Artist: RUSH
Album: RUSH REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1974/ 1997
EAN/UPS: 0731453462328
Media type: CD

Rush is the first studio album by the Canadian band Rush, released in 1974 and remastered in 1997. Rush's first release shows much of the hard rock/blues sound typical of many of the popular rock bands emerging from Britain earlier in the decade. Rush were fans of bands such as Led Zeppelin and Cream and these influences can be heard in most of the songs on this debut.

Due to a limited budget, the sessions were scheduled during the late night 'dead' time in studios which, due to lack of activity at those times, had lower rates. This is a common theme among rising rock stars (Queen was forced to do the same for their debut album). Originally, the album was produced by Dave Stock who had worked on the band's debut single (a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" with an original composition "You Can't Fight It" on the B-side). These songs (plus what may be the unrecorded original song "Fancy Dancer" and/or "Garden Road" with "Fancy Dancer" being more likely) were going to be included on the album but were scrapped to make room for "Finding My Way", "Need Some Love" and possibly "Here Again". However, the band were unhappy with the result so manager Ray Danniels scraped together an additional $9000 for Terry Brown to improve the quality. Originally the album was released on Moon Records and only a thousand copies were pressed. It was picked up by WMMS, a radio station in Cleveland, Ohio. Donna Halper, a DJ working at the station, selected "Working Man" for her regular play list. The song's blue collar theme resonated with hard rock fans and this new found popularity led to the album being re-released by Mercury Records in the U.S.

Original drummer John Rutsey, unwilling to tour, left the band after this album was released. Rutsey wrote some lyrics for the debut, but never submitted them to the band and some new lyrics had to be thrown together. Rutsey's departure was pivotal for the band, as his replacement Neil Peart's distinctive drumming technique and flair for lyric writing proved to be crucial to the band's evolution as evidenced by their second album, Fly by Night.

The original logo was red, but a printing error made it appear more pink in colour. This is one of two Rush albums where the cover artwork had printing errors (the other album is Caress of Steel).

TRACKLIST:

"Finding My Way" – 5:06
"Need Some Love" – 2:19
"Take a Friend" – 4:24
"Here Again" – 7:35
"What You're Doing" – 4:22
"In the Mood" – 3:34
"Before and After" – 5:34
"Working Man" – 7:10

(All tracks by Lee and Lifeson, except "In the Mood", by Lee. All song lengths refer to the remastered version)

LINE-UP:

Geddy Lee – Lead vocals and bass
Alex Lifeson – Guitars and vocals
John Rutsey – Drums and vocals