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http://www.cleveland.com/rockhall/index.ssf/2013/04/rush_canadian_prog-rock_band_r.html Rush fans had one word when they found out their heroes were to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Finally! And, it’s possible those fans can take some comfort in the knowledge that their fervent support may have had something to do with ensuring that bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart will stand on the Nokia Theatre stage in Los Angeles on Thursday night. For the first time in the short history of the Rock Hall, an online fan vote equaled a single vote on the voting committee. Though the Rock Hall won’t reveal total numbers, at least a quarter of those who voted checked the box next to Rush on their online ballots. "I think the outcry or the outpouring of support of our fans was noted by the voting committee," said Lee, in a call from Beverly Hills earlier this week. The band has been eligible since 1998. "I don’t think it was enough to turn the tide, but the noise and support from our fan base made the people on the committee take notice." Ed Stenger, founder of the Shaker Heights-based fan site rushisaband.com, is convinced that the site he founded in 2005 "played a small role in their induction." Stenger, a website developer for the Marcus Thomas marketing agency, has more than 10,000 subscribers to his site. It’s a pretty safe bet that they voted. Rush fans are nothing if not loyal. "I think it’s a hard thing to explain," said Lee, when asked about the passion fans have for Rush. "A lot of it has to do with how they came to our music. "In some ways, people come to our music at a time when they feel they need something our music has in terms of comfort or inspiration," he said. "It’s kind of a life experience for them. It gives them solace when they need solace, and that forms an emotional bond with the music." Then there’s the rebellious aspect. "There’s also something of a guilty pleasure, with Rush not being a mainstream band overtly," Lee said. "I think within our fan base, it’s something of human nature to champion something not everybody has heard of." That’s the sort of intellectual analysis you might expect from a man who is one-third of what arguably is the most famous of prog-rock bands. Rush’s sound — a union of Lee’s melodies and Peart’s lyrics, aided and abetted by Lifeson’s multiple-personalities guitar — is hardly the one-three-five of a blues band [although they did start out playing blues, and have dabbled in it over the course of their career], nor is it the typical and constant four-four time signature of most pop and rock bands. Rush segues from time signature to time signature, from effect to effect in songs that force the mind to work almost as much as they do the heart. Tunes like "Subdivisions," "Tom Sawyer," "Superconductor," "The Spirit of Radio" and "Caravan" are almost musical lassos, encircling and ensnaring any who listen. Even drum solos — a staple of 1970s arena rock bands — take on a thinking-man’s perspective when Peart does them, employing everything from roto-toms to a glockenspiel to electronic drums. They’re not so much driving, chest-thumping exercises as they are hypnotic rhythms that morph into melodies. A long career with ups and downs Mainstream or not, since forming in 1968 and releasing its first, self-titled, album in 1974, when Peart joined, Rush has produced 24 gold records and 14 platinum albums — and three of those platinum albums have gone DOUBLE platinum, meaning sales of 2 million or more. "Our career has been up and down," Lee