Rush Still Rocks

Rush.

The quintessential power rock trio.

They totally rock. Still. And they appeal to the thinker in me. And they do odd musical things now and again, like sections of songs in 7/4 time. And instrumental songs, where the music speaks for itself, no need for words. (YYZ, La Villa Strangiato, The Rhythm Method...)

And they don't care about blending in and being like the rest of the bands. They've got their own thing going, they do it well, and they still rock, after nearly 40 years together.

Cool facts about YYZ, sure you've heard them before: the percussive beginning of that song is the Morse code representation of the letters YYZ, which is the airport code for their home airport in Toronto.

I realized back at the end of last year / beginning of this, that I was lacking 12 of their studio albums. So I'm on a mission this year to collect one each month, and by the end of the year, I'll have them all in my music library.

• January: Counterparts
• February: Fly By Night
• March: Hemispheres
• April: A Farewell to Kings

And now, in May, this month's acquisition was their original studio album, the self-titled Rush, including the final classic track, "Working Man."

Five down, seven to go.

As my cousin Erik pointed out to me: "If you don't have La Villa Strangiato running in the background of your psyche 24/7, you are not a true Rush fan." Well, obviously, La Villa Strangiato is *always* running in the *background* of my psyche... but in March, I actually listened to it in the foreground about 38 times while I was working. I tried to learn bits and pieces of it on my guitar, too, but dang! Some of those riffs are fast in there.

If I had HBO, I would have watched the 2013 induction ceremony on TV last night, recorded last month out in LA -- Rush was finally inducted after years of being overlooked. A well-deserved honor indeed. Congrats Geddy, Alex and Neil -- and keep on rockin'... At least for a little while longer.

Rock on, eh? Ten bucks is ten bucks.