NOT FADE AWAY

This is Rush's debut single, the A-side is a cover of a Charles Hardin/Norman Petty song, as performed by one Buddy Holly and the B-side is a Rush original.

Recorded by Dave Stock,the original producer of Rush's debut album,the single bombed and neither track made it on to the album."Not Fade Away" was replaced by "Finding My Way" and "You Cant Fight It" was given a dignified burial.

Worth a few quid if you have a copy but tracking it down would be a miracle as it had quite a limited release.Crops up on quite a few fan sites for download,I'm sure the band wouldnt mind seeing it never made it onto any official Rush album.

Sadly Geddy's chipmunk vocals guarantee the minimum rating and in reality this disc hardly has any relevance to Rush's discography.

I had a chance to hear these songs from a digital vinyl transcription. The music is like which one can predict from the basis of their recent CD EP consisting 1960's pop/rock covers. "Not Fade Away" is a primitive rock composition typical to manners of that time, and both positive and aggressive like the songs of Rush often are. I'm not sure if these tracks are re-released anywhere, but they should be as fans are certainly interested of these tunes. "You Can't Fight It" has a main verse which sounds like it would be from the Black Sabbath's first album, but the other composed parts and the guitar solo sound again like from the year 1965. This is actually quite fun music, but not progressive of course. The guitar solos are here exceptionally good in my opinion, and I like the trashy sound this vintage vinyl.

Prog-wise, I can't see anyone willing to argue that this is light years away from even a hint of progressivess. Both songs are pretty good hard rock workouts. Not Fade Away could have easily fit onto Feedback, and it would have been an extra to include both of these tunes on that EP. Sound wise, Lifeson's guitar tone matches the debut album's sound, although Can't Fight It suffers a bit from that 70s inadequate production. You could almost feel like you were listening to them in the garage. But all in all, still a good treat, but not essential.

In the beginning...

As a major Rush fan, I've been itching to here these two songs for a very long time. This was Rush's debut EP even before their big flying pink letters from the self titled LP hit the shelves. Lucky for me a very kind friend who happened to have the EP was able to send it to me so that I might have gander at what my favorite band sounded like in their fetal stages. I must admit - these songs are pretty fun! They're a far cry from any of the material the band would later record, and even Working Man comes in as a compositional masterpiece in comparison to there tunes, but they're still fun, none the less.

Not Fade Away is a cover tune which was originally performed by Buddy Holly. It's a catchy little number which starts out sounding a hell of a lot like the I Want Candy song in Alex's riffs. There's some great, bluesy playing nearing the end of the number, but overall it's just an upbeat tune. The second song is a Rush original. You Cant Fight It is a little bit closer to how the band would sound when their debut hit the stores, but it is still a wildly different sound. A hard riff and fairly aggressive vocals from the young Geddy Lee show a band who had not yet matured in their song writing, but were still capable musicians. Lyrically, this is a much different album than anything the band would release with Peart, and the lyrics have nothing at all to do with Ayn Rand. Shocking.

Really, if you're not a fan of the band don't worry about this record. At this point in the game it's more of a collector's item than anything else, and clocking it at around 5-minutes it's not like you're missing a great deal of music. Fans on the other hand will be delighted with the lost tunes. 2 stars out of 5, Collectors and Fans will find good use for this disc, others will probably not care enough to hear it twice.

'Not Fade Away' - Rush (Single)

Now this would be enough to turn me off of one of my favourite bands if I hadn't heard any of their other recordings before. Now granted, this is one of their earliest demos and can't be taken under the microscope of scrutiny like their more involved pieces of music, but are there ever alot of sour points this has.

'Not Fade Away' is one of the best songs from the classic era of rock n' roll. The last song that Buddy Holly ever performed before his fateful plane crash, it has solidified it's place in rock history. While the original is almost always better as a rule, Rush really seems to especially butcher it here. Maybe its the overmuzzled guitar tone or the dreadful recording quality, or maybe it's most likely the screechy vocals that ruin it for me. I've always been a fan of Geddy's vocal work (even in some of the earlier releases) but his vocal talents weren't harnessed yet at this point, it seems.

The b-side seems like it might be of more interest to a Rush fan seeing as it's an original they penned themselves, but there's certainly a reason very few fans have ever heard the track before. It's definately a more enjoyable listen than the first track here, but it's utterly forgettable, and therefore perfectly understandable why the band decided to leave this one in the fault.

All of this harsh criticism aside, it's still cool to see what one of my favourite bands sounded like before they even had an album out.

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.