The average Rock Insights reader probably isn't qualified to perform brain surgery, teach rocket science or pitch in the post season, but we're pretty confident they could come up with a more deserving list of Rock Hall Of Fame inductees than the Hall has been able to produce over the last several years. Last month, the Cleveland museum continued its streak of overlooking far more qualified candidates when it put Neil Diamond, Donna Summer, the Beastie Boys and several other marginally justifiable nominees on the ballot and left Rush off the list of nominees again. What makes this all the more pathetic is that VH1, an entity that generally deserves and gets even less respect from Rock fans than the Hall does, actually stepped up and honored the Canadian trio with the release of a DVD documenting the making of the albums 2112 and Moving Pictures.
Rush was hardly a favorite of its own record company in the mid 70's. Relegated to roles as the opening or middle act on a number of small and mid-size arena tours, the group had yet to deliver an album that Mercury Records felt made good on the potential they had been signed for. The band's attitude about the pressure to expand its commercial appeal plays a role in the development of 2112 that is captured well in this DVD. The release, the groups 4th, would go on to earn Rush its first Gold Record. Its success set the stage for A Farewell to Kings (1977), Hemispheres (1978) and Permanent Waves (1980). All were good, but in 1981 Rush came out with the album a lot of Rush fans consider as good as 2112. On the commercial success level, Moving Pictures dwarfed what 2112 had accomplished, elevating Rush into the ranks of the most played artists on Rock radio and making the group one of the top drawing Rock acts for much of the decade.
Observing how Rush went about the creative process of putting together these two career defining albums will be great for the hard-core Rush fan and prove to be more than interesting enough to hold the attention of the casual fan. It should also be mandatory viewing for whoever is behind the Rock Hall Of Fame nominating process - if they can extract their head from where it seems to be lodged long enough to watch it.
