Chapter 2
By the time 1973 rolled around Rush had five years' experience of playing in bars, high schools and drop-in centres, and managed to win over audiences in each of these performing situations. Ray and his newly acquired partner, Vic Wilson, knew that for the band to continue gaining momentum they would have to record professionally.
However, they were not having much success interesting record companies, and studio time and producers cost money, a commodity neither Rush nor their management had a great deal of. Ray and Vic knew that the only way the band could afford to record would be with an unknown producer in a small studio, overnight when studio time was cheap. Ray thought if he could get the Rush sound down on tape he would have a good chance of landing a contract with a major Canadian label.
Their first professional recording was done at Eastern Sound Studios in Toronto with David Stock producing.
The plan was to come up with a strong single. Taking the advice of record company A&R men, they recorded their first, and to this day only, cover version, a hard rock rendition of the old Buddy Holly classic 'Not Fade Away'. The B-side was a Lee/Rutsey composition entitled 'You Can't Fight It'. 'Not Fade Away' didn't have the edge of many other Rush songs of the period, although it does feature an amusing chipmunk-on-speed vocal performance from Geddy. The B-side showed more of the band as it sounded at the time and through the first album.
Once the single was completed, Ray took it around to just about every record company in Canada. But nobody would listen to it. In the early 70's few Canadian artists got record deals and those that did generally had a softer sound. Labels were looking for artists like Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Anne Murray. A heavy metal trio was about the farthest thing from these artists that could be imagined. The best offer Ray received was from London Records who told him they wouldn't sign the band but that if he formed his own label they would distribute the single. So for the cost of $400 and getting a record company logo made up and registering the company, Rush became a band with a single to their credit.
The disc, featuring a Moon Records label, sold a few copies in Toronto, but received no airplay. Ray and Vic thought the single would pave the way for a major record deal. They were wrong.
To make matters worse, during the summer of that year John was forced to leave the band through illness. He was also starting to question whether a career in rock music was right for him. Alex and Geddy continued playing with a pick-up drummer, but when John began feeling better they asked him to rejoin. He agreed.
With the single bombing and no record company willing to bankroll any recordings, the band hit a roadblock. Rush were doing well in the clubs around Ontario, yet they were strictIy local heroes. Ray and Vic decided they would have to take a big risk. They would put up the cash to record an album and then go out and try to sell it. If the worst came to the worst they would then press it themselves and see if London Records would distribute it as they had done with the single. With the prospect of recording an entire album in front of them, Alex, Geddy and John began to think of ways to improve the songs.
John thought that the lyrics particularly were lacking. "I was going through a real struggle at this time with the band," recalls John. "I said to myself, 'I feel like quitting.' I was just a mixed-up kid and I began writing all sorts of additional lyrics for the songs, because most of the lyrics we had at the time were just whatever rhymed, whatever fitted in, 'cause we never really spent much time at all on the lyrics. So then finally we said, 'We've got to get some decent lyrics. This is silly, just saying whatever pops into your head and then trying to remember it the next night.' So we made a conscious effort and I started writing some lyrics.
"I was really having a hard time with myself and what I wanted to do with the band. I was very mixed up, I'd written a lot of lyrics and then I tore them up and never presented them. So when we went in and did the album all the old lyrics were sung. It's funny, because to this day I still can't remember why I did that. All I can attribute that to was that, at the time, I was just very confused about what I wanted to do. I really regret it because it was an incredibly selfish. stupid thing to do. But when you are young, unfortunately you do things like that. My mood would change from day to day, I had spent a lot of time on them and some of them were decent. Anyway, that's what happened."
Meanwhile, Ray and Vic calculated that the only way Rush could afford to record would be for the band to use the cheapest studio time available, down time, in the middle of the night. So the album would be laid down late in the evening after the group finished playing club dates. shows of up to five sets which could stretch out to one or two in the moming. The band knew that they had no other choice.
Liam Birt who helped move the band's equipment and would later become Rush's stage manager, witnessed the sessions.
