MadTheDJ

Hi, I thought I'd share this. So, while researching The Rush Chronology book, I found this entry in Record World magazine, dated July 13, 1974. It connects directly to what Donna Halper has said in interviews, that WMMS-FM playing Rush on the air led to SRO sending copies of the (original Moon Records pressing of the) album to her to get into the store Record Revolution. Here are the results, as reported in a music industry magazine.

The tracks from the single DEFINITELY should have been on the ReDISCover release in some form! And the "Working Man (Vault Edition) and any other vault material from those sessions. The problem is, though, Geddy has said NFA & YCFI will never be released. I read a specific quote while researching my book The Rush Chronology. I'll try to find it and post it. He was very specific when asked about that debut single ever getting a re-issue and the quote was fairly recent. He and Alex seem kind of embarassed in general by the quality of the album, variously being dismissive or outright bothered that they can't just let those recordings disappear into the musts of time (and we're talking the recording quality, not nessecarily the songs themselves, because they still pull them out live. I think it's that they see them as so primative and not very representative of their sound (then or now) that they would be happy if the record vanished into thin air. I'll try to find that quote and others about the 1st album.

Typos, Omissions and Errors can definitely be sent to the email address listed at the front of the book and I'll correct any mistakes in a future update. I'm not at all surprised there are typos (we're only human) or omissions (I'm bound to have missed something), but hope any Factual Errors in research are not serious. I attempted to be as transparent as possible, citing references and sources for information that may be in question. If there are genuine mistakes in the information, that's on me and I will correct it. Yes, the more research I did for the book, the more Fly By Night represented the major changes in the band. It very much bridges the Rutsey and Peart eras, with songs written and completed before Neil joined, partially written during John's time and completed with Neil, and some wholly created after Neil took over drumming and song-writing duties. I didn't delve as deeply as maybe I could have in to Kiss-related resources looking for Rush info/recordings and the idea of looking for Rush bootlegs through Kiss sources actually never occurred to me, but I did check out Kiss fan forums and discussions, KISS Alive Forever (for the tour dates) and grappled with one or two problematic tour date contradictions, trying to scour local news archives to find a more definitive answer on those (I wasn't really able to, so I note the contradictions in the book). And yes, there are some periods where there is less information about their activities than others, particularly in the early days. Still, there was enough out there scattered around that when I started fitting it all together the picture emerged of those times. For me, that part of the fun of the research, putting it together like a jigsaw puzzle and learning about *how* it all fit together. Just looked up my notes and no, I didn't find anything about *why* the "Tom Sawyer* ESL B-side was withdrawn and replaced with "Freewill." From my experience, withdrawn singles are either the result of errors (wrong track was put on) or it was a specific band/management/record company decision (for example a Queen solo single was pulled from the shelves just after Freddie Mercury died, because it was felt maybe the nature of the song could be taken as in bad taste with Freddie now gone [the single was The Cross's "Life Changes" and the few that were purchased by fans before they vanished have become collectors items]). If I had to guess, and here's where the chronology is helpful, it might have been because "Tom Sawyer" off MP was released as a single in June 1981 in North America and the ESL "Closer To The Heart" single was next, released in November 1981, so perhaps Rush/Anthem didn't want to repeat putting another "Tom Sawyer"-containing single out right after the original MP single, so they switched it to an older, different song, "Freewill." Cheers

Well, that's not exactly accurate for FBN. There's a good deal of the pre-Neil sound on FBN: "Anthem" - the riff predated Neil. Alex has said that John Rutsey just didn't like playing it, so the song never went further until Neil arrived. They even jammed on the riff with Neil at Neil's audition. It probably would've become a different song (certainly different lyrics), but the finished version bridges the Rutsey era and Peart era. "Best I Can" - this song was pretty much done during the Rutsey days, as heard during the Laura Secord Secondary School concert. "In The End" - the Fly By Night lyrics sheet says the song was written in Toronto and without Neil Peart. It is finished as early as the August 1975 Agora Ballroom concert (a month after Neil joined the band), this song would seem to date from the days before Neil replaced John Rutsey. "7/4 War Furor" - This jam began life in 1975 as part of live versions of "Working Man" (before later being incorporated into "By-tor") and is pretty much Alex and Geddy at work, so it's not unreasonable to guess that if John had been around for album no. 2, this piece of music would've been given a home somewhere on it. So, yes, while much of FBN was written on the road during that '75 tour after Neil joined, a significant portion of it still represents Rutsey-era Rush. Caress Of Steel was really the first full Peart-era Rush album.

