Epic Win: Rush
Submitted and Written by Paul Rizzerati and the Buckets of Blood, Rush cover band
Rush is like a sexual explosion of sound. Greatest drummer of all time and greatest bass player of all time, plus an excellent guitarist are pretty sweet right? Well, not until you add the incredible lyrics and the fact the just three guys can recreate a symphony of sound with total perfection that make professional musicians say HOLY F! As a kid I loved this song, and also the way the band spoke to non-conformist kids who weren’t ready to go full goth or full jock but just wanted to maintain some individuality in high school. This is what real talent looks like.
That’s one hell of a write up. Well done!
LOVE RUSH
Toronto says you’re welcome.
p.s. no I made the name before hearing about the album.
BEST. ONCE UPON A WIN. EVER!!!
Agree whole heartedly
This.
IS.
Oh, hell yes! Absolute BEST musical ANYTHING to come from Canada (remember Bryan Adams? Then you know what I am talking about).
F%&$ YEAH!!!!
Pfah. Rush isn’t fit to hold Crosby Stills & Nash’s fricking jockstraps.
Sorry, but C,S & N are an American group. Graham Nash is a Brit, but the group was still formed in the US. Even with Neil Young, a Canadian, they are/were still an American group.
Why would they have jock straps?
Meh, they really weren’t that popular where I was. Some of the guys liked them, but mostly they just didn’t do it for us. The radio would play them from time to time, but they were just another band on the airwaves. The only song they did that saw heavy rotation among us was “Roll the Bones”. We had a very diverse population, so tastes were incredibly varied.
I love Rush. I’d argue Entwistle over Lee, but I’d put them 1, 2 on the list. and that a close 2.
Flea, Jack Bruce, Les Claypool, Michelle N’degeocello, Teena Marie, my friend Al… all better rock bassists off the top of my head. As for jazz bassists who are better… I’ll save some time and just say all of them.
Hey, I can drop names too! Victor Wooden, Chris Squire and Billy Sheehan! This makes me smot!
Right. And that’s WooTen smot guy.
Stanley Clarke in his sleep with three of his left fingers tied together.
Wow, didn’t know they’re still playing! Saw them live at inkpop festival [netherlands] in ‘79, still remember Passage To Bangkok echoing over the terrain….
Yep. The best. They’re my ringtone and most of my passwords. Speaking of which, ever go to a Rush concert and think “I know everyone’s PIN?”
@Rachel: Shush yo’ mouth! About the passwords part.
Agreed with the rest. This band is just about like an IQ test…if you start a conversation with someone in a Rush t-shirt, you pretty much know you can amp up the baud rate and use the big words.
I don’t know how Rush lyrics map to Canadian politics, but in the US, every time I hear people of a certain political bent blaming ‘the elite’, I hear in my head ‘Just think about the average, what use have THEY for you?’
“Speaking of which, ever go to a Rush concert and think “I know everyone’s PIN?””
Awesome. True Rush fans get the joke. Well played.
“Best bass player ever”
Not quite. Victor Wooten is far better than this guy.
Ah, no. Jack Bruce can out-bass Geddy Lee one-handed, and Bruce isn’t even the best of the best. As regards Peart: Tell me, is BB King a better guitar player than Steve Vai? Yes, yes he is – because BB knows you don’t have to play a lot of notes to play a song well. Same with Peart; he’s always just trying too hard to impress us. Yes, yes Neal, we know you’re a good drummer – now how about showing us how good you are when you’re NOT hitting every single piece in your drum set in every bar of every song? Lifeson’s a solid guitar player but Keith Richards could outplay him after 3 bottles of Jack and a fistful of pills. And Rush’s lyrics are pretentious as all hell. And their mullets make me cry.
They sound terrible to me. I’m glad this is the first and only time I’ll listen to them.
This is the ABSOLUTELY BEST WIN IN ALL TIMES!!!!!!!!
Hell yes! Have seen them live many times from 1980 to 2007 and they still play their assess off. Why are they not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet? Inconceivable!
’cause the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a popularity contest run by biased judges. Rush is one of MANY bands that keep getting passed over, despite having decades’ worth of solid music and performance.
You’ll never see an “arena” rock band get nominated and rightly so. That particular type of rock music isn’t much better than karaoke.
Rush, like a lot of other HR/HM bands of the 70’s, aren’t in the RRHOF because the Rolling Stone music snobs who run the nominating and voting process made their careers by dissing Rush (as well as a host of other bands of the era) as ‘corporate rock’. They’d rather put in bands that nobody’d heard of until another band covered their music 20 years later and got famous off of than induct one of the few bands that have always been ahead of the times and stayed that way for 30+ years.
