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Neil Peart Says There Are No Unreleased Rush Songs


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This is from Ultimate Classic Rock...

 

The release of Bob Dylan‘s ‘Basement Tapes‘ box set earlier this week was enough to get us thinking about which of our favorite bands could get similar treatment. But now we learn that we will never see one from Rush, because according to drummer Neil Peart, they have nothing in their vaults.

 

In the video above, a teaser for his interview with George Stroumboulopoulos of CBC Radio 2 that will air Sunday (Nov. 9), Peart gives an example of what he calls “the Rush way of doing things. We’ve never given up on a song. We do not have a single unreleased song in the world.”

 

Explaining further after Stroumboulopoulos expresses surprise, Peart says that “if we went far enough and if we believed in it, we kept working on it. A lot of stuff got thrown away before it got that far or syphoned into other songs. I call my lyrical file the ‘scrap pot’ and I’ll go [through it] when I’m looking for bits and pieces and musically, [hopefully] we’re the same. If things [are] not happening, we’ll throw it away.”

 

He describes ‘Wish Them Well’ from 2012′s ‘Clockwork Angels‘ as a track that went through several revisions. “[T]hree times we wrote that song and threw it away and it was the third version, finally, that pleased us all,” he continues. “The will was only fed by the inspiration, ‘Do we believe in this song?” But inevitably, when you get to the recording stage and the mixing stage, it might not be what you’d envisioned.”

 

The second half of the video sheds light on the different approaches favored by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee in the recording and mixing processes. ‘The Strombo Show‘ airs on CBC Radio 2 Sunday nights at 8PM Eastern, and will be available online Monday.

Edited by ReGorLaTroy
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I believe him; I can only imagine how bad an unreleased Roll The Bones song would be.

The ones not good enough for RTB were released on S&A.

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He's lying! He's got dozens of RUSH songs hidden in a special vault. RUSH epics with sci-fi lyrics that he finds embarrassing, and Good Lord he's banished Jeddi Lee Wino and Alex Zivo from ever releasing them! He has his literary toff cronies to think about these days, they wouldn't be amused by any more Cygnus X-1s or Xanadus. :madra:
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He's lying! He's got dozens of RUSH songs hidden in a special vault. RUSH epics with sci-fi lyrics that he finds embarrassing, and Good Lord he's banished Jeddi Lee Wino and Alex Zivo from ever releasing them! He has his literary toff cronies to think about these days, they wouldn't be amused by any more Cygnus X-1s or Xanadus. :madra:

Love those British terms...tiff. :)

 

Let's see if I can use one appropriately. Are you saying Neil's a tosser?

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He's lying! He's got dozens of RUSH songs hidden in a special vault. RUSH epics with sci-fi lyrics that he finds embarrassing, and Good Lord he's banished Jeddi Lee Wino and Alex Zivo from ever releasing them! He has his literary toff cronies to think about these days, they wouldn't be amused by any more Cygnus X-1s or Xanadus. :madra:

Love those British terms...tiff. :)

 

Let's see if I can use one appropriately. Are you saying Neil's a tosser?

:yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:

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A version of Earthshine was also thrown away and the song was completely reworked from the ground up.

 

Recordings of these early versions have to exist. They should release all of these early versions one day.

 

Along with the never heard death metal version of The Speed of Love.

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I've heard in several interviews that they just didn't bother developing a song if it wasn't working. Bits and pieces of those songs that they liked would wind up in something else. I would bet money that they have plenty of outtakes of early versions of released songs which would be an interesting listen, but I don't think the band would agree.

 

I know that for several years they would have a short tour prior to going into the recording studio where they would play songs that were not yet released, but were being developed for a new album. Subdivisions was played during one of these short tours prior to Signals release and is definitely a different version of the song (albeit slightly).

 

The closest mention of something unreleased that I have heard was that evidently "Natural Science" originally had much different lyrics. Evidently Neil was trying to work the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into that music and they just couldn't get it to work. The lyrics were scrapped and we are left with the absolute gem that wound up on the record. I would love to hear a version of that song with the original lyrics.

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You know, I think I somehow believe him when he says there's nothing left in the vault.

 

I do too. Because it's already been stated by Ged and Al many times.

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So if there is nothing left in the vault,when they get round to doing their remasters with companion discs(as Mr Page has done with Zep) we will have karoke versions of Spirit of Radio and no guitar solos in Limeight.
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You know, I think I somehow believe him when he says there's nothing left in the vault.

 

I do too. Because it's already been stated by Ged and Al many times.

 

Exactly.

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It was more than just different lyrics with Gaiwan, it was a completely different arrangement and bits and pieces of it were adapted and adjusted for Natural Science.

 

 

Bits and pieces of Gaiwan appear throughout PeW actually.

It's not just NatSci.

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