"I have always felt I was more accurately a Hard Rock musician"
About this Quote
Geddy Lee’s line reads like a quiet correction slipped in between the applause. Rush often gets filed under “prog” the way complicated things do: as a shorthand that both flatters and fences you in. By insisting he’s “more accurately” a Hard Rock musician, Lee isn’t denying the band’s virtuosity; he’s reclaiming the engine inside it. Hard rock is a claim about physicality, volume, groove, and the working-band ethic. Prog can sound like a diploma. Hard rock sounds like a gig.
The key word is “accurately.” It’s not chest-thumping, it’s taxonomy. Lee is pushing back against the idea that technical musicianship automatically means cerebral detachment. Rush’s odd meters and sci-fi suites were never meant as a retreat from rock’s body language; they were a way to intensify it, to make the riffs smarter without making them softer. That’s the subtext: complexity doesn’t cancel swagger.
There’s also a cultural self-defense baked into the sentence. “Prog” has long carried an accusation of pretension, especially in eras when punk, grunge, and indie prized messiness as authenticity. Lee’s phrasing sidesteps the prestige trap. He’s aligning himself with the lineage of loud, direct bands rather than the museum wing of rock history.
It’s a small statement that protects a bigger identity: Rush as a band of lifers, not lecturers. The music may be intricate, but the impulse is blunt force.
The key word is “accurately.” It’s not chest-thumping, it’s taxonomy. Lee is pushing back against the idea that technical musicianship automatically means cerebral detachment. Rush’s odd meters and sci-fi suites were never meant as a retreat from rock’s body language; they were a way to intensify it, to make the riffs smarter without making them softer. That’s the subtext: complexity doesn’t cancel swagger.
There’s also a cultural self-defense baked into the sentence. “Prog” has long carried an accusation of pretension, especially in eras when punk, grunge, and indie prized messiness as authenticity. Lee’s phrasing sidesteps the prestige trap. He’s aligning himself with the lineage of loud, direct bands rather than the museum wing of rock history.
It’s a small statement that protects a bigger identity: Rush as a band of lifers, not lecturers. The music may be intricate, but the impulse is blunt force.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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