Look people, if you want to hear someone who sounds like Geddy, the closest thing to a dead ringer is Lary Dean of the Christian metal band Trytan.
In a musical landscape filled with similarity, derivation, and weak integrity, Rush were singularly unique. No one else quite like them with as long, varied, and solid a legacy. It’s one thing not to like them, it’s another to not understand why others do and why they are talented and valid regardless. From a musical standpoint I think Rush is one of the very few indisputable greats. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but a great cup of tea either way. I usually leave these types of threads alone, but for me after all these years Rush deserves respect and since they changed my life I have to defend them. My reevaluation of them is that they get better every time I hear them as the years go by.
Like others have said, what makes them unique is what I like about them... but I can understand why some don't like Geddy Lee's vocals.
Me too. Especially when the post includes the predictable carping about Amazon and how one corner of the box is dented and that's conclusive proof Jeff Bezos is the devil. Those are my favorites.
The more time passes, the more I realize that Rush are one of the very best rock bands of their era. Absolutely top shelf. I find their first four albums to be a bit spotty, but from 1977's A Farewell to Kings to 2012's Clockwork Angels, they are consistently absolutely superb. Fifteen albums in a row that I love, and even the first four all have some towering peaks of excellence. I can't think of another rock band that sustained that level of quality for that long a time. It's truly incredible.
I can understand his higher register vocals being an acquired taste, but I'd imagine his lower register vocals on stuff like "Dreamline" are palatable to everyone.
You even rate Test For Echo? I love Rush but their catalogue has lots of lows....Test For Echo, Vapour Trails, Hold Your Fire, Counterparts, Snakes & Ladders to name a few. Agree that they where a great band but also very inconsistent.
I’ve always held them as an “acquired taste” Band. However, they have built a large, far-reaching, worldwide fan base over the years and you can’t ignore that fact.
What about Burke Shelley (also bass/vocals of Budgie, and looked a bit like Geddy). Rush where I live were always under the radar (and in continental Europe in general). From what I've heard from them, they sound quite unique, almost an acquired taste. I think I must dig more deeply on them.
Those albums were all growers for me. Test for Echo in particular joined the ranks of their other albums for me just last week. I've been going through their entire catalogue the past couple of weeks. A couple weeks ago I would have agreed that Test for Echo was a sign of the well running dry. As for Vapor Trails and Counterparts, yeah, I love them both, now. Especially Vapor Trails, with "Secret Touch" becoming a top ten Rush song for me. From Counterparts, I particularly adore "Between Sun and Moon" and "Cut to the Chase." What can I say? After a couple decades of Rush being a band I enjoyed primarily for the Chronicles best-of, A Farewell to Kings and Roll the Bones, over the past five years or so they've become probably my second favorite band of all-time behind only The Who. And to think in college I was so unimpressed with their first four albums that I gave them away, thinking all the good stuff was on Chronicles.
I started getting into them three years ago. They quickly became one of my favorite bands and I feel like a fool for not discovering them earlier. I can see where they wouldn't be to everyone's taste but I think they're amazing.
That insanely extended drum fill in "Headlong Flight" is so preposterously over-the-top that I literally start laughing every time I hear it. I'm in awe of it. I wish I could see what the hell Neil was doing with those drum sticks. Alas, live it turned into a drum solo. Not the same thing.
Thoughtful lyrics. 3 top notch musicians. Great balance of simpler 4 minute rocks songs and wonderfully complex prog album sides. One of the 10 greatest rock groups of all time. Geddy Lee as a singer is sincere and confident. They come from a place of positivity. Their art makes the world a better place.
I was listening to the original mastering of Roll the Bones a couple days ago and marveling at the clarity of the drums. Also love the way Alex's solos ring out on that record. It would be nice to get to hear that kind of clarity on their last three albums.
I like all those but I'm still struggling with Clockwork Angels (I desperately want to like it) and pretty much everything pre-Signals.
TFE is a solid album IMO. I like it a lot. It's clearly not as strong as their classic run but it's very listenable, lots of songs that I like. I prefer it over most of the ones that followed except for Counterparts. Although I own all of them and don't actively dislike any of them (I do, though, dislike the production of a couple of the most recent ones). EDIT--Just realized that Counterparts precedes Test! So actually, I do prefer it over every album they released afterward. Don't get old if you can help it, folks, it does bad things to your brain.
About 10 years ago I wrote a massive Rush song-by-song missive for another site. The two albums I was most surprised by were Counterparts and Test for Echo. I'd rank them, along with Grace Under Pressure as among my favorites.
I've already commented in this thread way back at the bottom of the first page, and I have now read all the recent posts. Sure, Rush has some spotty material - almost every band does at some point, especially ones that have been around as long as Rush. But their peak moments are so incredible that it's hard to understand how people can just dismiss them. Take side one of Moving Pictures, for example: 1. Tom Sawyer 2. Red Barchetta 3. YYZ 4. Limelight I can understand people not liking Rush in general, maybe because of Geddy's voice or whatever, but come on! These four songs are the dictionary definition of what people mean by "killer" when describing truly great music. In my opinion one of the strongest album sides ever made and an absolute triumph of musicianship.
I liked them when I was 12 and 13 and just discovering my own music, and then I lost interest, and now I never listen to them and would have to say I don't care for them. But... it's pretty much impossible for any reasonable person to deny that they're incredibly talented musicians and have written some very sophisticated and impressive music. Overrated? IMHO absolutely yes. Uneven? Yes. Geddy Lee's voice is basically shot now? Yes. But they have produced a lot of solid music and have been excellent performers. (And to the OP's comment, I'd agree about "The Trees" being moronic - IMHO those lyrics are Exhibit 1,376 in the "reading Ayn Rand kills brain cells" file ).
I’m just thankful Rush was around for as long as it was. A truly gifted trio of musicians and absolutely phenomenal live, amazing what just three of them could create. They’re in my top 5 bands of all time. The mid to late 80s was the period where they temporarily lost me (still bought the albums though!) but everything they did from ‘74 up to and including Signals ranged from good to brilliant, again IMO. Counterparts is a crackin’ album too.
