Extremely Vintage Rush, Before The Band Was Ruined By Neil Peart's Asinine Drumming And Dopey Libertarian Lyrics

Counterpoint: Neal Peart Was A WORSE Drummer Than He Was A Lyricist--And Rush's Lyrics Were Mostly Hella Dumb

Lotsa people loved Rush--I saw them in concert at least six times, probably more, maybe 10 times, but I was no superfan.  Basically, when you are too young to drive and no longer live in the city, you go the concerts your older friends and your older siblings and their friends go to.  Rainbow!  Asia!  Genesis!  Yes!  Maiden!  U2!  Frank Zappa!  Ok, that last one was pretty fucking wild.  Anywho, the weak link in Rush, besides the singing, was Peart.  I'm sure he was very nice, but his lyrics were risible boiling Objectivist garbage.  Sure, he disavowed them later in his life, but, sorry dude, you recorded that shit.  Made records.  The records exist.  Your job was to make literal records of how much you sucked.  (And there are plenty of lyrics in rock and pop and punk to like; not everybody is as shallow and tedious as Peart.  Atrios is being stupid.)  But even worse than that inanity was the man's godawful drumming.  Neal Peart's drumming was a masturbation Josh Marshall would single-handedly endorse.  See what I did there?  Way too busy, way too intricate, it took away from the music, though it did help to distract from the embarrassing lyrics.  Maybe that was the point.  Whatevs.  Yuck.

Now this is good great drumming.

 
David Narcizo knows a fuck of a lot more about masterful drumming than Neal Peart.  Notice Narcizo doesn't need an 11,409 piece drum set to get it done.  And his playing is not annoying at all.  His drumming actually makes the song better, not worse.  Fucking magic!

2 Closer

'Red Barchetta' Is Still The Most Risibly Insipid 'Rock' Song Ever

Dumber than anything Zeppelin crapped out--not really, as Led Zeppelin is the dumbest band ever, but still, yeah--dumber than 'Slide It In' and 'Cherry Pie'.  Laughingly bombastic and embarrassingly idiotic, 'Red Barchetta' is fucking objectivist drool at its lowest.  Probably Alan Greenspan's favorite song.

I Was Never A Rush (The Band) Fan, But

It was shocking to hear this from more than a couple of years ago and realize how awful Geddy Lee sounded as he attempted to yelp and wheeze and bark his way through "The Spirit of Radio".  The guy could never sing but this is some completely unique atrocity.  Holy shit!  Call your doctor if you think you might suffer from COPD.

And here's the A.V. Club bringing what passes for unironic love of Rush and that song.  I've seen Rush in concert way too many times--when you're 12 or 13 or 14 you go to the concerts your older siblings and their friends go to--but never really got the joke.  To me, Rush is similar to Steely Dan.  Steely Dan are not jazz rock visionaries but instead are jazz pop wankers while Rush is not a band of art metal prog rock groundbreakers but instead are awkward and goofy Canuck hard rock clowns.  The dumb as post Ayn Rand Jr. lyrics are just a bonus.  (I always did kinda like this song, though, for some inexplicable dumb reason.)