At the same time, though... Geddy has gotten plenty of criticism and mockery for his singing, and Neil for his more pretentious lyrics, but nobody ever makes fun of Alex. I think he's been the most consistently tasteful contributor to the band.
I found this album through the later live albums. It's too easy to dismiss it as derivative(though it certainly is). It would be like coming to a conclusion on the Fabs based on "Love Me Do" or the Stones based on"Tell Me". A couple of radio chestnuts here, particularly "Working Man". Dan
Before even discovering Rush (I'll get to this when we're at Moving Pictures), I do remember seeing the debut constantly being recommended to me on Amazon throughout 2012. Even though I had no idea who the band were, the cover always struck me. Almost literally; the title appears to be flinging itself right at you. With that said, it's a good indicator on the type of music that's contained within. From the guitar fading in during Finding My Way to the intense jamming in Working Man, the whole LP is a tour de force of simple, fun, no frills, adrenaline infused hard rock. Sure, you get an occasional break from the madness (Here Again and the first half of Before and After), but the album always keeps at least some amount of heaviness present in the songs. For a low-key debut, this album has rather nice production. There's no sense of one member's playing overpowering everyone else's. IIRC, Terry Brown was brought in to remix the songs at the last minute. I think his contribution was certainly for the better if you consider that the debut single has slightly murky sound. As others have stated, Alex shines the most here. His playing is more seasoned than the other members at this point, with the bass and drums being there to more or less help drive the songs. Geddy's vocals have a raw tinge that seemed to have been phased out by the late 70s. Maybe it hurt his voice to constantly sing like that? Rutsey's drumming is decidedly simple, but for the material he's working with, it's effective and still full of spirit. The lyrics are typical rock fare of the time, which I think adds to the charm. Rush is a pretty solid debut. While you'd probably never suspect the future 'thinking man's band' that they would turn into, the groundwork for Fly by Night (at least musically) is already slightly there. I want to point out that I initially didn't think much of the debut, but it's grown on me over time. In fact, I actually like it better than Fly by Night, 2112, and maybe even Farewell to Kings. Not saying that those 3 albums are 'worse', just that I find the first one more enjoyable to listen to. BTW, I agree with @GodShifter's Black Sabbath comparison. Alex's guitar sound on here does somewhat harken to the vibe of early Sabbath releases. My older brother also said that the LP reminds him of early Grand Funk Railroad. I'm not sure how accurate that is since I haven't listened to them much.
This album is an introduction. If that sounds odd, consider that I arrived at Rush decades after they hit the spotlight - this album was quite literally my introduction to the band. I downloaded it after one of my usual trawls through the musical archives and did what I do with a number of albums: played it, and promptly forgot about it. It didn't have that immediacy to draw me in, as someone who was a teen in the mid-90s and working backwards in time from that point of musical reference. Months later I played the album again, needing something uptempo during a gym workout. It then slowly worked it's way into my consciousness and favour and from that I acquired 2112 and Caress of Steel. And from the first chords of 2112, that's when the world spun on its axis, it started raining frogs, angels sang....etc. I now have the Rush catalogue from Rush to Moving Pictures, and from Counterparts to Clockwork Angels (I am leaving Signals to Roll the Bones for now). Anyway, that's all due to Rush (1974): the introduction. It will never be in my pantheon of albums, but will rightfully hold it's place as a competent rocker. And I agree with an earlier sentiment: Lifeson is the star here.
Same for me. I've never listened to the first album. And I haven't heard Fly By Night for at least 20 years. I have a copy of Caress of Steel but I don't really get interested until 2112.
Yeah, but in fairness, he said that about ALL of Rush's early work, including his own, and for a while from 1982-88, it was tough to get him to play much pre-Moving Pictures material live. It wasn't really until the Presto tour and especially when they started the "Evening With...." format in 1996 that they really started to once again embrace the back catalog.
Ooh yeah, thanks for this thread! Rush was my favourite group at age 13, and my first discovery of "grown up" music for myself. (My older brother already had Floyd, Genesis, Santana et al.) I started with the Closer To The Heart / Bastille Day / Temples Of Syrinx 12" single. Then got A Farewell To Kings, All The World's A Stage, 2112, Caress Of Steel, in that order, I think. The Hemispheres tour in '79 was my first rock concert (aged 14). I got the debut as part of the Archives set, which pulled together the first 3 LP's (even though I'd already bought Caress Of Steel individually). I think it's a bit overlooked / underrated. Working Man is the obvious highlight, but What You're Doing is classic riff-heavy power trio, and Here Again is very nice
I got to know Rush in two phases. I got Fly By Night, Caress Of Steel, A Farewell To Kings, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire on cassette way back in the mid-80s. Then, when Clockwork Angels came out in 2012, I finally completed the Classic Era by acquiring Rush, 2112, Hemispheres, Signals and Power Windows. All great albums, but the fall-off begins in the mid-80s, IMO. I never got anything of theirs from 1989 to 2007, but one day I might catch up. Clockwork Angels was a great return to form, and now (sadly as of last week) is a fitting coda to a fantastic band. I won't be following this thread as intently as the Joe Jackson one, Mark, but I'll be popping in whenever you hit a favorite album or song. Best of luck!
