Relayer2112

To me, Le Studio only means anything because of the way it was lovingly described in various writings from Neil. It was clear that he felt the atmosphere and bonding that was done there helped create some of the magic in the recordings. The building may be gone, but the descriptions of the time and place remain. That's really all that matters.

I knew from recent reading that it appeared he was still fighting cancer. I figured the recent silence wasn't a good thing. He was probably as close to "God's gift to the guitar" that we'll see in our lifetime. I would guess that he inspired more people to pick up a guitar than all others combined. His playing and songwriting will be sorely missed. RIP Eddie.

Not sure if mentioned previously, but Gladiator is way overrated. Also, Taxi Driver, which I only saw for the first time a couple years ago is highly overrated. It may have been great in it's hey-day, but not so much anymore.

The only thing I could possibly see is them doing a tribute concert to raise funds for cancer research. Have several drummer friends/colleagues of Neil's sit in for him as Rush goes through a greatest hits set. I think that would be cool as hell and still respectful.

Rock FM radio was finished for me when I first heard “Come Sail Away” with the middle synthesizer part removed. That was around 25 years ago.

I enjoy all eight to be sure...I just don't think that the Yes stuff has aged as gracefully as old Rush. Jon Anderson's new age lyrics are probably the culprit for me.

I think their best are "Secret Treaties" and "Fire of Unknown Origin". I like a lot of their other stuff also, but it's obvious that they struggled to find their identity several times over the course of their career. They couldn't decide if they were meant to be a mainstream or underground band and some of the albums suffer quite a bit because of it. They are certainly at their best when they stylistically "stuck to their guns" and threw commercialism out the window. Unfortunately, they didn't do this all that often.

I couldn't agree with this more (including the part about my wife not thinking that I'm more mature now that I'm older). I think they viewed Terry Brown as an unnecessary restraint due to the arguments they had over the making of Signals. They realized that he was never going to be artistically "on board" for their future plans. It doesn't mean they sold out at that time, just that they were more able to explore. I also embraced the keyboard era much later than I would have liked and skipped countless concerts of theirs that (retrospectively) I very much would have liked to see in person.

As others have said, they never sold out. Over the years they just delved into styles which I don't think necessarily suited them well. They certainly didn't want to be stuck in the 70's, so things had to change (even if just for their own artistic sanity). Another poll question could be "On what album did Rush start "mailing it in"? ". I would say the answer to that is "Roll the Bones", though there are some albums after that which I don't think are mailed in.

I like "Trick of the Tail" best because it's still got the proginess, but in a more concise package (they took this same approach with a couple albums following "Trick", but the material is much better here). In a way, it's sort of like the Genesis version of "Permanent Waves". Also...I thought that Phil's delivery of the songs was refreshing here. The material with Peter all seems to give a darker vibe to me. I still love the Peter albums, but in a different way.

Great interview...I can't help but think that both Geddy and Alex had a lot of reflection to do once Neil passed. I can imagine them questioning "was it all worth it?". The years of touring, time away from family etc. Here they were, all three of them ready to settle into retirement (at least, as close to retired as a musician can get), all the time in the world to spend with family and friends and Neil is struck down pretty much right at the beginning of it. There is one part in "Wandering the Face of the Earth" (I believe a snippet from an interview Alex gave in the early to mid 80's) where he said he wouldn't do it over again if he had the choice and said how much he'd like to have a normal job putting up fences with his brother-in-law. I guess everyone questions what they've done with their life from time to time. I think that Alex has to admit at this stage of the game that he made the right decision. He was clearly meant to be a musician, even now starting to get back into playing a little bit.

Any idea of they ever played Baker St. Muse live? I absolutely love that song. As far as "A Passion Play", I went through a period of time (a brief period) when I thought it was the best thing they'd done. Now I think it's kind of a hot mess.

