Rush

A Farewell To Kings

The Night My Sorry Life Changed Forever

Review Score:

(8/10)
It's 1:00 am on some late-70's weekend, I'm 13 years old, Saturday Night Live has just ended, and it's time for Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (or Rawwk Kawwn-saht as he pronounced it.) I'm a real-life character out of the movie "Dazed and Confused" with musical tastes beginning and ending with Kiss. My best bud Kevin and I stayed up to watch SNL 'cuz in those days you didn't dare show your face at school on Monday morning if you weren't up on all the "new" skits.

Ol' Don introduces some Canadian band called "Rush." "Hey," I think to myself, "I live 5 minutes from the Canadian border. Maybe these guys are cool and when I get older I'll go see them."

Rush comes onstage and plays 3 songs from their new album, "A Farewell to Kings," with the title track followed by "Closer to the Heart" and "Xanadu." And my little 13-year-old world changed forever. It wasn't the effects of ditchweed on my feeble little mind either. This music showed me possibilities that I didn't even know existed, but instantly knew I'd wanted all along. The fact that only three guys could produce such a vast array of sounds blew my mind. The fact that rock music could be entertaining and artistic at the same time shaped my musical view to this day.

The next morning I threw away my Kiss records and went off to the mall to buy this album and then-new "Going for the One" by Yes, who I had also heard described as "progressive." They were the first two "adult" albums I ever bought. I began expanding my electric guitar skills (goodbye Tony Iommi riffs!) and learned to finger-pick acoustic guitar like Lifeson and Howe. I taught myself organ and piano. I discovered Genesis, ELP, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and many, many more.

With all that personal attachment to this record, I can even overlook the absolute clinker that is "Cinderella Man."(Geez,Even typing that title makes me shudder.) But that's nothing folks, you get the stunningly great title track (one of my all-time favorite prog songs) plus the amazing epics "Cygnus X-1)" and "Xanadu." And, classic-rock overkill aside, "Closer to the Heart" is one of the best prog singles ever with a truly great guitar solo. For prog fans, it rarely gets better than this.

The greatest export from our Northern neighbors since Molson Canadian-the best beer ever, baby!!!

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