said. "We’ve been around for 40 years. Not every one of our records has been happily received, but we set a goal in music not to have a couple of hit records and retire. Sometimes, you take one step forward and two steps backwards." Part of that is the band’s willingness to adapt — in some ways — to the music of the day, and yet maintain its own signature sound. "You have to be willing to absorb the new music going on around you," Lee said. "That’s part of being a contemporary musician. You can’t stay trapped in the ’70s. We’re very much like sponges. You’ve got to pay attention to what’s going on around you." To that end, over the course of the years, Rush has dabbled in everything from the blues to new wave, and put its own spin on all. Lee, Lifeson and Peart probably could cover "Mustang Sally" and it would come out prog. And don’t put that past them. "We do all kinds of things when we jam," said Lee, laughing at the prospect of taking prog-rock fans on a ride, Sally, ride. "Sometimes, Alex takes the mike and gets really stupid." That’s one reason Rush has been able to stick around so long. "We’re lucky because we LIKE each other," Lee said. "We’ve stayed sharp in terms of our playing ability. The fact is we still write music the way we want to write music, and we still enjoy the creative process. It keeps us interested in it, and we try to make sure there’s a heavy quotient of creativity and fun in it." For Rush fans, the word fun may be a bit of an anomaly, given the band’s predilection for somber, complex music. But the guys do like to have fun, and not just onstage. Lee recently threw out the first pitch in the Indians season-opening win against Lee’s hometown team, Toronto. "It was a bit of a breaking ball, a fake curve," he said, laughing again. "But it WAS a strike." It’s not the first time Lee and the Indians have come together. Bart Swain, director of baseball information for the Tribe, is a huge fan. "When Mark Langston was with us back in 1999," Swain said, "he surprised me one night. He knew I was a big fan. I met him in the lobby [of the Tribe’s Toronto hotel] that night and Geddy Lee picked us up and we all went out." They headed for a place called the Orbit Room .¤.¤. which just happens to be owned by Lifeson. "I was there with Geddy and Mark and all of a sudden, Alex shows up, so it’s the four of us," said Swain, whose first Rush album was the seminal "2112," purchased when he was 17 in 1987, 11 years after its initial release. "It was the greatest night of my life." Lifeson picking up the tab was just a small part of the reason. "There was a house band called the Dexters," Swain said, "and Geddy and Alex disappear. Ten minutes later, they’re onstage, with Alex on guitar and Geddy singing and doing ‘In the Mood’ and ‘Working Man.’ It was beyond unbelievable." A ‘very odd’ omission Like a lot of fans, Swain wondered why the band wasn’t in the Rock Hall already. "It just seemed very odd, given some of the credentials of the bands that were getting in there," he said. "There are a lot of conspiracy theories," said rushisaband.com founder Stenger. "There was a certain camp in the Rock Hall nominating committee that just didn’t like Rush, and they’ve prevented them from getting in all these years." As for Lee, he couldn’t care less. Though glad finally to be in, he has his own way of looking at things. Perhaps it’s that the Rock Hall may be mainly for artists who’ve coiled their guitar cords and traded their drumsticks for knitting needles. "We’re still functioning — touring and writing," Lee said. "We’re still young." With no rush to quit.

