![]() ![]() The main plot being set in the distant future, when the world and all knowledge is controlled by the priests of the Temples of Syrinx. The epic track goes on to tell the story that borrows many plot elements from Ayn Rands 'Anthem' (also a track title from Rush's 1975 release 'Fly By Night'). The album begins with the title track, the first movement of which is subtitled 'The Overture' and fittingly so, as it uses a typical overture pacing/rhythm. Given that the self-titled first track clocks in at just over the 20 minute mark (making it the longest Rush track at the time if it's release), it's safe to say that Rush did not give the label what they wanted. What they did give them and the world proved to be an album that would go down in Rock n' Roll history as one of the most influential records of all time. The previous album 'Caress of Steel' was, at the time of its release, a commercial and critical failure in the eyes of the band's label and even fans. I guess it was just a little too 'out there' for people's tastes at the time and just didn't end up selling very well. Prior to the recording of 2112, Rush was advised to record an album that could be marketed with more ease. Specifically, they were told to include more singles that would work for radio play. You remember gigs sometimes by what you ate before you went on.Coming off the tour dubbed by the band themselves as the 'Down the Drains Tour', Rush is back in full force with the album that could have been, and almost was, their last. I remember they had a very good caterer at that particular venue. I remember that gig,” Lee told RS of the December 1976 show. Rush performed “Fly by Night” for the final time in 1978, but it’s videos like this that exhibit how powerful the track was onstage. Other songs on the record, like “Best I Can,” stuck to a more standard rock formula - pairing Alex Lifeson’s incisive riffs with anthemic choruses. “By-Tor & the Snow Dog,” a track with eight distinct sections, marked the first time Rush took on a lengthy, intricate piece with fantastical lyrics. In a rental car, in a hotel room after a show, that’s how pretty much Fly by Night was written.” “My little hand-written lyric sheets for the time, I think I wrote the cities that all of those songs were written, and they varied widely - all over the map. “We worked on songs as we traveled,” Peart recalled in the 2010 documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. With an opening track named after Ayn Rand’s 1938 novella Anthem, Fly by Night was the first Rush album to feature lyrics from Peart. His voice is peak Lee, rising to a piercing shriek as he pours out emotional lines about escaping and improving life for the better: “No fright or hindsight/Leaving behind that empty feeling inside.” The video ends with a transition into “In the Mood” from their self-titled debut. In the clip above, Alex Lifeson plays the opening guitar riff as Lee claps his hands and joins in on bass. ![]() We were feeling very optimistic.”Īfter concluding the 20-minute suite that kicks off the album, they charged into the title track to 1975’s Fly By Night, an album released 45 years ago this week. “But you could tell there was a buzz amongst fans when we played it. “It wasn’t getting much airplay, obviously,” Lee said of 2112. Before that, sales had been low, and Mercury Records had considered dropping them. They performed the entire first side of their new prog-rock masterpiece, 2112, an album that essentially saved their careers. On December 10th of that year, the band played at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey - a venue that hosted many of rock’s biggest names: Fleetwood Mac, the Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, Lou Reed, and others. At one point, I remember someone counted that we did 17 one-nighters in a row, 17 different cities.” We did back-to-back-to-back-to-back shows. “We were doing over 200 shows a year, probably in excess of that,” bassist-singer Geddy Lee told Rolling Stone of the era. Two years prior, the Canadian band had replaced their first drummer, John Rutsey, with Neil Peart, and they were hitting their stride as a touring band. In 1976, Rush practically lived on the road. ![]()
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