Vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee explains why Rush haven’t had more hit singles, saying that no one in the band is particularly “well-versed in music theory.”
Although progressive rock bands typically attract loyal fans that often span generations, hit singles are not necessarily their strong suit. Still, Rush did a pretty good job in this regard; The popular Canadian trio not only has 24 gold, 14 platinum and 3 multi-platinum records to their credit, but has also taken several of their songs to the top of the Billboard charts.
In a recent interview on CBC News’ The National (see below), Lee promotes his memoir “My Effin’ Life,” released Nov. 14 via HarperCollins, and weighs in on many Rush-related topics.
When asked if he regrets not writing more hits throughout his career, Geddy replies: “We didn’t know how to do it. We often joked about it. We looked at one of the songs we had just finished and thought, “Hey, this could be a hit – if someone else did it.” But we were always too eccentric, too rhythmically ambitious, too musically ambitious. We always wanted to add a little complexity and that’s not really conducive to creating hit singles. We were just happy with the goals we had set for ourselves and we accepted the fact that we wouldn’t know a hit single if we were faced with it.”
The members of Rush were, as Lee himself admits, known for their love of complexity and surprisingly unfamiliar with music theory.
In the same interview, Geddy notes: “The funny thing about a band like ours is that we don’t know music theory very well. Alex [Lifeson] was probably the most educated musician of the three of us. I didn’t know how to read music well; I could barely understand any of it, just like Neil [Peart]. So we went our own way, we created our own language, these complex pieces by improvising them and then memorizing them. It was a very unorthodox way of composing music and very riff-heavy. But strangely enough, it helped us create our own universe.”
A few days ago, Lee said he was open to the idea of performing again with his former bandmate Alex Lifeson under the name Rush.
The band retired in 2020 after drummer Neil Peart passed away that year.