The Rush songs the band loved, and the one they couldn’t stand
When Rush started out, they were mainly just playing Cream covers.
“[Cream] was far and away my favourite band when I got old enough to appreciate rock music, and I was getting more and more into rock,” said Geddy Lee, “Cream was such an influence on early Rush and me as a bass player.”
While they might have been inspired by Eric Clapton and Co, Rush went on to carve their own path, creating a sound which continues to blow people’s minds with every listen. Their music is layered, cinematic, and constantly pushing boundaries, making for a rich discography, which means that fans everywhere have different favourites, but it begs the question of what the members of Rush call their highlights.
Well, below are the songs that individual members of the band all love, and just for good measure, we’ve also included the one Rush song that each of them would sooner forget.
The Rush songs that the members of Rush love:
Geddy Lee – ‘Finding My Way’
It’s important for a lot of bands, especially those with a sound as unique and exciting as Rush, to get off to a good start. When you’re going to push boundaries in the way that Rush did, you need to back what you’re doing and not be put off by the naysayers. It’s for this reason that the song ‘Finding My Way’ always presents itself as one of Geddy Lee’s favourites.
It’s safe to say that when Rush initially started playing this song live, crowds didn’t necessarily take to it. “You’d pull up in Magnetawan, Ontario,” said Lee, “Set up your gear and start playing, and the crowd would be looking at you to say: ‘What is this? I can’t dance to this!’”
When they eventually started working with Terry Brown to put together their debut album, as soon as he heard the song, it was clear the band were onto a winner. They recorded it right away, and it set the foundation that Rush would build the rest of their discography on.
“One of them was ‘Finding My Way’,” said Lee, “We played him [Brown] the song, and he loved it. ‘OK, let’s record that and one other song, and we’ll remix the others,’ he said. And that became the record. ‘Finding My Way’ became a symbol to me of saving our first album.”
Neil Peart – ‘2112’
‘2112’ is the title track for one of Rush’s most famous and beloved albums, and it was also one of Neil Peart’s favourite songs from the band. The overall quality of the track that fans everywhere connect with was certainly a factor in Peart’s affinity for it, but he also liked how raw the song is, representing a position the band had never been in before, and as such, it’s a track he enjoyed revisiting.
“We made three albums in 18 months from the time I joined the band… By the time we did 2112, we had a whole month to write, rehearse and record that album, so it was done under the rawest of circumstances but with such conviction and enthusiasm. We were so angry at that time,” he admitted when discussing both the song and the album.
He continued, “The tale happens to be about the individual against oppression, and that was us; it’s how we felt. And it worked. It was our commercial breakthrough with a 20-minute song on one side. It spoke.”
Alex Lifeson – ‘Limelight’
Alex Lifeson has put together plenty of great pieces of guitar work over his time with Rush, but none stand out more than ‘Limelight’, one of his most emotional pieces of music, as every single note that pokes its head above the water throughout the track is a real piece of magic.
“I love the elasticity of the solo. It’s a very emotional piece of music for me to play,” said Lifeson, “The song is about loneliness and isolation, and I think the solo reflects that. There’s a lot of heart in it. It’s a feel thing: you have to feel a solo as you play it, otherwise, it’s going to sound stiff. I never had that problem with ‘Limelight’. The first time I laid it down in the studio, I feel a real attachment to it, and I could tell it was special.”
He continued, “Even now, it’s my favourite solo to perform live. I never get tired of it. Each time I’m about to play it, I take a deep breath, and I exhale on that first note. I guess that sounds corny, but for me, it releases something.”
And the song they all hate…
When you listen to the innovative work of a band like Rush, it’s pretty clear that you need to all be on the same page when making it. We often forget there are only three people in that band, given that they produce sounds which are so layered, so atmospheric, you would think that a full ensemble of seven or eight was putting them together.
They have to stay connected in order to create this exciting music, and as such, if you want a song that the band doesn’t like, it will have to come in the form of one where they weren’t all on the same page. This is exactly what happened with their track ‘Tai-Shan’, as despite Peart trying his best to write emotional lyrics, they weren’t the kind that his bandmates could relate to, and the result was a song that the band would sooner forget.
“It’s just one of those songs that Alex and I like to make fun of. At the time I was singing it, I wasn’t standing on a mountaintop,” said Lee, “Because it was such a personal song for Neil, and it was such a great moment for me, Alex and I had a hard time putting ourselves in it. And guys in bands really need all the ammunition we can get to make fun of each other. It just sort of landed on ‘Tai-Shan’.”
