Rush – Self-Titled Debut Album Review

Well, folks, I hope you’re ready to embark on a journey alongside me. This article, and every other Rush album review I intend to write over the coming months, has been exactly a year in the making at the time I finally began to put digital pen to paper. What’s taken me so long? Laziness mostly, but let’s not dwell on that. We’ve got nineteen albums’ worth of my favorite music to discuss, so we had best get started.

I was originally inspired to begin this journey as a way of dealing with the passing of the band’s legendary drummer, Neil Peart, back in January 2020. I would like to state at the beginning of this piece that I wish to dedicate every review in this series to Neil’s memory, despite the fact that Mr. Peart wasn’t actually the drummer or lyricist on the album I wish to discuss today, Rush’s 1974 eponymous debut album. That honor goes to the original percussionist, a venerable fellow by the name of John Rutsey.

Rush was originally released on March 1st, 1974 by Moon Records exclusively in Canada. Mercury Records handled the album’s international release thereafter. The album spawned two singles, “Finding My Way” and “In the Mood.” I think that’s enough rambling about the album’s history for now, though. Let’s get into a detailed, track-by-track review of the debut album by two of the three men who would go on to become affectionately known by their legions of fans as “the Holy Triumvirate.”

Rush begins with one of the two aforementioned singles, namely “Finding My Way.” I know the band was still trying to find its distinct sound while recording this album, but even I would never have expected them to write a song like this. Since this was just the beginning of the trio’s illustrious career, Geddy Lee could easily hit those high notes for which he has long been known. Alex Lifeson’s performance on this track also cannot be understated.

When I first really got into Rush’s music (that is, learned of a few more songs than just “Tom Sawyer”), I thought they stuck entirely to melodic, Progressive Rock. I had no idea they ventured into the territories of Hard Rock and even Heavy Metal at times. I still haven’t determined whether the idea of Rush as a Heavy Metal band sits well with me, but I am not the sole person responsible for designating them as such. Therefore, I’m not going to dwell on that concept for too long.

That brings us to the second track, “Need Some Love.” This track honestly strikes me as more 1950s-style, honest-to-goodness “Classic Rock.” That’s mostly because of its lyrics, as Alex Lifeson’s guitar performance still sounds like what Rush would eventually become. I suppose that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, considering the band recorded a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” as their actual debut single. Buddy Holly was, of course, known for several love songs including “Not Fade Away”. Perhaps Rush took influence from this more than I previously realized.

On to track three, “Take a Friend.” This song, based on its lyrics, strikes me as an anthem meant to support the stereotypical lonely, friendless nerd. For example, consider the lines, “Yes, you need some advice / Well let me put it to you nice / I said you need a friend / Someone who’ll stick with you to the end.”

Perhaps I’m reading too much into this song’s lyrics, but I did grow up as a lonely nerd until I got to high school. Even then, I wasn’t exactly popular enough to be unanimously voted prom king in my senior year. I’m exceptionally thankful for the friends I’m surrounded by now and listening to “Take a Friend” causes me to feel that way even more intensely.

Up next, we’ve got track four, “Here Again.” The first time I listened to this track, its opening few seconds made me think I had mistakenly started playing Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” I consider that to be a good sign, and I knew I was in for an enjoyable seven-and-a-half-minute listen because of it. This may sound strange, but I find that this track sounds a bit like a cross between Reggae and Blues. Its lyrics make me suspect it’s more heavily influenced by the latter genre.

I’m chuckling to myself a bit now that I’ve written that thought out. I say that because Rush has been known to have some Reggae-inspired fun with live performances of this album’s final track, “Working Man,” but we’ll get to that in a bit. As for why I say I think the lyrics are inspired by Blues music, I offer for your consideration the second verse of “Here Again:” “Well, I say as I look back / And all the thoughts I’ve had / They reflect just what I’m learning / Yes, you know that the hardest part / Yes, I say it is to stay on top / On top of a world forever churning.”

The guitar solo that takes up most of the last three or so minutes of “Here Again” reminded me once more of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” I must commend Alex Lifeson for allowing my favorite band to unexpectedly remind me of the song that always lulled me to sleep as a child. That brings back pleasant memories of a simpler time.

The next track on the album is entitled “What You’re Doing.” I’m not sure what to make of this track, honestly. This track is one of two on this album that enables me to see how Rush’s music, especially their earlier albums, could be classified as “Hard Rock.” It definitely contains some guitar riffs that sound quite fun to play. Heck, perhaps I’ll pick up my guitar after I publish this article and see if I can’t make any progress toward doing just that.

Up next, there’s “In The Mood.” Its lyrics are about exactly what you think they’re about based on the title alone. This is another track that strikes me as the aforementioned “honest-to-goodness Classic Rock.” If I didn’t know any better, I could feasibly have originally thought this was another Buddy Holly cover. That’s not to say I don’t like it, of course. It’s just that I’m much more familiar with Rush’s later albums (as you’ll see in the coming months), so I’m a bit surprised that the band went from writing songs like “In the Mood” to their more well-known stuff like “The Trees.”

Moving on, we’re now onto the penultimate track, “Before and After.” Just listening to this track’s first two and a half minutes or so reminds me of the Rush I knew when I first started digging deeper into their music. That portion of this song is a calmer, more melodic piece of music that transitions into something rougher. I think it’s sort of akin to something like “A Farewell to Kings” in a sense.

However, in what I see as a stark difference between “Before and After” and “A Farewell to Kings,” this song contains the lines, “Or you’re gonna be left out / I said left out in the cold / Yeah, before you get my loving / Babe, you’ll be too old.” I can’t quite explain why I feel this way, but those lines just seem completely out of left field for Rush as far as I’m concerned. Then again, that’s due to my own personal experiences with the band’s music as I’ve discussed throughout this review.

Finally, Rush‘s last track is arguably one of the band’s most well-known songs. So much so, in fact, that it was often played as a finale or encore on many of the trio’s live albums. Because of that, I feel confident in imagining that this song was played at hundreds of concerts throughout Rush’s forty-odd-year career. I’m referring, of course, to “Working Man.”

Speaking of the frequency with which this song was performed live, I mentioned earlier that the band liked to have some fun and take some liberties when “Working Man” came up on any given gig’s setlist. To help explain what I meant by “Reggae-inspired fun” when I brought up this song a couple of tracks ago, I’ve included a specific YouTube video below this paragraph. That video is the band’s performance of “Working Man” on their live album Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland. That’s my personal favorite non-studio version of this track.

When it comes to this track in particular, I must again commend Alex Lifeson for his virtuosity on that guitar of his. I would almost wager that even if you’re not very much of a Rush fan or don’t know much of their work beyond the aforementioned “Tom Sawyer,” you’d probably be able to identify this song’s rough opening guitar riff fairly quickly. As it happens, this song is the only track on this album whose lyrics I could actually clearly understand and didn’t have to look up. I recognize that’s neither here nor there, though.

On a final note (pun intended) before I sign off, I want to take this opportunity to say that in many ways “Working Man” has had the most pronounced positive effect on me out of every track on this album. I have a World of Warcraft character (a Worgen druid, to be specific) whose name is a pun based on the song’s title, for crying out loud! Beyond that though, the song’s lyrics about a man who’s “working all the time” often inspire me to get quite a bit of my own work done while listening to it. That was my soundtrack as I knocked out nearly the entirety of this review, after all.

There you have it, my friends! As I said at the beginning of this piece, this is only the first of nineteen stops on our journey through the legendary Canadian trio’s career. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my thoughts on their debut album. I also sincerely hope you’ll join me next time as I delve into their next chronologically accurate offering, 1975’s Fly by Night!