Very, very tight except for the god-awful vocals. But the songs? Oh,.. uh, mfff.. BARF! Seriously, just because something is complicated and difficult to play, that doesn’t mean it’s good. I’ll get to you next, Yes. I had a roommate that was all about this. “Listen to how hard this is to play.” Listened to music like it was a sport. If you want to hear technically stellar musicians playing music that’s actually good, pick up any acoustic jazz album recorded by, well, pretty much anyone. Those guys could play Rush songs with their butt cheeks.
Youre a moron.
I’m a moron? You’re the one who can’t type an eleven-letter sentence without making an error.
Or a bluegrass musician who could play Rush by rubbing his face on a banjo. Bluegrass is HARD.
And Neal Peart isn’t fit to pass Buddy Rich fresh sticks.
Hells yes! Rush freaking rocks!
OF SALESMEN!
oooooooOOOOOOFFFFFSSSAAALESMEN!
Any idea where that reference came from? The Monkees. The song, “Salesman”. Listen to it, you’ll hear Michael Nesmith hit the same notes. It’s about a drug pusher, according to the band.
The line is Simon & Garfunkel “Sounds of Silence” with the word “salesmen” instead.
This Epic Win is full of awesome. Plus, the choice of videos makes me happy, as Limelight is my default ringtone and YYZ is my ringtone for my family.
As soon as Oingo Boingo gets their own mention in a post (no, Weird Science doesn’t count), then my ringtone conspiracy will be complete.
Rush are a great band. I’m not disagreeing there. But best bassist? Best drummer? Not that far. Neil Peart is great, but fast doesn’t necessarily mean good. The lyrics themselves aren’t great, from what I’ve heard, (with the exception of Spirit Of Radio.), but Geddy’s voice is good. However, to each their own.
Spirit Of Radio is awesome.
It was a great song but frankly when it got on heavy rotation and actually got played up to three times an hour in my hometown, I got so sick of it that if I ever hear it again I’m going to vomit my lungs out.
SLAPPA DA BASS
Toats M’Goats!!!
Hmm… I kinda feel “Tom Sawyer” should’ve made this list. After all, when I think of “Space Invaders” (WIN!), I think of “Tom Sawyer” (“Today’s Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you/ when the spacey invader gets by on you…”). Still, a good band nonetheless. But like I said with Hendrix, they’re great, but not the best (because everyone’s interpretation of “The Best” varies).
Um, that’s “the space he invades”
But this makes for a good Misheard Lyric.
lol, like “Scuze me while I kiss this guy” ???
Since Hendrix was mentioned…
Just gonna say I hate this band. Almost all the songs sound the same and go on forever. They get played when the DJ needs to be in the bathroom longer than a standard song LOL.
HEY! I worked in a radio station and our bathroom songs were “Hotel California”, “American Pie”, and “Suite Judy Blue Eyes” with “Knights In White Satin” as an emergency back up if it was burrito night.
(Seriously! You could get over half an hour of continuous music with those songs! We really did do this!)
I enjoy Rush, but you can almost get the same effect by listening to a drum machine while reading Ayn Rand.
GUFFAW!!!!
This is exactly why I enjoy Rush.
Thank you for remembering Rush – the guys have been creating and performing for over 30 years and they’re still not giving up.
As for Geddy being the god-smacking-glorious bassist – hell yes. Comparing him with any other bassist is plain pointless, as he’s carved up a niche of his own. After all, if it weren’t for Geddy, I wouldn’t have taken up bass.
Oh – about the videos, both of those are great, but someone should’ve stuck 2112 up there.
hell yes on 2112, just found a mint condition vinyl at the pawn shop for $5! just threw it on like 5 minutes before I came here, I lol’d so hard when I saw they were honoring Rush!
Let me sum up every “OMG RUSH SUCKS” poster here.
HAY GUISE WHATS GOIN ON HEER LEMME TRY TO ACT COOL BY TRASHING A BAND IN A THREAD ABOUT THAT BAND. IF I SAY SNARKY THINGS ABOUT IT AND PRETENTIOUSLY FLAUNT MY TIDBITS OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE I WILL BECOME COOL AND SOCIALLY ACCEPTED.
There, that’s over with. Good Lord, why is it that when someone’s wrong on the internet, morons crawl out of the woodwork to testify? We get it. You hate Rush. Nobody’s forcing you to watch the videos. Now die.
Rush is awesome. It still surprises me that Coheed & Cambria recorded two albums before even hearing of them, but whatever.
