How did you started on RUSH?

[invisible airwave]

I decided to "test drive" their albums on a torrent in early 2008. Got a crapload of albums from Fly By Night to Moving Pictures, chronologically, in May or June of 2008. All but Fly By Night and Moving Pictures were iTunes purchases. The remaining two were bought at Amazon.com.

[MMCXII]

I was ten and for months every day before school my brother would play the same record before going to work.. His room was in the basement and I can still remember the sounds coming from downstairs as I ate my cereal.. Complicated yet clear and precise!

 

The album was of course moving pictures and I was hooked! The release of signals is one of my more vivd childhood memories..

[SUBDIVISIONS]

Edited August 10, 2012 by SUBDIVISIONS

[HowItIs]

Other than hearing the usual suspects on the radio - all of which I liked - it was Hemispheres in 1979 when I was 20. My soon-to-be-Hubby and room mate sat me down and played it for me. I was hooked!

[noisorroCmrotS]

I got introduced to them when I first saw the Exit Stage Left video in its entirety the time it got released. Then when Tom Sawyer was on MTV I was like wow! Look at them play that large sound and there is only 3 of them! I was hooked from then on.

[Merely Space]

1982. I had heard Tom Sawyer on the radio, but didn't really get into them until a friend said "You have got to listen to this!" and played Xanadu.

 

He was right.

[circumstantial tree]

I started seeing the name Rush in those sunday magazines that had tape clubs.

 

The first song I ever heard from Rush was "Vital Signs" on MTV who I mistakenly thought was Supertramp due to Geddy's vocal style and sound. This was in 1982.

 

As I started watching more of MTV, I started seeing the videos for "Tom Sawyer", "Red Barchetta" and "Limelight". These got a lot of play on MTV during the summer of 1982 as did Vital Signs.

 

So that is when I started liking the band in general.

 

In the fall of 1982, I saw the world premiere of "Subdivisions" on MTV and fell in love with the band. A song I could so easily identify with!

 

Got the album "Signals" for Christmas of 1982. Loved the album so much they became my favorite band replacing Journey, Jefferson Starship and Pat Benatar as my faves. Actually they remained faves but each went down one notch.

 

Eventually, I got "Moving Pictures" which was Christmas 1983.

 

The first "new" album to look forward to was Grace Under Pressure which I bought on April 21, 1984.

 

I didn't start thinking of getting their back catalog until I heard "Fly By Night" single on classic rock radio while at the beach during summer of 1984. When I got some money I bought that album and began getting all their past material whenever I could.

[LeaveMyThingAlone]

QUOTE (SUBDIVISIONS @ Aug 2 2012, 10:42 AM)

It was 1990 I was 17 years old I met RUSH with PRESTO My first "click" song was RED TIDE "This is not a false alarm, this is not a test" I recall that as one of my greatest music moments Later my ear could dive and enjoy the whole PRESTO And then I was set on a quest to know RUSH Ever since I have been trying to get more of the "PRESTO effect" Totally naive I went to a music shop asking for RUSH and someone put in my hand two audio cassetes... SIGNALS and 2112 It has nothing to do with PRESTO, first time I played 2112 sound ackward to me, like mamas and papas stuff, back from 1976, It took some time to "understand" the epic simphony. But SIGNALS caught me immediatly, and then I started joining the dots to have the whole picture of their discography. I love the whole catalog, But I guess I never got more PRESTO, that particular stage is the most special to me, that band, that moment, never happen again.

Nice story! Your story sounds similar to mine. I was also 17 in 1990 and that was also the year I discovered Rush.

 

My best friend at the time was a HUGE Rush fan but I never "got" them and couldn't get past Geddy's voice, so I dismissed them. But I always LOVED Tom Sawyer. Something about that song just clicked.

 

A different friend made me a cassette tape of the version of TS from Exit Stage Left just starting over and over again (so I didn't have to rewind the tape every time I wanted to listen to it-that's the kind of stuff we had to do back then)

 

From there, I bought Exit Stage Left. That was my 1st Rush album, which was nice because I got to hear a lot of different songs from different albums as my true introduction. I fell in love with all of them, and I thought YYZ with the solo in the middle was about the coolest thing I ever heard. From there, I knew I had to go out and get every album. I didn't have much dough back then so I went to the swap meet to get deals on used tapes. 4 for $10. I remember I got Fly by Night, Rush, Moving Pictures, and Signals.

 

Presto had already come out and MTV was playing the crap out of Show Don't Tell. I'd run home after school to watch the top 20 countdown and see where it was. I think it got as high as 8 or something,

 

The Presto tour was my first show, and I've seen them every tour since

 

To this day, Exit Stage Left really holds a special place in my heart. I really prefer most of the songs on that album over their studio counterparts, just because that was such a special time, discovering all those songs. I really like Spirit of Radio, Closer to the Heart/Beneath Between Behind and The Broon's Bane/Trees/Xanadu combo

 

Side Note: My cassette has Xanadu spelled with a "Z". Is it worth anything?

[FT Tracker]

They call me a Workin Man, Working Man on the radio 1974. I bought the album and still have it. I dont have a turntable to play it however.

[Aikenrooster]

I know this sounds silly, but I only really "got into" Rush, very recently, and only because of recent technology. Even with satellite radio, they only played the hits, but when I got a smartphone, with that Slacker Radio app, and the Grooveshark app, music changed for me. I knew I had been living under a rock, my whole life, and that I had been deprived of some great music ... now, Rush is the music that I have to listen to everyday on my walk.