Rush were inducted into the Canadian Songwriter's Hall Of Fame Sunday, March 28th, at the Toronto Centre For The Arts' George Weston Recital Hall. All three members of Rush were in attendance for the induction ceremony and were recognized for Limelight, Closer to the Heart, The Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions. Performing at the induction ceremony were Canadian hardcore rockers Alexisonfire performing Tom Sawyer; Primus frontman Les Claypool playing a version of The Spirit of Radio; and Canadian folk singer/songwriter Jacob Moon doing his rendition of Subdivisions. Neil Peart gave the acceptance speech for the band.
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"Rush has typically been more associated with their unrivaled musicianship and their restless ambition to conquer every musical genre, sometimes in the span of one song. The band acknowledged that immediately in their speech, which was delivered entirely by drummer Neil Peart. 'First of all, songwriting award? Rush? There must be some mistake,' Peart said to laughter from a crowd that had just serenaded the group with a standing ovation. 'We continue to inspire each other and create music that inspires us all.'" - Rush, Robert Charlebois join songwriters' hall of fame, March 29, 2010
"Millions of record sales notwithstanding, Rush's songwriters have rarely earned income from other artists' covers of their famous songs. The complexity of the arrangements built into Rush's work — sudden time, tempo and key changes — are beyond the grasp of less ambitious or practised musicians, and the soaring melodies and vivid narratives are forsaken...'I understand why no one covers our songs,' Lee said. 'They sound daunting. But, as Moon proved in his ‘Subdivisions' video, most of the songs can be stripped back to their simplest form, and find a new life. When we tried to write songs that are simple and uncomplicated, it didn't work. One of our producers used to tell us, 'You'd have a lot of hits if only someone else recorded them.''" Toronto Star, March 28, 2010
"Peart, who says he would have been an English high school teacher if he hadn’t become a rock drummer, is pleased at the Rush songs chosen for induction, particularly Subdivisions. 'It's a very unusual song construction lyrically and musically that we managed to make work,” he said. “It was written at a time when we weren’t working, so to speak. We were mixing a live album and we just started playing around and wrote a song for fun. Although it’s very serious in it’s musical structure, one of the most complicated actually that we’ve had in terms of arrangement drum part alone, it’s a really intricate drum part to play and consequently I still love playing it almost 30 years later and that’s a good testament.'" Jam!Music, March 26, 2010
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Robert Charlebois and Rush! Cool!
ReplyDeleteJake Moon doing "Subdivisions"... that should be a good one; his YouTube video was minimalist and hit the sentiment perfectly!
ReplyDeleteI was just going to say the same thing about Jacob Moon's Youtube video. Well worth checking out if you haven't already. Great song anyway, but his spin on it is superb.
ReplyDeleteMy MAC can't play the links. FlipMac 2.1 unavailable. Anyway...cheers for the link for those PC'ers who can play it.
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