jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson) (11/19/84)
> This is what I have heard about Rush's early history. First off, no record > label would listen to them, so they formed their own for their first record. Rush's own label, Anthem Records, was formed between the release of their fourth and fifth albums, "2112" and "A Farewell To Kings". (It's around that time that I started listening to Rush.) Their first four albums, though they are now all on the Anthem label in Canada, were originally released on Mercury Records, so unless they formed a different label for their first album that was later bought out by Mercury, Mr. Corbin's statement above is not correct. > When it came time to go on tour, Rutsey didn't want to leave Canada (or > something like that), My memory of this is very foggy, and I was not following the band's career at that stage, but I seem to remember being told that, for some reason, he couldn't leave Canada. > so they started interviewing/auditioning other drummers > to go on tour with them. Neil Peart was one of them, and he and Geddy both > hit it off very well, primarily because of a great love that they both had > for the literature of J.R.R.Tolkein (Yeah! Let's hear it for "The Lord of the > Rings"!). This, later, of course, led to that undescribable song "Rivendell". "Rivendell" is not the only Tolkein-influenced Rush song. There are several of them on the first two albums that Peart did with Rush, "Fly By Night" and "Caress Of Steel". -- Jeff Richardson, DCIEM, Toronto (416) 635-2073 {linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd}!utcsrgv!dciem!jeff {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!dciem!jeff