Rush

Rush are living proof that you don't have to dumb the music down to fill stadiums.

Three Canadian musicians, sons of immigrants, who for forty years played exactly what they wanted —complex, technical, learned, with no concessions to radio or to fashion— and who got back not the affection of the critics, but something rarer and deeper: the fiercest loyalty in rock.

Three who sounded like many more

The band formed in Toronto in 1968, and its classic line-up was three names that have to be said with respect.

Geddy Lee, bassist, keyboard player and that unmistakable high voice, the son of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors. Alex Lifeson, the guitarist, the son of Serbian immigrants. And Neil Peart, who came in in 1974 as the drummer and became, on top of that, the band's lyricist.

The three of them together sounded like far more than three: they played a progressive rock that was hard and astonishingly complex. Their own official biography describes them as equal parts Led Zeppelin, Cream and King Crimson.

From twenty minutes to five

Their key record was "2112", from 1976, a dystopian science-fiction rock opera whose entire first side is a single twenty-minute suite.

It was progressive rock in its most ambitious and grandiloquent form, and it won them an army of fans.

But the remarkable thing is that afterwards they had the courage to do the opposite. On "Moving Pictures", from 1981, they swapped the twenty-minute epics for shorter songs —just as complex, though— like "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight" and "The Spirit of Radio", which are still on the radio today.

According to American industry figures quoted by Billboard, in consecutive gold or platinum studio albums only the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are ahead of them.

Incorruptible

And here is what defines them. Rush were absolutely incorruptible: they made the music they wanted, dense, technical, literary, without ever dumbing it down to be liked more.

The critics often looked down on them, but they built one of the most devoted fan bases in rock, and filled stadiums all over the world for four decades.

They were, above all, the musicians' band: each of the three turns up routinely among the best in the world on his instrument, and Peart is considered one of the greatest drummers in history.

And they were the band of the clever misfits. The science-fiction fans, the obsessives, the kids who felt out of place and who found in Rush's complexity and in Peart's learned lyrics a band that respected their intelligence.

The drummer who was a writer

Because Neil Peart was not just a prodigious drummer: he was a reader and a writer.

His lyrics were philosophical and literary. He started out inspired by science fiction and by the ideas of the writer Ayn Rand —which he later distanced himself from, describing himself with irony as a bleeding-heart libertarian— and over the years they became more personal and more human, about freedom, the individual, thought.

He was the poetic brain of the band, something rare in a drummer.

The journey

Peart's story also holds a tragedy that has to be told carefully, because it marks everything.

In August 1997, his daughter Selena died in a car crash, aged nineteen. Ten months later, in June 1998, Jacqueline, his partner of twenty-three years, died of cancer.

Shattered, he told the band to consider him retired, got on his motorbike and rode some eighty-eight thousand kilometres across the Americas, alone, so as to survive the pain. He later told the story of that journey in a book, "Ghost Rider".

And, against all the odds, he healed. He rebuilt his life, married again, and came back to Rush. The band went on playing for years more.

Closing the book

The three of them were named Officers of the Order of Canada in May 1996, the first from a rock band, and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2013.

They stopped touring in the middle of the last decade, partly because of Peart's health and because of his wish to be with his new family.

And on 7 January 2020, Neil Peart died of brain cancer, aged sixty-seven. The rock world filled up with tributes: for many musicians, a giant had gone.

The ones who love them, love them forever

Rush are the band of the intelligent outsider, the proof that virtuosity and integrity could fill stadiums without ever selling out.

Three sons of immigrants from Toronto who refused, for forty years, to be anything other than exactly what they were, and a multitude who loved them precisely for that refusal.

At the heart of it all was Neil Peart, a drummer who was also a reader and a writer, who turned unimaginable pain into a long road and came back, and whose death closed the book.

If you put on "Tom Sawyer", "2112" or "Limelight", you will hear three musicians playing with a freedom and a skill that almost nobody dared to match, without asking anyone's permission or stepping an inch down from their own ambition.

They didn't make themselves easy so that people would love them. And that is why the ones who love them, love them forever.

Sources

Rush, a Canadian rock trio formed in Toronto in 1968; its classic line-up was Geddy Lee (bass, keyboards, vocals; born Gary Lee Weinrib, the son of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors), Alex Lifeson (guitar; born Aleksandar Živojinović, the son of Serbian immigrants from Yugoslavia) and Neil Peart (drums and chief lyricist, who replaced the original drummer John Rutsey in 1974). Exponents of progressive rock and hard rock, celebrated for their virtuosity; their official biography describes them as "equal parts Led Zeppelin, Cream and King Crimson", a phrase with no attributed author. Their album "2112" (1976), with a twenty-minute science-fiction suite, was their great leap; "Moving Pictures" (1981) marked their commercial peak, with "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight" and "The Spirit of Radio". According to RIAA figures quoted by Billboard in 2010, in consecutive gold or platinum studio albums they are surpassed only by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Peart, considered one of the greatest drummers in history, wrote philosophical and literary lyrics, initially influenced by science fiction and by Ayn Rand, an influence he later distanced himself from. His daughter Selena died on 10 August 1997 in a car crash, aged 19, and his partner of 23 years, Jacqueline Taylor, died of cancer on 20 June 1998; after a period of mourning in which he rode some 88,000 kilometres by motorcycle —recounted in his book "Ghost Rider"— he took up his life and the band again. Rush were named Officers of the Order of Canada on 9 May 1996, the first rock band to receive the honour, with the investiture in February 1997, and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 18 April 2013. They stopped touring in the mid-2010s. Neil Peart died on 7 January 2020 of a glioblastoma, aged 67. Externally authored text, edited and verified for Rebobinados. Readings of the meaning of their work are offered as the author's interpretation. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Britannica, Billboard, gg.ca, rockhall.com, rush.com, Rolling Stone and other press coverage.