Too often they get caught up in their own self-indulgent goofiness and meandering pretense, or spiral into shallow, pseudo-intellectual exercises in proselytizing tedium. I’m personally not the biggest fan of concept albums.
This wasn’t the only iconic Rush image rather unintentionally, the picture of the band garbed in goofy kimonos on the rear album cover has been a cause for joyful derision, even among devoted fans of the band.Īnd that’s all well and good but let’s talk about the album itself, shall we? The first half of the LP is dedicated to the “2112” suite, and while only that side makes up the “concept album” portion of the record, it is so entirely pervasive that 2112 is consistently mentioned among the list of rock’s premiere concept LPs. Known as the “Starman Emblem”, this image has been closely associated with the band ever since. The album also introduced significant Rush iconography: specifically the image of the naked man (symbolizing the individual) standing before the pentagram (symbolizing the restrictions of the collective). The resulting tour made bank and brought them back to the forefront of the mid-70s AOR stage. Sections of the “”2112” suite - specifically “Overture” and “Temples of Syrinx” played in succession - and “Passage To Bangkok” received significant FM airplay. 2112 was a commercial breakthrough, quickly going Gold in North America and eventually hitting Triple Platinum in sales.
Well as I mentioned before, they doubled-down on their hand and the ensuing play netted them quite the bounty. The way Rush saw it, if they were to be damned, they were going to be damned for who they were, rather than what the record label assumed they should be. Sticking to their artistic principles, their fourth album 2112, released in April of 1976, featured an entire album side dedicated to a 7-part, 20+ minute suite, a quizzical science-fiction ode to objectivist philosophy. Certainly Rush wasn’t crazy enough to stick with their epic/prog ambitions, right? They got the go-ahead to record one more album.
Only with assurances from the band’s manager that they would go in a far more commercial and accessible musical direction were they granted a stay of execution. Now with their first commercial dud, the label was on the verge of dropping the band entirely. Their album sales, pre- COS, were respectable but not exactly lighting up the stratosphere. After the commercial failure of 1975’s Caress Of Steel and the ensuing disappointment of the resulting “Down The Tubes” tour, Rush was teetering on a precipice.
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