This very well could have been an article in "The Onion" and it would have gotten the same reaction from me. That being said, I wouldn't think that the brand "Jethro Tull" is going to help sell a whole lot of the stuff but more power to them.

It's mentioned in "Wandering the Face of the Earth" that they didn't play "A Passage to Bangkok" until the "Tour of the Hemispheres" because technology had improved which allowed them to play it. Not being overly familiar with their old set lists until reading this book, I just assumed that Bangkok was a part of their set right from the get go after 2112 was released. I just can't figure out what would have been technically challenging in that song to prevent them from playing it. Does anyone have an idea?

I didnt even know that Rutsey and the guys still talked after his departure, and here is Neil saying he saw him just a week before this interview! Very interesting stuff It's mentioned in the "Wandering The Face..." book that John hung out backstage with the band at the Toronto show on the Presto tour, presumably that's the occasion Neil is talking about here. This is a good interview...it just about gets cringe-worthy with the questions related to John and I can tell that Neil wants the line of questioning to move on to other things. Luckily the interviewer doesn't dwell on it for too long.

Because he was on that first album and helped them develop their chops in the early years (and served as the front man in those early years). I can see if the band had 10 past members over the years that nothing would be said, but he's the only other member of the band who appears on record. It was wrong not to mention him. Perhaps one of Alex's "Blahs" could have been a "John".

I'll need to give that a listen. I think it's well documented that at least Alex had stayed in contact with John during the 80's, mainly because they lived nearby each other and went to the same gym to work out. I doubt that either the Rush camp or the John camp went "out of their way" to stay in contact otherwise. I wonder if John received any royalties from the first album? I don't believe he was listed as a songwriter.

I think this is probably closest to the truth. Although I'd like to think that the band was behind these decisions, they would have been barely 21 at the time. They were more worried about their playing and partying than they were about the long term sustainability of the band. They were making money playing their instruments and hired someone specifically to make those tough decisions. I'm guessing Ray is the only one who truly knows what went down with John. I'm sure the band doesn't like to think that someone was fired solely because they had health issues, which is why a musical differences spin has been put on it (and I'm sure those differences were indeed there). In reality, I can't think of anything more detrimental to a young band than having someone who can't hold up to the rigors of traveling and playing anywhere, anytime. I'm still wondering if not mentioning him at the RRHOF was just an oversight or intentional.

Please explain. Some thing I read a few years ago...might have been an excerpt of Sammy Hagar's book. He said that Ray was looking to get a 'better singer' for Rush about the time he joined VH. Ray was probably trying to get David Lee Roth to join Rush :) Can you imagine DLR (in the middle of Tom Sawyer) doing the typical Dave thing and singing "Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you and....I can't remember the f**k'n lyrics" while he's doing a leg kick.

In a way...he did f**k up. He evidently wouldn't hold back when it came to the partying, even though he had the health issues. Not surprising, he was in his early 20's and did not yet know that he was "only immortal for a limited time". Would things have been different had he taken care of himself? Possibly. Inevitably though, I'm sure the musical differences would have eventually marked the end for John in any case.

It always kind of revolved around Alex and Geddy, though at one point Ray did fire Geddy....unless you ask Ray. Apparently Ray wanted to fire Geddy again in the 80's. ..... Wasn't Ray the one who ended up f***ing up Van Halen for a few years around Van Halen III?

I don't think anyone is arguing about who the better drummer is. It's just I'd like to know the true story about my favorite band of all time. He was a part of Rush history and that's why I bring him up.

It always kind of revolved around Alex and Geddy, though at one point Ray did fire Geddy....unless you ask Ray. The book mentions that they were looking for a better front man than Geddy at one point. It's funny, but I don't think that Geddy ever turned out to be anything other than a way below average front man. So, basically, they never solved that issue. It just turned out that they didn't need a great front man as the music took over.

John was certainly a competent drummer for their early stage. I hope that the RRHOF snub was accidental. I also, think he deserved at least a shout out.