Description

“Tom Sawyer” is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, named for Mark Twains literary character. The song was released on Mercury Records and PolyGram in 1981 on the Moving Pictures album and numerous compilations thereafter, such as 1990s Chronicles. It has also appeared on several live albums and bootlegs. The song relies heavily on Geddy Lees synthesizer playing and the techniques of drummer Neil Peart. Geddy Lee has referred to the track as the bands “defining piece of music…from the early ’80s”. It is one of Rushs best-known songs and is a staple of classic rock radio. It reached 25 in the UK singles chart in October 1981 and in the US peaked at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at 8 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. In 2009 it was named the 19th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. “Tom Sawyer” was one of five Rush songs inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 28, 2010.

Behind The 7″ 😉 – “Tom Sawyer” with Alex Lifeson from Rush

label: Mercury – EXIT 7
Format: Vinyl , 7 “, 45 RPM, single
Country: UK
Released: 1981
Genre: Hard rock , prog rock
Tracklist
A Tom Sawyer
Written-By – Lifeson *, Lee *, Peart *, Dubois *
4:55
B A Passage To Bangkok
Written-By – Lifeson *, Lee *, Peart *
3:44

Marketed By – Phonogram
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Polygram Records, Inc.
Published By – Heath Levy Music Co. Ltd.
Lacquer Cut At – Masterdisk
Pressed By – PRS Ltd.

Producer – Rush , Terry Brown

All titles from the forthcoming album Exit … Stage Left .
Heath-Levy Music Co. Ltd.
(P) Polygram Records Inc.

Original sound recording made by Polygram Records Inc.
Marketed by Phonogram

The song was written by Lee, Peart, and guitarist Alex Lifeson in collaboration with Canadian lyricist Pye Dubois (the lyricist of Max Webster), who also co-wrote other Rush songs such as “Force Ten,” “Between Sun and Moon,” and “Test For Echo.” According to the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard (which devoted an entire episode to the making of Moving Pictures), “Tom Sawyer” came about during a summer rehearsal holiday that Rush spent at Ronnie Hawkins’ farm outside Toronto. Peart was presented with a poem by Dubois named “Louis the Lawyer” (often cited as “Louis the Warrior”)that he modified and expanded. Lee and Lifeson then helped set the poem to music. The unique growling sound heard in the song came from Lees fiddling with his Oberheim OB-X synthesizer.

In the December 1985 Rush Backstage Club newsletter, drummer and lyricist Neil Peart said:
Tom Sawyer was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who wrote the lyrics for Max Webster. His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful. I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be – namely me I guess.
Alex Lifeson describes his guitar solo in “Tom Sawyer” in a 2007 interview:
I winged it. Honest! I came in, did five takes, then went off and had a cigarette. I’m at my best for the first two takes; after that, I overthink everything and I lose the spark. Actually, the solo you hear is comped together from various takes.

In popular culture:
As one of Rushs most recognizable and popular songs, “Tom Sawyer” has become a part of pop culture. The song has been featured in several movies, such as Small Soldiers, I Love You, Man (which also featured “Limelight”), Rob Zombies reimagining of Halloween, Adam Sandlers The Waterboy, and Fanboys (again also along with “Limelight”). In addition to films, it has appeared in television shows including Chuck, Family Guy, Trailer Park Boys, The Hard Times of RJ Berger, Freaks and Geeks, Futurama, Everybody Hates Chris, Regular Show, Wizards of Waverly Place, The Sopranos and Fringe, as well as replacing the original MacGyver theme in its original airing in Brazil.
The band performed the song during an airing of The Colbert Report on July 16, 2008, in their first American television appearance in 33 years

B-side: “A Passage to Bangkok” (UK)
Released: February 28, 1981
Format: 7″
Recorded: October – November 1980 at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec
Genre: Progressive rock, hard rock
Length: 4:33
Label: Mercury
Writer(s): Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson, Pye Dubois
Producer: Rush and Terry Brown

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)