“Better than it ever was”: The most timeless Rush song, according to Neil Peart
For over 40 years, Rush was an unavoidable institution of Canadian rock and roll. From their inception during the counterculture boom of the late 1960s to their pioneering style of progressive and hard rock, their impact on the landscape of rock was colossal. Unlike many groups of the same era, Rush stayed together for decades, constantly adapting their sound to the changing tides of rock and earning an incredibly dedicated fanbase in the process. Those fans have argued for many years over which album represents the pinnacle of the band, but most can agree on the vital importance of Presto.
Although they had been around since 1968, it was only when Rush recruited drummer Neil Peart in 1974 that they began to make an impact on the progressive rock scene. Peart was an undisputed master of his trade and is rightly hailed as one of rock’s all-time greatest drummers. However, the drummer was also responsible for a lot of the band’s songwriting and artistic inspiration. Even though they quickly established themselves as Canada’s premier hard rock and progressive group, Peart was always striving for artistic development.
This desire for change eventually led Rush to bring in the influence of keyboards and synthesisers during the 1980s, just as those technologies became popular among mainstream music scenes. Rush’s keyboard era was fairly divisive among fans, with many appreciating the need for development in the band’s sound and others accusing the outfit of ‘selling out’ their original rock ethos by embracing electronic music.
Even the band members themselves were not overly convinced by the use of keyboards and synths within their work. Eventually, therefore, the desire to continue on with the keyboard era simply ran out, and Rush made the executive decision to return to their iconic hard rock sound. This return to form was marked by the release of their celebrated 1989 record Presto, released on the Canadian independent label Anthem Records. In contrast to their previous 1980s efforts, the album was driven largely by guitars and, of course, Peart’s drumming, and the record seemed to go down well with a large portion of Rush’s audience.
Nevertheless, there is an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty on Presto, as if the band were returning to their hard rock roots with a sense of trepidation. The songs on the record are not particularly bad, but the performance and production of the record left a lot to be desired. This is perhaps why many of the album’s songs became better over time, as Rush continued to use them within their legendary live performances for decades after the album’s initial release.
Back in 2012, drummer Neil Peart spoke to Rolling Stone, reflecting on the discography of the band and how certain tracks fit into their live sets better than others. “We had a very successful revivification of some of the material that we thought could be better than it was originally,” he shared, speaking about a recent tour, “like the title track to Presto. We just loved playing it last tour, and we played it in a way that we couldn’t when we were touring in 1989.”
“I remember discussing it with the guys one night over dinner,” Peart continued, “and just saying, ‘That song is so much better than it ever was, and it has a feel that it should have had on the record.’ Geddy said, ‘Well, we have a different clock now.’ That’s true and such an important, fundamental observation.”
It seems as though some tracks take a while to bed into live performances, and Rush fans who managed to see the band during their early 2010s tours can attest to the fact that ‘Presto’ came into its own during that period. The success of the track also gives heed to the idea that Presto is not that bad of an album, and its main flaws lie within production.
