{"id":3083,"date":"2010-03-30T15:49:54","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T19:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uatcshf.ca\/?p=47"},"modified":"2018-07-27T11:27:51","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T15:27:51","slug":"honour-a-real-rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/honour-a-real-rush\/","title":{"rendered":"Honour a real Rush"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rock icons take their place in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Toronto Star<\/p>\n

Toronto prog-rock veterans Rush have lasted more than 40 years because of their unique sound and songwriting by consensus.<\/p>\n

So said drummer-lyricist Neil Peart as he, singer-bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson became the first band to be induction in to the Canadian Songwriters hall of Fame on Sunday night, during a gal ceremony at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all \u2013 songwriting award? Rush? There must be some mistake,\u201d joked Peart joined by Lee and Lifeson on stage as the band accepted their honour following a standing ovation and an introduction by Dave Bidini of the Rheostatics.<\/p>\n

Peart also made fun of the band\u2019s \u201870s stage outfits \u201cof alarming bathrobes and kimonos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joking aside, Peart said the band\u2019s most successful album, 1981\u2019s Moving Pictures, was an important one for the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we found our sound, we found our audience,\u201d he continued as he delivered a speech in both English and French. (He has a house in the Laurentians).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were slowly channeling the trend toward becoming more concise, more driving and more direct while still retaining the stylistic quirks and indulgences that pleased us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peart said the band\u2019s signature sound was always the result of agreement among the tree musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne big reason for our unaccountable longevity is that we have always been involved equally in creating our songs \u2013 words and music,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should be remembered that a three-piece band cannot be a democracy. It\u2019s no good having two winning members and one who feels like a loser. We always aim to find consensus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush, who are currently five songs into a new album, were feted at the CSHF gala with tribute performances that were quirky and original:\u00a0 Les Claypool of Primus (The Spirit Of Radio<\/i>); YouTube phenom Jacob Moon (Subdivisions<\/i>), who utilized a cassette player to incorporate Peart\u2019s voice during a stellar one-man display that showed off his beautiful voice; and St. Catharines, Ont., hardcore band Alexisonfire (Tom Sawyer<\/i>), who had opened for Billy Talent earlier in the evening at the Air Canada Centre before racing up Yonge Street to close the gala.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019d told me when I was a 16-year-old that I\u2019d be friends with the guys in Rush, and would be involved in an event such as this, I probably would have soiled myself,\u201d said Claypool, who was joined by bandmates, including a cellist, all wearing strange-looking masks suitable for a bank robbery.<\/p>\n

Alexsonfire\u2019s Dallas Green dedicated the band\u2019s screaming ultra-loud performance of Tom Sawyer<\/i> to recently deceased Junkhouse guitarist Dan Achen.<\/p>\n

Rush, who formed in 1968 with original drummer John Rutsey before Peart joined in 1974 on the eve of their first U.S. tour and have since sold over 40 million albums worldwide, said inspiring a younger generation of fans with their music was about as big a compliment as they could possibly get.<\/p>\n

\u201c(There\u2019s) no better quote than Bob Dylan once said, \u2018What else can you do for someone with your music but inspire them?\u2019\u201d Peart told reporters backstage earlier in the evening. \u201cThere really is nothing else you can do so if you manage that you\u2019ve done the ultimate job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Lee at Peart\u2019s side: \u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate compliment I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside the CSHF honors, Canadian filmmakers Scot McFadyen\u2019s and Sam Dunn\u2019s documentary, RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage<\/i>, is due to be featured at this year\u2019s Hot Docs Festival in Toronto.<\/p>\n

By pure coincidence, Dolores Claman\u2019s The Hockey Theme<\/i> was also being inducted on the same night as Rush\u2019s classic songs Limelight<\/i>, Closer to the Heart<\/i>, The Spirit of Radio<\/i>, Tom Sawyer<\/i> and Subdivisions<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Peart recently re-recorded the iconic hockey song for TSN, originally written in 1968 by Claman who lives in England and did not attend Sunday night\u2019s gala. A clip of that performance was shown during a funny video montage of everyone form Canadian MPs and Senators to hairdressers singing the melody, known as \u201cCanada\u2019s second national anthem.\u201d Gala host Gregory Charles had the audience inside the George Weston Recital Hall sing it afterward.<\/p>\n

– Jane Stevenson\/Toronto Sun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto prog-rock veterans Rush have lasted more than 40 years because of their unique sound and songwriting by consensus.Toronto prog-rock veterans Rush have lasted more than 40 years because of their unique sound and songwriting by consensus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cshf.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}