Rush: A Brief History of Time, Part 10

Rush: A Brief History of Time - Part X
It's been six months since the last update to Cygnus-X1.Net's Rush: A Brief History of Time; an on-going collection of articles, interviews, reviews and advertisements about Rush that spans every decade from the 70's onward and collected from the world over.

The tenth installment includes 114 new articles and advertisements; 5 from the 1970's, 59 from the 1980's, 13 from the 1990's, 4 from the 2000's and 33 from the current 2010 decade. The majority of the earlier articles focus around the release of Power Windows and includes some great advertisements not only for the album, but for the released singles as well. The later articles focus on Clockwork Angels, many of which come from foreign magazines.

Below is a sample of Part 10. To check out the entire segment, click HERE.

To check out all ten installments of Rush: A Brief History of Time, including a chronological listing of all the articles, click HERE.

Enjoy-
The tenth installment of Rush: A Brief History of Time contains 113 new articles and advertisements spanning from 1975 all the way through to 2012. Once again, huge thanks go out to long-time reader and site contributor Heiko Klages of Germany for providing the bulk of the articles that appear in this installment. Additional thanks also go out to Eric Hansen from Power Windows, Ed Stenger from RushIsABand, Hanns Peter Ebert and RushFanForever.

We'll start of this installment with a short, and none to flattering review of Rush's debut album which appeared in the February 22nd, 1975 issue of Melody Maker Magazine which comes from the U.K. At least the reviewer indicated that he was "...wary about dismissing them." :-)

Moving on to 1977, the October 13th issue of Circus Magazine contained the first of a three-part story on Rush called The Rush Tapes (Pt. 1) and sub-titled Neil Peart Sizes Up 'Farewell to Kings,' the Latest Canadian Rock Opus. This was basically an in-depth interview with Neil about everything from writing and recording an album, where he draws his inspiration from and whether or not he sings in the shower: "...I do, but I have a terrible voice..."

Part 3 of this series appeared in the November 10th, 1977 issue of Circus which, this time, had the sub-title of Alex Lifeson, The Walking, Talking King of Canadian Guitars. And while I don't have the article scan of Part 2 of the series, it is available for viewing HERE courtesy of Eric Hansen's Power Windows fan site.

Rush are no strangers to scathing reviews over the course of their history. But this next piece might still ruffle some feathers. Coming from the October 6th, 1979 issue of New Musical Express Magazine, this review of the Rush concert is called And What The Mystic Said to the Wallies. The reviewer, Lynn Hanna, attempted to come off sounding intellectual and sarcastic but just came off sounding like a whining b--ch. Well, that's how I read it, anyway...

Before we exit the 70's, here is a rare advertisement for Caress of Steel which appeared in the January 1976 issue of the Netherland's Muziekkrant OOR magazine. The translations of the tagline in the advertisement reads "No bullshit, just hardcore Rock, that is Rush". I couldn't have said it any better myself :-)

Heading into the 80's, which contains the bulk of the entries this time around, we'll start at the beginning: May of 1980 and a short but positive review of Permanent Waves. This one was originally published in Goldmine from the U.S.

Skipping along to May of 1981, an article titled Sometimes Rush Is In A Hurry was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Written by Jack Lloyd, this focuses on the release of Moving Pictures in place of the band's original plans to produce their second live effort after ending their Permanent Waves tour.

And speaking of Moving Pictures, there was a two-part article published by Modern Drummer Magazine on the making of Rush's classic album. Titled Notes on the Making of Moving Pictures, and written by none other than Neil Peart himself, these articles originally appeared in the December 1982 and January 1983 issues of the famed drumming magazine. There's also a two-question 'fan mail' segment that's rather interesting.

Rush appeared, in cartoon/comic fashion, on the cover of the January 1984 issue of Music Express Magazine alongside other "cartoonized" Canadian musicians. A short article within, titled Good Gracious! Another Rush LP! also appeared announcing the release of Grace Under Pressure.

Also in January of 1984, the Spanish magazine Popular Poster published an issue which also featured Rush on the cover and included an article titled No. 1 En Progresion. This article is written in Spanish but also includes some great pictures of the band (include a few rare ones).

Still holding on to January of 1984, the weekly periodical The History of Rock posted a two-part article on Rush. The first dealt specifically with Neil Peart in a piece titled The Great Musicians: Neil Peart and the second was called Master Plans for Tomorrow's World:
RUSH HAVE BEEN described as a poor imitation of groups as diverse as Black Sabbath, King Crimson, Grand Funk Railroad and Yes. They have been branded as crypto-fascists and, in one memorable turn of phrase, Paul Du Noyer of New Musical Express described their lyrics and philosophy as 'an ill-argued dog's dinner of Plato, Milton Friedman and Patience Strong'. At the same time, Rush have been lauded as 'awe-inspiring', 'the very best in their genre', 'expert, awesome, energetic and aware', 'members of an elite circle at the pinnacle of international rock' and 'one of the foremost musical forces and performing ensembles in the world'.
In April of 1984, a Rush Fact Sheet was released, presumably by Mercury Records and/or Anthem Entertainment, which reads as a bullet-point retrospective of the band. And interesting, if not dated read (but then again, all of these articles are dated!)

Up next are two separate reviews of Grace Under Pressure; both coming from German publications and published in July of 1984. The first appeared in Musik Express and the second in Stereoplay. A quick translations reveals both reviews to be very positive of Rush's tenth studio offering.

The July/August 1984 issue of Rockline! Magazine included an article on Rush titled The Rush Dilemma!; a quasi-retrospective look at the band and introduction of Grace Under Pressure. Geddy reflected back on Signals in the article:
"I was very positive about the direction of Signals," recalls Geddy. "But I wasn't sure if we hit the mark because it was new and we were putting ourselves into a different area. Now, with this much time gone by, I think there are moments when we got what we wanted, and others where we obviously were in a transitory state."
The August 1984 issue of Creem Magazine included a humorous look into the release of Grace Under Pressure and its link to the 1984 Olympic Games. Yep. This one is called The Hoser Conspiracy and should be read with tongue firmly in cheek.

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