Photo of RUSH with Donaa Halper -Cleveland DJ that initially played Working Man the buzz soon led to a record deal for the band, which singled out Halper for special thanks in the liner notes of its self-titled debut album.
Rush - st I think this is a rather mediocre album, on the whole. A few good songs, but those are pretty derivative. And the ones that aren't good - egad! This is very much a Led Zeppelin copycat album. And since the better songs are on ATWAS and in more vigorous performances, there's hardly any reason for me to return to this. For those who have some personal experience with it around the time it came out, I can understand why it might have some nostalgic value. Me, I got into it after hearing all of the previous albums up through Grace Under Pressure and just don't look upon it all that fondly. I've played it a fair amount when I got it, but probably have played it a dozen times at most in the last 30 years. If this had been Rush's only album, there would have been little reason to remember them. Thankfully, it was just the beginning.
I don't hear the Led Zep in the first album. They don't sound anything alike to me. I just hear a great, hard rocking power trio with their own unique sound compared to other bands of the time; Zep, Grand Funk, Mountain, etc. When I was in high school I bought a double cassette (literally two cassettes) of the RUSH ARCHIVES that collected the first three albums in one package. I was fascinated by the whole thing. Although I like and appreciate all eras of Rush, it's the first phase through the first live album that I truly love.
I'm with Smokin Chains. I first heard Rush when I'd moved from Top 40 to FM Rock in 1978. The AOR station played "The Trees" from the new album "Hemispheres" and I'd heard about this band by reputation. I was in the middle of my brief Prog Phase so I took an interest, even though I was not convinced by "The Trees," but I was surprised that this Prog Band had a female vocalist [or so I thought]. So I went to the K-Mart and bought copies of "Hemispheres" and the "Archives" 3xLP reissue of "Rush," "Fly By Night," and "Caress of Steel." These sounded more like hardrock Led Zeppelin to me and I was not too much of a fan of that. So I didn't keep the albums for too long. I sold them to classmates in high school since it would be another year or so before discovering the delights of used record stores. So I was kind of soured on Rush after jumping into the band at the same time as being into Yes and ELP. This was quite different. No keyboards for a start and I was a synth fan so that was a missing nutrient here. But I still need a CD of "Rush" sooner or later because my wife grew up listening to WMMS and the only Rush song she rates is "Working Man!" The rest do nothing for her. Sort of like how we have a copy of "Queen II" strictly for "Keep Yourself Alive!"
I got the same cassettes in high school. My first Rush album was Exit...Stage Left and initially wasn't much into anything before 2112. However, I ended up wearing out these cassettes.
My older brother was a big fan of Rush in the early eighties and he picked up all the back catalogue on vinyl, bar the debut. I remember us looking at the cover in the racks many times and the artwork looked a tad cheap, and, who was that bloke on the drums, and so it was placed back in the rack every time. I knew the early stuff only through the last side of All The World’s A Stage and it did stand out as different to me. Apart from Working Man on a compilation tape, I didn’t hear the Rutsey era songs proper until the early 2000s. Time to listen again.
I think the Zeppelin references come from both bands having a high pitched shrieky kind of vocalist. Outside of that, I would agree that the Zeppelin comparisons aren’t apt, but how much do you want to bet that early Zeppelin influenced a young Gary Weinrib and Alex Živojinović?
I reckon the zep comparisons are a little over the top really. I hear influence, as translated by young rockers, but I don't hear straight out copying, or particularly derivative stuff... it's just a hard rock album.
I was born in Cleveland and lived there as a young kid. We moved to Florida when I was still in elementary school, but I had a lot of close relatives in Cleveland and elsewhere in Ohio (and that's still the case), so I've visited there regularly since moving--same for LA; I have a ton of relatives there, too. When I was in school I often spent a large part of my summer between Cleveland and LA (which was great because I don't like heat + humidity--South Florida summers were like being in Hell to me). So lots of WMMS in my life, too.
I'm inclined to agree, BUT......the riff for "What You're Doing" is basically "Heartbreaker" turned on it's side. I think that's where the Zep comparisons come from. One could just as easily fixate on the similarity between the main riff for "In the Mood" to "Gimme Three Steps" and call them a Skynyrd knockoff. Although the difference in vocals probably prevented that.....
I got the archives album for my 16th birthday from my Mom and Dad. Before that I think the albums in my collection were Signals, Grace Under Pressure and Moving Pictures. This fueled my appetite for more! Loved discs 1 and 2. Caress of Steel was not a favorite but still had some good songs. The debut album as far as I was concerned had only one song that I wasn't really excited about. I could tell the lyrics were not what you usually get from Rush, but did not ruin my enjoyment. I especially loved Finding My Way and What You're Doing. In St. Louis, for many, many, many years KSHE-95 played In the Mood at quarter to eight every Friday. So I have great memories of In the Mood too.
All true. Neil even once said that Moving Pictures should have been their first album. While I don't agree, that spoke volumes as to how little he thought of their material prior to that in comparison to the material that came after it.
