Rush
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Vapor Trails tour, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, September 21, 2002. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The loss of his daughter, Selena, and wife, Jackie, in less than twelve months in 1997 and 1998 led Neil on an epic motorcycle journey that he documented in his bestselling memoir, Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, issued July 5, 2002.
Vapor Trails tour, The Woodlands and San Antonio, Texas.
Alex, Geddy, Ray, and the rest of the close-knit office and crew felt the Pearts’ pain nearly as acutely, there being no doubt or debate that Rush was over, a nonissue. Now utterly alone, Neil hit the road on an epic motorcycle journey that would be documented in his bestselling memoir, Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, issued July 5, 2002. With nothing scheduled in his personal or professional life, Peart headed west and north through British Columbia, in the process covering much of North America and notching 33,000 miles of observant travel and travel writing as he moved through Mexico and as far south as Belize. All worried about Neil’s state of mind. While Neil roared down the road alone, Rush and their extended family eagerly anticipated the next in-joke-filled postcard, scrutinizing every word for clues that he was OK. Ray had a dialog with Neil over his dwindling finances, trying to drive home the point about how expensive this introspective journey with no end was turning out to be.
Although no proposals were put through from Ray to the guys that could be construed as heavy lifting, Rush’s presence in pop culture could not be denied. “Tom Sawyer” showed up on two soundtrack albums, one for the film Whatever and one for Adam Sandler’s high-profile comedy The Waterboy. A third film, Small Soldiers, used the song in DJ Z-Trip remix form, while Nissan also tapped the track for a car ad. “Yes, this was approved by both the band and Anthem,” explained a label press release. “We really don’t have a problem with it as it was tastefully done. In this day and age where there’s no real rock radio left, and video TV only plays pop music, we are trying other directions to get the music out there. I know the whole ‘corporate sell-out’ lines. I just don’t think they’re applicable any longer.” May and June 1997 saw the first couple of new Rush hits packs, under the Retrospective banner, and in May 1999, the band was awarded a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, along with the attendant glitz and press. Geddy and Alex were establishing a pattern as the necessarily compromised “face of Rush” for what would be years to come.
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Geddy Lee’s (so far) only solo effort was released in November 2000 and featured Rush collaborator Ben Mink, as well as Soundgarden and Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron.
Also in 1999, Geddy guested on albums by Euphoria and I Mother Earth and worked with Alex on a version of the Canadian national anthem for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. In addition, Alex got a little producing in, with 3 Doors Down and an MTV contest-winning band called Lifer. The most significant milestones during this period, however, were the releases of a Rush live album called Different Stages (November 10, 1998) and a first (and so far only) solo album from Geddy, called My Favourite Headache, issued at the end of 2000.
“We have a long history of covering different periods of this band’s development with a live record,” said Alex, concerning Different Stages, in an interview with Big O, “and that was the intention with this particular package. But what happened was, once we started recording these last two tours, for Test for Echo primarily and Counterparts as well, we were really quite pleased with the results we got sound-wise and in terms of the performance. We were playing with a confidence and maturity that we’d never felt or heard in our playing before. So rather than just cover the last four records, we went back and had a representation of ‘2112’ on there, and ‘Natural Science’ and a repeat of songs like ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Closer to the Heart.’”
Asked about the bonus CD, featuring a lost show from 1978, Alex explained, “We were in the studio … the office was making some changes and they were taking their tape storage area to another room and we came across these old tapes we’d forgotten about. We’d recorded these in February 1978 and it was for a radio program. We decided not to release the tape because Geddy had had problems with his voice that night; at least that’s the way we remembered it. So we decided not to let them go, and the tapes were put in storage. Four years ago we came across them, decided to give them a listen … we talked even then about the prospects of doing a live recording even though it was still a few records away. We took the tapes to the studio for a listen and thought that there was really something there. I don’t think that we would ever have released the Hammersmith tapes as a single live release ’cos they don’t really relate to anything and it was not really the best of nights, but it is a representation of one night twenty years ago and in the whole scheme of this package we thought it would be a really interesting contrast. I think if you play them back to back, you get a sense of where the band was back then, how young and spirited we were, the level of energy, and then when you get into the more current stuff, you get the … to me, the maturity and confidence and majesty in the arrangements. And also we made it clear to the record companies that in terms of pricing, the third CD would basically be a free bonus CD.”
