Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Rush: Chemistry Review

Mon, Mar 13, 2006@11:19AM | comments removed/disabled

[Review - Rush: Chemistry]

I found this nice little review of Rush: Chemistry in Mote Magazine Online.

Jon Collins does a great job of binding the 30 year history of the band Rush into a compelling 200 page biography. The book feels like you're inside the studios and arenas and tour busses with bass playing vocalist Geddy Lee, guitar player Alex Lifeson and drummer / lyricist Neil Peart. There's an epic filmic quality to the book, thanks to Collins relying largely on quotes from the musicians and dozens of producers, engineers, and other musicians. The timelines for each album are unravelled and examined with great attention to detail: how the songs get created, how tensions in the band get resolved, and other interesting approaches to the life and art of these three boys from the suburbs of Toronto. ...

If you haven't read this book yet I suggest you do so. I just finished it myself a couple weeks ago and loved it. For a summary of reader feedback from Amazon and the Counterparts messageboard, check out this post. There's also this entry on the author's blog which details the typos, editing errors and factual inaccuracies that have been found in the book so far.

The few common criticisms that have cropped up so far are the placement of footnotes at the end of the chapter rather than the bottom of the page; the lack of color photos; and a lack of "new" interviews. I agree with the criticism regarding footnotes; placing them at the end of the chapter was a bad move - I just ended up ignoring them because I didn't want to lose my place. That's about it though. No color pics? Big deal. Just go on the internet if you want color pics; there are so many out there floating around the web that this criticism is unfounded. And as far as no new interviews?? I just didn't see that; there's plenty of new material in my opinion. Besides, the real strength of the book is how expertly Jon compiled all this information and put it all "under one roof"; better than anyone else has to date I might add. Not to mention the fact that Jon is a great writer; the book wasn't just a bunch of facts strewn dryly together - he made it interesting.

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