Rush instrumentals
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The Canadian Progressive Rock trio Rush has written, recorded, and performed several instrumentals throughout its career. This article includes information about each of them.
Contents |
[edit] 2112
[edit] Overture
"2112 Overture" opens up one of Rush's most popular concept suites. It features one of the first uses of synthesizer by the band in addition to light acoustic guitar toward the end. Geddy Lee's voice is recorded as an instrument in the early parts of the Overture, as he sings no words. However, there is, despite the Overture's overall instrumental nature, only one line sung at the end of the Overture as the piece transitions to "The Temples of Syrinx": "And the meek shall inherit the earth."
[edit] Grand Finale
Like the Overture, the Grand Finale of 2112 features some of the band's most "intense" music of the 1970s. It also includes some spoken (not sung) lines at the end: "Attention all planets of the Solar Federation: We have assumed control."
[edit] La Villa Strangiato
| "La Villa Strangiato" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Song by Rush | ||
| from the album Hemispheres | ||
| Released | October 28, 1978 | |
| Genre | Progressive Rock | |
| Length | 9:34 | |
| Label | Anthem Records (Canada) Mercury Records | |
| Producer(s) | Rush & Terry Brown | |
| Hemispheres track listing | ||
| "The Trees" (3) | "La Villa Strangiato" (4) | End of Album |
An instrumental from the Hemispheres album that is almost ten minutes long. The instrumental's subtitle is "An exercise in Self-Indulgence". The song was inspired by a dream guitarist Alex Lifeson had, and the parts to the song and the music in these parts act out the occurrences in his dream. The opening segment was played with a plectrum on a nylon-string classical guitar, while the live versions were played on an electric guitar. This segment is basically a Spanish-flavored tour-de-force based on E Phrygian. The next segment introduces the main theme of La Villa, the Strangiato theme. The song progresses to include an increasingly complex guitar solo backed by string synthesizer, followed closely by bass and drum fills. The Strangiato theme is then revisted before the song ends abruptly with phased bass and drums. The song is divided as follows:
- I: "Buenos Nochas, Mein Froinds!" - (0:00)
- II: "To sleep, perchance to dream..." - (0:27)
- III: "Strangiato theme" - (2:00)
- IV: "A Lerxst in Wonderland" - (3:16)
- V: "Monsters!" - (5:49)
- VI: "The Ghost of the Aragon" - (6:10)
- VII: "Danforth and Pape" - (6:45)
- VIII: "The Waltz of the Shreves" - (7:26)
- IX: "Never turn your back on a Monster!" - (7:52)
- X: "Monsters! (Reprise)" - (8:03)
- XI: "Strangiato theme (Reprise)" - (8:17)
- XII: "A Farewell to Things" - (9:20)
"Monsters" contains segments of the song "Powerhouse" by Raymond Scott.
Live versions of "La Villa Strangiato" have often featured certain additions—for instance, in Exit...Stage Left, Geddy Lee sings nonsense lyrics in one portion of the song, while on recent tours, as documented on Rush in Rio, a pause is inserted in the song for Alex Lifeson to make a stream-of-consciousness rant.
The studio version was allegedly recorded (after thorough rehearsal) in a single take, without overdubs. However according to an interview with Neil Peart in Modern Drummer magazine, Peart states that after many attempts to do a single take on this very complex piece, none of them measured up and ended up using 3 takes edited together.[citation needed]
According to Rush: Visions: The Official Biography by Bill Banasiewicz, "La Villa Strangiato" translates roughly to "Weird City".
[edit] YYZ
From the Moving Pictures album. YYZ is the airport code for the Toronto International Airport, and the instrumental opens with a rhythm in 10/8 that is actually the Morse code for "YYZ" (-.-- -.-- --..). The piece evolved into a drum/bass solo during future tours, and is one of Rush's most popular instrumentals. "YYZ" was the first of four Rush songs (over three decades) to be nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance. It was nominated in 1981, losing to The Police's Behind My Camel.
[edit] Broon's Bane
Found on the Exit...Stage Left live album, "Broon's Bane" is a short classical guitar arrangement performed by Alex Lifeson as an extended intro to "The Trees". The song is named after Terry Brown (Brown is also referred to as "T.C. Broonsie" during the intro to Jacob's Ladder) who produced Exit...Stage Left and ten other Rush albums. It is not featured on any other live or studio recording by Rush.
