Rush's Summertime Blues
Posted by Stuart at 12:22 PM on June 23, 2004I have a confession to make: I used to be a die-hard Rush fan. No, not Rush Limbaugh, for crying out loud. I'm talking about Rush the band, as in Geddy, Alex, and Neil. I owned all of their 20 or so CDs and used to love to listen and study the complexity of their music and lyrics.
But I haven't been following them much since Presto. Perhaps it's just a function of the people I spend time with. I can't imagine any of my friends actually listening to Rush for any extended period of time.
Anyway, the point of this post is to say that I just listened to a one-minute clip of thier upcoming song Summertime Blues. That's right, Rush is doing a cover. In fact, their next CD will be entirely made of cover songs. I read somewhere today that they wanted to release an album to celebrate their 30th anniversary by recording some of the songs that they were listening to when they started.
So, the first release (single?) is Summertime Blues. Can you imagine Geddy screeching "There ain't no cure for the summertime blues!" Check out Rush Radio on the official band website to have a listen. I did and I thought it was great. It sounds a lot like "old school Rush". And by "old school" I mean really old 1970s Working Man Rush. Fantastic! I even tried to buy it on iTunes, but it didn't work. Maybe because I am in Thailand?
I'm tempted to pre-order the album on Amazon....
By the by, after reading your blog, I jumped onto Kazaa and tracked down the full version of the song. If you have an e-mail address large enough to receive a 3.7 mb mp3 file, I'd be happy to send it over.
Once a Rush fan...always a Rush fan! :)
Haha. Jimmy, I of course was thinking of you when I wrote this post, seeing as how you were the one who corrupted me back in... oh... 87 or so?
I think it was '99 when i was living in Bkk and listening to Strange Brew, a radio show on one of the FM stations that ran Saturdays at 11 pm. It was one of the only programs that played decent music at the time. There was a contest - i can't remember the question - but it was to do with Rush. I called in an won the Retrospective I CD - one of the only things i have EVER won. Was i happy to answer a question about Rush in Thailand of all places! Summertime Blues is fantastic, Rush still moves me. Cheers all!
My lord! And here I thought I was the only Rush fan in Thailand. I've listened to them through Test for Echo, but can't seem to warm up to their most recent album Vapour Trails. Am looking forward to an album of covers though.