RUSH Drummer Has Mixed Feelings About '2112' Being Singled Out For Conservation

Vit Wagner of the Toronto Star reports:

RUSH drummer and lyricist Neil Peart has mixed feelings about the Toronto trio's 1976 prog-rock masterpiece, "2112", being singled out for conservation.

On the one hand, Peart is flattered that the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust, an organization dedicated to safeguarding Canada's film, TV, radio and musical legacy, is adding the "2112" masters to its archive.

The album will be officially inducted during the organization's annual MasterWorks ceremony to be attended by Governor General Michaëlle Jean Thursday at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. It will be honoured alongside 11 other works, including the NFB documentary "The Champions" and the classic Quebec film "Les bons debarras".

"It seems a worthy thing," says Peart on the line from Los Angeles, where RUSH is working on a new album to be released next year. "We've been slowly trying to rescue our old master tapes and transfer them to digital because they do degrade horribly over time. So I understand the necessity of what they're doing."

Whether Peart would have chosen that album — or any other by RUSH — for preservation is another matter.

"I accept the transitory nature of music in general and especially popular music," he says. "As a listener I move on and very rarely go back and listen to anything I listened to 30 years ago. I'm always about moving forward. When an artist I like puts out a new record, I don't listen to the old one any more.

"I see it the same way with RUSH. When we tour, we play those songs. They're still great to play and I'm still proud of many of them. But I would definitely fear the realization that the best record we made was 10 or 20 years ago. That would be hard to live with."

Read the entire article at TheStar.com.