Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years of Rush at Home and Away

Rating:
Summary: Good basic review of records and tour.
Review: This book is good on thoughts of their records and tours. I actually prefer Neils books better and looking forward to future books of his. Good pictures in book and earlier time in groups life I never knew some of the history.

Rating:
Summary: A Book About the Working Men
Review: As time passes and these guys continue to loosen up I am reminded that their personal lives remain boring and uncontroversial. Once you learn what they are really like, it's obvious that their gift to rock and roll was excellent music and nothing more. They are musicians in a very pure form. A touring machine fueled by a new studio album released every few years and a constant under-the-radar fan base. No radio hits yet millions of albums sold. Rock stars who really appreciate their anonymity. I am a 20 year fan from Cleveland, Ohio and I'd love to see two things. Behind the Music: RUSH and RUSH in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The book doesn't address the lyrics behind each song as much as I'd hoped. The format deals with every album (even the live albums) as a different chapter; each chapter reminding me of the tour programs I once owned. This book is basically a compilation of tour programs with a commentary from each band member. One thing I found very interesting was the parts in which they critique their own songs. Some songs that I always felt were "filler" they weren't totally satisfied with either. Other songs like Cold Fire from the Counterparts album are in their words: "Unheralded". The book covers their humble beginnings thru the beginning of the 30th Anniversary tour. A lot of photos are included and most I'd never seen before.

Rating:
Summary: New interviews, new photos
Review: I am not sure why some reviewers keep saying there are no rare photos. I have Visions, "Rush" (the Brian Harrigan book), Sucess Under Pressure, and every single tour book and I still managed to find photos in this book that I have never seen until now.

The interviews are new, not ones quoted from years ago. I like the album by album, tour by tour format.

This book was an excellent addition to my Rush collection and a big improvement over the last Rush book release, Merely Players, which was a complete rehash of old interviews.

Rating:
Summary: good but not great
Review: I will buy and read just about any book about Rush. On the positive side, the interviews with the band are recent and (if accurately) uniquely honest. Some interviews capture less-than-positive thoughts about certain individuals--such as the producer who blew them off for Simple Minds arouhd the time of the Signals album.

On the negative side, many of the pictures are not new and Popoff at times needlessly uses less-than-clear language to get his point across.

Still, I enjoyed the book.

Rating:
Summary: Insights Into A Private Band, But Far From Comprehensive
Review: I've been a fan of Rush's music since the early 1980's, and have every one of their CDs. However, I really don't know a whole lot about the band members as they have been extremely guarded about their life in and outside the band. This book helps melt down that guard a little bit, but still does not provide a comprehensive look at Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart.

The book is structured by chapters, which each one representing one of the band's CDs (in chronological order, including the 4 live albums). In that chapter, the band discusses their recollections about writing songs for the album, recording it (including gripes about several producers) and touring (with some anecdotes about their adventures with some of their support acts - or main acts (Kiss, Aerosmith) when they were just starting out.

You'll learn a lot about how the band goes about their business (for example, for almost every album, they write one song quickly at the end of their recording sessions and it invariably makes the record and is one of their favorites), but if you are looking for stuff about the three guys' family life, you'll be disappointed. I believe I remember one mention of Geddy's son and Alex briefly mentions that he is now a grandfather, but other than that, there isn't much about life outside the band (the death of Peart's wife and daughter within months of each other in the late 90s are mentioned, but other than a paragraph or two, are not discussed in detail).

So if you like Rush, get it for the novelty and the many great pictures.

Rating:
Summary: "Contents Under Pressure" could have used more "Content"
Review: I, too, have been waiting a long for a book about Rush. After all, they have been a very private collection of talented musicians. Perhaps this secretive position has helped fuel the production of this book.

I was expecting to find more rare photos and deeper insights into the lives of one of the world's greatest bands. Instead, I found it repetitive. Not only where some of the sections repeated within the book, the contents were no different than what you could find on the web. Nearly every photo in the book was taken from some other publication, album liner or tour book. There was really nothing new.

