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''Rush'' is the debut studio album by Canadian
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band Rush. It was released on March 18, 1974, in Canada by Moon Records, the group's own label, before it was released internationally by
Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...
later that year. Recorded five years after the band's formation, this first release shows much of the
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...
sound typical of many of the popular rock bands emerging earlier in the decade. Rush were fans of such bands as
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...
,
Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...
and
Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...
, and these influences can be heard in most of the songs on the album. Original drummer
John Rutsey John Howard Rutsey (July 23, 1952 – May 11, 2008) was a Canadian musician best known as a founding member and original drummer of Rush. He performed on the band's 1974 debut album, but left shortly after its release due to health problems wh ...
performed all drum parts on the album, but was unable to go on extended tours because of complications with his diabetes and so he retired from the band after the album was released. Rutsey worked on lyrics for the album, but never submitted them to the other members of the band. The lyrics were instead entirely composed by vocalist/bassist
Geddy Lee Geddy Lee Weinrib (; born Gary Lee Weinrib, July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Rock music, rock band Rush (band), Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request o ...
and guitarist
Alex Lifeson Aleksandar Živojinović (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Rush. In 1968, he co-founded a band (which later became Rush) with drummer John Rut ...
. Power Windows Rutsey was soon replaced by
Neil Peart Neil Ellwood Peart ( ; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian and American musician, known as the drummer, percussionist, and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush (band), Rush. He was known to fans by the nickname "the Profe ...
, who served as both drummer and primary lyricist on all subsequent Rush albums.


Recording and production

The initial recording sessions were produced by Dave Stock at Eastern Sound Studios in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
in two days during the Summer of 1973. They were scheduled late at night during the 'dead' time in studios because of the band's low budget and the rates during this period were the cheapest. By request of the band's management, Rush included their version of " Not Fade Away", a staple of the band's live-set during that time, for a possible single-release. The song was eventually released as Rush's debut single in September 1973, backed with "You Can't Fight It", a song originally planned for inclusion on the album, but that idea was scrapped in favour of new songs. From this original recording session, "
In the Mood "In the Mood" is a popular big band-era jazz standard recorded by Americans, American bandleader Glenn Miller. "In the Mood" is based on the composition "Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was re ...
" and "Take A Friend" would be included in the final album. However, Rush were unhappy with the quality of the first sessions. They moved to Toronto Sound Studios in November 1973 and produced these sessions themselves while achieving a significant improvement in recording quality, with the help of engineer Terry Brown. They added new overdubs to existing backing tracks of "What You're Doing", "Before and After" and "
Working Man "Working Man" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush. In an interview on the ''Rolling Stone'' YouTube channel, bassist and lead vocalist Geddy Lee said that "Working Man" is his favorite song to play live. "Working Man" became a favourite among Ru ...
" from the first session. In the meantime, the band had written new songs that were recorded entirely at Toronto Sound: "Finding My Way", "Need Some Love" and "Here Again". These new songs took the place of songs from the earlier sessions. Both studios used 8-channel multitrack recorders, which was quite primitive for 1973, but the group quickly learned to make the best use of the technology that was available. In July 2008, Rush discovered a version of "Working Man" with an alternative guitar solo. They allowed the makers of the popular rhythm game ''
Rock Band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...
'' to use the master tapes for the song's inclusion.Working Man in NY Times
, accessed July 21, 2008.


Distribution and release

The band and its management formed their own company, Moon Records, and released the album in Canada. Only 3,500 copies of the original Moon Records LP, catalogue number MN-100, were pressed. The promotional version of the LP has a cream-coloured label with a blue Moon Records logo and black type. The remaining 3,500 were blue labeled with a blue Moon Records logo and black type. The album was soon picked up by
WMMS WMMS (100.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio, commonly identified as "The Buzzard". Widely regarded as one of the most influen ...
, a radio station in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
.
Donna Halper Donna Lee Halper (born February 14, 1947, in Dorchester, Massachusetts) is a Boston-based historian and radio consultant. Beginning in 1968, Halper worked as a radio disc jockey and music director, and is credited with discovering the progressi ...
, a DJ working at the station, selected "Working Man" for her regular play list. Every time the song was played the station received phone calls asking where to buy the record. Copies of the Moon Records album were imported to the Cleveland area and quickly sold out. In the 2010 documentary film '' Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage'', Halper says that "Working Man" was the perfect song for the Cleveland rock audience, as it was still mostly a factory town in 1974. WMMS later sponsored one of Rush's first performances in the United States, in Cleveland on August 26, 1974. The record's popularity in Cleveland quickly led to the re-release of the album by
Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...
on August 10, 1974. The first Canadian Mercury release on the standard red Mercury label is nearly as rare as the Moon version. It also had the Moon number MN-100 between the run-out grooves, indicating that it was pressed from the same metal stampers as the Moon disc. "A special thank you to Donna Halper for getting the ball rolling" was added to the album credits of this and all later versions. At this point manager
Ray Danniels Ray Danniels is a Canadian music executive, record producer, and talent manager. He's the founder of SRO (Standing Room Only) Management group, as well as independent record labels Moon Records and Anthem Records. He first rose to prominence as ...
scraped together an additional $9,000 for producer Terry Brown to professionally re-mix all of the recordings for better sound quality. This remix version was used for later releases, most of which used the Mercury "skyline" record label instead of the red label. A later Moon Records version of undetermined origin has a pink label with grey moon craters. The original album logo was red, but a printing error made it appear more magenta in colour. This is one of two Rush albums where the cover artwork had printing errors, the other album being ''
Caress of Steel ''Caress of Steel'' is the third studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 24, 1975, by Mercury Records. It was recorded immediately after the band concluded touring in support of their previous album, '' Fly By Night'', a ...
''. The complete album, along with '' Fly by Night'' and ''
Caress of Steel ''Caress of Steel'' is the third studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 24, 1975, by Mercury Records. It was recorded immediately after the band concluded touring in support of their previous album, '' Fly By Night'', a ...
'', was included as part of the 1978 Anthem release ''Archives.''


