Review: 'Limelight: Rush in the ’80s'

The first volume in Martin Popoff’s biographical series on Rush ends just as the band is on the precipice of world domination… or at least, serious popularity outside of Canada. The second volume, Limelight: Rush in the ’80s, continues the story Neil Peart-style (that means it doesn’t miss a beat). We know we’re in superstar territory when the book begins with a discussion of Permanent Waves, Rush’s first album to go top-ten in the UK and US. The hardships and struggles of the previous decade are a distant memory, and the trio hits their artistic stride with the three most unimpeachable albums in their catalog.

Review: 'Anthem: Rush in the 1970s'

Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen’s funny, touching Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage is one of the great Rock documentaries, offering an unusual degree of access to the beloved Canadian prog trio…and their moms. As is the case with most documentaries, a lot of footage did not make it into the film.

Review: Picture Disc Edition of Rush's 'Hemispheres'

As soon as they acquired resident intellectual Neil Peart, Rush had big conceptual ambitions. Yet, although sprawling conceptual epics were the centerpieces of album such as Caress of Steel, 2112, and A Farewell to Kings, their short songs were still better than their long sci-fi and fantasy narratives. With their final album to contain such an epic, Rush finally got it right. As far as I’m concerned, Hemispheres is the first Rush album on which the long songs unquestionably beat the short ones. If you put me on the rack and stretched my body until I revealed the meaning of  “Cygnus X-1 (Book II-Hemispheres)”, I’d end up being pulled to pieces, but it is as dreamy, enveloping, and enthralling a musical suite as Rush would ever conjure. So what if the lyrics are gibberish? They sure beat the log-limbed metaphors of what may be the worst of Peart’s early songs: “The Trees”. This ditty sports the message: “People bicker and complain too much! Some of them even whine about wanting equal rights!” Trenchant insights from a rich, white, Ayn Rand fan.

Rush is better in the short form with the hard-edged and autobiographical “Circumstances”, which boasts a wicked-tricky spiraling riff and some of Geddy Lee’s most hysterical wailing, but that too pales next to the album’s grand finale. Considering Rush’s celebrated musicianship, it is surprising that they did not record their first stand-alone instrumental until their sixth album, but “La Villa Strangiato” is well worth the wait: nearly ten minutes of  Alex Lifeson’s flaming Spanish guitar, lurching melodies, wild bass flutters, and best of all, a mighty riff based on Looney Tunes soundtracks.

As part of its recent Record Store Day roster, Universal Music has reissued its rare 1978 picture disc edition of Hemispheres for a limited run of 5,000 units, which is great news for everyone who likes to watch a naked guy standing on a brain spinning at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute. Picture discs tend to be a bit noisy, and this one was pretty crackly right out of the sleeve and a bit of grinding sound is noticeable through headphones, but the mastering sounds really good.

Review: 'Geddy Lee’s Big, Beautiful Book of Bass'

Is there truth in the title of Geddy Lee’s Big, Beautiful Book of Bass? Is it big? At 400 pages and weighing ten pounds, I’d say, yes, yes it is big. Is it beautiful? With its gorgeous color photos of foam-green Fender Precisions, a psychedelic Telecaster bass covered in pink Paisley wallpaper, an elegant Gibson EB violin bass, an awe-inspiring double neck Rickenbacker fireglo doubleneck, and too many others, yes, Geddy’s book is beautiful too.

What the title does not reveal is that the Rush bassist’s book is also a gas to read. People worship the guy like he’s a god, but he’s as down to earth as a mud puddle, as nerdy as an astrophysicist, and as good-naturedly self-effacing as a nerdy, down-to-earth guy. All this makes Geddy a delightful tour guide through his collection. He’s no snob either, as the pristine items in his massive bass collection are displayed alongside ones that are totally beat to shit. It’s called “character,” darling.

The author annotates Richard Sibbald’s pretty pictures with text explaining strange little details about bass history or the technical aspects of bass construction, or a little of both (we learn what Fender used to make the little fret dots on their early basses! We learn that Leo Fender just strung his first basses with piano strings!). He also explains which basses he used to play particular songs during Rush’s final tour. But you don’t need to be a fan of songs about tide pools and sci-fi Don Quixotes to dig this book, since Geddy also interviews a throng of influential fellow four-stringers such as John Paul Jones, Jeff Tweedy, Adam Clayton, Bill Wyman, and the hilarious Les Claypool with his usual disarming charm.

Review: 'Yes Is the Answer and Other Prog Tales'

It is long-winded. It is humorless. It is unashamedly grand and robotically impersonal. It is prog, and until hair metal farted onto the scene in the mid-eighties, it was Rock & Roll’s biggest running joke. But time ameliorates shame, and 35 years after punk ostensibly cleared the pomp out of pop, the prog acolytes are finally crawling out of the carpet to reclaim their favorite genre. In a year when Rush has finally been inducted into the cluelessly snobbish Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, anything is possible, including a collection of essays that not only pay tribute to this long-chided form of music but do so in ways that completely contradict its stuffy rep. Long-winded? Humorless? Grand? Impersonal? These are not words anyone would use to describe Yes Is the Answer and Other Prog Tales. Editors Marc Weingarten and Tyson Cornell have gathered twenty writers who discuss how those mathematical soundtracks for D&D all-nighters impacted their lives with humbleness and wit.