Overall, I found this book to be a huge disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Toilet paper
Review: Rush have a habit of authorizing swill. Their idea of new interviews are really just the usual casual, one line statements that we in fact, heard or read a thousand times in previous interviews. If you picked up the current R30 Tourbook or calendars, you don't need this for the pictures. They are the same. Oh yeah, even the website's pics are the same as these. If you are wanting to learn everything else there is to know short of dirt, then Merely Players is (was?) the book for you. There is no discussion of all their tourdates ever, cultural sightings, equipment, or comprehensive breakdown of lyrics. There is no list of Juno, Grammy, etc awards or honors (not even mentioned). If this was the last or only book available on Rush, people would say

Rating:
Summary: Another c**p biography on an excellent band
Review: The best thing that can be said of this book, is the amount of photos presented within it's covers. Some are familliar, some old. If you're looking for substansive, informative info on the band, it's all a re-hash of what's out there. Grammatical errors abound, as do typos. You'd expect this to be cleared up in the proof reading. After all, it's not supposed to be done by some amateur like myself writing this review, but professionally edited (ever hear of spell check?). The 'cutesy' inserts by the author reek of Banasiewicz's book written on the band prior. I detest having (laughs) written over and over. What am I reading, Hit Parader magazine? Humor if written correctly will be obvious of itself. The hodge podge of quotes, were in my opinion thrown together in a semblance of an interview being conducted. Very sloppy. I very rarely close a book and think; "Pure s**t" Which s too bad. I waited for this book with much anticipation that someone would finally pen a good book on this band. I remain optomistic it will happen.
As for the best part, the photos, wouldn't have been nice to have a date to accompany them? Or at least a brief description beneath each?
As an avid fan of this great band, I'm disappointed with this tome about them. Of course it will be kept, and shelved with the other RUSH bios (the best of which is Brannigan's). Any completionist shouldn't be without it. But, if it's your first about the guys, well.....it's your money.

Rating:
Summary: Good pictures...but superficial overview
Review: This is a breezy overview of the now 30+ year career of Rush. One has to give these guys credit for keeping the fires burning all these years, with no band turnover, and creative output that continues to be inventive, original and uncompromising. What amazes me is that critics in mainstream music magazines still like to label Rush as a sci-fi/fantasy prog-rock outfit that writes space operas and songs about gnomes and elves. That was done over twenty years ago! Since the early eighties, their songs have focused on social, political and psychological issues as well as relationships and the human condition.

Back to the book...

It's arranged chronologically, with each chapter covering an album/cd release and subsequent tour. The writing is mostly transcribed interviews, and I found that Alex Lifeson was quite talkative and provided the most insight. Funny considering Neil Peart is the lyricist and Geddy Lee is the vocalist. Lifeson also displayed great humor.
While the style proved to be breezy and chatty, as if the reader is sitting on a couch across from the guys, I wanted more meat on the bones. While the press release reads that every song is analyzed, this amounts to little more than a sentence or two on most tunes. I wanted more specifics than hearing that "Grace Under Pressure" was difficult to record. Why? What made it hard? There were other examples of this, but I did find that more time was spent with recent material, say the last five or so studio releases and the two recent live sets. This was good, since I'm less familiar with the newer material, being an old school Rush fan from back in the day.
What comes across is that the members of Rush are gracious, intelligent men committed to their craft, while also pursuing outside hobbies to enrich their lives. They avoid negative talk about other groups or music industry folks, save a veiled remarks. They are also intensely private about their families. I learned that Alex has a grown son, also a musician, and that Alex is now a grandfather. Very little is mentioned about Geddy Lee's family. Most Rush fans should by now be familiar with the tragedies of Neil Peart's family. Read "Ghost Rider" to learn more about that.

If you're looking from the road like the Led Zeppelin book "Hammer of the Gods" or Bill Wyman's "Stone Alone" this is not for you. This is a career overview that focuses on the music, with lots of band pictures that show the evolution of their fashion over the years.

Rating:
Summary: Worth Getting For A Newbie
Review: This is a good book for someone who is just getting into Rush.Rush themselves need to pen a book and stop releasing the same pictures over and over and over again. It is like nobody carried a camera around for 30 years except for a few days a year. Give me a break with this swill. I appreciate the author's efforts here but I will wait until Merely Players Edition 2 comes out in 2005 before I shell out another dollar to look at something I already know.