As many of the loyal Rush followers are already aware, the Magna
Carta record label, known for tribute albums for such bands as Jethro Tull,
Yes, Pink Floyd, and Genesis, have put together a tribute album for Rush, entitled
Working Man. A lot of fans were not aware of this album at first, but it quickly
caught on after word got out. It features several artists like Sebastian Bach,
Jake E. Lee, James LaBrie, George Lynch, Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan, and Eric
Martin to name a few. Dream Theatre fans may want to take note that the entire
band (with the exception of John Myung) took part in the making of this album.
The album, in my opinion, lacks that Rush flair. But then again, what band could
ever dream of even sounding like Rush?
After the album was on the shelves of record stores, there were a lot of rumors
circulating that Rush never gave permission to do the album, they didn't like
the album, they were sueing the record company, and so on. At the bottom of
this page is an excerpt of an interview with Geddy Lee that appeared in the
Fall 1996 issue of A Show of Fans (ASOF). Steve Streeter got the real scoop
on the band's thoughts of the album.
The album has the following tracks:
Working Man
Sebastian Bach: Vocals
Jake E. Lee: Lead Guitar
Mike Portnoy: Drums
Billy Sheehan: Bass
Brendt Allman: Rhythm Guitar
By-Tor and the Snow Dog
James LaBrie: Vocals
Jake E. Lee: Lead Guitar
Mike Portnoy: Drums
Billy Sheehan: Bass
Brendt Allman: Rhythm Guitar
Analog Kid
Jack Russell: Vocals
Michael Romero: Lead Guitar
Mike Pinnella: Keyboards
Mike Portnoy: Drums
Billy Sheehan: Bass
Brendt Allman: Rhythm Guitar
The Trees
Mike Baker: Vocals
Brendt Allman: Lead and Rhythm Guitar
Chris Ingles: Piano
Mike Portnoy: Drums
Billy Sheehan: Bass
Gary Wehrkamp: Keyboards
La Villa Stangiato
Steve Morse: Classical Guitar & main solo
Mike Portnoy: Drums
Billy Sheehan: Bass
Brendt Allman: Rhythm Guitar
James Murphy: ending Guitar solo and Keyboards
David Towson: Rhythm Guitar
Mission
Eric Martin: Vocals
Brad Kaiser: Drums
Robert Berry: Lead Guitar, Bass, Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards, Background Vocals
Anthem
Mark Slaughter: Vocals
George Lynch: Lead Guitar
Deen Castronovo: Drums
James Murphy: Rhythm Guitar
Stuart Hamm: Bass
Jacob's Ladder
Sebastian Bach: Vocals
John Petrucci: Lead Guitar
Matt Guillory: Keyboards
Mike Portnoy: Drums
Billy Sheehan: Bass
Brendt Allman: Rhythm Guitar
Closer to the Heart
Performed by Fates Warning
Ray Alder: Vocals
Jim Martheos: Lead Guitars
Mark Zonder: Drums
Joey Vera: Bass
Natural Science
Devin Townsend: Vocals
Matt Guillory: Keyboards
Deen Castronovo: Drums
James Murphy: Rhythm and Lead Guitars
Stuart Hamm: Bass
David Townson: ending Guitar solo
YYZ
James Murphy: Lead and Rhythm Guitars
Matt Guillory: Keyboards
Deen Castronovo: Drums
Stuart Hamm: Bass
Red Barchetta
James LaBrie: Vocals
Steve Morse: Lead Guitar
Richard Chycki: Rhythm Guitar
Sean Malone: Bass
Sean Reinhart: Drums
James Murphy: Rhythm Guitar & Keyboards David Townson: Rhythm Guitar
Freewill
Gregoor van der Loo: Vocals
Marcel Coenen: Lead Guitar
Trent Gardner: Keyboards
Jeff Brockman: Drums
Carl Cadden-James: Bass
Noteworthy tracks:
Analog Kid, Mission, Jacob's Ladder, Red Barchetta, and Freewill. These seem
to sound the most like the studio cuts without being sliced to bits by "less-than-Rush"
talent. Don't get me wrong, all of the members who took part in this album did
their share, but with some tracks you just want to break out the original CD.
One of the tracks, YYZ, was just not up to par at all with the rest of the album.
The track starts out strong and Bassist Stuart Hamm and Drummer Deen Castronovo
tried their best, but could not keep up with Geddy and Neil. My apologies for
the absence of an album cover.
Geddy:There is something I'd like to address actually. And that's this Tribute
album thing. Ah, it's come to my attention that there's all these weird comments
floating around. I'd just like to clarify something to our fans. I think our
view of this whole thing has been portrayed as totally distorted. When we were
asked, well, when we were told basically that there was a tribute album being
done, this was only brought up to us one time. And one time only, when they
were making this album. We were asked what our feelings were about it and there's
really not much you can say when someone decides to do a tribute album. That's
nice if it's a sincere tribute. That's very nice. But, we were then told that
the record label that was releasing this tribute was kind of in the business
of doing tribute albums. Then we had concerns that this wasn't really going
to be a tribute but rather an exploitation of our fans. That was our concern.
There was never any question of the musicians involved. We didn't really know
who was involved. For some reason, that concern over our fans exploitation has
been blown way out of proportion. Even to the fact that there was some quote
from our office that was totally erroneous about tribute albums. It was basically
out of control. So I'd just like to clarify that to our fans, because I know
there's a lot of weird opinions floating around about what our attitude on this
thing was. Our attitude was very low key. We never had any intention of trying
to stop this record. We never had any intentions of sueing anybody. Those things
were all attributable to either overzealous representatives of our band or overzealous
gossip. You know what I mean? I just wanted to clarify that. Is's come up in
a lot of interviews.
Steve: I'm glad you brought it up Geddy, I had it on my list to cover, time
permitting.
Geddy: Well, I wanted to deal with that because from what I've read, it makes
us sound totally unappreciative for the musicians that have been involved in
this record. And we are not unappreciative of them in any way. It's not about
their involvement. It's not about the producers of this record. It was strictly
a concern that this was a record company that was looking out to make a few
bucks off the loyalty of our fans...