Alex Body - Rush: Song by Song

Few bands in the history of rock music inspire such polarised opinion as Rush. From their modest beginnings as a blues rock cover band playing small bars in Toronto, Rushs career was built on the firm foundation of constant touring. Originally forming in 1968 as high school friendsguitarist Alex Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey, and singer and bassist Jeff Jonesit was not until 1971 that Geddy Lee would join the band, replacing Jones to create the original line-up. Rutsey would remain in the band until 1974 when he was replaced by Neil Peart, thus creating the definitive Rush line-up. Since 1974, Rushs line-up has not changed.

Even from their earliest days, the band developed and changed constantly, losing and gaining fans along the waybut famously retaining their integrityalways moving in the direction that they chose.

In this book, I have tried to follow the journey of Rush through their compositions, tracing the origins of some of the bands unexpected (and sometimes unpopular) changes of style, as well as highlighting the bands great achievements along the way. The writing is deliberately as objective as possible, although, due to the nature of music, this has not always been possible. Nevertheless, this is a book designed to reveal the inner workings and background behind the bands enormous repertoire; it is not a review of it.

Rush were known for many years as the worlds biggest cult band; indeed, with twenty-four gold records and fourteen platinum records, they are only succeeded by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for the most consecutive gold or platinum studio albums by a rock band.

As the bands enormous influence on modern rock music became evident in the twenty-first century, Rush are now regarded by rock fans and musicians alike as one of the most important rock acts to ever come out of North America. After more than forty years of writing and touring, in 2017, it seems that the band may finally be at the end of their career. Rush fans, however, know that the only thing to expect from Rush is the unexpected.

Authors note: Given the stability of the bands line-up I have chosen not to list the line-up against each album. As a result, the reader should assume the line up to be, unless shown otherwise:

Geddy Lee: bass, vocals, keyboards
Alex Lifeson: guitars
Neil Peart: drums and percussion.