I will be dressing for the occasion while I mope and get drunk 300 miles away. :boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo: :cheers: :boohoo: :boohoo: :boohoo:

Watching CNN and I thought of the Rush Forum since many of you on here of from the East Coast. Hope everyone is well. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved in today's tragedy.

Possible spoilers about what they'll play at the induction ceremony. http://www.thespec.c...aciously-bitter Rush was just starting to hit its stride on the world scene when the critics turned on progressive rock. The year was 1977 and Rush, a band that started out playing blues-rock in bars around southern Ontario, had been increasingly influenced by British prog rockers like King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. You can hear it in the band’s 1976 breakthrough album, 2112 and, even more in the followups: A Farewell To Kings (1977), Hemispheres (1978), Permanent Waves (1980) and Moving Pictures (1981). But, in 1977, the critics, especially those from influential Rolling Stone magazine, turned their attention elsewhere. Suddenly, The Sex Pistols, Ramones and The Clash were the bands that mattered. Punk was good. Prog was bad. Rush, personified by Geddy Lee’s high-pitched shriek, Alex Lifeson’s multilayered guitars and Neil Peart’s sci-fi lyrics, was an easy target. Rush fans — millions of them — were stigmatized as pretentious mullet-heads who would eventually grow out of their adolescent love for Rush and discover the true meaning of rock ’n’ roll. Interestingly enough, the fans stuck by the Canadian trio. Those fans grew up into business executives, lawyers and surgeons who still cherish their Rush records. During the past few years, critical opinions have changed. Lifeson and Lee are hailed as virtuosos. Peart is revered as rock’s greatest living drummer. Their influence on modern prog-metal bands like Tool and System Of A Down has been enormous. The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction committee, led by longtime Rolling Stone publisher Jan Wenner, was slow to react to this changing tide. It took 15 years of Rush eligibility and more than 40,000 signatures on an online petition before they finally came to their senses and put the band on the nomination list. On Thursday, long-suffering Rush fans will receive their pound of flesh when the Canadian rock trio is inducted into the Hall of Fame during a gala concert/ceremony at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles (broadcast on HBO on Saturday, May 18 at 9 p.m.). The band members say they will accept the honour “graciously.” Still, some bitterness lingers. “We were eligible for 15 years and it really didn’t matter to us,” Lifeson told The Spectator in a phone interview from his Toronto home. “We joked about it. In fact we kind of wore it as a badge of honour that there was a core inside the committee that did not want us in there. Some said, ‘Over my dead body,’ literally, ‘before Rush gets in here.’ Which is fine, they can do whatever they want. It’s their museum. “So at the end of the day, it didn’t really matter to us at all. It was kind of nice to have that controversy go away, to a point. But our fans were very insulted by it and burned by it. Now they feel vindicated by it. Certainly not all of them do. There’s certainly a lot of Rush fans who think we should ignore it. “But the proper, courteous thing to do is to go and accept it graciously, try to make everybody happy, move on and never have to deal with it again.” Lifeson is well aware of the history and believes there are many other bands still suffering from that ’70s prog-rock backlash. “There seems to be a sense of unfairness, not just about us, but the whole genre of progressive rock music,” Lifeson, 59, says. “You can argue that a lot of bands should be in there even before us. Deep Purple has had an incredible impact on rock music and so many bands, as has Yes and King Crimson. There’s a long list. The Moody Blues should have been in there. They were incredibly inspiring to a lot of young musicians.” Still, there’s little doubt that Rush has benefitted from the controversy. It’s been a rallying point for diehard fans and forced outsiders to have a second look. Rush seem to be more popular now than ever before. Tours are guaranteed sellouts — there are still some tickets available for Rush’s July 6 date at Copps Coliseum — and the Rush fans can now wear their T-shirts with pride. “It’s really changed,” Lifeson says. “When you go back to the ’70s, we had lots of very negative press. It was water off the back after a while. “Now it seems we can’t get bad press. I miss it,” he laughs. “It’s just so odd that here we are, 40 years later, and now we’re respectable. Everyone wants a piece of us. It’s very fascinating, interesting.” One of the things that are making the Hall of Fame ceremony more palatable is the fact that Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins will be at the podium introducing Lifeson, Lee and Peart. The two Foo Fighters were selected by the Hall of Fame to do the induction with the approval of Rush. “They are keen Rush fans and they understand where we come from,” Lifeson says. “In a lot of ways the Foo Fighters are similar. They stick to their guns and do things in their own way. Certainly Dave (Grohl) has come up for the last 25 years with that same sense of integrity and work ethic. They are terrific guys, the perfect choice.” Rush has been asked to perform some of the better known songs at the induction ceremony. “Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio and maybe YYZ,” Lifeson says. “They’ve asked us to do classic, kind of iconic songs and those three are the ones.” Will Grohl and Hawkins join Rush? Perhaps drumming with Peart? “There’s always a chance,” Lifeson says cryptically. “We’re working on some things.”

Stupid topic. Your basing your assumptions on the fact that everybody's seen Rush live more than once. The upcoming CA show in Sheffield is my first show and first time fans want to hear songs like Tom Sawyer and The Spirit of Radio, not everybody's a veteran concert goer. I would be PISSED off if they omitted Tom Sawyer from their set, but it looks like they aren't which is good. And as someone else has stated it's not much to set aside 5 minutes out of a 3 hour set to play one of their staples. Hell most bands these days revel in their past, they play nothing but hits, but Rush do not. I do not think it is unreasonable to devote 5 minutes to one of their biggest and well known hits.

No my answer is no. New generations of Rush fans should be able to get "sick" of Tom Sawyer too. My 8 year old son loves it and can't wait to hear it and air drum the magnificent mini drum solo after the guitar solo.....so glad Rush manages to give all their fans regardless of age what they want every show. Selfish old time hard core fans....ha ha ha LOL. :codger: How dare us make demands when the band continues to give us.....new music!!!! New tours......for the love of.....ahh forget it. Rush is in less that 2 weeks!!!!!!! YEAH BABY!!!!!

