Martin Popoff – Driven: Rush In The 90’s – Book Encore Records Ltd

The book is 415 pages, comprising, along with Anthem and Limelight, my deepest dig into Rush ever. Hopefully this trilogy will stand as the most definitive book on this period, although there’s no stopping Rush scholarship. Like the first two, it’s a textured hard cover book, sweetly appointed with foil and embossing, this time with a gold theme. There are two eight-page colour sections, but other than that, it’s a 144,000-word deep dive into the closing quarter century of the band covering:

• Roll the Bones
• Counterparts
• Test for Echo
• Vapor Trails
• Snakes & Arrows
• Clockwork Angels

Plus all the live albums and, most unfortunately, the shocking personal tragedies that befell this superlative Canadian institution along the way, in the late ‘90s and “In the End.”

Inspired by what I had to do on my recent Led Zeppelin and Clash books (i.e. writing 500 words on every single song), there’s far more song-by-song analysis than I stuck in any of my Rush titles previous to the trilogy. But there’s also a trove of unseen first-hand interview material with the band as well as engineers, producers, managers and other industry movers an’ shakers.

Here’s blurb on ‘er that went out to the book industry:

In what is the conclusion to a trilogy of authoritative books on what is unarguably Canada’s most beloved and successful rock institution ever, author Martin Popoff takes us through the arc of three decades in the lives of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. Addressed is life at the top, unceasing due to the throngs of fans showing up to Rush shows through to the sombre end of this book, but also due to a decade that begins with the brisk-selling Roll the Bones album. But there is also unimaginable tragedy along the way, with one of the world’s greatest drummers, Neil Peart, losing his daughter and his common law wife within the space of ten months, then his own life to cancer four years after the band’s retirement, shocking, unexpected, resulting in an amending of this tome already long written. In between however, there is a gorgeous and heartbreaking album of reflection and bereavement, as well as a conquering trip to Brazil, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and—some say surprisingly—the band’s first full-blown concept album to close an immense career marked by integrity and idealism.