Rock and roll ’til you lose control
Go down, fall down, not too far
You can’t fight it!
You can’t fight it!
Behold: The very first original song Rush ever released!
Recorded in 1973, “You Can’t Fight It” was the B-side of the band’s debut single. (The A-side was a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away.”) In my opinion, “You Can’t Fight It” sounds nothing like Rush. But it’s amazing anyway.
For starters, it’s laughably short for the band—as Alex tells it, singles in those days had to be sub-three minutes in order to be played on the radio. But what it lacks in length, it makes up in spirit. Rutsey especially sounds fantastic, drumming his little heart out with frenetic punk chaos worthy of The Clash. (Where was this Rutsey on the self-titled album, I wonder?)
While the band had high hopes for “You Can’t Fight It,” and it always got great crowd response during their bar gigs, the single unfortunately got no airplay and little attention from record labels. As such, the band cut it from their first album. Such a shame, too. Once Neil was on board, Rush veered sharply from that bar-band sound, and “You Can’t Fight It” just didn’t jibe with their new prog rock identity.
Definitely a garage band vibe (imo). And quite good. First listen - thanks!
Great song and an awesome dive into its history! It also goes to show the distance sometimes between what the people want to hear and what the label thinks the people want to hear.