"Most of it was playing in a bar from nine at night until one in the morning. pachng up the gear into a van, driving it to the studio where we'd work until the wee hours of the morning. Then pack it up again, go home, get a few hours' sleep, and just keep repeating the process. It was a crazy schedule."
Geddy remembered it as a really hectic period, but since everyone was so excited about being in the studio, they were able to summon up the enthusiasm to continue. On occasions they would go in because they just had enough time to record a guitar part or a vocal. Since John never delivered the lyrics, Geddy had to sit down and write the words he had been making up off the top of his head. When the record was finished everyone gathered round to listen. They were not happy with the results.
"David Stock did a lot of commercial work, a lot of jingles and he really took the edge off the music. We realised we had to get somebody to punch it up," says John.
So Ray and Vic rounded up more money and called Terry Brown. Brown, or Broon, as he is known to his friends and co-workers, owned a competing recording facility, Toronto Sound. An English expatriate, he had worked on recordings by Bill Cosby, Procol Harum, Thundenmug and Everyday People, but had never even heard of Rush until Ray called him up.
Ray, hardly a greybeard himself, explained that he had some kids in the studio who needed help. A meeting was arranged. When Terry got together with the band they hit it off right away and arrangements were made to work on the tapes the following week. Money was so tight that only two days were scheduled to straighten out the album. Two songs were re-recorded, 'Here Again' and 'Need Some Love'. 'Finding My Way' was added in place of the band's failed bid at a commercial single, 'Not Fade Away'. Four other tunes were remixed. The total cost for the sessions was $9000.
The band were impressed with the results of the two extra days of hard work. Ray, with new tapes in hand, began knocking on record company doors once again, this time confident that a company would sign a band with an album already recorded. There was also the added factor of Bachman Turner Overdrive's popularity in the United States and Canada, but despite the success of this Canadian hard rock band, Ray found record companies were not interested in signing another. So Ray was forced to approach London Records about distributing another Moon Records release. This time though, it would not be a single, but an album to be titled simply Rush.
The record kicks off with 'Finding My Way'. A prime example of early seventies hard rock, with prototype Rush guitar and bass attack, it features another highlight in Geddy's screeching, 'Sang some sad songs.'
Next come 'Need Some Love' and 'Take A Friend'. Neither ages well, but whatever the limitations, 'Here Again' which closes the first side, shows the band trying to stretch out a bit. A slower tempo, and an effort to bring the dynamics of the song up, down, and then up again, works. It is a sign of things to come.
Side two opens with 'What You're Doing', a strong all-out rocker. The lyrics sound as if they were written in 15 minutes, but that's part of the fun. It's followed by what became the trio's second Canadian single, 'In The Mood'. When performed as part of the band's encore, it still gets the crowd to its feet. The great hook was a little too rough to become a hit, but with a line like 'Hey baby it's a quarter to eight and I feel I'm in the mood,' how could you go wrong?
'Before And After' is the key song on the album to understanding where Rush would go next. What sounds like an acoustic guitar dominates a long instrumental introduction, before Geddy and Alex have some fine moments playing together. That and the extended introduction show a different side of the band, even if the song is a great Led Zeppelin rip-off.
Finally, the album explores territory to which Rush never really returned, with the only song the band ever recorded which deals with blue collar workers, a subject which dominates the work of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger. When Rush returned to contemporary characters many years later, they wrote about the suburban kids they once were. But no matter what you do for a living, 'Working Man' is a great song to play loud after a bad day at work. It was always popular with audiences and stayed in the live set for many years.
The first album stacks up pretty well for a debut. There are only two duds on the record and even these songs had some merit at the time they were put on tape. The disc still works because it is obvious that it was exciting for Alex, Geddy and John to be making a long-playing record. It has the raw, youthful energy of most good first albums, there are some great guitar solos. and Geddy sings with piercing youthful passion. Control would come but at that time it was good enough to kick out the jams.
Some of their earliest fans still swear by the record and say Rush were never able to muster up the same amount of energy again. But it does have major faults: no developed signature sound, Geddy sounds like Robert Plant, and Alex plays like Jimmy Page. The pair would have to sound like themselves if they were to have a long and successful career.
