The Rush album Geddy Lee admits to being “pretty high” during the recording
Sometimes, it feels like a musical degree is required to figure out just where the hell Rush is going. Throughout their career, the Canadian power trio have always prided themselves on never taking on the same idea twice, always pushing on to bigger and better things on every single record. While the addition of Neil Peart kicked things into high gear on their sophomore release, Fly By Night, the settling-in period wasn’t exactly the easiest fit.
Going through their second record, some higher-ups at the band’s label were perplexed by the sudden change in lyrical direction. Since Peart was tasked with writing all of the songs now, Rush’s catalogue went from songs about the everyman to suddenly incorporating time signature changes and flowery language about fantasy lands. Although a song like ‘Rivendell’ may have been beautiful for what it was, it was certainly a departure from the same group that made ‘Working Man’.
The real standout on that record was ‘By-Tor and the Snow Dog’, a near-eight-minute epic that tells a short story about a man who gets into a fight with a snow dog and…let’s just say, doesn’t come away the victor. Although their label might have seen it as a strange diversion, Peart foresaw the future in this new song.
When approaching their next record, Peart had started off with a grand concept for songs that stretched out even longer. Inspired by acts like Yes and Genesis, the band’s third album, Caress of Steel, featured some of the most ambitious songs of their career, including ‘The Fountain of Lamneth’ taking up the entire second side.
While the first side boasts strong singles like ‘Bastille Day’, some of the album starts feeling slightly flabby. Looking back on it, frontman Geddy Lee remembered some chemicals being at play when they were cutting it, remembering in Beyond the Lighted Stage, “I think we were pretty high when we made that record. It sounds like that to me”.
Although Peart remained proud of what they had done with the concept, their enthusiasm made for mainstream poison when the album came out. Barely crossing over to the mainstream, the band went from an up-and-coming band to a borderline flash-in-the-pan, playing to half-empty venues across the country.
Peart even remembered the group getting into dire straits halfway through the tour, saying, “We only play a handful of shows, and a lot of them were ill-attended, and the road crew at the time began to call it the ‘Down The Tubes Tour’”. While Peart’s ambition took them to their lowest point, it would also take that same ambition to bring them back.
Not willing to roll over and make single material, Peart made another grand concept with the album 2112, drafting a story about a lone rebel who goes against a dystopian monarchy through the power of music. While Rush turned into one of the biggest cult acts in the world after that, Caress of Steel is still one of the few projects that’s far too ambitious for its good.