I was. It was my first Rush concert. July 2, 1997, was my second Rush concert. I still have both tickets. I love the fact that I'm in the crowd (though I haven't spotted myself...yet) on officially released Rush material ("Resist" on Different Stages, "Closer To The Heart" 1997 Live video and the R40 boxed set Molson Amphitheatre footage). Sadly, these were also the last shows Jackie & Selena attended, according to Neil in Roadshow, which explains why the planned Different Stage concert film of the Toronto dates was shelved.

"Welcome to the forum Mad" Thanks! Happy to be here.

A few thoughts on this, as I was recently discussing this very topic with a friend. The album was recorded in 1979, but *intentionally released* at midnight, January 1st, 1980. Neither of these facts are in dispute, so is what we're really discussing actually the band's' intention for the work? They wanted the album to herald in the '80s and I think that's a very important detail to keep in mind, because Rush is a band who puts a great deal of care and attention to detail into their work, into every aspect of their work. They don't always step in and dictate release dates, but in this instance they did. I think it goes beyond simply being a marketing gimmick (first album released in the '80s). They were radically, deliberately, altering their craft, doing away with side-long epics of the Fountain/2112/Cygnus X-1 variety and streamlining their sound. They dropped the planned "Sir Gawain And The Green Knight" epic because it did not fit the more modern sensibilities of the rest of the material they were recording, and that was a quarter of the album they were dropping and had to replace later (with "Natural Science," which in a way also says something about the direction they were choosing, dropping a song about knights and replacing it with a song looking at science, nature and evolution). This was a new Rush sound they were presenting to the world, a more contemporary one from all sides, and they decided to put it out at the start of the new decade. I don't think it would change anything if PW was released January 15th instead of 12 AM, January 1st. The intention would seem to be that the band wanted this updated Rush positioned in the 1980s. Or put another way, they deliberately created an album for the '80s at the very end of the '70s. That's how I see it, anyway. Permanent Waves is very much an '80s album

Re: post font size Yeah, that was odd. Fixed.

