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A lot of these tunes were played by these guys before they became RUSH and some were played by RUSH in concerts before Neil joined the band. The enthusiasm is quite evident on this record as they cover some of their favourite songs that they grew up listening to in the sixties. The only song on this album that was a surprise for me was "Seven And Seven Is" by LOVE. I have both "Da Copa" from which this song is from as well as the more popular record of theirs "Forever Changes". If you don't have anything by this band I highly recommend you check them out. RUSH is really faithful to the original songs on this record, I think out of reverence more then anything else. And it's not that the covers that RUSH do here are better then the originals, cause they're not. It's just amazing for me that RUSH finally covered a song for once ! And a whole album's worth had me really excited. It helps I guess that I know all the originals.

"Summertime Blues" was a song that teens loved in the sixties, a great summer song about skipping work for any reason to enjoy the summer. The drums in the intro are classic ! And there is a lot of bass in this powerful and fun song. This song got a lot of play up here when this EP came out. "Heart Full Of Soul" and "Shapes Of Things" are both THE YARDBIRDS songs. And Alex is a huge fan of Jimmy Page who of course along with Jeff Beck played for them. I just read an article that Page and Beck did together for a magazine. And I was surprised to learn they lived up the road from each other when they were young and often played guitar together at each of their parents homes.They both believe that jamming and learning together helped them become better players.They pushed each other. By the way these two songs are my favourite YARDBIRD songs. "The Seeker" is a WHO song that I know the band was influenced by. Geddy dedicated a song in one of their concerts to Mr.Entwhistle when he passed away suddenly while RUSH was on tour. "Crossroads" is probably the best song on the record. I was so impressed by the guitar playing of Alex on this one. An outstanding solo after 2 minutes.This song just rocks ! A CREAM classic.

"For What It's Worth" and "Mr.Soul" are both BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD songs. The connection is of course fellow Canadian Neil Young. I have told people for years that the best musical exports our country has ever produced are Neil Young and RUSH. And I have to tell the story Geddy told about the song a bunch of Canadian musicians did for famine relief back in the eighties for Ethiopia. This was started in the UK by Bob Geldof who got a number of bands together to raise money through a song , and the USA bands did the same , and we followed suit in Canada. David Foster was the producer and Geddy sang a line with much passion. Anyway when Neil Young sang his line Mr.Foster told him he wanted him to do it over. Well Neil said "That's my style man" and got up and left the room. Geddy said he just swelled inside with pride to see Neil do that. He basically in a polite way told this high priced successful producer F#%$k you, take it or leave it. Oh, yes, that's rock and roll folks. Neil's style is to play and record a song once, and that's it, mistakes and all. No wonder he was adopted by the Grunge movement as the "Father" of Grunge, and collaberated with PEARL JAM and is mentioned by many others as a major influence. I actually laughed out loud when I heard Alex's guitar solo on "Mr.Soul" as he copied Neil's unique style so well. Priceless. Alex also gives a nod to THE BYRDS during "Mr.Soul" as he rips into a melody of "Eight Miles High". Nice.

Well I guess it's pretty obvious that I really like this record. 4 stars.