How were you first introduced to Rush?

[furie]

I was a sophmore in High School. This kid, Jim i think his name was, lent me a Rush mix tape. It was stuff from moving pictures, power windows, and grace under pressure. Thing was. nothing was written on the tape so i didn't know who the band was. I had to wait a week before I knew their name.

[circumstantial tree]

Ironically, I was introduced to Rush by MTV back in spring (or summer) of 1982. You have to know that back then, MTV was very good and played the best music. I had heard of Rush before then, but wasn't familiar with their music. I had seen the cover to Moving Pictures in those record clubs advertised in magazines.

 

Anyway, I caught the middle of the video for Vital Signs and immediately thought it was Supertramp, because of the high pitched singing style. I didn't realize it was Rush until the end of the song when the credit appeared in the lower left of the screen. I liked the song but didn't really give the band any more thought.

 

Eventually, I would see the live videos for Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, and Limelight, which MTV played quite often (shocking isn't it?) That is when my interest for Rush started to happen. At the time, Journey, Pat Benatar, and Jefferson Starship were "my bands". I was also into new wave and several post-disco and funk groups and some heavy metal. My tastes were wide ranging.

 

However, when I saw the world premiere video of "Subdivisions" in the fall of '82, I decided I would get the album for Christmas. After I heard the entire album, I was floored! And it was then that I became a convert.

[yyzyy]

My dad first introduced me to Rush when I was honestly 2 years old! But I really started listening to them when I was 5 or 6...my first concert I went to was T4E in Toronto when I was 8...I'm now 15, and can't get enough of them...thankfully!

[furie]

I remember early MTV. it was a golden age. I don't remember seeing Rush on there. I didn't get MTV until 1984 though.

[rickyrob]

1978...my school friend got me into Status Quo...yes the Quo! I was about 15.

 

He brought a pre-recorded tape of Farewell to Kings to school and wanted me to listed to Cygnus X1....I always remember him saying...."now don't be put off by his voice"...it snowballed from there...only a month or two later I was at the Apollo Theatre Manchester watching them live (Tour of the Hemispheres)....I went on to buy 2112 on tape and borrowed albums of their earlier stuff. I got given Hemispheres for paying for another mate to go to Knebworth in '79 (or '78) can't remember - the one with Led Zeppelin.

[The Notorious B.S.G.]

1977, heard "Fly By Night/In the Mood" from All the World's A Stage. Was immediately hooked, and the rest is history. Astounded that a trio could make so much noise!

 

[barney_rebel]

Friend of mine in highschool. Last I heard before the R30 tour, he had dissapeared from his home and no one has heard from him since. I haven't spoken to him since I got married (Fall 2000).

 

I wrote a poem about it:

 

http://www.therushforum.com/index.php?show...indpost&p=18851

[Proggy]

The very first time I was introduced to Rush was back in 1988, when I was sweet seventeen ( ). My then best friend (a girl, like me) had started to listen to this strange genre of music called progressive rock, a genre I was only familiar with by name only -and it was considered a bad word in those days!

 

I had just bought *ahem* Bon Jovi's new record, New Jersey at the time, and went to her place to have it taped on a cassette, as well (bear with me, all you youngsters! ) I was thrilled with that record, being the huge Bon Jovi fan as I was back then, but my friend didn't seem to be all that taken by it...lol Instead she wanted to introduce me to this band from Canada... I can't remember the record she put on, but my guess is that it must have been something from the late eighties (either Power Windows or HYF) since I can clearly remember the synths being in there...and the fact that it didn't really sound too different from the mainstream late eighties rock music I was used to.

 

Well, it didn't make much of an impact on me -the music was neither here nor there as far as I was concerned, and I could only roll my eyes to her ravings about the excellent bass playing in evidence. LOL I remember being mystified as to why she would even pay so much attention to something like the bass in the first place!

 

Fast forward to last year, September to be exact, and to a thread on a Led Zeppelin forum, which I frequented regularly back then. The topic was Rush and I followed the debate with an interest, firstly because progressive rock in general had started to interest me and I was thinking about getting aqcuainted with it myself, and secondly because I could still remember this particular band from my friend's record collection...but only the name, of course, not the music! A few days later I did a google on them and found Counterparts, a Rush message board many of us here are familiar with. I started to read threads about various Rush records and got more and more intrigued, to the point where I finally marched into a record store a week or two later and picked up a Rush record of my own. That record was Hemispheres, a successful second introduction to the band AND to prog rock in general. It changed my approach to music forever.

 

And hey, I finally get the bass!

[Sodoff Baldrick]

QUOTE (circumstantial tree @ Nov 27 2004, 11:47 AM)

Anyway, I caught the middle of the video for Vital Signs and immediately thought it was Supertramp,

Funny you should say that. I took my sister to the Tinley Park show. She claimed to know only one Rush song, but after the show she wanted to know why they didn't sing "Long Way Home."

