NOT FADE AWAY

RUSH in the beginning of their recording career. This is a single from 1973 released by the original line-up of the band (Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and John Rutsey). While the production of this single leaves a lot to be desired, it is not as bad as I expected it to be after reading several reviews about it.

"Not Fade Away" is a song which was originally recorded and released by the late Buddy Holly. This song is very simple in structure, and I also have listened to other versions of this song covered by other bands like THE ROLLING STONES and FOREIGNER. Not being a very interesting song, I think that not much could be done in terms of arrangements to a song like this, and I also can`t see why RUSH selected this song to be recorded and released as the Side One of this single. The arrangement for this song tends more to Heavy Metal, but the limitations of the song did not help the band very much to play an interesting arrangement for it.

In the Side Two of this single there is a better song than "Not Fade Away", titled "You Can`t Fight It", which was composed by Lee and Rutsey. It is mostly a Rock and Roll song with some influences from LED ZEPPELIN and BLACK SABBATH. Even the guitar playing shows some influences from Jimmy Page. This song could have been included in their first album very well as I think that in musical style it could have worked very well in that album. But that first album sounds better in production terms than this early single.

Maybe RUSH only recorded this single for fun, more to give it as a gift to their families and friends. Anyway, it sounds like they had a lot of fun recording it. I don`t know if both songs of this single have been released in any RUSH compilation album. But maybe one day they could include them in a new compilation album...maybe more for historical reasons than for anything else.

For collectors and very die-hard fans of the band only.