[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7DFsBcVMDA]
Electronic music may still be absent from the hall, but at least its equally indulgent cousin prog rock is finally represented. The Canadian trio Rush are a running joke to some, yet how many bands have put together careers of 40 years nonstop with lineup intact? Bassist-vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer-lyricist Neil Peart became masters at connecting the personal to the universal, the mind to the cosmos, with heavy sprinklings of sci-fi and fantasy themes. More important from a musical perspective, they were (and are) one of the tightest trios ever to grace a rock stage, performing extended interludes with time-signature and tempo changes on a variety of instruments. No bash-it-out power trio, they. Although pop-single success has largely eluded them, Rush to date have two dozen gold albums in the States, including the 4 million–selling Moving Pictures (1981), which included the minor hit “Tom Sawyer” (see above) and the Grammy-nominated instrumental “YYZ.”