 

For me, MTV introduced me to Rush in 1982, but I didn't really get hooked on them until a few years ago, though I'd been married to a die hard fan for years.

[Slaine mac Roth]

I'm pretty sure I've told this story here before and I know I've told it elsewhere but, what the hell.

 

It must have been late 1979, and I was 12, when my sister came home and played me a tape someone had done for her. I hated it.

 

The sound quality was aweful: no bass, not much guitar, lots of cymbals and tape hiss and a singer that only bats could hear properly. Wrinkiling my nose in disgust, I saw the words 'Rush - Hemispheres' scrawled on it. I filed the name away as a band to avoid in future.

 

A couple of weeks later, she came home with another album by the same band to which I showed little interest. Eventually, she persuaded me to give it a listen and I was totally blown away. This time, it was a proper vinyl copy of 2112 and I heard them in all their glory.

 

Not long after, Spirit of Radio was released and I was hooked.

 

(By the way, do I have to say that I love Hemispheres now).

[Indica]

Somewhere around 1976 I heard working man and fly by night, my brother was about 16 and I was 10, and I loved it. Then I heard the drum solo on ATWS and then 2112 on the same album and then I loved the whole album. Then I have been addicted ever since. Then I seen them on the Moving Picture tour and then ever tour since then.

[NeilPeartFan2112]

My uncle told me about them 5 years ago.

[Presto45]

Well it was in 1996 or something and my Freind MIke was taking Drum Lessons and his music teacher got him into Rush. Then he was like yeah "these guys are great" Well then i was like these guyas are awesome. I have been listening to them ever since.

[D-13]

My Rad Music teacher in Grade 9 gave me Moving pictures to listen to and I was hooked....We were supposed to do a Rush song at Battle of the bands....but he apprently left last year....to be a math teacher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! math bad...lol

[Trance]

When I was in mid and high school, my sister and her best friend were very into this rock band named Rush. They'd drive around in Brian's (the friend) Jeep and blast Roll the Bones and such other tunes. Around that time I wasn't really into rock and roll, just mostly what was played on the radio lol. A few years ago, I worked with a man who you couldn't meet without knowing that he was a Rush fan ( Yetz!), so one day I said, "Bring me something of theirs." He brought in hemispheres one day, and test 4 echo the next. Needless to say I was hooked. I signed up on another Rush board and got a call that day at work from daveyt out in cali, and when I said hello all I heard was hemispheres being played I wonder if he remembers that? I do, it was my first introduction into how cool Rush fans are.

 

Anywho, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

 

 

 

[NeilPeartFan2112]

QUOTE (D-13 @ Nov 27 2004, 05:04 PM)

My Rad Music teacher in Grade 9 gave me Moving pictures to listen to and I was hooked....We were supposed to do a Rush song at Battle of the bands....but he apprently left last year....to be a math teacher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! math bad...lol

That's a sweet story. I wish my teachers were that cool

[Oberon]

D-13, your story kinda reminds me of "School of Rock"...

 

When I was 7 or 8 (I'm 15 now) and only listened to classical music, my brother, who was 5, was into what he called "rock music" a lot... he liked U2, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Nirvana (of course he didn't understand a word what they said, we're French) and this little band called RUSH. Now when I heard what it was, I was immediately... disgusted. I didn't like that at all. It was all "heavy metal" to me... the guitars, ahh, the guitars, what a pain to my poor little ears. The only song I liked happened to be "The Trees", for the acoustic intro, and the rest was "heavy metal" and therefore pure crap. But I was totally in love with the first 30-seconds-or-so of the Trees, and it remained until a few years back, when I discovered heavy music. After discovering the Beatles, I got into that little band called...

Iron Maiden.

Yeah, that's right, Iron Maiden, the Number of the Beast and all. The most ironic part is that I had discovered them because I was a Dune freak, and that song "To Tame A Land" was inspired by the Dune novels. So I downloaded that one, and then a few others, and liked them, and proceeded to buy Powerslave.

Then I got into all sorts of metal, and then into less heavy music. I discovered the Eighties and the Seventies, and one of the first non-metal bands I discovered (again) was Rush. Needless to say, I was enthralled at first hear (which happened to be when one of my metalhead friends made me listen to "A Farewell to Kings", event of which I will now recreate the dialogue.

"Hey, you know Rush?"

"Hmm... I think so. I remember that song... what was it, something about trees"

"The Trees, is it?"

"Yeah, The Trees"

"Yeah, great song, great song. You know A Farewell to Kings?"

"No."

"You gotta hear that. That riff is great. Listen to that"

He fumbles with the CD player. I put the headphones on. A Farewell to Kings plays.

"Hey, that's not bad, yeah, I think I remember that. That's good."

"Yeah, I told you, eh?")

And then back home I proceeded to dig in my father's record collection looking for Rush. First one I got out was Hemispheres.

 

The rest is history. (Or rather it should be, what with all writing this post, I mean, I deserve credit for that...)