Hi everyone, I've been encouraged by fans here to start a more public thread about my new book, The Rush Chronology. Some of what's below comes from my earlier thread buried in the Grand Designs sub-forum. I'm reiterating them here for those who may not have read it. I'm a Canadian artist and writer. This is my fourth Chronology book, the others being about Queen (co-written with a friend of mine), Mike Oldfield and Barenaked Ladies. That probably looks like an odd mix of artists to write about, and all I can say is that I have eclectic tastes. Rush would've been the second book I wrote (after Queen), but given the books out there, some I'd read, some I hadn't, I wasn't sure what new I could offer fans. I really hope this doesn't sound like a commercial for the book, because I don't mean it as such, I just want you to know where I was coming from and what changed my mind. And what did that was the Fly By Night album, believe it or not. I became fascinated by just how much it represented the period of transition between the John Rutsey era and the Neil Peart era. It wasn't a single great revelation, it was more a gradual unearthing of pieces of information about the album. The 'Beyond The Lighted Stage' DVD/BR had "Best I Can" from the Laura Secord Secondary School concert, a song with John that later appeared on Fly By Night, Neil's first Rush album. I hadn't heard a pre-Neil version at the time, so this was fascinating to me. Another piece was the August 26, 1975, Cleveland concert at the Agora Ballroom (as heard on the Rush ABC release). You have the completed "Best I Can," of course, but there's also the snippets of the "7/4 War Furor" from "By-Tor" appearing in "Working Man." When the complete Laura Secord show was put out on R40, you can see that portion hasn't yet emerged, despite being only months apart. I started to speculate about when "Best I Can" was written, as Neil's not on the writing credits. Jumping ahead to the December 16th Agora Ballroom bootleg, "Fly By Night" (not yet complete) and "Anthem" (mostly complete) had surfaced and the "7/4 War Furor" was firmly embedded in "Working Man," seemingly awaiting a home in a future composition. Then I read that "Anthem"'s riff pre-dated Neil, that Geddy and Alex wrote it whie John was still in the band, that John didn't like playing it, so it never went further until Neil arrived. They even played it, the three of them, at Neil's audition. All this is by way of saying I was listening to these tracks and mentally putting the chronology of Fly By Night together, slowly coming to the realization that maybe there was something to offer in a direct, detailed-as-I-could-be look at Rush's recording history without resorting to being anecdotal (I did not want to repeat other people's stories, unless they directly or closely-indirectly affected writing, recording or releasing material, if that makes sense). In writing each of the other books, while using the same chronological and stylistic approach, I found they took on their own personality (naturally, because each career is different). I started digging deeper into the other albums, reviewing what I already knew from various sources, but reading more, scouring interviews, re-reading Neil's books, things like that. And of course listening to the albums again with all this in mind. Each album had a story and grew out of specific influences, many of which could be fitted together date by date. Not to sound dramatic, but that's kind of when I committed to writing the book, wanting to show other fans how it all fit together, more so than they might have realized (more so than *I* realized before I started seriously research it). The same proved true of the solo albums and many of the guest appearances, that very little Rush has worked on was created in a vacuum. One project would influence another, tours impacted the albums which followed, real life affected all of it. So, I wrote the book. In a few other threads we've been discussing release dates and where I found some what were not widely known. I'm happy to answer any questions as best I can. I tried to be a transparent as I could be in it, naming sources for the information and being clear in my thoughts and opinions throughout. As I say in the introduction, if there's a mistake, it crept in despite my best effort, which is my way of asking not to be too harsh if you find something incorrect. The feedback I'm getting about the book is positive, people seem to be enjoying it and getting good information from it, which I think is great. I'm all for hearing any thoughts about the book, including constructive criticism. I hope it's cool I'm also including a list of locations where the book is available: http://www.lulu.com/...t-22362187.html http://www.amazon.ca.../dp/1926462033/ http://www.amazon.co.../dp/1926462033/ http://www.barnesand...n=9781926462035 Cheers, everyone! Patrick Lemieux

Some sources for Archives being April 1978: 2112.net Tour Dates, click on April 1, 1978 and scroll down to see a "Soon To Be Released" announcement from late March, in conjunction with the AFTK tour. A March 27th concert review of their March 24th show (also viewable on 2112.net) notes it's forthcoming. An April 1 RPM magazine feature on Anthem Records/SRO/Rush notes Archives is slated for release. A May 11 Circus magazine article notes Archives was a recent release. This narrows the window to between March 27 "forthcoming" and May 11 "recent". Factoring in practical considerations like the time it takes to write, proof and go to print for the May 11 article, an April release seems the most likely. I'd have to check my notes to see if I had a more specific source. Martin Poppoff seems to have come to the same conclusion in The Illustrated History (or *he* has a more specific source), as he notes an April 1978 release for it, too. :-)

Awesome, Robert! Thank you. It means a lot to me that you're liking it. Please let us know your thoughts as you work your way through it. I'm always up for discussing it and answering questions. Cheers :-)

I posted it over in the General Discussions sub-forum: http://www.therushforum.com/index.php?/topic/96031-new-rush-book/

