Kiss bass player Gene Simmons was once in the amusing habit of referring to Rush, who supported his band in the mid-seventies, as "Led Zeppelin Junior". It's a very apt description of the band at that time, and nowhere is the Canadian trio's debt to the pioneering English hard rock quartet more apparent than on their eponymous debut recording.
The first Rush album was recorded in a matter of weeks while the band was on tour, using cheap overnight studio time, some of the sessions taking place immediately after gigs. It's not one of their very best albums and it's undoubtedly rather derivative - but it does boast a number of classic tunes, some of which would hold down a place in the band's setlist for years, or even decades to come.
It's something of an 'odd one out' in the Rush canon in that it was recorded before drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, a key protagonist in all the band's subsequent projects over the following thirty years, replaced John Rutsey, who hits the drums here - but the musical contrast in style from subsequent recordings is arguably as obvious as the lyrical. None of the more ambitious, graceful and assured progressive leanings which would later characterise the band's classic period are in evidence; this is unreconstructed heavy rock'n'roll, bringing to mind less subtle moments from the first two Zeppelin albums.
The songs are mostly strong and the youthful exuberance is infectious. It's all good stuff, even if it's peppered with cock rock clichés (ooh yeah I need some love!), Lifeson's guitar dramatics are a little embarrassing here and there, and Lee's screeching vocals sound at times rather like a young Robert Plant on amphetamine-enriched helium.
Working Man and Finding My Way are perhaps the tracks for which this album is generally best remembered, but for me the one which stands out is the scorching What You're Doing, a powerhouse rocker built around a reworked version of Zeppelin's Heartbreaker riff. Pass me an air guitar!
Pretty accurate description. But oh dear, In The Mood! (perhaps if Zeppelin had written The Hokey Cokey)
I wrote that one in 2004 (hence the "thirty years" reference).
Nice review - totally agree with the comment about What You're Doing.
Certainly the most "fun" album they ever did. I prefer it to FBN and CoS. Chalk and cheese, yes - just not in that order. :)