Vapor Trails promo flat, 2002. Author collection
Vapor Trails tour, Tweeter Center, Mansfield, Massachusetts, July 12, 2002. Brooke Ismach/WireImage/Getty Images
VAPOR TRAILS Daniel Bukszpan
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Rush released a series of bafflingly flaccid albums, on which Geddy Lee mothballed his Rickenbacker in favor of banks of synthesizers, obscuring Alex Lifeson’s guitar in the process. A decent tune or two would emerge every so often during this period, and the faithful did their best to stay in the band’s corner. But when a rap section appeared in 1991’s Roll the Bones, many of them finally said it: RUSH IS DEAD TO ME.
While feelings of betrayal ran deep, fans still held out hope that 13/8 time signatures would reappear on the horizon, that epic compositions marked with Roman numerals would be plentiful. This was not to be, but 2002’s Vapor Trails came pretty close to redeeming more than a decade’s worth of synth-pop missteps.
That the album exists at all is a miracle. In 1997, drummer Neil Peart’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Selena, was killed in a car accident, a tragedy that was compounded ten months later when his wife, Jackie, died of cancer. It was an incomprehensible turn of events, and it relegated everything Rush to indefinite back-burner status, where it could well have stayed. But in January 2001, the three friends reconvened and started the difficult process of making music again.
Not everyone was happy with it. Some fans groused that the album had been a badly mastered victim of the “loudness war,” and there wasn’t even a lead guitar break. But in the raw lava of guitars, bass, drums, and distortion, Peart’s grief comes through loud and clear, and reduces most of the complaints to nitpicking.
The album opens with the tricky drum pattern and teeth-gnashing guitar riff of “One Little Victory,” followed by “Ceiling Unlimited,” an angst-ridden cry of roaring guitars that’s the thickest the band has ever sounded. “Ghost Rider,” the only song on the album that’s clearly about Peart’s tragedies, does as good a job of conveying grief as you can ask for without being just a list of sad events more suited to a George Jones song. The album shifts into sunnier territory with the huge bass chords of “Peaceable Kingdom,” and it stays upbeat during “The Stars Look Down” and “How It Is.” But then the title track comes along and napalms the sunny good vibes with utter despair.
The next two songs make up the album’s peak. “Secret Touch” is a half-mad frenzy of dark, disjointed funk and Voivod-style dissonance. As a bonus, it was the second single off the album, which meant that Sheryl Crow and Britney Spears had to share the airwaves with it. It’s followed by “Earthshine,” another in a long line of Rush songs whose odd meter sounds natural. In the measures before the chorus, Geddy Lee sings “doo doo doo” in a winding melody that communicates deep yearnin
g, more than lyrics ever could. It’s a good example of the band at their most transcendent.
“Secret Touch” and “Earthshine” are tough acts to follow, and the next few songs suffer for it. “Sweet Miracle,” “Nocturne,” and “Freeze” are all perfectly serviceable tunes, but by this point the album has simply said what it has to say. Fortunately, “Out of the Cradle” provides a positive note to go out on, and it reverses the dragging feeling of the last couple of songs.
Despite the slight decline at the end of the album, Vapor Trails still works best taken as a whole. It can be a very dense listen at first, and to this day there are very loyal fans who still see it as a misstep in the Rush catalog. But it’s worth sticking with it. For those who had any sort of emotional reaction to what took place in Peart’s life, it’s a rewarding journey that’s very much worth taking.
