The 13 songs that shaped Alex Lifeson: “One of the most beautiful songs”
Brimming with skill and musical prowess, Rush is like having three Mozarts in the same band, provided Mozart was also into beer and baseball memorabilia.
Since their inception, Canada’s prog-rock kings have always been up there with the most talented artists in the world of alternative music. With Geddy Lee on bass and Anika Nilles replacing the late, great Neil Peart on drums, they still arguably have the two brightest lights in the rhythm section field. With that department stocked with technicality, it can be easy to forget just how insanely talented Alex Lifeson is.
The guitarist, who has done his best to noodle his way through some of the most complex and densely written rock music in history, has always managed to convey a sense of quiet mastery of the instrument. Hailed by the likes of James Hetfield as one of the finest musicians of all time, Lifeson might be quietly humble, but he’s certainly made a legion of guitarists say, ‘How’s he even thought ot that?’
Well, part of the reason he is so inventive is that he has an eclectic inventory of inspirations to draw from. Who are these influences? That answer can be found – in part at least – in the playlist below, which features a collection of Alex Lifeson’s favourite songs of all time.
Created as part of an interview with Guitar World, Lifeson selects some of rock’s finest guitarists in homage to the songs which have shaped his career and his life; expect to see The Who, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck and of course, Jimi Hendrix. It seems each of these has rubbed off on Rush, yet he’s also not the sort to have ripped them off. As he said of Hendrix, “I don’t think I ever felt that I wanted to play like him.”
He continued, “I think he was too beyond that and too unique. But certainly very, very influential on what he did with the guitar and how he opened it up. That first record was a mind-blowing experience.” But what he did get from him, was a drive to be similarly individualistic.
With that in mind, for Lifeson, a leading guitarist in his own right, Hendrix remains quite possibly the ultimate player. Selecting two tracks from the guitar genius, the Rush man said of his Bob Dylan cover ‘All Along The Watchtower’: “This is one of the most beautiful songs and arrangements ever recorded. Hendrix took a Bob Dylan folk song and turned it into a symphony.”
With an ear for the more tender moments in classic rock, he also professed, “The acoustic guitar on this song [played by Dave Mason] has such beautiful compression.”
Adding: “It doesn’t slap you; it caresses you. This song grabs your heart and sails away with it; it sounds unlike anything anyone has ever done. That was the magic of Hendrix: even if you copied what he recorded and tried to play like him, it could never be the same.” That’s the sort of compositional insight that has made Lifeson so revered in his own right.
As well as Hendrix, he also picked some notable bands from The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd to Buffalo Springfield, proving that while technicality might be his signature skill, it means nothing without a melody that moves you.
Better still, if you can move a generation with something meaningful, as Lifeson highlighted when picking the song ‘For What It’s Worth’. The song captured the zeitgeist, and Lifeson was just one of many who heard it as a young man and felt grabbed by its poise. “This was the first rock song that had a big influence on me,” he said.
Adding, “I remember hearing it on the radio in my dad’s car when I was a kid. Buffalo Springfield were unlike the other bands of the ‘San Francisco sound’; they were more country-sounding. Stephen Stills and Neil Young trade leads on this one.”
There remains one musician, though, who has had the biggest influence on Lifeson’s career – The Who’s Pete Townshend. Picking the band’s iconic youth anthem ‘My Generation’, Lifeson said: “Townshend is one of my greatest influences. More than any other guitarist, he taught me how to play rhythm guitar and demonstrated its importance, particularly in a three-piece band.”
He continued: “His chording and strumming always took up the right amount of space. The first time I heard this song was in the basement of Rush’s original drummer, John Rutsey. John had two older brothers, both of whom were music fiends, and they always had whatever new album had just come out.”
It was enough to set Lifeson and Rush on a path toward his own rock and roll glory. Along the way, they would blend these forces into a whirlwind of prog hitherto unknown. It’s a list that reads like the band’s mission statement to remain lucid.
As Geddy Lee put it, “I think it’s part of what our band always was: open.”
Rush’s Alex Lifeson’s favourite songs of all time:
- ‘Sink The Bismarck’ – Johnny Horton
- ‘For What It’s Worth’ – Buffalo Springfield
- ‘Shapes of Things’ – Jeff Beck
- ‘My Generation’ – The Who
- ‘Are You Experienced?’ – Jimi Hendrix
- ‘All Along The Watchtower’ – Jimi Hendrix
- ‘How Many More Times’ – Led Zeppelin
- ‘Kashmir’ – Led Zeppelin
- ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ – The Rolling Stones
- ‘Comfortably Numb’ – Pink Floyd
- ‘In The Dead of Night’ – U.K.
- ‘Third Eye’ – Tool
- ‘Ah Via Musicom’ – Eric Johnson
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