Stumbled across another set of vintage tour pictures, this time from the 'AFTK' tour. This set of 21 pictures was taken on March 21st, 1978 in Chattanooga, TN... http://cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/concert-chattanooga-03.21.1978.php Enjoy-

Creed :puke: Creed sucks. The artist I referenced don't. ;)

I always thought Making Memories was a pretty radio friendly song with an upbeat feel. It is one of my roadtrip songs. Besides FBN title track, I think it is the most accessible material on the album. Of course, the rest of it totally rocks :haz: FBN couldn't have been their first studio album. Working Man was required to be discovered and that discovery required the replacement of Rutsey. As the only single from FBN, FBN song was part Neil. Circular logic. Without the first album, Neil wouldn't be in Rush to make FBN. Cause and effect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfuXUNRDOy0

To be perfectly honest I am fairly new to Rush so I am not for sure either. I think that was when they were asked about ABBA's induction into RnR Hall of Fame. "Fairly new to Rush" Excellent! :rush: :hi: Welcome to TRF! :hi: Don't mind goobs. ABBA just flies in the face of everything he believes and enjoys. And he's not alone. There are many hardcore Rush fans here. :D What was it about Rush that attracted you? It is quite a contrast to ABBA. Edit to add: here's a link to an old thread, if you want to move the answer out of the ABBA thread: What aspect of Rush won you over? in Rush http://www.therushforum.com/index.php?/topic/76664-what-aspect-of-rush-won-you-over/page__view__findpost__p__2720744__hl__aspect

Love that song! That extended guitar part is pretty amazing stuff.

I love the Star Trek Next Gen scene that follows the Belushi scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1xqI_4btnc

Yes, I saw this yesterday. It was quite good. Phil was very gifted and his loss was such a tragedy. Very sad. He was so charismatic and seems like he was a genuinely nice person. And, I always love watching a great bass player. :haz:

I don't know what Geddy and Alex think of ABBA. Although, we should probably be careful. We may have our :rush: credentials revoked. :o And, with the concert a week from tomorrow (!) :yay: - I better play some Rush to offset the ABBA influence. ;)

Happy Birthday, Daylin! I hope that you had a wonderful day! :yay: :cheerleader:

YEAH! Husband? Wait a minute... what was all that 'one in a million' talk?

It's got a few good songs, but that's about it. Other than Tom's return, it's a little mediocre.

Goobs, have you forgotten how much radio attention Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions got at the time? And MTV played Rush pretty frequently in the early 80s. Don't you remember how easy it was to catch one of their videos? And NONE of those songs reached the top 20! Face it, Rush is a weird f***ing hard rock band. All the marketing in the world might not have helped many of their tunes

All of the head was removed apart from the eyes and the brain in order to fit into the costume. Good evening, last week we learned how to saw a lady in half. This week we're going to learn how to saw a lady into three bits and dispose of the body... ...If we bury her she gets eaten up lots of weevils and nasty maggots, which as I said before is a bit of a shock if she's not quite dead. :( Oh and Jenkins? Apparently your mother died this morning That's Mr. Jenkins - he's another idiot. :hi: and his father uses him as a wastepaper basket Oh it's not too bad, mum...we're using some new tungsten carbide drills. :bang bang: Still no settlement in the coal mine dispute at Llanddarog. Miners refused to return to work until the management define a metope Well as I was telling mummy here, things is pretty bad there at the moment but there does seem some hope of a constitutional settlement. They have decided to fight for it. The existence or non-existence to be determined by two falls, two submissions or a knockout. That was a great fight, Champ, a great fight, you hear! Oh boy, what a fight, Champ, what a great fight! You nearly had him, Champ, you nearly had him... where's his head? You'll need some sort of diversion. Wait, I've got it! :cheerleader: :cheerleader:

Thank you very much!!!!!!!! Maybe we'll see/meet at the RUSH show! Yous, Lin I'd be up for that. :)

You know... for all of the people who DO NOT want to hear it live again, I can think of THOUSANDS of people that I stood in arenas with that went CRAZY and were so happy to sing, air drum, and just rock out to this song. I was standing next to a guy that said he was at his 46th Rush concert and he had no issue with it. So I think you guys can suck it up for the rest of us.

Well I think Dancing Queen is quite underrated, ironically. To my ears it has some tricky keyboards and grooves but everyone talks about the hooks. Here is a live performance of it, and be careful at 2:00 mark! Hope you can come out alive! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ejypIv8zSA By the way, I heard that Alex and Geddy are not very fond of ABBA. IS that true?

