Acclaimed Marillion biographer Jon Collins draws on hundreds of hours of new interviews to tell the full in-depth story of the enduring Canadian trio who refused to compromise their music and avoided the typical rock and roll lifestyle. From early days in Canada to platinum albums, stadium shows, and the world’s stage, taking in tragedy, triumphs, and a wealth of great music, this is the meticulous and definitive study of one of rock’s great enigmas. From early triumphs such as the classic concept album 2112, on to their first hit single “Spirit of Radio” and beyond to Moving Pictures, “Tom Sawyer,” and more pop-oriented 1990s material, Rush have continued to make groundbreaking and original music that has sold in the millions.
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About the Author
Jon Collins is the acclaimed writer of the Marillion biography 'Separated Out'.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
67 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Seems to me it lacks "Chemistry",
This review is from: Rush: Chemistry: The Definitive Biography (Hardcover)
First off, this book is truly the book that I have been wanting--a full-blown, in-depth treatment of the band, the band members, and the music itself. It answered many of my fanboy questions ("Who did the rap on 'Roll The Bones'?"), offered bits of trivia (such as the unlikely genesis of the names "By-Tor" and "Snow Dog"), and dispelled many of the urban legends that I had heard over the years (e.g., Neil Peart wore bandanas on stage because he had cancer). I especially marvelled at the discussion of Alex Lifeson's "troubled" years (my characterization), where he struggled to reconcile the increasingly synthesized sound of Rush with his needs (and insecurities) as a guitarist. I came away loving the band and appreciating the talents of its members more than ever, even to the point of bringing new ears to some older tracks that I hadn't bothered with in fifteen years or more.
All this being said, I second the gripes made by other reviewers that the production quality of the physical book is subpar. I didn't mind the quirky "Rush For Dummies" layout--to me, it was reminiscent of the graphical, reader-friendly approach of high school textbooks (a play on the book's title, "Chemistry"). But the numerous usage errors (comma splices in particular), the lack of any meaningful index, and the consistently awkward sentence composition led me to wonder whether the book's manuscript had ever crossed the desk of a skilled professional editor. Taken in conjunction with the grainy and inconsequential photographs, the hard-to-read sans serif body text, and other layout peculiarities (what's with the parentheses around the page numbers?), I felt as if the book had been thrown together on someone's home computer using off-the-shelf publishing software better suited for creating bake sale flyers. Indeed, the whole enterprise (with the notable exception of Hugh Syme's dust jacket design) has the feel of a self-published vanity press item--a testament to a fan's devotion that was meant to be sent to close friends and family members for the holidays or stocked only in the author's hometown bookstore. Granted, my grousing about the production values of the physical book may seem petulent and irrelevent. After all, it's not what the book looks like; it's what the book says that's important, right? Well, yes and no. As I noted above, this book has most (if not all) of what I am looking for in a Rush biography. And, unlike other reviewers, I have little trouble with the author's total reliance on archival interviews given by the bandmembers over the years in place of face-to-face interviews. Indeed, interviews given contemporaneously with the events that they are memorializing arguably have greater accuracy (and are less prone to revision) than later reflections. But we Rush fans are a possessive lot. Many of us have spent decades in the proverbial wilderness, obsessing to some degree over a band that neither our peers nor mainstream radio ever "got." Such alienation breeds fierce loyalty. A perusal of Rush fansites and forums confirms that hardcore Rush fans truly feel vested in both the music and its performers. Indeed, Rush fans tend to take ownership in all things even tangentially Rush-related--and especially all things that purport to chronicle Rush for the ages. As a fan, I want such a chronicle to be both worthy of Rush (as I perceive that worth to be measured) and a tribute to the precision of the music and its artists. What I want, ultimately, is care. And, at least on a visceral level, much in this book seems careless, almost amateurish. A band as accomplished as Rush deserves (at least in my mind) a treatment befitting any of the first- or second-tier supergroups of the rock and roll era. And thus the paradox: The treatment that I would want for Rush may well require the resources and professionality of a large publishing house--the same type of cultural regurgitator that the members of Rush have battled from Day One. Perhaps I had hopes that this book would be a map out of the wilderness, treating its subjects with the same seriousness and technical meticulouness with which professional biographers and editors would treat mainstream "cool" bands. In the end, however, this book remains essentially a fan's scrapbook: lovingly researched, idiosyncratically composed, and crudely executed.
53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
RUSH FOR DUMMIES,
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This review is from: Rush: Chemistry: The Definitive Biography (Hardcover)
"Acclaimed Marillion biographer" That's your first clue.
If you look closely you won't find any reference to interviews with the members of Rush anywhere. That's because there aren't any. Only quotes from old interviews. If you want tidbids from past tour caterer's this is the book for you. The other annoying thing about this book is on every page there are little cartoon like blurbs with tiny little bits of information. It's the exact same format as the "Windows or any other book for Dummies". If you look hard enough, you might find some pictures to look at as well. The book lacks any decent photography. Nothing in color and some good pictures of buildings where Rush once had been. The other non clear pictures are all pictures you've seen before. The book was well researched but for a definitive biography that doesn't include Rush isn't all that definitive. I suggest buying "Contents Under Pressure" At least it's authorized by the band.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Wasted opportunity,
This review is from: Rush: Chemistry: The Definitive Biography (Hardcover)
As a potted history, `Chemistry' succeeds in some way if only due to the sheer volume of anecdote and low budget newsprint style photo's and clippings. Yet, it's hard to see how Rupert Hines' cooking analogy for making music adds any meaningful insight into the collected psyche of Lee, Lifeson and Peart. The book is littered with this and many more pointless snippets such as how Peter Henderson who co-produced ` Grace Under Pressure' got his nickname to Geoff Barton's rather forgetful encounter with Neil Pearts drum kit.
The entire book reads like an extended magazine piece, which makes it a tiring and frustrating experience. The band members youth are recalled in a conversational style with little concern for punctuation; "The lessons Neil found a bit of a distraction, apart from English that is." You understand what's being said but the thought of wading through another 180+ pages of it becomes a daunting prospect. Any critique of the band's music is handled with balance but again the writing lets it down: (on `Hold Your Fire') "There are also opportunities to be technical -Geddy's busy bass on `Turn The Page', for example, supporting a cacophonic layering of guitars that somehow works." Incisive music criticism it is not. Two thirds of the way in and the remainder of the book is devoted to a list of (so-called) `collaborators' in the Rush success story. From producers to agents to projectionists to...Alex Lifeson (?!), no stone is left unturned in the teeth-grinding trudge through bio-hell. A workaday discography is included but with no mention of unofficial live recordings, unreleased tracks or even Rush songs recorded by other artists, this pointless addendum only adds to the overall feeling that this book is a missed opportunity. Hardcore fans could've enjoyed some of the previously unseen photos scattered throughout had the quality not been so poor. One wonders why they weren't placed as a central insert on higher grade paper as is the tradition with most biographies. All in all, a somewhat scrappy publication that shed's little light on the inner workings of Rush and after sharing an eventful 30+ year recording history together, both fans and band deserve much better than this.
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