Any rock band aiming for longevity wants to have distinct periods in their discography. Every musician strives to go beyond mere trendiness. The ability to evolve with the times distinguishes enduring acts like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin from fleeting sensations. Despite Geddy Lee’s satisfaction with leading Rush through the pinnacle years of progressive rock, he admitted that Hemispheres felt more like the end of an era than the beginning of a new one.
Before Rush, progressive rock was experiencing a golden age. Lee and Alex Lifeson were still attempting to be the Canadian answer to The Who or Led Zeppelin. Meanwhile, Pink Floyd and Yes were already creating longer pieces. They took their listeners on a journey rather than having them stick around for a collection of singles.
Rush finally had a formula that worked when Neil Peart joined the band. They combined some of their most famous songs like ‘Anthem‘ with tracks that felt like advanced calculus while listening to music like ‘The Fountain of Lamneth‘. While any logical label expected disaster, the group’s perseverance resulted in 2112 becoming one of their most successful albums, with a cult following that has never faded.
Although any artist can only dream of having Rush’s freedom, A Farewell to Kings signalled that things were about to get weird. Outside of the strange Renaissance-fair title track, the project veers into different directions on works like ‘Xanadu‘. This was an eleven-minute exercise talking about a man’s voyage through foreign lands and dining on honeydew.
Despite scoring a hit with ‘Closer to the Heart‘, Hemispheres was unconcerned about hits. With only four songs, the album feels more like a rock and roll classical piece half of the time. The title track’s epic first movement amplifies the band’s previous record by a thousand.
Despite their determination to create the best album possible, the band admitted that much of their greatest work was extremely difficult to execute. By the end of the record, Lee stated unequivocally that he would never make another record like that.
Compared to the other records in their discography, Lee thought the band were on the verge of becoming too progressive for their own good. He told Louder “It seemed like the end of an era for me. I felt that the side-long song thing was becoming too predictable for me as a writer. And I wanted to break out of it. In some ways, it felt like saying goodbye to that period. I had ideas for where I wanted us to go. I wanted to tell stories, but I didn’t want to be bogged down by themes that had to be repeated over the course of twenty-five minutes.”
After having to rein in Peart’s ambitious side, the band expanded their sound. They flirted with the pop charts with songs like ‘Limelight‘ and ‘Freewill‘. It’s a lot to expect an audience to follow you on epic musical adventures. However, something clearly went wrong when even they lost patience with their epic material.
