From Rush with Love: @rushtheband On the Cover of the Rolling Stone

On By Time LordIn progressive rock music

Rush is the cover story on Rolling Stone:

Teenage Neil was a brainy misfit in a middle-class suburb 70 miles from Toronto who permed his hair, who took to wearing a cape and purple boots on the city bus, who scrawled “God is dead” on his bedroom wall, who got in trouble for pounding out beats on his desk during class. His teacher’s idea of punishment was to insist that he bang on his desk nonstop for an hour’s worth of detention, time he happily spent re-creating Keith Moon’s parts from Tommy. For years, Peart wore a piece of one of Moon’s shattered cymbals around his neck, retrieved froum a Toronto stage after a Who concert, and his current drum kit includes a sample trigger bearing the Who’s old bull’s-eye logo.

In their early years, opening for practically every major band of the 1970s, Peart and his bandmates — singer-bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson — were disturbed by what the drummer would later describe as the “sound of salesmen.” “We would hear them give the same rap to the audience every night,” says Peart. “ ’This is the greatest rock city in the world, man!’ That was creepy. I despise the cynical dishonesty.”

10 thoughts on “From Rush with Love: @rushtheband On the Cover of the Rolling Stone”

  1. Gee,On the cover of Rolling-Stone magazine huh??? Only TOOK THEM 41 YEARS!!! Haha. I absolutely LOVE the Band,but DESPISE “Rolling-Stone”!!! Excellent Post though Time-Lord!!! 🙂

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      1. Bryan Morey's avatar Bryan Morey

        Rolling Stone has been a garbage magazine for years. The only reason they are putting Rush on the cover now is they would look like even bigger buffoons than they already are for missing out on what could be this great band’s farewell tour. Every time I have ever looked at RS, I have been disgusted by the drivel found within. Their top 100 lists are a joke, their writers are a joke, and their whole magazine is trash. Give me Prog magazine any day over that.

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  2. I’m still laughing out loud over the magnificent anecdote that concludes the article:

    “I’m Geddy Lee, and if I say we didn’t play it before, we didn’t play it before!”

    Absolutely hilarious!

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  4. Erik Heter's avatar Erik Heter

    I enjoyed most of the piece, but I’m going to dissent a little on Neil Peart, who disappointed me and who I thought came across like an ass for his ugly, non-factual, ad hominem, lowest common denominator attack on Rand Paul.

    I do not intend to turn this into a debate on Paul, there are plenty of other forums to do that, and Progarchy is most definitely not the place. Nor do I have any problem whatsoever with Peart disagreeing with Paul’s politics. But for someone like Peart, who writes lyrics that espouse such high minded ideals to stoop to a level of personal attack like that, in contravention of the facts, and with that much ugliness is just beyond the pale. What happened to the man that wrote the lyrics to “Wish Them Well”?

    At times I get the feeling that Peart, from embarrassment, tries to overcompensate for his former praise of Ayn Rand, and this is one anecdotal piece of evidence for that. But smugness and playing to another crowd by engaging in nasty personal attacks on someone you disagree with, hurling accusations that are contradicted by facts … well, it “shatters the illusion of integrity”.

    I still have the utmost respect for Peart as a drummer and a lyricist, but my respect for him as a person has definitely taken a hit. Alex and Geddy come off much better and much more down to earth.

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  5. Pingback: A Dissenting View on (and open letter to) Neil Peart | Progarchy: Pointing toward Proghalla

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