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Three Stooges Intro on Rush Tours


RushFanForever
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Hello, I'm aware that Geddy, Alex, and Neil have featured 'The Three Stooges' as an intro to open their concerts on various tours.

 

I recently discovered an article/interview by Geddy Lee published on Dec 4, 1987 in The Citizens' Voice.

 

The following bit stands out:

 

Rush has always featured visual elements and sometimes even elaborately staged jokes as part of their live performance. The "Hold Your Fire" shows open with a re-recorded version of the Three Stooges theme.

 

"It's not the original theme because they won't let you use that," Lee explained. "So I hired my friend, violinist Ben Mink, who's a musician extraordinaire and a very big Three Stooges fan, and we had him recreate the original version. The three hellos you hear at the beginning are the three of us talking to him on the phone."

 

As a listener of the Canadian prog-rock band FM, the band has a song called 'Sofa Back', written by Ben Mink from their 1979 album Surveillance.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r06gDXJC-T0

 

It features references to The Three Stooges in a vocoder voice, which begins around the 2:00 mark.

 

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

 

From The Three Stooges - "Gents Without Cents".

 

Moe, Larry, cheese

Moe, Larry, cheese

Moe, Larry, cheese

Moe, Larry, cheese

 

From The Three Stooges - "Horses Collars".

 

It's possible that The Three Stooges comedy vibe from FM rubbed off on RUSH.

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That’s an awesome tidbit!

 

I love the sense of humour the band incorporated into the seriousness of their art.

 

It showed (in my opinion) that though they took their craft seriously, they kept themselves in check with taking themselves lightly.

 

You see this time and again throughout their career and through interviews over the years.

 

Great post, thank you!

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I did not know that - thanks for the morsel of Rush/FM cheese.

 

At the time I felt Surveillance was a bit of a let down but recently revisiting the album, I like it a lot more. And considering it didn't get anywhere nears the plays that Black Noise/City of Fear and Direct to Disc did - my copy is in much better playing condition than the other records. All the masters were lost/destroyed in a studio fire apparently, so any cd issue is sourced from vinyl.

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Hello, I'm aware that Geddy, Alex, and Neil have featured 'The Three Stooges' as an intro to open their concerts on various tours.

 

I recently discovered an article/interview by Geddy Lee published on Dec 4, 1987 in The Citizens' Voice.

 

The following bit stands out:

 

Rush has always featured visual elements and sometimes even elaborately staged jokes as part of their live performance. The "Hold Your Fire" shows open with a re-recorded version of the Three Stooges theme.

 

"It's not the original theme because they won't let you use that," Lee explained. "So I hired my friend, violinist Ben Mink, who's a musician extraordinaire and a very big Three Stooges fan, and we had him recreate the original version. The three hellos you hear at the beginning are the three of us talking to him on the phone."

 

As a listener of the Canadian prog-rock band FM, the band has a song called 'Sofa Back', written by Ben Mink from their 1979 album Surveillance.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r06gDXJC-T0

 

It features references to The Three Stooges in a vocoder voice, which begins around the 2:00 mark.

 

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

Rat-tat-toodle-and-a-day-day

 

From The Three Stooges - "Gents Without Cents".

 

Moe, Larry, cheese

Moe, Larry, cheese

Moe, Larry, cheese

Moe, Larry, cheese

 

From The Three Stooges - "Horses Collars".

 

It's possible that The Three Stooges comedy vibe from FM rubbed off on RUSH.

 

That is f***ing great. Didn’t know that.

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I did not know that - thanks for the morsel of Rush/FM cheese.

 

At the time I felt Surveillance was a bit of a let down but recently revisiting the album, I like it a lot more. And considering it didn't get anywhere nears the plays that Black Noise/City of Fear and Direct to Disc did - my copy is in much better playing condition than the other records. All the masters were lost/destroyed in a studio fire apparently, so any cd issue is sourced from vinyl.

 

The remastered FM albums from Black Noise to City of Fear have been re-released in 2013, in which the recordings were transferred from a 'virgin vinyl pressing', courtesy of Peter J. Moore.

 

City Of Fear was the only album to have a safety copy made, which was in the possession of producer Larry Fast.

 

There's a 2014 interview with FM drummer Martin Deller about the reissues here.

Edited by RushFanForever
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I did not know that - thanks for the morsel of Rush/FM cheese.

 

At the time I felt Surveillance was a bit of a let down but recently revisiting the album, I like it a lot more. And considering it didn't get anywhere nears the plays that Black Noise/City of Fear and Direct to Disc did - my copy is in much better playing condition than the other records. All the masters were lost/destroyed in a studio fire apparently, so any cd issue is sourced from vinyl.

 

The remastered FM albums from Black Noise to City of Fear have been re-released in 2013, in which the recordings were transferred from a 'virgin vinyl pressing', courtesy of Peter J. Moore.

 

City Of Fear was the only album to have a safety copy made, which was in the possession of producer Larry Fast.

 

There's a 2014 interview with FM drummer Martin Deller about the reissues here.

 

wow - I wonder what kind of Canadian punk rock treasure he has in his private collection. I'm not a punk rock aficionado but I am a fan of The Diodes and Teenage Head.

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That’s an awesome tidbit!

 

I love the sense of humour the band incorporated into the seriousness of their art.

 

It showed (in my opinion) that though they took their craft seriously, they kept themselves in check with taking themselves lightly.

 

You see this time and again throughout their career and through interviews over the years.

 

Great post, thank you!

 

^^^ what he said.

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