Geddy Lee’s favourite Rush song to play live: “It challenged me to my max”
Before Neil Peart joined Rush, the band were yet to unlock their full potential and were incomparable to their future selves. Rush released one album before his arrival, their self-titled debut in 1974, which was a commercial and critical failure. However, there is one song from the record that bassist Geddy Lee once named his favourite Rush track to perform live.
The song in question is the seven-minute extravaganza ‘Working Man’, the closing track from the Canadian band’s debut. Although the album doesn’t compete with their later work, such as 2112, Moving Pictures, and Hemispheres, ‘Working Man’ holds up with anything the band ever produced, despite not featuring Peart on the original recording.
While it was never a hit single for the band, it was picked up by American radio and helped establish them in the United States after becoming an underground hit. Although it was left out of Rush’s set lists for almost two decades throughout the 1980s and ’90s, the trio re-introduced it to their concerts in 2002, remaining until their final show in 2015. In total, Rush played ‘Working Man’ over 900 times during their career.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2018, Lee revealed: “It was my favourite song to play every night, and that’s why I wanted to include the live version.” The track was also Rush’s closer during their final concert, which wasn’t completely pre-determined.
Lee revealed: “Not 100%. Neil was pretty adamant it was, and he played it like it was going to be the final show. And that’s why he actually left the drum throne and came out and gave us a hug on stage, which he swore he would never do. I guess I was a bit of an optimist. But nope. I think Alex accepted it more as the end.”
The clamour for more live Rush performances seemed to retain resonance for weeks after that show. But with Peart’s passing, it seemed as though the band would never go back on the road without him, no matter how much Lee enjoyed the performance. ‘I thought we really killed it that night,” he explained. “But it was hard to tell because it got really emotional in the last 20 minutes. That’s the first time I ever got choked up at a microphone. So I guess a part of me knew.”
He added: “I miss playing with Rush. I don’t miss travelling with Rush. I miss being on stage with those guys because it was a singular honour to me. I’m sure I will play live again one day, but it will never replace that intensity of what a three-hour Rush show was like to perform: it challenged me to my max and that’s rare in this life.”
Thankfully, for those dying to hear the sounds of Rush once more on the stage will get their wish. Lee and Lifeson have decided to get back on the road and perform Rush songs for the still active audiences.
They were performing a small private set in Cleveland, when Lifeson reflected on their career (per Blabbermouth): “We had 40 years. I’m tired of hanging around a hotel, being away from family and all of that stuff.’ And I felt that way for most of the last 10 years, really. I thought we had a great legacy, and it’s okay.” He then revealed that Lee “came along and had some big ideas”, which eventually gave him the urge to play live as Rush once again.
The guitarist added, “When you’re away from it and you are a little more objective about the intense complexity of the music and the feel and the nuances and all the things that go into making a Rush song and performance, to be challenged with that again was really, really exciting. And the more we started rehearsing and playing, the more I just fell in love with the idea of playing again.”
Meanwhile, Lee said it was a “very difficult decision on many levels” before describing the passing of Peart as “devastating”, and noting, “it was a very sad time”. He added, “I mean, this is a relatively recent decision. And I would say it was kind of out of the question for the longest time because of those circumstances. And how do you replace someone who’s irreplaceable?”
The truth is, you can’t, and nor should you. Instead, Rush will take what is as close to the real deal as they can muster.
Watch the footage below of Rush performing ‘Working Man’ at their final concert in 2015.
