The National Midnight Star #163

Errors-To: rush-request@syrinx.umd.edu Reply-To: rush@syrinx.umd.edu Sender: rush@syrinx.umd.edu Precedence: bulk From: rush@syrinx.umd.edu To: rush_mailing_list@syrinx.umd.edu Subject: 01/31/91 - The National Midnight Star #163
** ____ __ ___ ____ ___ ___ ** ** / /_/ /_ /\ / /__/ / / / / /\ / /__/ / ** ** / / / /__ / \/ / / / / /__/ / \/ / / /___ ** ** ** ** __ ___ ____ ** ** /\ /\ / / \ /\ / / / _ /__/ / ** ** / \/ \ / /___/ / \/ / /___/ / / / ** ** ** ** ____ ____ ___ ___ ** ** /__ / /__/ /__/ ** ** ____/ / / / / \ ** The National Midnight Star, Number 163 Thursday, 31 January 1991 Today's Topics: Voivod [closing remark] Odd Time Sig Rush's name. Rush Related material Name Origin The Meaning of Rush bruford + peart = wish Twilight Zone... Origins of the name "Rush" Blank spot on Chronicles Rush news... Song Bits, Drugs, and Those Letters... (none) ---------------------------------------------------------- From: Editor, National Midnight Star <rush-mgr@syrinx.umd.edu> Subject: Administrative note Just a quickie: read all the messages on the selection of the name "Rush" before you decide on the 'real' answer. In the following posts, it's attributed to a brother of Geddy, Alex, and John R.! The correct answer should become apparent. For those trying to ftp stuff from Syrinx, remember to use *all lower case* for the userid "anonymous", password, and commands. Pay attention to what case filenames are in - "CONTENTS" and "contents" are two different animals as far as Unix is concerned. L8ter rush-mgr ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 08:43:50 MST From: fpeabody@isis.cs.du.edu (Fred Peabody) Subject: Voivod [closing remark] As I was saying in my ealier post [before I lost connection], Voivod's guitarist is a big [this is where my message was rudely truncated] [ [FP] [ It happened again. What you see above is the full content of the item. It's getting kind of amusing, actually... :-) :rush-mgr ] ---------------------------------------------------------- From: ez003211@deneb.ucdavis.edu (Tone_Deaf_Drummer@Garage.home.mus) Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 09:32:19 -0800 Subject: Odd Time Sig Is it my imagination or does "SuperConductor" (Presto) wander through various time signatures other than 7 and 4 (especially the second time the song goes into 7). It sounds like even some of the fills are odd time. Hi Craig! ******* Yoav Gershon *************** * UNIX: ygershon@ucdavis.edu * * ez003211@deneb.ucdavis.edu * ************************************ ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 13:02 EST From: Chris Bhagwan Fuzzy Normandeau <N200280@pavo.concordia.ca> Subject: Rush's name. I am not about to speculate about the name but I will merely quote what I saw in their biography VISIONS. When asked, by the B-Man, about the name, the guys said that they were racking their brains and came up with a few bad ideas. Then the brother of one of the guys (Alex, I believe) suggested "What about Rush?!". They liked it and took it. Now as for where Alex's brother got the name from and why, I don't know. And I don't really care. There was no indication as to the nature of the name of whether the guys knew why he said it. Anyways, that's my two cents. I choose to believe what the book says. Hey, it's my FREEWILL! Sorry, had to... Chris Normandeau ORQ: "Bonjour! Comment ca va? East tu pres? Are you ready?!!!" Montreal, Quebec, Canada concert 1990 P.S. Whoops! that East in the ORQ should be Est. ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 13:10 EST From: FORCE <THOMPS00%SNYBUFVA.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu> Subject: Rush Related material Hello to all First, about who is whispering with Geddy on "Twlight Zone", I think that it's Geddy's voice oversampled, but I really don't know. Second: Mitch: I have the _Signals_ CD, and I don't notice any blank spot in the fist few seconds of "New World Man" [ I think he meant the Chronicles video. :rush-mgr ] Later Force Ten ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 13:23:31 EST From: S. A. Rasche <scrs_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu> Subject: Name Origin Has anyone else read RUSH's biography 'Visions?' In it it states where they came up with their name. Basically (it states) 'The band was excited, but they had a big problem.' They were looking for a name but none of them could think of one. 'So a few days before the gig they sat around in John's (the first drummer) basement ... and then John's older brother Bill piped up, "Why don't you call the band RUSH?" ... and RUSH it was.' Is there much validity in this story as compared with the stories of getting their name from the rush that drugs or anything else may give? I personally find this biography rather biased and I find it hard to believe everything that Bill Banasiewicz (the author) says. <Any comments?