SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-“La Villa Strangiato” (from Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage) (2010).
In the bonus features of the DVD for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, we see (in addition to some awesome live footage of Rush in 1974 with original drummer John Rutsey) a fantastic live clip of Rush playing “La Villa Strangiato,” one of the best instrumentals around.
The camera angle focuses mainly on Alex Lifeson. And man does he rock!
It’s common knowledge, even among Rush haters, that Geddy Lee and Neil Peart are (or at least were) always at the top of the list of “Best” bassist and drummer respectively. And yup, they are pretty amazing. But this has always left Alex in the shadows.
Admittedly, there are thousands of great, amazing, ear melting guitarists. And, typically, the bassist and drummer are kind of dull, so it makes sense that Alex’s playing is in the shadows of the other two. But I fear that he is often labelled as just not very good.
This video should totally prove that suggestion incorrect. He plays quickly and with amazing accuracy, in a multitude of styles.
And speaking of the movie, I always wondered if their families minded that Alex and Geddy changed their names for the band (it’s never addressed in the film). It seems like a weird thing to have done circa 1974 in Canada, although Kiss did the same thing at the time in New York (removing the Jewishness of their names). I just love the name Živojinović, and it’s a shame it’s not better known. (Huh, although Wikipedia tells me that Lifeson is a sort of literal translation of Živojinović. Who knew?)
[READ: July 29, 2010] “Grokking Rush”
Since Rush has been everywhere lately, I figured I’d mention this recent article in The Believer. There’s nothing terribly new in the article. In fact, it seems like something of an introduction to the uninitiated, giving a basic history of the band and their lyrical themes.
The only thing I didn’t know, which is teased out in the subtitle, was that so many academic papers have been written about the band. Dissertation titles include “Permanent Changes: Rush, Musicians’ Rock, and the Progressive Post-Counter-Culture” and “Grand Designs: A Musical, Social and Ethnographic Study of Rush.” They have also been written about in The Journal of American and Comparative Cultures and Popular Music and Society. And, they are the only band ever to be cited in the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.
The article is recent enough to include the above mentioned movie Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage and that it won the TriBeCa Film Festival Audience Award. But I think perhaps the most notable thing about the article is that I assume that Skylaire Alfvegren (whose name I love) is a woman. Although I’m led to believe that women do, in fact, like Rush, (hi Ann Marie, if you’re reading this), my personal experience is that women Rush fans are pretty few and far between.
The final section of the article shows Alfvegren’s love of live Rush shows since her first 1990. In particular, her awesome fortune at scoring free tickets to the 2004 Vegas show.
One gripe, however, is that they include the lyrics to “Limelight,” but the final word of the lyrics (and the final word of the article) is wrong! Alas.
I Just Read About That... 
I’d like to point out (as the author of the article) that this is considered the FIRST EVER major magazine article on the band, so I had no other choice than make it somewhat “introductory.” Mind you – it was written over three and a half decades into the band’s career! Which as an obvious fan – I thought was a travesty. According to the head cheese at Anthem, it’s their favorite article to date.
It’s pretty crazy how much they were ignored. And now that Neil is dead everyone has seen the light.
And ps. The piece was fact-checked and that last line, of Limelight, was never run by me: The real relation / the underlying theme. Alas…
Thank you for clarifying. It does honestly make me feel better. Regards…