Rush: A Brief History of Time Part VIII

Rush: A Brief History of Time - Part VIII
It's been a number of months since the last update to Cygnus-X1.Net's Rush: A Brief History of Time; an on-going collection of articles and advertisements about Rush that spans every decade from the 70's onward.

Part VIII of this segment includes 46 new articles; one from the 70's, thirty-one from the 80's, three from the 90's, two from the 2000's and seven from the current '10 decade. The majority of the articles focus around the release of Moving Pictures and Rush's tour in support of their best selling album.

Below is a sample of Part VIII. To check out the entire segment, click HERE.

Once again, I'd like to thank reader Heiko Klages of Germany for providing the bulk of the new articles. Special thanks go out to Eric Hansen of Power Windows and reader RushFanForever for additional contributions. Enjoy.
We'll start off this edition with an article from the May 12th, 1977 issue of Circus Magazine. Titled The Rush Conquest, this article discusses Rush's then-forthcoming 6th studio album which, at that time, was tentatively titled Closer to the Heart. :-) There's also a nice two-page poster of the boys in a pose not seen anywhere else (to my knowledge).

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Next, we'll move into the first of 28 articles from 1981. This first one is short review of Moving Pictures which came from the February 28th issue of Cashbox USA. Up next is a lengthy review of Moving Pictures from the February 11th issue of Muziekkrant OOR from the Netherlands. Sticking to February of 1981, this next review of Moving Pictures, which appeared in the February 28th issue of New Musical Express, is as unfavorable as they get. The reviewer, a Ms. Lynn Hanna, clearly made use of her "Word of the Day" calendar when penning this piece:
"...their tendency to pontificate on contemporary themes has already branded them as particularly pompous reactionaries..."
Say, or better yet TYPE that ten times fast!

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Opening up March of '81 is a short retrospective bio on the band that appeared in the March 21st issue of Cashbox USA followed by a great article titled Permanent Raves from the March 14th issue of the UK Sounds magazine. Check out the great candid pics of the boys that accompany this article!

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March closes out with a Mail Bag letter that appeared in the March 21st issue of Melody Maker Magazine. The letter, written by Steve Morris, was in response to a rather unfavorable review of Moving Pictures written by Steve Gett; the author of the Rush biography Success Under Pressure.

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April of '81 opens up with another review of Moving Pictures; this time from Audio Magazine of West Germany followed by a nice feature story that appeared in the April issue of Hit Parader Magazine. The article, titled Rush To Glory: Pleasing Most of the People All of the Time and written by Andy Secher, touches upon the disconnect between fan appreciation of Rush and the critics who just don't get it. A really good read.

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April ends with two more foreign reviews of Moving Pictures. Up first from West Germany is a piece from Musik Express Magazine followed by a French entry from Rock and Folk Magazine.

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Moving into May, we have three more foreign entries. The first, from Der-Musikmarkt of West Germany is titled Balance Von Intellektund Gefuhl: Rush, Rock Trio aus Kanada which roughly translates to "Balance of Intellectual Feeling: Rush, Rock Trio from Canada". Up next is another review of Moving Pictures from the Swiss magazine Music Scene followed by a lengthy article from the Netherland's music magazine known as Musiek Expres. In it, the article is titled Rush: We Hebben het liefst dat ons publiek rustig op zijn stoel blijft zitten which translates to 'Rush: We Prefer Our Audience To Remain Quietly in Their Seats'. Yeah, right :-)

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Moving into June, we'll open with short article about Rush's platinum selling albums which appeared in the June 6th issue of Cashbox USA followed by a nice color article focusing on Alex's tour gear that appeared in the June 30th issue of Circus Magazine. No comment on Geddy's red leather pants, please :)

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We'll end June with another lengthy article, this time from Creem Magazine. The article, titled RUSH: But Why Are They in Such a Hurry? was written by J. Kordosh who attended a Rush concert and then interviewed Neil and Alex afterwards. Put your 'thick skin' on for this one; it's not a pleasant or favorable read.

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Leaping ahead to August comes an article that appeared in Circus Magazine that month. Titled Rush wrap up five-month tour by Steve Weitzman, this favorable turned unfavorable review of Rush's Moving Pictures tour is a bit of a head-scratcher:
"...each identical performance on this five-month extravaganza (during which Rush have played to 905,000 people on 79 dates and grossed over $4 million) holds all the excitement of a Howard Johnson's omelet..."
I wonder which concert Steve was really at...

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Moving into September, this piece titled Rush: La Ultima Esperanza (The Last Hope) appeared in an issue of Popular 1 Magazine from Spain which starts off with:
There are few quality groups like Rush in the world. Perfectionists, yet so powerful, they work with traces of jazz and symphonic rock producing the hardest, purest rock metal you will ever hear.
Now that's more like it :)

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We return to Hit Parader Magazine where a short article titled Rush: Caught in the Act appeared in the October '81 issue of the magazine. The article, a review of a concert that took place at New York's Madison Square Garden was fairly positive, though the reviewer, Patty Romanowski, clearly wasn't a fan of the band or their music:
"...The only part of the show that was both well intentioned and well executed was the band's performance. Tight, precise, faithful, but still very much alive, the songs maintained their recorded versions' clarity and perfection - pleasant if loud reminders that concerts are for listening to..."
Moving into November of '81, here are two more foreign articles; both from West Germany. The first comes from Der Musikmarkt Magazine in a piece titled Mitschnitt von Rush - Konzerten als Vorbote zur Deutschland - Tournee which roughly translates into "Recording of Rush - Concerts as a harbinger of Germany - Tour". The second appears to be a review of Exit...Stage Left from the Govi Katalog.

Read the rest of the articles from Part VIII by clicking HERE.

Comments

  1. I remember when I picked that up in the bookstore, how excited I was to have an official tome on Rush!

    ReplyDelete

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