> Shorts scrs_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu --tip your bartenders - tip your friends-- ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 13:31:52 EST From: Arsenio R SantosJr <ars1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu> Subject: The Meaning of Rush Well, in a quote from the book "Visions", Ged attributes the band's name with his brother saying "Why don't you guys just call yourselves Rush?" I think they were rushing around before their first gig without a name, or something to that effect. Just thought I'd chuck my two-pence in. -Sinn Santos ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 14:08 EST From: <STU_SMMC%JMUVAX1.BITNET@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU> Subject: bruford + peart = wish About the origin of the name: I'd always assumed that Rush had named themselves after the drug Rush. I took their "forgetting" the origin as a sort of circumstantial evidence, but I have/had absolutely nothing to base this on. I typed that wrong. Not the drug Rush, but the rush achieved from use. Anyway.... Some of you might find this interesting. Recently on the relatively new Yes list, a favorite "other group" poll was taken. Rush was far and away the favorite "other group". Not that I want to do a poll, but what do people think of Yes? I see them as slightly more music oriented than lyric oriented, like Rush. They also rely a little more on keyboards since they have had Rick Wakeman and other incredible keyboardists. I tend to think of Rush as creating a song and Yes as composing it. What do you all think? ( I have seen a lot of critics who claim that Rush copied Yes, but I don't particularly agree with that) Scott McD. ORQ: "aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" from Overture. "And the man in the mirror has sad eyes." - Marillion ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 09:43:16 hst From: Hinano Akaka <bigtuna!hinano@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> Subject: Twilight Zone... Good day! Someone brought up that whispering voice in "The Twilight Zone". My assumption is that it's Alex. It kind-of "sounds" like him -- can't really say why. The question actually reminded me of something that happened a few years ago regarding 'the whispering'. Has anyone ever been scared out of their wits by a Rush song? Could I be the first? (Yet another story...) Here goes: I was in my room one night listening to 2112, and decided to experiment with quadrophonic sound, so I set up my speakers in all corners of the room. Now, I had listened to 2112 a hundred million times before and knew every sound, or so I thought. As it so happens, we have a ghost in our house (honest! I've seen him!). Now although this ghost (and a smaller one) have been with us since the house was first built almost 30 years ago (we're the original owners) one might think I'd be used to ghosts. Nope. I'm terrified of ghosts, even though this one doesn't do anything but hang around. It's eerie... [ Cool, can I come visit sometime? I'd love to meet a ghost! :rush-mgr ] Anyway, I'm in my room, the sounds of 2112 emanting from the speakers, and "The Twilight Zone" kicks in. As I cleaned my room, the second chorus came around, and I thought I heard a voice whispering. I froze. What the h*ll is that? I stopped the tape and just stood there listening. Silence. I played the tape. There was that whispering again. I stopped the tape again. Silence. O.k., what the h*ll is going on. My first reaction was that the ghost was doing something (he's made noise before) and I started freaking out. I rewound the tape and played it again. There's that whispering. I listened closely, half-expecting to turn around and see some white shadowy figure come looming up behind me. I couldn't hear what the whispering was, though. Rewinding the tape once again, I put my ear to the speaker and listened. And I realized it was Alex whispering behind Geddy. I almost had a fit. "Jesus Christ, you guys!!!! You just scared the sh*t out of me, for crying out loud!!!" I felt like such a fool...I had never heard Alex (or so I assume it's Alex) whispering the last chorus before. "Don't DO that!!" Never again... ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 13:37:05 PST From: ronz@imager3.llnl.gov (Ron Zasadzinski) Subject: Origins of the name "Rush" I thought I remembered reading some "offical" story of where the name "Rush" came from. I opened my copy of _Visions_ (subtitled "the official biography" of Rush, written by none other than "The B-Man" Bill Banasiewicz) to chapter 1, and this is what I found. (This certainly doesn't put and end to possible speculation, but it does help a little.) Paraphrased Background: In August of 1968 the band's formal lineup was Alex on guitar, John Rutsey on drums, and Jeff Jones on bass and vocals. They got a job to play at the "Coff-In", a coffee house in the basement of an Anglican Church [Great name, eh?] for $25/night. " The band was excited, but they had a big problem. While they had been dreaming of playing, they had neglected to come up with a name for their group. So a few days before the gig they sat around in John's basement trying to come up with an appropriate monicker. They weren't having much luck when John's older brother Bill piped up, 'Why don't you call the band Rush' and Rush it was." Perhaps the most interesting thing about that info is that the first incarnation of Rush didn't include Geddy, and that the only current member of Rush with the 'original' group is Alex. That really isn't too significant as that incarnation of Rush only lasted a week (but it was the incarnation which chose the name Rush). The chapter explains: "At around 5pm, just a few hours before they were due to perform [their second gig], Jeff called and cancelled because