Description
+
RUSH- Exit Stage Left CD W. GERMANY 822 551-2 M-1
Tracklist:
1 Spirit Of Radio 5:12
2 Red Barchetta 6:48
3 YYZ 7:44
4 Closer To The Heart 3:09
5 Beneath, Between And Behind 2:34
6 Jacob’s Ladder 8:47
7 Broon’s Bane 1:37
8 The Trees 4:50
9 Xanadu 12:10
10 Freewill 5:33
11 Tom Sawyer 5:01
12 La Villa Strangiato 9:38
Phonographic Copyright (p) – PolyGram Records, Inc.
Copyright (c) – PolyGram Records, Inc.
Bass, Vocals, Synthesizer, Guitar [Rhythm] – Geddy Lee / Drums, Percussion – Neil Peart / Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Synthesizer [Bass Pedal] – Alex Lifeson
On Back Cover:
℗ 1981 PolyGram Records, Inc.
© 1981 PolyGram Records, Inc.
Manufactured and Marketed by PolyGram Records
On Disc:
℗ 1981 PolyGram Records, Inc., USA
Made In W. Germany
Exit…Stage Left is the second live album by Rush, released as a double album in October 1981. After touring in support of their eighth studio album Moving Pictures (1981), the band gathered recordings made over the previous two years and constructed a live release from them with producer Terry Brown. The album features recordings from June 1980 on their Permanent Waves (1980) tour, and from March 1981 on their Moving Pictures tour.
The album received a mostly positive reception from music critics and reached number 6 in the United Kingdom, 7 in Canada, and 10 in the United States. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling one million copies in the latter country. A same titled home video was released in 1982 that documents the band on the Moving Pictures tour. Exit…Stage Left was voted the ninth best live album of all time by Classic Rock magazine
“Closer to the Heart”, “Beneath, Between & Behind”, “Jacob’s Ladder” were recorded from June 10–11, 1980 at The Apollo in Glasgow, Scotland, during the band’s supporting tour for their seventh studio album, Permanent Waves. The remaining songs were recorded on March 27, 1981 at The Forum in Montreal, Canada during the subsequent tour of their eighth album, Moving Pictures.
After the 1981 tour, the band retreated to Le Studio in Morin Heights in Quebec, Canada to edit and mix the recordings they had made on the two tours, which Peart noted totalled over 50 reels of two-inch tape.
Upon the album’s completion, Peart said the group were happier with Exit…Stage Left than with their first live album All the World’s a Stage, noting that the latter suffered from uneven sound quality. Lifeson thought the album sounded too clean and not as raw as All the World’s a Stage. Nevertheless, the album remains a fan favorite.
An item from each of Rush’s previous eight studio album covers can be seen on the front and back cover (of the CD booklet) of this live album, though each has been modified in some way. The snowy owl from Fly by Night flies above Apollo, the man in the suit from Hemispheres, who stands next to Paula Turnbull, the woman from Permanent Waves. The puppet king from A Farewell to Kings sits atop a box stenciled with the band logo from Rush. Next to him is a painting of the Caress of Steel album cover, held by one of the movers from Moving Pictures, with another mover standing behind. Next to this is Dionysus, the nude man from Hemispheres. Behind this scene, the starman from 2112 hangs in the background, next to an “EXIT” sign. The scene was shot in Toronto‘s then-abandoned Winter Garden Theatre. Rush’s first live album, All the World’s a Stage, is also represented by the cover’s background image, taken at a concert at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York. Both album covers show Rush’s live setup on an empty stage, although the band no longer used the white carpet by the time of Exit…Stage Left‘s release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuHS-gjMiVw
To many fans, 1981’s double live Exit…Stage Left remains the ultimate in-concert album released during the long and distinguished career of Canadian icons and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Rush. Which stands to reason, since it was released on the heels of the group’s best-selling and arguably definitive studio album, Moving Pictures, which had truly pushed the band into the mainstream upon its February release.
As guitarist Alex Lifeson told author Martin Popoff in his Rush tome, Contents Under Pressure: “When Moving Pictures came out, and we went on tour, that’s when everything changed … that was really the big turning point.” As Lifeson revealed, later in the same interview, the band had still been in debt until the unprecedented success enjoyed by radio singles like “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight,” stating “we were offered to re-sign, renegotiate, redo our deal. That’s when a lot of those sorts of worries were dispelled.”
But live versions of many songs from their first four records — 1974 debut, 75’s Fly by Nightand Caress of Steel, and ’76’s breakthrough 2112 — were already featured on 1976’s All The World’s a Stage. Except for early fan-favorites “Closer to the Heart”, “Beneath, Between & Behind”, “Jacob’s Ladder”,” Exit…Stage Left would focus on the next four LPs: ’77’s A Farewell to Kings, ’78’s Hemispheres, ’80s Permanent Waves and, finally, Moving Pictures — effectively documenting Rush’s transition from technically-driven progressive rock ensemble to hit-making art-rockers, while somehow allowing both dimensions to coexist peacefully.
To wit, the economical “The Spirit of Radio” and “Red Barchetta” shared side one with an expanded “YYZ,” as the instrumental now housed Peart’s drum solo. Then come the aforementioned older tunes and a sparkling “Closer to the Heart” indulged the eight-minute dramatics of “Jacob’s Ladder,” while side three paired the trippy but nippy “The Trees” (prefaced by a brief, acoustic Lifeson intro titled “Broon’s Bane,” dedicated to long suffering producer Terry Brown) with the 12-minute adventures of “Xanadu.” Then we have the studio-faithful renditions of “Freewill” and “Tom Sawyer” with the challenging instrumental epic, “La Villa Strangiato.”
Unveiled on Oct.29, just in time for the holiday season, Exit…Stage Left shot to No. 10 on the Billboard album chart, slowly making its way to platinum sales thereafter, and yet not everyone was entirely satisfied with the album’s sound in the long run — namely Geddy Lee. When speaking to Popoff in Contents Under Pressure, Lee regretted the band’s perfectionism whilst mixing the live LP in the studio, saying, “That one was an attempt to kind of exaggerate how perfect you could make a live album. There was a lot of meddling with the tapes and trying to make sure we had the best performances. We also made a conscious effort to pull down the audience a bit and emphasize the music.”
Well, although Lee’s honesty is certainly appreciated, the vast majority of Rush’s fans were only too happy to embrace this masterful compendium of their favorite band in top on-stage form — to say nothing of the the cover art’s “Where’s Waldo”-like exercise in identifying key art from previous albums (e.g. the young lady from Permanent Waves, the owl from Fly by Night, etc.). Then there was the matter of Exit…Stage Left‘s title, which was plucked from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Snagglepuss, and revealed Rush’s underrated sense of humor to all those who just assumed the trio took themselves too seriously.
It’s thanks to all of these qualities that Exit…Stage Left went down as such a definitive release in Rush’s career — and in the hearts and minds of their loyal fans.
Check the www.yperano.com site for more RUSH vinyl records, CDs (and T-shirts, tour programs)
Check the www.yperano.com site for more RUSH vinyl records, CDs (and T-shirts, tour programs)