On Thanksgiving Day 1974, I went straight from an early turkey dinner with the family to the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset to check out this new band from Canada who were touring the U.S. for the first time in support of their self-titled debut album for Mercury Records. Rush! I think I read about them in Cream or Rock Scene magazine. They were being compared at the time to Led Zeppelin. Drummer Neil had just joined the band that July.
I snuck my trusty, hand-held tape recorder in past the doorman. I would occasionally record groups that appeared there at the time, including Status Quo, Fanny, Hollywood Stars, and Suzi Quatro. The club was pretty much empty that night, what with it being Thanksgiving and all. About 20-30 people, most who were probably there just for a night out and not specifically to see Rush. Mind-blowing, when you consider how popular Rush became! I sat in the balcony, where I found I got better sound on my recorder as it was close to the club's monitors, which hung suspended from the ceiling.
Anyway, I taped the show, which rocked. My original Scotch C-90 cassette is
pictured below. Since the turnout was low, there was only a smattering of applause after each number. Also, no encore. Unbelievable! During the set, Neil broke either his snare or bass drum. A frantic search for a replacement followed, resulting in a lengthy lull. I seem to recall that the group eventually left the stage until a replacement part could be secured. I believe I shut the recorder off at that point and turned it back on when they eventually returned to the stage. (If my memory serves me well, I think they had to send someone to the Guitar Center up the road to secure the part.) Funny, when you consider the band was so broke at this time that they didn't have a spare snare or bass drum in their lone equipment truck, which I remember seeing parked out back behind the Whisky. This was the first of two sets the group did each night during their Whisky engagement. Opening for them each set was the Butts Band, a new reggae-style group featuring former-Doors members Robbie Krieger and John Densmore. Unfortunately, I didn't record them, nor did I stay for Rush's second set. Also a big regret...I didn't bring a camera and take a picture with the band!
Anyway, cut to ten or so years later when I made a copy of the recording for the brother of a girl I was dating. He was a huge Rush fan. I requested that he keep the tape "in-house." He agreed. That was not to be.
Since then, my Rush recording has been shared and bootlegged countless times - with subsequent generation loss - and can even be heard on YouTube (search "Rush Rushian Whiskey 74" or click link in one of the messages below). (Also, these posts and bootlegs get the date of the show wrong. Thanksgiving 1974 was November 28, not the 27th.) And until this very moment, you can be dang sure that all listeners - save for that ex-girlfriend and her brother - are unaware of where the recording came from. And my original first generation tape still sounds better than all those copies some 45 years later!
Cool, no?
RIP Neil...