Dear Ray Daniels, please let Abby have a backstage pass. She plays a mean ax and cleans her room on a semi-regular basis. Sincerely, TRF. Ok guys, sign the petition. 15 year old female Rush fan...why weren't there any girls this cool when I went to high school?

Am I the only one who thinks they should play something from CA?? Too many people think of Rush as a 70's/80's band.. Rush always has looked forward. Why not play something like 'the Garden' instead of living in the past for them assclowns..

I'm outraged the CA orchestra is not being inducted. They played on an album AND toured. Also, whoever put Alex and Geddy in all the same classes in grade 9 should be in. Rush would not exist if not for that.

I could probably pick something different every week, but here are a couple: "We break the surface tension With our wild kinetic dreams" "If love remains Though everything is lost We will pay the price, But we will not count the cost" And every single word of "Natural Science"

Happy Birthday! :cosmo: :cosmo: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIN!!! :martini: :yay: :banana: :cheerleader: HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!!!

I'm kinda partial to the Hogarth period. Marbles and Sounds That Can't Be Made are both amazing.

The first 2 albums were classics. They made some very good music after those two though, with both frontmen. Good band.

Saw it last night. Interesting show! Sad how incredibly gifted people destroy themselves, isn't it?

25 Years Ago: Cheap Trick Release "Lap of Luxury" http://ultimateclass...-lap-of-luxury/ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Cheap_Trick_Lap_of_Luxury_Let_Go_1988.jpg

:P

Big Trouble in Little China. It's hard not to like Kurt Russell...drama, comedy, sci-fi, action, horror, and cheeseball B-type flicks like this, he's got to be one of the most versatile actors about

Looking forward to seeing this, ashamed to say never got around to watching original"The Jackie Robinson Story" staring the man himself... With all accolades justly deserving and with the violent ignorant racism Robinson had to endure in his first year with the Dodgers. We should also remember Larry Doby the first black player in the American League with Bill Veeck's Cleveland Indians, just month's after Jackie broke the color barrier. But not like Jackie who was first integrated through the Brooklyn farm system. Veeck had a different approach and had Doby go directly from the Negro League to Cleveland of the American League. (The day he signed with Cleveland he was in the lineup against the WhiteSoxs )Many think because of this Doby had it much worse then Jackie trying to adapt in the segregated American League. And had to endure the same level of blatant prejudice by opposing teams, fans and team mates.... But without the focus and fanfare of the media simply because he was not first in the Majors. Hall Of Famer, 7 time American League All Star helped the Indians win there last World Championship in 1948. (first black player to hit a home run in W.S.)

They will play The Necromancer from beginning to end...then Geddy will say...'hey RRHOF....suck it!' and they'll storm off the stage. Then I woke up.

2112 didnt break them into the mainstream like MP - but in terms of their success, it's probably their most critical record. If it failed, they were done. Instead, it broke them out and set a standard for total creative freedom ever since Pretty awesome :)

That is so hawt, and will make it easy for me to spot you! Yeah, he'll be the one being carried out by the police, to loud applause (for the police). Or just follow the trail of puke.

Fly by Night changed the world bro! Of course they would've gone on to be the most successful canadian band ever...who can resist blue owls and kick ass songs about life and the underworld of Hades

Bird YEAH It's actually really catchy

Just go, man!

Anyone else a fan of the second self titled album from 1997? I haven't listened to it in a while but it's quite underrated, imo. It's not as good as the classic period, but I hardly ever see people mention it.

I'll be there, and all that I'm wearing will be this! :banana: http://i1.cpcache.com/product/124506301/trf_classic_thong.jpg

Non-story

Just wear jeans and a glittery concert t-shit. ;)

Also it's 4 minutes of a 3 hour set. Are you really suggesting that you not see them because it may annoy you for 4 minutes?

More Talking Heads. I love Fear of Music. They were so fraking good! I love the single piano note. ...it's only the river, it's only river... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9W8St1pDc Remain in Light was one the first CDs I bought in 1985. Infectious groove on this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k96zk09uyjU

Everyone is so opinionated about the setlist. I say stop giving a shit and let Rush decide.

:boo hiss: It's boring and does not fit with the rest of the album at all. :zzz: Listening to that song right now...still one of my favourites on that album :P