Alex Lifeson says Rush are "basically done"

They owe us nothing.

 

God bless Rush. Their back catalog is rich and diverse enough to keep me coming back for repeat visits for years to come. No new music or tours necessary.

 

Love the song Test for Echo.As good as anything they did.Not being a huge Rush fan most of my favs were many moons ago.

 

I love Rush, especially up to and including Signals, and some of the later stuff, T4E, Vapor Trails, and so on.

Neil is one of the players who inspired me to pick up drumming. His technical, yet very musical playing had a 'compositional' feel to it. You could tell those parts were very well-thought out, and he was complimenting and providing counterpoint to what Alex and Geddy played. He was like an organized, more together version of Keith Moon, if that makes any sense.

Addressing his health issues and how difficult a time he had on the last couple tours, he's a big guy who hit really hard all the time for his whole career, without ever letting up. Rush gigs were only 90-120 minutes when the band was young. As players in their late 50s and early 60's, the shows were 2 1/2 hrs or longer, which is crazy. And I know of his love for driving to gigs on a motorcycle, but biking all those miles -- sometimes on fairly rough road in bad weather -- and then playing shows, had to take its toll, as shown in Time Stand Still.

There are drummers who play at a very high level well into their 60s and beyond -- Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette to name a couple. Of course, there's Roy Haynes, who's in his 90s, but he's a freak.

I can't help thinking it isn't just age that made Neil want to pack it in for good. He's been through more personal tragedy than most people can even imagine, and that has to be a factor. I hope he does pick up the sticks again someday, even if he never does a paying gig again.

 

Basically done?

 

I think one of Neil’s biggest factors of wanting to retire, outside of his age and injuries, is his young daughter who he hated being away from. Maybe when she’s older he’ll consider doing something again, but it won’t be Rush.

 

An amazing run!

 

Rules are different on the front end than on the back end. The Rush that scored enduring success was Lee, Lifeson, Peart. A band with a few years of club and high school gigs and one LP doesn't usually have a golden legacy that needs to be deferred to.

 

That's because Rutsey was shown the door and was not allowed the time to develop a "golden legacy" - though "Working Man", "Best I Can", "Finding My Way", are pretty awesome starters!
BTW - I am not that naïve to not know that Peart and his lyrics and drum skills is what helped get Alex and Geddy over-the-hump and become major stars.

 

They had a phenomenal career and leave behind one hell of a music catalog. They deserve to do whatever the heck they wanna do.

That is a great song. I love Rik Emmett.

 

Nothing but respect for these guys. They've more than earned a nice long rest. Looking forward to what Alex and Geddy do musically and Neil's writing.

 

I'm pretty sure that Rutsey quit because he knew he couldn't handle touring with his diabetes. In any event, what's done is done, and the Rush lineup with the legacy is L-L-P.

Also, apparently he wrote lyrics for all the songs on the debut album, but before they went into the studio, he destroyed them, forcing Lee to write new ones on the spot. Sounds to me like he wasn't ready to be in a pro band for a lot of reasons. Nevertheless, he was a great drummer and it's too bad things didn't work out, although no one can complain about how the ship was righted in the end.

 

Yes, I also read that there was some tension between Rutsey and Geddy/Alex due to Geddy being forced to re-write the lyrics for the 1st album. Agree, L-L-P is RUSH, but Geddy and Alex have set precedence of re-grouping.

 

At least they let us down easy. It wasn't a sudden shock. We got a proper farewell tour. Couldn't ask for more. I still will always hold out hope for some more studio material, but if that's the end, then it was a hell of ride and I loved all the albums all the way up until the end. I have plenty of music to enjoy for the rest of my life and lots of concert videos and albums to enjoy. I'll be looking forward to archival live releases each year similar to the AFTK 40th. So that keeps Rush going as well.

 

But would you really think it's a good idea for them to do it now? I sure as heck don't.

 

Yeah, I sometimes see that first album referred to as something of a false start, which I think is nuts. It's a solid heavy rock album that holds up well - better than a lot of their mid-'80s/early '90s material, IMHO.

Further to some earlier comments and also IMHO, I think that if Rutsey had been in good health and the other two hadn't had prog ambitions, they could've had a pretty good career as a second-tier hard rock band along the lines of Foghat or Bad Company. But they wouldn't have made the same sort of enduring connection with a committed fan base as they did with Peart.

 

Certainly the first album wasn't a false start, and I would speculate that even that first album contained at least the barest hint of the progressive tendencies that they would explore subsequently. However, when you replace a member after your first album, and that new member has a significant impact on both your sound and philosophy, that's going to go a long way to defining who you are. If they just went, "Aw, what the hell, let's replace Peart with somebody else because we already set a precedent with replacing Rutsey", it wouldn't be the same thing at all, because that "new" Rush would have to go out on the road and play 90 minutes of Peart-penned classics and a handful of new songs. Even after four albums they'd still be doing that. There would be no getting away from Peart's shadow. Sure, they held on to a couple Rutsey-era songs for a while (and "Working Man" for the whole shebang) but they could have cut off that whole album after Moving Pictures and it wouldn't have changed Rush's concert form very much.

 

I agree - RUSH is a lot better than most of their stuff past Grace Under Pressure. I like Clockwork Angels enough though.

 

Lol - no, staying put is for the best I guess. I do wish Neil would feel better though!

 

Well, all we can do now is enjoy the music, the memories, and live the lesson they taught us, when traveling through the Solar Federation, and into the heart of Cygnus X-1, always obey the Motor Law.

 

In my opinion, Presto is one of their best.

 

Alex added: "It's not like you just get new members of a band and just go for it. Rush has never been a band like that. We'd never, ever do something like that."

Totally respect that.

But what if Geddy or Alex want to form a Rush-like trio later on, together or apart, call it something like 'XYZ' and tour playing Rush songs?

Maybe they've addressed that in the paperwork as well.

 

Done like dinner. Stick a fork in 'em.

 

I think Rush songs are a no-no, but no reason they couldn't play other stuff as a trio with a different drummer.