As the new millennium arrived, to everybody’s quiet delight, Geddy and Alex were receiving signals from Neil that he might want to drum again—or at least see if there was a job for him.
“After the initial shock wore off, none of us felt compelled to continue in music or do anything creative,” said Alex, in conversation with Now’s Michael Hollett. “It just killed that whole spark. But slowly, we started to recover. Geddy and I found that music was still a very, very important part of our lives and we wanted to continue. Then it was a matter of Neil catching up. But at the time, I don’t think either one of us thought Neil was ever going to be interested in coming back.”
“I can’t really say that it felt like waiting after a time,” added Geddy. “I resigned myself to the fact that this could have been the end. It was a sad way to end, but Alex and I thought, let’s just be to him what he needs. He needs us to be his friends, and if he gets to the point where he feels good about making music again, then that’s a huge win, because that means he’s feeling good, period.”
When a new Rush album called Vapor Trails emerged on May 14, 2002, fans were shocked to hear the gritty textures and loose-yet-heavy playing all over the album, not to mention the near-complete lack of anything one could call a guitar solo. There was a spontaneity that hadn’t been there before, and Neil’s lyrics were some of the darkest, most introspective, and personal among his usually grand and outward-thinking oeuvre. Most welcome of all, however, was the opening salvo from Neil on first track “One Little Victory,” where Peart punks out with determination more than joy, announcing that he was back in the role manager Ray Danniels said he could not give up: that of “world’s greatest drummer.”
The record’s organic quality is the result of fourteen months of jams, songs taking shape and captured on tape, with many of those moments used as the bed tracks for the songs that made the album. Reflected Alex on this least rule-abiding of Rush albums, “The expectations were different. It wasn’t the same band anymore, and we weren’t the same people—not just because of what happened to Neil. We had all grown and matured a lot. When you get to your mid-forties, you definitely go through a change, and I think that’s reflected in the sound. It’s definitely one of our best records. It has a passion and spirit that I think are lacking in some of our previous work. We get a little surgical and anal in the studio; we’ve been trying over the last few records to loosen up a little.”
Ad announcing Canadian dates on the Vapor Trails tour, 2002. Author collection
Reviews of the album ranged from effusive to undecided and shocked, yet rarely negative. “The blaze of metal-edged guitar licks Alex Lifeson unleashes during this disc’s intro,” wrote Billboard’s Christa L. Titus, “were surely fueled by pent-up anticipation for Rush to start jamming again. In fact, that same blast of energy welding this CD of new material together resonates long after the last crash of drummer Neil Peart’s cymbals. After a six-year hiatus, Rush seems more concerned with preserving its musical empathy than exploring a vastly new direction: Vapor Trails echoes the passion of 1993’s Counterparts, albeit with a more back-to-basics sensibility (there are no keyboards and overdubs are kept to a minimum). Peart’s lyrics are both confessional and celebrational, and few can match his still-precise drumming technique. Lifeson’s playing is freer and bolder; Geddy Lee handles his bass/vocal chores with equal aplomb. The more time one spends with Vapor Trails the richer and more nuanced it becomes. Consider this an absolute triumph.”
Indeed it seemed that after all that had happened, a corner had been turned. Snide derision was gone like a, well, vapor trail, with more weight and seriousness ascribed to the new album and everything Rush did and said. Excited as fans were at the first show of the Vapor Trails tour, in Hartford, Connecticut, on June 28, 2002, the response was nothing compared with the hysteria that awaited the band upon their first trip ever to South America, captured on the bombastic love-in that was the Rush in Rio live set, issued October 21 the following year.