he wanted to go to a party." So Alex called Geddy and Geddy said he'd play with them. "Geddy's dubut with Rush in September 1968 was solid.... After the show the trio split the $25 and went out to eat. At the restaurant they decided Geddy was in and Jeff was out." On the subject of the Rush lineup, I'd note further that in Dec. 1968 Lindy Young joined the band to play keyboards and sing vocals. The 4-man Rush lasted until May of 1969 when Geddy was kicked out. Joe Perna came in to play bass and sing vocals and the name of the band was changed to Hadrian. Hadrian was history by the end of the summer, as was Judd, the band that Geddy joined. Finally in Sep. 1969 Rush was reformed with John, Alex and Geddy. The band remained in that configuration until July 1974, two weeks before their debut U.S. tour when John left the band and Neil Peart was selected to take John's place. One more note on the origin of the name "Rush". Keep in mind that when the name was chosen, Geddy had just turned 15 and Alex was probably still 14 (but just barely). Based on their ages I would be reluctant to attribute deep intellectual meaning to their selection of "Rush". -Ron "Whoa, babe, I said I'm comin' to get you, mama." -ORQ (from "Finding My Way", _RUSH_). ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 11:55:08 -0500 From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson%ncratl.atlantaga.ncr.com@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: Blank spot on Chronicles Someone in the last issue said they had a blank spot at the beginning of New World Man on their Chronicles tape. I have the same blank spot. "I think I'm going bald!" G. Lee & Me -- jwilson@ncratl.AtlantaGA.NCR.COM (Jeff Wilson) "Hey cool! I'm dead!" - Bart Simpson ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 18:47:51 -0800 From: Ted Ives <tedi@apple.com> Subject: Rush news... Hi folks, I haven't been keeping up with the NMS lately but I thought I would pass along some interesting news I just heard from a friend. He just spoke with Andrew Mcnaughton, who says Rush just completed the last of 7 songs for the new album. They are scheduled to go into the studio at the end of next month (Feb). He expects the new album to come out towards the end of 1991. [ Hmm, only 7 songs? Great, we may get a long one again! Maybe an instrumental?? :rush-mgr ] What a letdown. Apparently, those rumors of a Feb. release were totally false. Also, he recently spoke with the B-man, who is working on a second Rush book, due out somewhere around September. He is attempting to write a clearer, more chronological history of the band. His last book, "Visions", had loads of interesting material but lacked structure. Well, I'll keep it short this time. By the way, my USmail address has changed, so those of you who have cooresponded with me in the past can Email me a note and I'll get you up to date. take care, - Chris Michael ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 13:56:07 EST From: vanth!jms@amix.commodore.com (Jim Shaffer) Subject: Song Bits, Drugs, and Those Letters... >Date: Mon, 28 Jan 91 20:31:33 EST >From: mailrus!iuvax!Today's.Tom.Sawyer@uunet.UU.NET, >Subject: King Biscuit. > > Hello everybody. I found out that the other song on the King Biscuit >was "Witch Hunt," thanks to someone's signature file. I'm still looking for >the other song the band plays with "Finding My Way." I've never heard the "King Biscuit" program, but unless my memory is wrong I've heard them play bits of "In The End" with "Finding My Way". I don't remember what concert it's in, though. I've seen it on video -- was it "Exit, Stage Left" maybe? [ They frequently do "In The Mood" after FMW; do you hear "It's a quarter to eight/I feel I'm in the mood" ? :rush-mgr ] ----- >[address accidentally nuked; some big DEC header] >"The meaning of Rush" rumours: I had heard a while ago that Rush got >their name from a drug. Gimme a big break. Well, I'm virtually certain that there's a drug called Rush. I doubt that the band named itself after it, though. ----- >Date: Tue, 29 Jan 91 10:15:10 -0500 >From: Patrick.Quairoli@cyber.widener.edu >Subject: Brought to you by.... > >I remember someone asked about the messages on some of the RUSH albums >that said 'Brought to you by R' or some other letter. Well I've found out >what they mean. Strange as it may sound (oops I'm talking about RUSH; how >strange can it be.) I was baby sitting my nephew who is 16 months old and >we were watching Sesame Street, and at the end of the show they would say >what the premire letters of that show were by saying 'This episode has been >brought to you by the letter W' Believe it or not, I actually remember this from my childhood. The thing I'm interested in is this: Are the letters meant to *mean* anything? (And a big Hi! to all the Twin Peaks fans! <grin>) From the disk of: | jms@vanth.uucp | "Glittering prizes and Jim Shaffer, Jr. | amix.commodore.com!vanth!jms | endless compromises 37 Brook Street | 72750.2335@compuserve.com | shatter the illusion of Montgomery, PA 17752 | (CompuServe as a last resort)| integrity!" (Rush) [ Just a note: your signature file causes the digest "From" bug to act up. Any chance of changing it or modifying it for items here? :rush-mgr ] ----------------------------------------------------------
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