Claudio still doesn’t see the comparision. But now that I have listened to enough of both, I don’t really see it anymore either. Beyond the high voice and long song similarity. But I use the comparision if people ask if I think they’d like Coheed. Meh.
God listenes to RUSH!
Makes me glad I’m an atheist.
Okay, just kidding. They aren’t that bad. They’re just not to my tastes.
I do love rock and roll. However, I beg to differ on who is the best of the best. I’m going to say there is a tie for the two best drummers of all time. 1st is Gene Krupa from Benny Goodman’s band. Although Gene was around before rock and roll, he is the man. 2nd is John Bonham, the drummer from Led Zeppelin. Bass Guitar? That goes to Mark King from Level 42. Best guitar player EVER is Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin.
Krupa! Seconded! I heard the only reason “Sing Sing Sing” went on as long as it did was because he was too into it. Also agreeing on Bonham. Gotta argue the guitarist. I say Les Paul himself, but I do have a lot of Zep in my collection. (Although it was Roy Clark who inspired me to even take up the guitar. I have varied tastes, you can tell!)
Krupa was AMAZING. Bonham was spectacular, there really hasn’t been anyone else like him. But you really gotta give Buddy Rich propers, that man was beyond awesome.
Alarmingly, Danny Carey from TOOL is one of the world’s most technically perfect and precise drummers. You won’t ever hear any modern-rock band that messes with time signatures like they do. He’s like Keith Moon, only more techincal and more accurate, if such a thing could even be.
Excellent blast from the past! Been a fan since 1980. Let the nay-sayers and trash-talkers dump on Rush all they want, it keeps them out of the concert halls. We know differently.
Ever notice that the messages that contain the worst anti-Rush sentiments also contain the most LOLs and ROFLs?
This Epic win just made my day!
Well, this just goes to show that when it comes to music, everybody’s a little bit different. If I were to dare suggest that someone’s favourite jazz musician was less than talented I’m sure I would be shown the gates to Hell.
There’s no need to get flamey; if you don’t like Rush, you don’t have to explain why. Live by Thumper’s credo: if you can’t say nothin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.
Agreed. Unfortunately, the OP put the flame bait of “greatest x of all time” in there so we have these pointless pissing contests of “no way, this other guy is the greatest x of all time”. Everyone mentioned is awesome, who cares who is the greatest? Oh, another reason its pointless is because Buddy Rich is the greatest drummer of all time. Thats a fact, just deal with it.
This is what I am saying, that man kept a beat so accurately it was frightening.
Neil Peart was clearly influenced by Krupa. Watch the backscreen during his solo on O Batterista off Rio. Yep, there’s Gene! So what makes Neil so impressive? Technical precision. Range of styles. Not dying (see: Spinal Tap).
I loves da Rush. Rock lyrics that reflect some intelligence, how very refreshing!
“Subdivisions” should have been up there as well. The perfect ode to suburban discontent.
Epic win. Still regretting not seeing them on July 9, 2008 at the Molson Ampitheatre in Toronto.
@ Miroku — I love RUSH but you do have a point there…
hahaha the great mr peart is my third cousin
Hands down one of the greatest bands of all time.
OMG! My dad loves this band! I like the song Tom Sawyer by them.
MY FAMILY <3's RUSH!
The only rush the kids in school knew was one they got from weed..til I tried turning them on to a totally different sound…Rush! Now THIS is what I call a WIN!
I nearly shat myself when I saw Rush on here. BEST BAND EVER!!!!
Best. Band. Ever.
a truly unique band with amazing staying power. what other bands can say they’ve been together 35+ years touring and putting out albums every few years with original members intact. believe me badass musicians dont sit around comparing who they are or arent better than. dont hate the band because of what other people project on to them. It may be hard for non drummers to realize how hugely influential NP was and is. And to say ” well compared to a jazz musician..” im willing to bet you have never seen neil or geddy play jazz music, for all you know they might blow your mind. its not often you whip out your jazz “chops” in a rock song, even if you are a prog band.
I freakin’ love them
Man Petting a Squirrel
Ive always been a rush fan. I blame my dad. But I do fit the description the guy posted up there: I’m a non-conformist to the core. a few weeks ago, the whole male student body of my high school had “Muscle Shirt Monday”. I wore a blue oxford shirt and my signature dark-grey slacks. Last Friday, people were bugged about their rides not showing up till late because of the bad weather. I walked home in the rain. but, back to the song. This is the ultimate show opener. Its been almost like an anthem for me. when people ask what kind of performing I would do if given the chance, i just whip out my ipod and crank it up to 11.
Gotta love RUSH. Wish I could see them in concert.