Hi Everyone, Patrick Lemieux here. I wrote The Rush Chronology and am thrilled people are enjoying it! :-) To answer a few questions, yes, the March 1975 Atlanta filming of "Anthem" and "Fly By Night" church 'videos' was something I missed. I guess these things happen and a future update will certainly include it! As for "Not Fade Away" and its release date, here's the entry from the book: (August 31) Rush releases their debut single “Not Fade Away” in Canada on Moon Records. 7” single (MN-001): “Not Fade Away” – a cover of the 1958 Buddy Holly song “You Can’t Fight It” “Not Fade Away” 3:18 Written by Norman Petty & Charles Hardin Appears on: 7” single Rush’s first single is the holy grail for the band’s fans and collectors, as it was limited in its original release and neither track appeared on their albums, despite numerous opportunities to re-issue it or include it as a bonus track. Rush’s cover of the Buddy Holly song is heavier than the original, of course, but the production seems a bit thin compared to their debut album. It sounds like the band is holding back from really laying on the hard rock. Rush was known for being both loud and heavy live right from the start and as great as the recording is, it doesn’t really reflect what the band was at the time, which may explain why they’ve chosen to never revisit it. For fans, though, it deserves to be properly remastered and re-released. Seek out both this and “You Can’t Fight It” if you’re a fan, it’s highly recommended, if just a bit imperfect as a snapshot of their earliest recording days. “You Can’t Fight It” 2:54 Written by Geddy Lee & John Rutsey Appears on: “Not Fade Away” 7” single As rare as the single’s A-side, “Not Fade Away,” but slightly more valuable as an historical record, as it’s the first original Rush song ever released. Like with “Not Fade Away,” the production is a bit weaker than the band’s live sound was known for at the time, but the song still has a lot of energy as a straightforward rocker. Play it loud! Note: the date comes from handwritten notation that appears on the label as posted on discogs.com. Other sources simply list the release date as “Summer,” so the handwritten date in certainly plausible. *** The Discogs date is the best date I've found, though I can't confirm 100% if it's accurate. I also saw the September 29, 1973 RPM mag entry, which definitively tells us it was released prior to that date, and as noted in the book, that other sources only said "Summer" (if they note a time period at all) makes me inclined to believe the August 31, 1973 date, since all available evidence supports it. You can see the image here: http://www.discogs.com/Rush-Not-Fade-Away-You-Cant-Fight-It/release/3722117 To expand on the book a bit, my intention was to research as many sources as I could find. As with the March 1975 church session, I'm not above saying it's entirely possible I missed something something else. What research *is* in the book I did my best to cross-reference with multiple sources. If there is contradictory information, I also tried to note that, too, and generally went with what information seemed more likely, while including the alternative possibility. If I simply don't know and could find nothing about a release or session, I list it as "Date Unknown" and position it where it makes the most sense to me. In my research, I took very little for granted. I tried to build as much from unbiased original sources as I could, reading tons of period articles and interviews, where writers were documenting what was happening in that moment (the latest singles, the current project, that sort of thing). Interviews given much later can sometimes be misleading (not always, but occasionally the band get a detail slightly wrong for whatever reason, because memories fade and blur or they only had a second or two to think of an answer in an interview), so I was constantly comparing what, for example, Neil might say in 2011 about a session in 1976 to what he said in 1976 about the same session, when it was still a fresh experience. When in doubt, I note both, unless something is glaringly wrong (and there is one example that comes to mind of a mistaken date in there that he got wrong that I had to detail why it was incorrect. I won't ruin the surprise except to say the error gets reproduced in a lot of sources, despite being very demonstrably wrong). So that's a bit about my process and as I say in the intro of the book, I try to be as transparent and accurate as possible with the research. I hope to hear more thoughts on the book! I did start a thread on it, though there aren't too many replies there yet, but I'm encouraged that it's being discussed on other threads. I'm happy to engage in discussion on anything in it or how I wrote it or if there's a mistake you spot (and typos, gah, I can't seem to escape them no matter how many editing passes I and others do, but that's true of nearly every book, so I correct them for a future update). Cheers! :-)

