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Rush

Rush - Chemistry written by Jon Collins

Review by Greg Olma

There has not been much written about Rush. Aside from Neil Peart's books (which don't really touch on the band), there have only been a few shorts books written about this Canadian Institution. Jon Collins has decided to take on the task of telling the story of Alex, Geddy, and Neil. Having written the exceptional Separated Out Marillion book, I was really looking forward to read this, his latest work. While I can recommend this book to any music fan, there are some things I would have done differently. First and foremost, too much of this book is taken up with bios and stories from the "people behind the scenes." Many of the people, I feel, don't have much in the way of interesting stories so their inclusion here is unnecessary. I think Jon Collins was trying to fill out the book with what he thought to be relevant information/stories on this extremely private band. That is fine as long is there is something worth writing about, but I found that this section of the book was mainly filler. The other thing I would change is the discography. In his Separated Out book, Jon did an exceptional job with the discography, listing out all the singles and different versions. In Chemistry, all we get are the album releases but not the singles (promotional of otherwise). I wish he would have put the same effort into this discography as he did Marillion's. It may seem like I am nit picking but the main audience for this book are the hardcore Rush fans (me being one of them). The main part of the book is well written and moves along nicely. It starts at the beginning with the story of how they got to Canada, how they met at school, and goes all the way through the 30th anniversary tour. You won't find a more complete and up to date book on Rush. For now, I recommend this book because, quite honestly, there are not that many books dedicated to Rush, so anything is a welcome addition to the library.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2006 Volume 3 at lulu.com/strangesound.

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