynamic led by Lee's wailing,
high-pitched vocals.
Rush first rose to prominence in 1976, when,
after three undistinguished efforts, the trio released the futuristic
concept album 2112, based on the Ayn Rand novel Anthem.
("Anthem" was also a song on the band's 1975 album Fly by
Night, and became the name of their record label in Canada.) 2112--which
followed the story of the main character's battle against and triumph
over an impersonal, high-tech society--set Rush on a stylistic course
that would remain a template for many of its later releases.
In 1980, the band's eighth album, Permanent
Waves, enjoyed overwhelming success, with a pair of tracks ("Freewill"
and particularly "Spirit of the Radio") even becoming minor
hits on album-oriented rock radio stations. The album marked the
advent of a creatively fruitful and commercially golden period for the
band; its follow-up, Moving Pictures (1981), sold more than
four million copies, largely on the strength of the single "Tom
Sawyer," which remains the most recognizable song in the band's
canon. Signals (1982), the third in a triad of remarkable
records, also sold well and produced another radio hit in "New
World Man." The trio of albums introduced a more refined,
commercially viable sound, though the band--still fond of circuitous
song structures and abstruse lyrics--remained miles from any truly
radio-friendly guidelines.
Despite their commercial success in this
period, critics condemned the Rush sound for being too fanciful, too
weighty, and humorless, but fans flocked to the band for its all-out
instrumental dexterity, throttling hard rock, and flights of lyrical
fantasy. Perhaps in reaction to accusations that the band had no sense
of humor, singer Geddy Lee helped out Bob and Doug McKenzie on the SCTV
duo's 1982 novelty hit, "Take Off."
After Signals, Rush lowered its
intensity somewhat, taking time out from what had been a decade of
constant touring to settle down between records. Unfortunately, the
albums that resulted during this time--Grace Under Pressure
(1984), Power Windows (1985), and Hold Your Fire
(1987)--bore the glossy influence of the synthesizer-based metal and
new wave that had then taken hold of the music scene. Fortunately, by
the time Presto was released in 1989, Rush had had a change of
heart, returning to the more full-on rock sound that had characterized
its best and most successful material.
The
band followed that course through to the present, with solid efforts
like Roll the Bones (1991) and Counterparts (1993). In
1995, Lifeson ventured into a hard-rock solo project entitled Victor.
The group's 1996 album, Test for Echo, showed that the Rush fan
base had not dissipated at all in the group's three-year absence: it
debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Top 200. Plans call for
Rush's next release to be another live album (their fourth), which
will combine tracks recorded on the band's last two tours, with cuts
from a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in the late seventies.
