They aren’t a classic rock staple in Australia, and I’ve been listening to AOR/classic rock radio on-and-off for 25 years here and not heard “Tom Sawyer” once. Like Ayn Rand, I think they’re largely a North American phenomenon that has little international appeal.
I love Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes and King Crimson, so I’m not opposed to progressive rock in general, but Rush leave me cold. I bought Moving Pictures on a whim and enjoy “Tom Sawyer” and “YYZ” enough, but the album as a whole didn’t inspire me to look further.
And 2112, a prog rock concept album about Objectivism, has to have the most limited International appeal of any rock album I can think of.
Nope, hate em. The singer’s voice is like … something… I don’t know, like he’s got a falsetto and trying to not sing in it. The music is generic and tepid, like a 2nd rate Sega Genesis game soundtrack.
Ever since I was a kid the Aussie charts and airplay has consisted of a mix of British/European, North American and Aussie/NZ acts. For who knows what reason Rush have just never been popular here. I have known about them since the 70s but mostly have only heard them in movie and TV soundtracks. Those songs haven’t really caught my attention. In all honesty I don’t recall anyone I know ever mentioning them in a discussion about music.
I’ll third this. I think they are/were absolutely brilliant. Intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics (which is NOT the norm for the most part in mainstream rock music), incredible musicianship from all three players (with Lifeson embodying the “underappreciation” aspect of the band writ large) and an incredibly long, highly evolved lifespan.
I kind of stopped enjoying most of their music since about Signals, which, in my mind, was a masterpiece in many ways, as was Moving Pictures. Some of their really old stuff can be kind of “meh” but there’s so much material there that they hit more often than they miss.
It is rare to find a female who likes Rush. That’s how I got my user name. This is what I was pegged with back in the eighties in high school when my other female friends were listening to Madonna and Duran Duran.
Now that I’m older I have a wide variety of music interests but Rush is like home to me.
I chose the first option, though I’d really be somewhere between the first two.
When I was a teenager in the '80s, Rush was definitely one of my favorite bands, and I couldn’t get enough of them. They lost it, though, almost twenty years ago - they haven’t put out a good album since 1991. I’ve also found that their good music doesn’t quite stand up anymore, in the way that '70s Genesis or Yes does. I’m not quite sure how to describe this… when I listen to Close To The Edge or Selling England By The Pound, I still feel the thrill of awesomeness, but an old Rush album doesn’t quite affect me that way anymore. I mean, it does, but not as much. I’d still rank them somewhere in my top 20 or 25 bands, but they’re no longer near the top of the list.
I also have to agree that their cult status is kind of silly… the band seems to have a disproportionate number of rabid fans that think they can do no wrong. Rush is like the Star Trek of rock.
I think that Rush put out 5 AMAZING, CLASSIC, INCREDIBLE records and then they disappeared (you can end the story however you want to).
After the first 5 records I think MOST of what they have done since sucks HARD, they have shown occasional moments of brilliance but the highlights are WAY under 1 track per record.
Thought I was a little closer, but you should be there somewhere - Bad Cellphone camera picture. I am still waiting to see where my tickets are for the Columbus show in Aug.
I voted for “I know they’re an acquired taste, but I dig them.”
I also agree that the most irritating thing about Rush is a certain segment of their fans. There is a certain group of Rush fans who take them WAAAAY too seriously. And, if you ask them privately. most “normal” Rush fans would agree with me on that.
And yet Alex and Geddy seem like very nice, funny, down to earth guys. I don’t think THEY take the band nearly as seriously as some of their fans do.
Rush always seemed to have two big and mutually exclusive sets of fans. At any given Rush show, half the fans are metalheads who’d tell you “My favorite bands are Metallica, Sabbath and Rush.” And the other half are nerds who’d say “My favorite bands are King Crimson, Yes and Rush.”
In short, half the fans at a Rush show were in serious danger of getting wedgies from the other half!
I’m a Brit and frankly I only ever tried them out due to hearing about them on this board. I like “The Trees” and that is it - and that is mainly due to me and my ex spectacularly mishearing the lyrics for a long time (“Trouble with the neighbours …”).
I class them with the Dave Mathews Band as one of those musical things that no-one outside North America really gets or cares for.
I am a huge Madonna fan and a huge Rush fan. I’m not only a girl who likes Rush, I’m also kinda young for a Rush fan (27). Most of my female peers have never even heard of Rush. My husband didn’t like them at first–'cuz Geddy Lee ‘‘sings like a girl’’–but they’ve grown on him.
What I love about Rush is, their lyrics are very thoughtful, they grapple with large philosophical ideas, and yet the music itself is just rock the way rock should be. It appeals to both sides of my personality – the intellectual and the blue-collar. Compare ‘‘Territories’’ (one of my favorite songs) to ‘‘Workin’ Man’’ (one of my other favorite songs). One is about the concept of international citizenship and the other one is about being a wage slave. Both are emotionally compelling and rock my face off. I love it.
Interesting comparison. I had never heard of Dave Mathews until the Mormons started trying to convert me about 10 years ago. The American missionary was a great music fan and he told me about them. A little while later they began to get airplay here but they aren’t big with Aussies.
Sure. The reason that song rocks is because… well, it rocks. Some of those guitar riffs kill me. Especially the one at :38 right here. And the reason that song works is because of the angsty music. I don’t doubt, however, that the bland language is deliberate. That’s a song that has pretty widespread appeal.
But then they write stuff like this:
Or this:
Or this:
I think the music is really complementary to the overall themes. It’s very ‘‘other-worldly.’’ I know some of their work was inspired by science fiction, which is awesome. But if I had to label their ‘‘vibe’’, I think it’d be secular humanism. And frankly there just aren’t too many bands out there that represent that perspective.
Much better choice. That is pretty clever. You have to allow that I don’t know their material and I am just taking it at face value. The Trees is great stuff unless you are an Oak.
