

Peart suited Lee and Lifeson’s desire to make more complex music. As far as I was concerned he was hired from the minute he started playing.” Then he sat down behind this kit and pummelled the drums – and us. He comes in, this big goofy guy with a small drumkit, and Alex and I thought he was a hick from the country. He drove up in this little sports car, drums hanging out from every corner. “He was one of the goofiest looking guys I’d ever seen. What transformed Rush from callow Led Zeppelin copyists into prog titans was the replacement of drummer John Rutsey with Neil Peart. Finding My Way became a symbol to me of saving our first album.” 2112 (1976) ‘OK, let’s record that and one other song, and we’ll remix the others,’ he said. When we heard it we were heartbroken.” Terry Brown was brought in to remix, and asked the band for more songs. They recorded their debut album, Rush, in late-night sessions – after playing five sets a night at a Toronto bar called the Gasworks – only to find the initial mixes were “wimpy and weak. Then again, that’s what people thought about Rush and they ended up filling arenas for 40 years and joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so who knows? The book goes to one side, though, as Lee surveys the career of the only prog band to have had a Hollywood bromance written around them. Without Rush to sing and play bass for, Lee has kept himself busy compiling a coffee table book – Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass – which sounds like one for a niche audience. And then we started to communicate again.” We didn’t know where the future was going to take us so we didn’t talk a ton then.


“The first couple of months, we were emotionally hungover. “Alex and I just flew down to see Neil two weeks ago and hung for a couple of days,” Lee says, surrounded by the detritus of high tea in one of London’s grand but discreet hotels. Three and a half years after the prog band’s final show together, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart haven’t gone their separate ways. However, “Sweet Dreams,” is one that has always stood out in our view of Frank Marino’s greatness.I t’s nice that the three members of Rush are still friends.

There have been so many great Mahogany Rush, Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush and Frank Marino solo songs released over the years. Listen to how Frank Marino balances the counterpoint between the keyboards and his instinctive guitar playing. This is such an incredible rock and roll tune written and performed by Frank Marino. The personnel on the record and playing on this track included Frank Marino on lead guitar and lead vocals, Greg Nichols on keyboards, Vince Marino on rhythm guitar,Paul Harwood on bass and Timm Biery on drums. The Juggernaut album was released as Frank Marino’s second solo album. In the number two spot on our top 10 Top 10 Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush Songs list is the very emotional and passionate rock and roll song entitled “Strange Dreams.” This great song was released on the album entitled Juggernaut. A year after Jimi Hendrix had passed away. This magical song entitled “Buddy,” was released on the debut album by Mahogany Rush in 1972. The music of Jimi Hendrix would resonate forever in the art of Frank Marino. Want to hear the connection between Frank Marino and Jimi Hendrix? All you have to do is listen to this tender song written by Frank Marino about Jimi Hendrix. It will also pick from some of Frank Marino’s solo albums. Our Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush songs list will take selections from the years when the band was just called Mahogany Rush as well as the later years when they were called Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush. Yet, the group never had any big time hits and for that reason there were many music fans who knew little about them, But of course there were also hundreds of thousands who were aware of the rock god guitar playing of Frank Marino especially after his performance at California Jam II in 1978. In high school back in the 1970s, I remember all my guitar player friends who would always rave about Frank Marino and also Robin Trower. While we repeatedly write articles about groups like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix and all the other stalwarts of rock, we have definitely not paid enough attention to Frank Marino. They are also one of the most underrated, and have clearly not received the credit or fame they deserve in the record of classic rock history. Our Top 10 Top 10 Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush Songs list takes a listen to one of classic rock’s greatest guitar players and rock bands of all time. Photo: kitmasterbloke, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
