By Steve Newton
The Pete Best of Canada finally gets his due.
John Rutsey, the drummer who played on the very first Rush album before being replaced by Neil Peart, will get some of the credit he deserves with today’s (April 29) release of the Rush ReDISCovered LP boxed set.
If you don’t understand how important Rutsey was to the original version of Rush, just try imagining what “In the Mood” would sound like without his trusty cowbell.
I seem to recall that Rutsey also did a pretty good Keith Moon impersonation on the track “Need Some Love”. His cymbal crashes near the start of “Finding My Way” have also stuck with me over the years.
That debut album had to be one of the finest rock albums of the Year of Our Lord, 1974. It remains one of my fave Rush albums ever, and there’s been a few.
As well as a vinyl version of the 1974 Rush album, the set includes numerous other goodies that the hardcore Rush freak’s gonna love. Take it away, Rush marketing team:
This release features their debut vinyl album re-mastered with impeccable care at Abbey Road studios by Sean Magee, who has been previously responsible for all recent Beatles vinyl re-masters.
The Re-discovered vinyl is encased in a 12″ x 12″ high quality box. Pressed on audiophile 200 gram vinyl on the Direct Metal Mastering process, this is the highest quality vinyl currently available. This release contains a re-production of the original 1974 Canadian retail poster (only 500 were ever originally printed) and individual Moon Records publicity photos of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson & original drummer John Rutsey.
This release also contains a first time ever Rush Family Tree, tracing origins of the band dating back to 1965 and a memorabilia collage of early Canadian and US gig ads, reviews, photos and the first ever Rush bio.
Can hardly wait for mine to arrive! If you bought the original, back in the day, please take the survey at RushFanStories.com.
And especially if you’re the newt that wrote this post!
I love Rush, but, aw man, how long’s the survey gonna take?
It is approximately 40 questions and some people take an hour to complete it, but a lot of it is multiple choice or optional. Do as little or as much as you like. Use the email link if you’d rather have the questions that way (you’d still have to plug the answers into the survey, though).