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Geddy Lee of RushJacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

No, it just proves that if you hang in long enough, eventually you'll be invited to join

You can't say there has been a (ahem) rush to judgment in the decision to nominate Rush for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After all, the Canadian trio, birthed in a basement in Willowdale in the late sixties, has been eligible for many years. But the announcement signals yet another lapse in taste on the part of the Hall that has seen non-entities such as the Dave Clark Five, ABBA and Don Kirshner join worthy inductees like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. Yes, Geddy Lee may be a better singer now than in 1977, but has time really healed the millions of eardrums his caterwauling injured, nay destroyed, over most of the band's career? The Rush nomination also highlights a glaring omission in the Hall's (non)-recognition of Canadian talent, namely its continued disavowal of the genius of the Guess Who. Rush should insist that the wrong be righted before it receives consideration. Its nomination is simply proof that if you hang in long enough, eventually you'll be invited to join a club to which you should not belong. – James Adams

Yes, this audacious nerd trio belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rush is the serious goods; no time for the dainty. And it's called progressive rock for a reason, so, rubes, move on. If for the concept album 2112 alone, this audacious nerd trio belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that messed-up place of Madonna, backbeats and and ersatz priests from The Temples of Syrinx. Geddy Lee, the whip-voiced siren, laid it on the line in 1976: "See how [Rush] sings like a sad heart, and joyously screams out its pain/ sounds that build high like a mountain, or notes that fall gently like rain." These pasty suburbanites had so much rock, there was no time for the roll. Pretentious lyrics and outrageous time signatures from Neil Peart? Bring it on. (And his most excellent seventies 'stache too.) Guitarist Alex Lifeson: Did he not invent the use of the chorus effect on 1977's A Farewell to Kings? Listen to Rush's music and hear what it can do, Rock and Hall of Fame in Cleveland. There's something there as strong as life – it's about time it reached you. – Brad Wheeler

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