Hi everyone :-) I was over in the Counterpart Forum sharing this and it was suggested I also do so here. I wrote some of this over there as an introduction to me and the book, since, despite being a Rush fan since 1993 and Roll The Bones era, I haven't been active in the Rush fan community until now. I'm a Canadian artist and writer, currently living in Toronto. Because I haven't been on Rush forums online before I put the book out, I've been pretty nervous since its release. I'm confident in my research and work, but there's never any predicting what my fellow fans will think. I hope people like the book and find it interesting and informative. A bit about the book: This is my fourth Chronology book, the others being about Queen (co-written with a friend of mine), Mike Oldfield and Barenaked Ladies. That probably looks like an odd mix of artists to write about, and all I can say is that I have eclectic tastes. Rush would've been the second book I wrote (after Queen), but given the books out there, some I'd read, some I hadn't, I wasn't sure what new I could offer fans. I really hope this doesn't sound like a commercial for the book, because I don't mean it as such, I just want you to know where I was coming from and what changed my mind. And what did that was the Fly By Night album, believe it or not. I became fascinated by just how much it represented the period of transition between the John Rutsey era and the Neil Peart era. It wasn't a single great revelation, it was more a gradual unearthing of pieces of information about the album. The 'Beyond The Lighted Stage' DVD/BR had "Best I Can" from the Laura Secord Secondary School concert, a song with John that later appeared on Fly By Night, Neil's first Rush album. I hadn't heard a pre-Neil version at the time, so this was fascinating to me. Another piece was the August 26, 1975, Cleveland concert at the Agora Ballroom (as heard on the Rush ABC release). You have the completed "Best I Can," of course, but there's also the snippets of the "7/4 War Furor" from "By-Tor" appearing in "Working Man." When the complete Laura Secord show was put out on R40, you can see that portion hasn't yet emerged, despite being only months apart. I started to speculate about when "Best I Can" was written, as Neil's not on the writing credits. Jumping ahead to the December 16th Agora Ballroom bootleg, "Fly By Night" (not yet complete) and "Anthem" (mostly complete) had surfaced and the "7/4 War Furor" was firmly embedded in "Working Man," seemingly awaiting a home in a future composition. Then I read that "Anthem"'s riff pre-dated Neil, that Geddy and Alex wrote it while John was still in the band, that John didn't like playing it, so it never went further until Neil arrived. They even played it, the three of them, at Neil's audition. All this is by way of saying I was listening to these tracks and mentally putting the chronology of Fly By Night together, slowly coming to the realization that maybe there was something to offer in a direct, detailed-as-I-could-be look at Rush's recording history without resorting to being anecdotal (I did not want to repeat other people's stories, unless they directly or closely-indirectly affected writing, recording or releasing material, if that makes sense). In writing each of the other books, while using the same chronological and stylistic approach, I found they took on their own personality (naturally, because each career is different). I started digging deeper into the other albums, reviewing what I already knew from various sources, but reading more, scouring interviews, re-reading Neil's books, things like that. And of course listening to the albums again with all this in mind. Each album had a story and grew out of specific influences, many of which could be fitted together date by date. Not to sound dramatic, but that's kind of when I committed to writing the book, wanting to show other fans how it all fit together, more so than they might have realized (more so than *I* realized before I started to seriously research it). The same proved true of the solo albums and many of the guest appearances, that very little Rush has worked on was created in a vacuum. One project would influence another, tours impacted the albums which followed, real life affected all of it. So, I wrote the book. :-) I'm happy to answer any questions as best I can. I'm curious what those who have bought the book by now think, too. I tried to be a transparent as I could be in it, naming sources for the information and being clear in my thoughts and opinions throughout. As I say in the introduction, if there's a mistake, it crept in despite my best effort, which is my way of asking not to be too harsh if you find something incorrect. ;-) The book is also now up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Cheers, everyone!

Hi everyone, Just wanted to pass on that a new book has been released, The Rush Chronology! It's available here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/patrick-lemieux/the-rush-chronology/paperback/product-22362187.html Cheers!