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Opening night, Vapor Trails tour, Hartford, Connecticut. Ray Wawrzyniak collection
Frank White collection
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Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto, Downsview Park, July 30, 2003. KMazur/WireImage/Getty Images
Ray Wawrzyniak collection
The band played a brief yet blazing set for an estimated four hundred thousand at Toronto Rocks. The show—staged as a sort of pick-me-up after the SARS health scare—was not only in Rush’s hometown but in their old neighborhood. Ray Wawrzyniak collection
R30 tour, Sound Advice Amphitheater, West Palm Beach, Florida, July 29, 2004. Ralph Notaro/Getty Images
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The mania continued through the band’s brief yet blazing set (eight selections, including an instrumental “Paint It Black”) at the Toronto Rocks mega-gathering, July 30, 2003, at which Rush played to the biggest throng of their career, an estimated four hundred thousand, singularly rare for this band that spent most of their career turning down festival dates. Rush and AC/DC were the most fondly talked about over the ensuing days, both said to have upstaged the headlining Rolling Stones, all the more poignant given that the show (staged as a sort of pick-me-up after the SARS health scare) was not only in Rush’s hometown but in their old neighborhood.
With a distinct emphasis on Rush as a career-celebrating live act, the globe-traversing party would continue through the early ’00s as the band commemorated their thirtieth anniversary with the R30 DVD and CD package, capturing a typically long and involved show in Frankfurt, Germany. There was also a curious covers EP called Feedback, on which the band paid homage to ancient rock classics that fired their imaginations as teenagers, the band’s raucous take on “Summertime Blues” becoming a bit of an amusement at classic rock radio.
RushCon 4 pass, August 20–22, 2004. Author collection
The bombastic love-in preserving for all posterity the band’s first trip to South America was recorded on November 23, 2002, and released on CD and DVD in late 2003. Author collection
On the covers EP Feedback, the band paid homage to rock classics that fired their imaginations as teenagers, including numbers by the Who, the Yardbirds, Buffalo Springfield, Cream, and Blue Cheer.
R30 tour, Wembley Arena, London, September 8, 2004. C Brandon/Redferns/Getty Images
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Trade ads for band’s thirtieth anniversary, 2004. Author collection
The band commemorated their thirtieth anniversary with the R30 DVD and CD package, capturing a typically long and involved show in Frankfurt, Germany. Author collection
The effect of all of this was to position Rush as a band making a sort of victory lap. Most inspiringly, it was a victory for Neil, who was firing the engine room like never before, gorgeous, gleaming new drum kits at every turn threatening to take the attention away from the resolute machine pounding them. But yes, the show, impossibly, got increasingly more epic and more technical from a visual standpoint, and a subtle shift had been made, from band on the studio record/tour treadmill, to one worthy of so much packaging,
repackaging, pomp, eventful tour splash, and, most notably, warm welcomes and wishes from the rock cognoscenti into the pantheon of the rock ’n’ roll greats.
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Frank White collection
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After all the hoopla, however, and four years and counting since the gritty Vapor Trails, both band and fans were sensing that it might be time for some new material. The new Rush could only approach such an idea sideways, the guys casually feeling each other out to see if there was a record in them, a technique that began with Test for Echo and continued, albeit for more depressing reasons, with Vapor Trails.
“The sessions were fantastic,” noted Alex, on getting down to business with co-producer Nick Raskulinecz, best known for his work with Foo Fighters, but also a host of alternative metal acts including Velvet Revolver, Stone Sour, and Fireball Ministry. “We had a riot; he was very motivating and very inspiring…. Nick saw us play when he was eleven years old. It was the first concert he had gotten to; his mom took him. His mother was a big fan, and she still is, which is really fantastic, especially for Nick, as it’s kind of gone full circle. But he is a very gregarious, outgoing guy, and he knew a lot about the band. But one of the interesting things he said was, ‘You guys forget who you are sometimes. And with this record, you need to remember who you are. Because you have a lot of good things about your history that you overlook or ignore.’ And I think he’s right. I think left to our own devices, we tend to leave everything behind and move forward, almost to the point where we lose touch with where we came from. And I think he really wanted us to keep that in mind, what the strengths of the band have been over the years.”