[Drumnut]

197? '76 or '77, My older brother came home with 2112 and said, "You've got to hear this band!" We both listened to the whole album following the lyrics word for word. Over the years, I persuaded my younger brother that Rush was better than anything else he was listening to. (Stereo cranked full blast so I could hear over my drums! ) Not really, he came to love Rush all the same and is a HUGE fan today! He plays guitar and Alex is his fav guitar player.

[Moonraker]

I didnt have anyone older then me that was a Rush nut in my family or a teacher that was a fan. My father stopped listening to rock in the late 60's, early 70's with the end of the Beatles and The Doors, and my mother was always into classical music. Considering that, it definatly delayed my discovery of such a great band, and so many more that I have come to know of now and still have yet to learn about. You younger guys have it lucky with your parents/teachers still being into all the stuff to bring you up with it . Its much harder to find the good stuff when no ones telling you where its hidden.

 

Anyway, after quite a few years of musical soul searching, ranging from my own tastes in classical music to Sublime, which led to Metallica, which led to Iron Maiden, I finally began to recognize a few songs from a few bands on the radio. One of the earliest songs I remember hearing was Freewill, whose guitar solo in the middle of the song was just so earthshattering to my meager world of metal that I began to take notice of other songs from this band called "Rush".

 

Luckily on VH1, they still had the show "Rock Show" which was only about half an hour long on certain nights of the week, but were playing a lot of cool videos. My first exposure to Iron Maiden was "Run To The Hills" on that program. I also remembered seeing the video for "Limelight" which I recognized from the radio as well. Anyway that was enough to encourage me to buy some CD's. I did a little research and decided I should start with Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. Since then, it took me only about 2 1/2 years to collect thier entire catalog including live albums.

[DoubleAgent420]

Hello to all! I'm new to this board, this seems like a good topic to start with. I was introduced to Rush by my drum teacher. (I'm a drummer, Neil Peart is my idol!) He wanted me to learn "Tom Sawyer" on the drums and told me to buy the CD "Moving Pictures". I bought it, but I was so young that I couldn't really appreciate anything but "Tom Sawyer" and "YYZ". I wasn't into them much at all. Several years later, my drum teacher wanted me to learn "Freeze" off of Rush's new CD (at the time) "Vapor Trails". I picked that up and really got into several of the songs on it. I started to listen to "Moving Pictures" a little more and then at some point picked up "Hemispheres" to learn "La Villa Strangiato" on drums (that was hard to do, might I add). That did it for me. I started to get really into them and now they're my favorite band ever. I own all 17 studio albums and a couple of live albums. Rush has also inspired me very much as a musician, my music (I picked up guitar last spring) has become more difficult and intricate. My drumming is constantly improving, and it all started with trying to learn "Tom Sawyer". Rush is simply an amazing band and a very important part of my life.

[RushRevisited]

QUOTE (DoubleAgent420 @ Nov 27 2004, 10:30 PM)

Hello to all! I'm new to this board, this seems like a good topic to start with. I was introduced to Rush by my drum teacher. (I'm a drummer, Neil Peart is my idol!) He wanted me to learn "Tom Sawyer" on the drums and told me to buy the CD "Moving Pictures". I bought it, but I was so young that I couldn't really appreciate anything but "Tom Sawyer" and "YYZ". I wasn't into them much at all. Several years later, my drum teacher wanted me to learn "Freeze" off of Rush's new CD (at the time) "Vapor Trails". I picked that up and really got into several of the songs on it. I started to listen to "Moving Pictures" a little more and then at some point picked up "Hemispheres" to learn "La Villa Strangiato" on drums (that was hard to do, might I add). That did it for me. I started to get really into them and now they're my favorite band ever. I own all 17 studio albums and a couple of live albums. Rush has also inspired me very much as a musician, my music (I picked up guitar last spring) has become more difficult and intricate. My drumming is constantly improving, and it all started with trying to learn "Tom Sawyer". Rush is simply an amazing band and a very important part of my life.

Welcome to the board!!

[Presto45]

Double Agent Awesome to see you aboard

[yyz]

QUOTE (Presto45 @ Nov 28 2004, 12:05 AM)

Double Agent Awesome to see you aboard

 

[NeilPeartFan2112]

Welcome!!!

[PuppetKing2112]

I started playing drums in 2000 and started reading Modern Drummer in 2001. In EVERY SINGLE ISSUE they always had something about some guy I'd never heard of called Neil Peart. After a little online research, I found out that he played in a band called Rush. I made a mental note to pick up some of their music but forgot about it for about a year. Then by 2002 I was hooked on Classic Rock radio, which is where I discovered most of my favourite bands (Floyd, Zep, Yes, etc). Then in late April the DJ announced the new single from...RUSH! It was of course One Little Victory, and I was immediately sold on the drum intro. That weekend they were giving away advance copies of VT and I called in and won one! Naturally I fell in love with the whole record and over the next 2 1/2 years I got all their studio and live albums and got to see them for the first time on the R30 tour.