Critical reception

''Rush'' received positive reviews upon its 1974 release. Writing for the ''
Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...
'', Bill Provick gave praise on the band's "immediate acceleration" and "driving, crisp sound", although he felt that "the energy needs a bit more channeling and the arrangements need a touch more refining". ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' wrote that it "serves up a dose of good hard rock highlighted by the often Robert Plant-like lead vocals of Geddy Lee and the powerful guitar work of Alex Lifeson and solid drumming from John Rutsey." However, critical reception in later years has been more negative. Greg Prato of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
stated in his review of the album that it was weaker than some of the band's later works, such as ''
Hemispheres Hemisphere may refer to: In geometry * Hemisphere (geometry), a half of a sphere As half of Earth or any spherical astronomical object * A hemispheres of Earth, hemisphere of Earth ** Northern Hemisphere ** Southern Hemisphere ** Eastern Hemisphe ...
'' and '' Moving Pictures'', because
Neil Peart Neil Ellwood Peart ( ; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian and American musician, known as the drummer, percussionist, and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush (band), Rush. He was known to fans by the nickname "the Profe ...
was not yet a part of the band. He finished his review by saying, "While longtime Rush fans can appreciate their debut because they never returned to this style, newcomers should stick with their classics from later years."


Remaster

A remaster was issued in 1997. * The tray has a picture of the star with man painting (mirroring the cover art of '' Retrospective I'') with "The Rush Remasters" printed in all capital letters just to the left. All remasters from ''Rush'' through ''Permanent Waves'' are like this. ''Rush'' was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette for the "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. The album is included in the ''Sector 1'' set. The album was remastered and re-released on vinyl in April 2014 as part of a box set to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The 2014 vinyl version included a replica of the original Moon Records label on the LP. ''Rush'' was remastered for vinyl in 2015 as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion. The high definition master prepared for this release was also made available for purchase in 24-bit/96 kHz and 24-bit/192 kHz formats, at several high-resolution audio online music stores. These masters have significantly less
dynamic range compression Dynamic range compression (DRC) or simply compression is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds, thus reducing or ''compressing'' an audio signal's dynamic range. Compression is c ...
than the 1997 remasters and the "Sector" remasters by Andy VanDette.


Track listing

All songs written by
Geddy Lee Geddy Lee Weinrib (; born Gary Lee Weinrib, July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Rock music, rock band Rush (band), Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request o ...
and
Alex Lifeson Aleksandar Živojinović (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Rush. In 1968, he co-founded a band (which later became Rush) with drummer John Rut ...
, except "Need Some Love" which its lyrics were written by Lee with
John Rutsey John Howard Rutsey (July 23, 1952 – May 11, 2008) was a Canadian musician best known as a founding member and original drummer of Rush. He performed on the band's 1974 debut album, but left shortly after its release due to health problems wh ...
, and "In the Mood", written solely by Lee.


Personnel

Rush *
Geddy Lee Geddy Lee Weinrib (; born Gary Lee Weinrib, July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Rock music, rock band Rush (band), Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request o ...
– lead vocals, bass *
Alex Lifeson Aleksandar Živojinović (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Rush. In 1968, he co-founded a band (which later became Rush) with drummer John Rut ...
– guitar, backing vocals *
John Rutsey John Howard Rutsey (July 23, 1952 – May 11, 2008) was a Canadian musician best known as a founding member and original drummer of Rush. He performed on the band's 1974 debut album, but left shortly after its release due to health problems wh ...
– drums, percussion, backing vocals Technical personnel * Terry Brown – engineer, remixing *Paul Weldon – album cover *BIC Photography – photography *SRO Productions – executive production


Release history


Charts


Certifications


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

*


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rush (Rush Album) Rush (band) albums 1974 debut albums Anthem Records albums Mercury Records albums