"'I don't think we would ever have played...'Camera Eye' if we hadn't decided to play the whole record,' admits Lee. 'We would never had rediscovered the enjoyment of playing a song like that, while we thought we'd never be able to pull off again! I was really gritting my teeth before we set out to learn that song. Alex and I were sitting in my studio at home and we were listening to it, saying "Oh my god, it goes on forever! What the hell were we thinking?" So we very judiciously eliminated a minute and a half of its 12 minutes. But little did we know how difficult it would be to learn a 12-minute song that suddenly became a 10-and-a-half minute song, because the edits were so subtle that they were harder for us to learn. It really would have been easier to just play the whole dame thing! Ha ha!'" - Geddy Lee, Classic Rock Presents Prog #16
Via regular reinvention, perseverance and undeniable musicality, Rush have reached legend status. It's a weird set-up: drummer Neil Peart writes the lyrics; Geddy Lee has a "unique voice" and manages to play bass/synths/footpedals and sing it all simultaneously. Alex Lifeson continues to chop out riffs and solos that all bear his unique signature. Rush remain a band no one would ever have invented, yet they remain huge after 37 years together. Even Rush instrumentals can send a crowd ballistic..." - Gibson.com, May 13, 2011
Rush has a new contest where you can win the ENTIRE Rush CD catalog, including the new Moving Pictures Deluxe Edition, as well as an autographed Moving Pictures lithograph and a tour program from the original 1981 tour. Click here for details.
Rush, "YYZ" (1981): "With Moving Pictures, Geddy Lee and Co. proved they were mightily virtuosic, historically nerdy (rendering the letters "Y-Y-Z" in Morse Code via various musical arrangements), and capable of damn catchy melodies. Then, of course, there's the drum solo." - Spin.com, May 6, 2011 Thanks to John @ Cygnus-X1.net for the headsup!
"'It was a beautiful time,' says guitarist Alex Lifeson, recalling the summer of 1980, when he and his Rush mates (singer-bassist Geddy Lee and drummer-lyricist Neil Peart) rented a house in Stony Lake, Ontario and wrote their eighth album, Moving Pictures, together. 'We'd spend the weeks working, and on weekends we'd drive back to Toronto. Rehearsing, figuring out arrangements – everything just flowed. Electricity was in the air.'...In 2011, the whole of Moving Pictures is being celebrated by Rush on stage – they've been playing the album in its entirety since last year - and on a just-issued special edition Blu-ray CD+DVD package, which renders its seven wondrous cuts with a level of sound clarity that Lifeson calls 'mind-blowing. Richard Chycki, who remixed the album, knew he was working with a part of history, and he did an amazing job. He didn't change the record, just expanded on it. When I heard what he did for first time, I couldn't believe it. It was impeccable. It was Moving Pictures in a 3-D box!'
"My mom got me into Rush. It's one of those relationships with a band that [I've] been listening to since I was a kid. I respect their longevity. But I also kind of relate to [drummer] Neil Peart, the way he had these literary aspirations with their music. I relate to that in a big way." - Conrad Keely, Trail Of Dead, Baltimore Sun, May 5, 2011
"The Who were always a major influence on everything that Rush ever did, from the very start. While I'd never question the Beatles' right to be regarded as the greatest songwriters in history, nonetheless what Townshend did with the Who made more of a mark on us. What he's generated is an amazing body of work, with songs so diverse yet also connected by the fact that we're dealing with a man who wasn't ever afraid to give us a glimpse into his world, his thought process, (and) the way he dealt with his problems...(He) made me aware that it was OK to for a great musician to prove he wasn't infallible. That's great quality we've never forgotten in Rush...It's so hard to choose just one song to represent what he's all about. The choice would come down to 'Pictures Of Lily,' 'I Can't Explain,' or 'Run, Run, Run.' They're all so different, yet also have that unmistakable strand of Townshend running through them." - Alex Lifeson, Classic Rock, May 2011 - Thanks to RushFanForever for the headsup!
"The Woodshed Orchestra is an ecstatic soul-filled communal multi-headed celebration emancipation experience. The Woodshed will take you higher and make you feel the love you need to succeed. Yes it will. The Woodshed will light up your tree, push all the right buttons, stroke your ego till you come to your senses and start to sing and dance with visions of sugar plum love making times dancing in your mind that seem so real to the taste, touch and feel that you'll shout in happiness and cry tears of joy for being alive." - The Woodshed Orchestra
Rush And Philosophy, by long time Rush and philosophy author Durrell Bowman and co-editor Jim Berti is now shipping. The 288 page paperback book is an anthology of articles and synopses on the topic of Rush and Philosophy. The book's introduction, "Listen to My Music, and Hear What It Can Do" by Jim Berti and Durrell Bowman, as well as a complete listing of the book's contents is now available on Bowman's website. - Thanks to Mark Stench, RushIsABand and John at Cygnus-X1.net for the headsup!"Rush and Philosophy is a fascinating look at the music and lyrics of the band, setting out to address thought-provoking questions. For example, elements of philosophical thinking from the likes of Jean Paul-Sartre, Ayn Rand, and Plato can be found in Peart’s lyrics; does this make Peart a disciple of philosophy? In what ways has technology influenced the band through the decades? Can there be too much technology for a power-trio? Can listening to Rush’s music and lyrics lead listeners to think more clearly, responsibly, and happily? Is the band’s music a 'pleasant distraction' from the singing of Geddy Lee? In what ways is Rush Canadian? How can a band that has been referred to as 'right-wing' also criticize big government, religion, and imperialism?Bowman and Berti first announced they were putting together an anthology of articles and synopses on the topic of Rush And Philosophy back in June 2009.
"Rush and Philosophy is written by an assortment of philosophers and scholars with eclectic and diverse backgrounds who love Rush’s music and who 'get' the meaning and importance of it. They discuss Rush with the enthusiasm of fans and the seriousness of college professors. The book will be a must-read for the many fans who have long known that Rush deserves as much respect as the ideas, concepts, and puzzles about human existence they write and compose music about."
"My April travels with Michael on this sequel to last year's Time Machine tour carried us from Florida up to Quebec—thirteen shows and 3,800 miles of motorcycling between them. The weather varied from warm and blossoming across Tennessee to a polar wasteland in Ontario." - Neil Peart
"You Will Not Believe This! It is true, in the next few weeks we will tell you how to purchase the original master recordings of RUSH-2112 and how you can listen to Neil’s drum track only, the band with Neil or the band only, and record yourself on drums with Geddy and Alex. You have to be a Newsletter subscriber to get access, so tell your friends to join the DC Newsletter. More about this coming soon!" - Thanks to Frank Ray for the headsup!
"Collected here are some of the band members' thoughts on why their chemistry remains strong after 43 years." - Gibson.com, April 27, 2011
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