Anthem

February 17, 2020
Music critic Popoff (Rush: Album by Album) delivers the exciting first volume in a projected three-part history of the band Rush, from its formation in 1968 through the 1970s. Popoff provides a comprehensive appreciation of Rush’s music, focusing on its first seven LPs, including a detailed look at its breakthrough 1976 work 2112. Based on interviews with bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart (who died in January of brain cancer), as well as their managers, record producers, and fellow musicians, Popoff recounts the band’s formative years (from being “three kids from Toronto trying to figure out what they were and become what they wanted to be”), their gigs in Toronto as they were gaining popularity (they opened for the New York Dolls at the Victory Theater in 1973), as well as their drive “to be the world’s most complicated three-piece band”—or, in Lee’s words, “to combine the feeling and emotional rock potential of The Who and even Zeppelin and bring the complexity of a band like Genesis and Yes.” By book’s end, Rush has emerged from “the action-packed and at times desperate 1970s” to become a major headlining band. Popoff is given to sharing extensive quotes, which can slow the narrative but nevertheless provide great detail and depth. This will thrill Rush’s huge fan base.

March 27, 2020

Popoff, author of three previous books about Rush and a key player in the making of the documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, presents a generous helping of interviews with band members and their parents, managers, roadies, and others in an exhaustive look at the Canadian rock group's formation, with glimpses of early successes and some less well-received musical efforts. The book closely examines each album from the 1970s. Apart from a few self-important remarks at the outset, Popoff wisely steps aside to let the artists and their supporters speak for themselves. From humble beginnings in the suburbs of Toronto to a 40-year run as one of the rock circuit's iconic names, Rush established its characteristic sound and distinctiveness as a trio among the more common quartet groupings, touring with Kiss and Aerosmith while incorporating influences from diverse sources including Led Zeppelin. Certainly their stable upbringings and home lives may have contributed to their longevity and their ability to steer clear of the partying and drug use rampant at the time. VERDICT A must for Rush fans and an intriguing examination of how small musical groups coalesce. Also a fitting memorial to drummer Neil Peart, who died this past January.--Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2020
Over the course of their near-five-decade career, Canadian progressive rock band Rush were heralded for virtuosic musicianship and songwriting chops, a dedicated work ethic, and energetic, stadium-size live shows. They also had a reputation as one of the nicest bands in the music biz: three lifelong friends who preferred nerdy pranks, intellectual pursuits, and family life over a sex, drugs, and rock-?n'-roll lifestyle. As such, there are no tales of wild partying or tawdry life on the road. Instead, this is an exhaustive chronicle of determination. Through often-repetitive interviews with band members and their families, management, and road crew, Popoff (who worked on the Rush documentary, Beyond the Lighted Stage, 2010) charts Rush from their early years playing bars around Ontario up through worldwide success and the creation of their first seven albums. There is drama here?this era saw the band fire their first drummer and gain the late Neil Peart, arguably one of the greatest drummers in rock history?but such strife is presented as mere obstacles for the band to overcome on the road to stardom.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)