London Records agreed to distribute the album, and Ray and Vic decided to take another risk. Instead of pressing the minimum amount of copies (1,000) they shelled out money for 3,500 discs, a demonstration of faith that the band would remember for years. With their limited means, the pair were betting on Rush in a major way, but the shoestring budget still showed. There was almost nothing left over to pay for the design of the album cover, so the Rush logo was placed on top of what looked like an explosion. In Canada, the colour of the logo was red.
Before the album hit the stores, the band went on a short jaunt that could be called 'Rush Times Three'. The Ontario area performances featured a triple bill of Rush, Mahogany Rush and Bullrush.
Ray and Vic also booked a co-headlining show featuring the band and the proto-punk/glam rock New York Dolls. Rush went over well with a wasted audience at the October 27 gigs at Toronto's Victory Burlesque Theatre. They literally blew the Dolls off the stage. It was a major confidence builder. For the first time they realised they could hold their own, and then some, playing side-by-side with a name act. The hall held 1,200 people for each show and it was a bittersweet victory for Geddy who felt that playing such a large hall was nerve-racking. He would have to get used to it.
The album was supposed to be released in December, two months after the Victory gig but OPEC intervened. When the oil cartel created the first energy crisis, it also had a side effect on the recording industry since vinyl is a petroleum byproduct. The shortage of oil meant a shortage of vinyl, which in turn meant a delay in the album release date. Eventually it came out in January 1974.
Local radio began to pick up on the record. One local DJ said he decided to play it because he was always seeing ads in the newspaper for Rush shows at local bars. To the band it was something else. Geddy said he will never forget hearing himself on the radio for the first time. "It really freaked me out when DJ David Marsden played 'Finding My Way' on CHUM-FM."
Marsden got an unusual phone call that day. "My request lines were ringing and I believe in talking to the people, so I picked up the phone with Rush playing and the voice said, 'David, how are you doing? It's Alex calling.' My reply, 'Okay Alex, what do you want to hear?' and Alex said, 'No, I just wanted to thank you for playing our record. It's the very first time I've heard it on the radio.'"
CHUM-FM continued to play the disc. It also got air time in Montreal, but that was about it for radio. Still, to Alex, Geddy and John, just having a record released was a thrill.
"At the time we were one of the few Toronto bands to have an album out," says Geddy. "It was a big step for us. We moved up the ladder a few notches. Our shows began to contain almost all original material. We played bigger halls and clubs, and sales were respectable in Toronto. It (the album) still has some sort of appeal in a raw sense."
Bolstered by the release of the album and the results of the gig with The New York Dolls, Ray and Vic began going after bigger shows. But it wasn't until a month after the Canadian release of 'Rush' that the group's future would open wide.
The road to success for Canadian bands in the early seventies was either to build up a loyal audience in the Great White North, and thereby attract attention in the States, or to move to the US and be marketed as an American act. Ray had other ideas.
"Canadian managers would send their acts 1,400 miles to Winnipeg," says Ray "not even considering that New York City was only 500 miles away. My theory was the reverse, why go 1,400 miles to Winnipeg when you could play in Cleveland or Detroit which were just a few hours drive from Toronto."
The first gig Ray was able to get in the States for the band was a non-event pop festival in East Lansing, Michigan during the early spring. This outdoor festival was not Woodstock. Only 1,300 people showed up on a rainy day at the concert site... a drive-in movie theatre. The audience was not familiar with the band's material and they received an indifferent reception.
With their first battle for recognition in the States a draw at best, Danniels was eager for another engagement. A favour from a friend and a pair of receptive ears would give him a triumph.
Donna Halper was Programme Director at WMMS in Cleveland, Ohio. She often listened to Canadian music and was always looking for a new sound to give her station the edge in the rating wars.
"Bob Roper, who was an A&M of Canada representative sent me this record by a group that I had never heard of. It wasn't an A&M record, so this aroused my curiosity. I picked it up, and it had a really ugly cover, and without knowing a thing about the band, I dropped the needle down on the longest cut ('Working Man') and I knew immediately that it was a Cleveland record."
Cleveland, a working class city has always been a stronghold for hard rock bands. Halper told one of her DJs to play the song that night on his show to see how it went over.
