Guardian Newspaper Reproduces NME Rush Interview From 1978

[Grover]

I think based on interviews from those years, Neil was not the same ideologically as he grew to be. About a decade ago Neil described himself as a left wing libertarian. This is where I fit in as well. I believe in socialized medical care and employment insurance and other social programs, but think the government should stay out of personal matters.

[Lucas]

The fact that the writer brings up Auschwitz, and somehow weaves it into comparisons with RUSH and their music is sickening - and very telling of their mindset ..

 

Having had both parents endure the horrors of concentration camps, I cannot imagine how upsetting this was to Geddy Lee

 

Almost 40 years later, that writer's legacy is of a slanted, angry person .... RUSH, on the other hand, continues to inspire people ...

[Lucas]

http://www.theguardi...rocks-backpages

 

 

As Rush kick off their R40 Live 40th anniversary tour, ROCKS BACKPAGES takes a trip back to 4 March 1978, where Miles, writing for New Musical Express, questions the band’s supposed ‘proto-fascism’

 

 

 

Rush: 'You have no freedom. You do what you’re told to do. By the socialists'

 

 

 

 

"They are actually very nice guys. They don’t sit there in jackboots pulling the wings off flies. They are polite, charming even, naïve – roaming the concert circuits preaching what to me seems like proto-fascism like a leper without a bell."

 

 

 

 

 

Worth a read for you Rush fans under the age of 50. This goes back to the days when UK music paper the NME considered Rush to be a threat to "our nation's" youth.

 

 

The article finishes with this:

 

 

"Make sure that next time you see them, you see them with your eyes open, and know what you see. I, for one, don’t like it."

 

​And he isn't referring to the band or their music, he's referring to their lyrics and politics.

 

... regardless of the opinions expressed, the article was an excellent find - definitely an interesting read

[Tony R]

http://i.imgur.com/Ds4REqe.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/PRtb4dE.jpg

 

The original offending piece courtesy of Slim from CP Forum

Edited May 18, 2015 by Tony R

[Snaked]

I wish I could find Neil's comments from a few years after this article was published.

He was not at all happy about how he was (mis?)quoted.

[Tony R]

I recall that NME interview very well because the conversation was great," Peart recalls in an interview in the forthcoming new edition of Classic Rock. "And we all felt totally betrayed after, because we had a lovely time with the guy. I remember him being so courteous. It was so amicable. As far as I was concerned, we were just having an intellectual conversation. But these things are wide open to misinterpretation, and that was a classic case."

 

 

 

 

 

That was 40 years ago. But it was important to me at the time in a transition of finding myself and having faith that what I believed was worthwhile. I had come up with that moral attitude about music, and then in my late teens I moved to England to seek fame and fortune and all that, and I was kind of stunned by the cynicism and the factory-like atmosphere of the music world over there, and it shook me. I'm thinking, "Am I wrong? Am I stupid and naïve? This is the way that everybody does everything and, had I better get with the program?"

For me, it was an affirmation that it's all right to totally believe in something and live for it and not compromise. It was a simple as that. On that 2112 album, again, I was in my early twenties. I was a kid. Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal – because I'm an idealist. Paul Theroux's definition of a cynic is a disappointed idealist. So as you go through past your twenties, your idealism is going to be disappointed many many times. And so, I've brought my view and also – I've just realized this – Libertarianism as I understood it was very good and pure and we're all going to be successful and generous to the less fortunate and it was, to me, not dark or cynical. But then I soon saw, of course, the way that it gets twisted by the flaws of humanity. And that's when I evolve now into . . . a bleeding heart Libertarian. That'll do.

 

 

 

Peart himself is very much a believer in individuality. He's stated repeatedly in the past that he can't believe in a completely egalitarian society because it's patently obvious that people are not equal. It's this sturdy and unbending faith in his own ideas, as unfashionable as they may be that has landed Peart in the centre of controversy more than once. But he remains defiant and unrepentant. He once told me heatedly: "I'm not a Fascist. I'm not some extremist. Yes, I'm a capitalist and I believe in self-reliance - but not without caring for other people. Actually I'm tired of talking about this. You say what you like about the whole thing. You know enough about the band to get it right."

In that particular case Peart was talking about a much later event - a notable destruction job done by Miles in the NME in 1977, centered round 'Anthem' and the later album, very much an expanded version of the same theme, '2112'.

 

Marble Arch on Monday. One of the journalists to turn up was Miles - a highly rated and highly respected writer by anyone's standards.

I introduced him to Neil Peart and left the two of them in spirited discussion. One of the topics they strayed on to was Rush's political philosophy and their fascination with the anti-collectivism of Ayn Rand.

A week later the interview appeared in NME. I glanced at it, noting that it was quite long and then put the magazine down to read at my leisure. A few minutes later product manager Alan Phillips came into my office holding the NME and asking in a choked voice "Have you seen this?" I picked up my copy of the paper and read it through rapidly. Miles had taken Rush to be little more than a bunch of crypto-fascists and he was issuing stern warnings against the desirability of such a band playing in public.

I was aghast. And later when Peart and the rest of the band read it they joined me in that emotion. Of course, there's no doubt that Miles wrote it as he saw it and there was no question of a deliberate axe job but all the same the results looked pretty damning in print.

Eventually the fuss died down. And, while Peart still remembers the piece and the interview vividly.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Tony R

[LedRush]

I think based on interviews from those years, Neil was not the same ideologically as he grew to be. About a decade ago Neil described himself as a left wing libertarian. This is where I fit in as well. I believe in socialized medical care and employment insurance and other social programs, but think the government should stay out of personal matters.

 

I'm assuming that you don't include your personal finances as personal matters.

 

And Peart describes himself as a bleeding heart libertarian.

Edited May 18, 2015 by LedRush