Restless Dreams of Youth

Growing up in one of these boring suburbs in the early 80’s, right when strip malls started showing up around Massachusetts, before the internet even seemed possible, just as I would discover the power of “word of mouth” via the punk rock scene a few years later I was hearing a little Rush here and there. They were kind of at the arc of their mainstream popularity at this time. Growing up around all types of music, I never really thought of music as being “uncool” or whatever, I still don’t. The fact that Rush is or was once considered a “nerds band” means nothing to me. I had a creature from the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual tattooed on me at one point and broke into a Dungeon Master’s house once to look at maps so my level of geekness means nothing to me, and I’ll never be ashamed of it. Whatever.

It wasn’t until I heard the live record Exit...Stage Left that I would start investing more time in this odd sounding band. Generally live albums at this time were either real important piece of a band’s discography (Live at Leeds, Blow Your Face Out, Kiss Alive and One More for the “What song is it y’all wanna hear” Road are a few), or just filler (Beatles at Hollywood Bowl, Stones - Still Life, etc). In discussions of Rush albums even when including live albums nobody really mentions Exit...Stage Left.

Exit...Stage Left HAS to be their best live record because it is from performances on the Moving Pictures tour. They were just coming off this amazing creative peak of that record, Permanent Waves, Hemispheres and A Farewell to Kings. This was the band at their hardest rocking as well as when they were learning to cut down the twenty minute suites to a more modest ten minute song. Just as 2112 can never be their best album (because it has the song Twilight Zone), Exit...Stage Left is the best live Rush album. The only reason I consider it remotely “important” in their discography is for purely personal reasons. It’s the album that really roped me in.

Just as the band was at their hardest rocking though, they put out a new album, Signals which has a different vibe to it than everything they had released. To my 12 year old ears it was a big surprise, in retrospect though it’s a natural progression. The band were obviously listening to a lot of The Police and probably partaking in a good amount of whatever they picked up on that train to Bangkok that one time. The main thing on this album though...synthesizers! This would also be the first album that didn’t have one of those long “ten minute” songs. Once I got down to the lyrics though, everything kind of clicked, especially the song and subsequent video for album opener Subdivisions which dealt with alienation in the suburbs.

A few months after this album was released, in December of 1982 I got to see the band for the first time at the Boston Garden with Rory Gallagher opening. I’ve since seen them on every single tour aside from Grace Under Pressure (doh!) and Counterparts.

Being a Rush fan all these years though, I haven’t loved every album. I think the last solid album they put out was Grace Under Pressure everything else has had a few great songs here and there, but nothing even close to those first ten studio albums which were for the most part (Twilight Zone...I Think I’m Going Bald...etc), perfect through and through. I like Power Windows and Hold Your Fire, but like a good amount of music from that era, the synths didn’t age well to my ears. One ironic thing about Grace Under Pressure is it is distinctly known as a “synth album”, but underneath those synths is some of Alex Lifeson’s best guitar playing to date. Sure it’s drenched in reverb, delay and chorus half the time. Check “Kid Gloves” playing throughout, especially the solo...also closing track, “Between the Wheels”. This is the closest Rush ever came to being “doomy” (with synths). Not really....anyway, check the solo in this song out.





Through the years I have met plenty of big music fans like myself and at some point or another discover a mutual admiration for the band that was never really considered cool. It’s great to be able to discuss the band still after all of these years and see that they are getting a little more respect thanks to some help from pop culture and generally surrounding myself with people who usually have good, or rather similar, taste in music.

I was lucky enough to work at a company for a bit that ended up releasing some Rush DVD’s, and our president was “friends” with the band. Every once in a while over the phone PA system one could hear “.....Alex Lifeson is on line one”. On the Snakes and Arrows tour I was invited to see the band via the president and attend a “meet and greet” before the show. We got to meet Geddy and Alex for a brief few seconds and then have our picture taken with them along with other people in our group. The seats we had for the show were of course right up front, maybe three rows back from Geddy. I finally was able to see the band close up after years of bad luck seeing the band from miles away, behind the stage, from a lawn, etc.


With the release of the great new Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage, a tour where they are performing the entire Moving Pictures album, Rush are back in the um...limelight again. In the meantime the band will still be a big part of anyone who has spent a considerable amount of time with the band throughout the years. I’ll always keep every Rush album, even some of the crappy sounding live albums on my iPod. They are a big part of road trips for me. Grace Under Pressure is a perfect album to have on when drifting through unknown orange cities and dark small towns late at night. Permanent “Begin the day....” Waves is a great first drive of the day record, and so on and so on. From week to week, I’ll pick another album that is my favorite, able to spend days again playing the same songs over and over. Like very few great rock-based bands Rush has longevity and a catalog of music that I seem to never grow tired of.

Me at 16 or so