Denny Sanders found that 'Working Man' stirred quite a reaction from the blue collar audience. Many of the callers thought the song was from a new Led Zeppelin album. "They were asking about where they could get the record, and of course they couldn't - there was only one copy," Halper says. Halper phoned Ray and Vic the next day. They worked out an arrangement to have a box of Rush records sent south to Cleveland. The albums were placed in a local 'Record Revolution' store. The box sold out in a few days and it became a big deal to own a copy of the album. Ray and Vic immediately went to Jem record importers to keep the Cleveland area supplied with Rush albums. The first few shipments sold out. But this wasn't enough for the pair: Rush were selling in the United States, and they wanted another show.
"It was very important for me to get the band there," said Ray. "I felt they could do well live. So I pulled a few strings and got a date opening for ZZ Top at a 3,000 seat theatre."
The show was scheduled for June 23. Also on the bill was an obscure Hungarian band, Locomotive G-T. Halper was there to greet Rush.
"They were all nervous when they came down," she says. "They had been playing in small places and all of a sudden they were about to play to a few thousand people. For the show I stood at the back of the hall, and Vic Wilson came up and said, 'Believe me Donna, we won't let you down.' And they didn't. They put on a really good show. Even then they had the beginnings of real professionalism. It was obvious to see. It was also nice to see people in the audience knew their songs. I can't lie and say everyone was immediately won over by Rush, they weren't, but even then there was an actual hard core. Fans would shout out song titles."
Alex remembered the band getting an even better reception than Halper did. If his memory is a little rosy, it's understandable.
"I remember flying down and being all excited about it. The show went off great. We'd been getting a lot of airplay down there and we were extremely nervous. We heard we were doing well, but we had absolutely nothing to gauge it against. We opened with 'Finding My Way' and the crowd went crazy. They obviously knew the material. We got an encore, and before we could go back up for a second encore, somebody ordered the lights turned up."
The radio airplay and word of mouth about the Cleveland show began to stir interest among US record companies. Rush were close to signing a deal with Casablanca Records. By this time the debut album had sold about 5,000 copies. 3000 were bought in Canada, the rest were sold in the States.
US booking agency American Talent International began talking to Ray and Vic about scheduling live shows. The pair also got Ira Blacker of A.T.I. to help them negotiate a record deal. After Blacker left A.T.I. he became Rush's American co-manager, a relationship that ended in a dispute eventually settled out of court, which cost Rush $250,000.
Cliff Burnstein worked in the national album promotion department at Mercury Records. "It was a Tuesday morning just like any other," says Cliff. "When Robin McBride's (head of A&R and responsible for signing acts) secretary came into my office and said, 'I've got this record for you to listen to by a Canadian band called... Rush.' I said, 'You mean Mahogany Rush, don't you?' she said, 'No, just Rush. Robin said it was important that you listen to it'."
Accompanying the album was a letter from Ira Blacker. Burnstein put on the record and began listening. 'I was immediately blown away with Finding My Way'. The letter from Blacker stated that WMMS in Cleveland was playing the album. So I called up Donna Halper, having heard side one. Donna said, 'We are playing the record and it's getting a great response 'Working Man' is the song.' I told her I hadn't heard it yet... she said, 'Wait until you hear it.' I hung up the phone, put it on and sure enough it was a motherfucker."
Burnstein knew the band should be signed. With word spreading about the trio, he did not want Mercury to lose Rush. So that very day the deal went down. Burnstein, Mercury President Irwin Steinberg and Blacker negotiated their terms via a telephone conference call. The advance was $50,000 plus $25,000 towards future recording costs.
A.T.I. and Mercury then arranged for a five-month tour that would begin on August 14. The record was set to be rush-released so it would hit the stores exactly two weeks before the tour, a mere three weeks from the signing date of the contract. There was just a few cosmetic differences from the original Moon Records' release. Basically, the label name, several acknowledgements and the colour of the band's logo on the front cover were changed. The Moon cover was red but it must have hurt someone at Mercury's head, and was changed to pink. An ugly cover gets uglier.