Along with Peart's lyrics, the band's music too is a feast of thought-provoking composition. There are a lot of bands that helped define the genres of "art rock" or "progressive rock," but none that wove the odd time signatures, syncopation and instrumental virtuosity in such a consistently logical way as Rush. It's like listening to advanced mathematics - whose complexity is a vast asset that clarifies, rather than an overwrought muddle that becomes tedious. Peart once mentioned that "The Fountainhead" was the novel that most influenced him, and from the first time I caught them live (spring '77,) I'd always been amazed at how Peart behind that massive drum kit always seemed analogous to Roark at the drafting table.

Every Rush fan will have their faves, but since you indicate you're unfamiliar with them, I'll assume you're a youngster (8^]) and have the whole corpus to dive into - lucky you.

I think their best concert vids are "Exit: Stage Left" (1981) and "A Show of Hands" (1988, which is from the only one of their tours I've missed); and perhaps their best end-to-end albums are "Moving Pictures" ('81 again) and "Roll the Bones" (1991.) But for the most part Rush has always scattered great songs hither and yon amid some more "experimental" stuff, and were never much for albums that were great from start to finish. So think of it as gold mining.

Their most Objectivist-oriented songs: "Anthem," "2112," "Something for Nothing," "A Farewell to Kings," "Cinderella Man," "Hemispheres," "The Trees," "Freewill," "Tom Sawyer," "Red Barchetta," "The Camera Eye," "Witch Hunt," "Grand Designs," "Marathon," "Emotion Detector," "Open Secrets," "Prime Mover," "Show Don't Tell," "Roll The Bones," "Heresy," "You Bet Your Life," "Stick It Out," "Cut To The Chase," "Alien Shore," "Everyday Glory," "Far Cry," "The Way the Wind Blows," "Faithless," "Headlong Flight."

IOW - **lots** of 'em!

I also highly recommend the novelization of the album "Clockwork Angels," written by Kevin Anderson in collaboration with Peart. It's an excellent Sci-Fi / Steampunk story that's a dual meditation on free will vs. determinism and collectivism vs. anarchism. Its one flaw is that Anderson threw in a whole lot of gratuitous Rush lyric lines and song titles, sometimes shoehorned in at the expense of the prose's flow, but if you're not familiar with the band you won't notice them except for some odd wording once in awhile.

'K, think I've written a huge enough book here myself. Brevity! Gaaah - sorry. Enjoy!

Rock reached its apex in 1976 with Rush's 2112. Scientifically proven fact.

And yes, the album was "Dedicated to the genius of Ayn Rand".

Back in 1997 the Libertarian magazine "Liberty" did an article on him titled "Neil Peart: A Rebel and a Drummer." It includes some quotes in which he explains Rand's influences - he said "The Fountainhead" was the greatest influence on his thinking and Roark was his early role model - and the areas where he disagrees with her: He believes there needs to be a minimal "safety net" for the poor, etc. He's also expressed (both in interviews and lyrically,) his belief that there is a hazard in eschewing emotion for reason ( he fears the Mr. Spock caricature, basically,) and that hero-worship too is dangerous in some way. I think the phrase he used to describe himself was "left-wing libertarian"; what a friend of mine would describe as "Objective-ish."

I think it's a simplification to say he's gotten adversely influenced by success or other people - rather, he was never a full-blown Objectivist to begin with, but someone with a heavy Rand influence, along with some others not necessarily compatible with her philosophy (e.g. Jung.)

The album-side-length title suite of the 1978 release "Hemispheres" is the first (and undoubtedly last) full musical exposition of Rand's Mind/Body Dichotomy critique within rock 'n' roll, and he ends that suite with the protagonist transforming into the deity Cygnus, the "bringer of balance" between reason and emotion. In one way you could interpret that as a simple restatement of Rand's assertion that the mind and body (∴ reason and emotion,) are not in opposition within a rational mind. Taken another way - which I think is a more accurate reflection of Peart's worldview - it's that emotion is of equal epistemological status with reason and that the two should be "balanced."

No matter. Rand correctly stated that an artist's worldview need not be philosophically valid to yield excellent art - and in Peart's case I'd put his worldview at something like 75% valid. Which is a seriously high number in the rock world.

Addendum: Someone's posted the Liberty mag article - albeit with some sloppy omission of punctuation (no quotation marks around his quotes, but they're readily evident):
http://cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/liberty-...
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