Rush
- The lettering on the cover of Rush was supposed to be red, not pink. Unfortunately, due to a printing screw-up only the original Moon Records editions were red. The lettering has been pink ever since.
- "Not Fade Away" was supposed to be on Rush's debut album, but was replaced by "In The Mood".
Caress Of Steel
- The cover of Caress of Steel was supposed to be silver, not bronze.
A Farewell To Kings
- Around the A Farewell To Kings era, Neil had pet birds that would sing along to "Xanadu".
- Also around the AFTK era, Geddy had cats who would run out of the room if he put a Rush record on: "My cats hate our music. They leave the room as soon as I put on one of our records. One of my cats, Max, if I put Kings on, he sits there until 'Cygnus' comes on. Then he splits."
Archives
- There are two different covers for Archives on vinyl -- one is grey and the other is black. The black cover is much harder to find.
Moving Pictures
- The beginning of "The Camera Eye" was sampled from the beginning of Superman: The Motion Picture.
Signals
- "New World Man" written and recorded in one day.
Grace Under Pressure
- One of the original ideas for the cover of Grace Under Pressure was an image of "someone reaching out from behind barbed wire to clutch a flower".
Test For Echo
- Neil recorded all of the drum tracks for Test For Echo in three days.
- Although "Test For Echo" was the first single off of the album of the same name, "Half The World" was the first single off the album to have a video.
Different Stages
- "The Spirit Of Radio" was the first single off of Different Stages, but "Closer To The Heart" was the first single off the album to have a video.
- The "Spirit Of Radio" single had a b-side of "2112" in its entirety.
- Different Stages was on the Billboard charts for six weeks, from November 28, 1998 to January 2, 1999. Its position was: #35, #97, #142, #170, #190, and #200.
- "The Spirit Of Radio" was on the Mainstream Rock Charts for at least seven weeks, coming in at: #36, #33, #27, #34, #28, #28 and #28.
- The RIAA certified Different Stages as gold on December 9, 1998, which put Rush in fourth place for the most gold albums, with 22, behind The Beatles (38), The Rolling Stones (37), and KISS (23). This means that ALL of Rush's albums, minus the Retrospectives, have gone gold.
- It was rumoured that there would be a limited edition vinyl version of DS, however this did not occur, as the album would take up approximately 5 LPs.
- The November/December '98 issue of Car Stereo Review gave DS a 9 out of 10 rating; the December '98 issue of Guitar World gave it a 7/10 rating.
- Kerrang gave DS a 4/5 rating, saying it was a "fine addition to the Rush legend".
- Metal Hammer gave DS a 10/10 rating, saying it should be "handed out in schools all over the country, it's that bloody good!"
- An image of the early test pressing of Different Stages is available here.
Victor
- Victor is currently out of print.
- Alex's younger son, Adrian, wrote the music for the songs "At The End" and "The Big Dance" on Victor with his father, and also did the programming on both tracks.
- Alex's wife, Charlene, provides a speaking vocal on Victor's "Shut Up Shuttin' Up".
My Favourite Headache
- My Favourite Headache is spelled with a U in 'Favourite" on the Canadian editions, but does not have the U on any other edition.
Miscellaneous
- Rush was once fired from a local club gig because the band's playing was so loud the barmaids couldn't hear the beer orders.
- Although Alex started playing guitar at age 12, he refused to take guitar lessons until he was about 17, "because I thought it was all 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' stuff".
- On some tours, the band and crew would play late-night ice hockey games or go mini-cart racing after each show.
- Dean Haglund, who plays the character Langly on The X-Files, looks like Geddy and has the same birthday (July 29). Haglund is also very aware of the fact that he looks like Geddy, because people tell him that at X-Files conventions!
- Geddy's brother, Allan Weinrib, looks a lot like him and works for Revolver Films, which also employs Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughtan. Allan produced the videos for Stick It Out, Nobody's Hero, Half The World and Driven.
- Alex's eldest son, Justin, works as a bartender at The Orbit Room and is also a photographer. He did some of the photography in the Test For Echo tour book, and in 1998 he won a Juno Award (with John Rummen, Crystal Heald, Stephen Chung and Andrew MacNaughtan) for Best Album Design for Tom Cochrane's Songs Of A Circling Spirit.
- Alex and his family moved from his birth place of Fernie, British Columbia to Toronto when he was two years old.
- Alex's mother sang to her kids all the time.
- Ray Danniels has been Rush's manager since 1969, about six months after the band formed.
- The members of Rush have been 'wine geeks' since the 80s.
- Geddy's favourite album by anybody is Relayer by Yes, and his favourite live album by anybody is The Who Live At Leeds by The Who
- Geddy's nephew, Rob Higgins, is the former bassist for Change Of Heart, and is now the bassist for Rocket Science. Geddy produced RS's first album.
- John Rutsey wrote the lyrics for "You Can't Fight It".
- In the 1999 movie "Magnolia", nominated for a few Academy Awards, Tom Cruise plays a guy who gives seminars on how to pick up women. On the DVD version of the movie, available at Blockbuster, there are some outtakes of scenes cut from the movie. In one, Cruise's character is in his bachelor's pad, and as he walks to the right of the screen, there is a giant Rush Chronicles poster on the wall on the right side. It is a clear shot, though only half the poster can be seen. -- Jeff McFarland