[edit] Where's My Thing?
| "Where's My Thing? (Part IV, "Gangster of Boats" Trilogy)" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Single by Rush | ||
| from the album Roll the Bones | ||
| Released | 1991 | |
| Recorded | 1991 | |
| Genre | Pop Rock | |
| Length | 3:49 | |
| Producer(s) | Rupert Hine and Rush | |
| Rush singles chronology | ||
| "Bravado" (1992) | "Where's My Thing?" (1992) | "Stick it Out" (1993) |
From the Roll the Bones album. The subtitle for this instrumental is "Part IV, 'Gangster of Boats' Trilogy." Neil Peart has explained this as a joke — there are only three items in a trilogy, not four (though, some examples beg to differ, such as a common calling of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a five-part trilogy, so such oddities like the "Gangster of Boats" trilogy could take place). "Gangster of Boats" comes from the persistent threat from Geddy and Alex to title an album Gangster of Boats and never became an actual "concept" the same way that Rush's "Fear" trilogy had. [1] Where's My Thing? was the second song nominated for a Grammy, in 1991, losing to Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover.
[edit] Leave That Thing Alone
From the Counterparts album. During the Counterparts, Test for Echo, and Vapor Trails tours, "Leave that Thing Alone" preceded Neil Peart's drum solo. The live version of the song featured more prominent bass when compared to the studio version. "Leave That Thing Alone" was the third song nominated for a Grammy, in 1994, losing to Pink Floyd's "Marooned".
[edit] Limbo
From the Test for Echo album. Like the "2112 Overture", "Limbo" features vocals by Geddy Lee; however, his voice is being used as an instrument because he is not singing any words, allowing the song to be categorized as an instrumental. The song also includes samples from Bobby "Boris" Pickett oldie The Monster Mash, 'Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist' & 'Ahh, Mash Good!'.
[edit] R30 Overture
The opening song of Rush's 2004 tour dates featured an instrumental combining sections of one song from each of the band's first six albums.
The songs featured in the medley were:
- Finding My Way (Rush)
- Anthem (Fly by Night)
- Bastille Day (Caress of Steel)
- A Passage to Bangkok (2112)
- Cygnus X-1 Prologue (A Farewell to Kings)
- Hemispheres Prelude (Hemispheres)
[edit] Neil Peart's drum solos
A staple and highlight of Rush's concerts is a drum solo by Neil Peart. These solos have been featured on every live album released by the band. On the early live albums (All the World's a Stage and Exit...Stage Left), the drum solo was included as part of a song ("Working Man/Finding My Way" and "YYZ", respectively). On all subsequent live albums, the drum solo has been included on a separate track. On A Show of Hands and Different Stages, the drum solos were titled "The Rhythm Method" (a pun on the form of birth control); on Rush in Rio, it was entitled "O Baterista"; on R30 Live In Frankfurt it was titled "Der Trommler" (the last two titles are nods to the native language of the country in which the album was recorded - Portuguese and German, respectively, and translate to "The Drummer"). (Actually, the idiomatic German word for a drummer playing a drumkit ("Schlagzeug") is "ein Schlagzeuger", not "ein Trommler" --- the latter is somebody who plays a single drum in, e.g., a marching band.) O Baterista was the fourth song nominated for a Grammy, in 2004, losing to Brian Wilson's Mrs. O'Leary's Cow.
All of Peart's drum solos include a basic framework of routines connected by sections of improvisation, leaving each performance unique. Each successive tour sees the solo more advanced, with some routines dropped in favor of newer, more complex ones. Since the mid-late 1980s Peart has utilized MIDI trigger pads to trigger sounds sampled from various pieces of acoustic percussion that would otherwise consume far too much stage area, such as a marimba, harp, temple blocks, triangles, glockenspiel, orchestra bells, tubular bells, and vibra-slap as well as other, more esoteric percussion. Some purely electronic, description-defying sounds are also used. All are incorporated into each drum solo.
Peart has utilized the marimba section of one of his solo tracks titled "Pieces of Eight" (which first appeared as a flexidisc record found in the May 1987 issue of Modern Drummer magazine) in every solo since 1987-88. Tours since the 1989 studio release of Presto have included a complex pattern from the song "Scars" as part of the solo. Another of Peart's marimba-based solo tracks, titled "Momo's Dance Party", has been used as part of the solo since the 1996 tour in support of Test for Echo. Since the Vapor Trails tour, each solo has been concluded with a section of the Count Basie standard "One o'Clock Jump", which Peart recorded while producing Burning For Buddy, a two-volume tribute album to legendary big band drummer and bandleader, Buddy Rich.
| Rush |
| Geddy Lee | Alex Lifeson | Neil Peart |
| John Rutsey |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums: Rush | Fly by Night | Caress of Steel | 2112 | All the World's a Stage | A Farewell to Kings | Hemispheres | Permanent Waves | Moving Pictures | Exit...Stage Left | Signals | Grace Under Pressure | Power Windows | Hold Your Fire | A Show of Hands | Presto | Roll the Bones | Counterparts | Test for Echo | Different Stages | Vapor Trails | Rush in Rio | Feedback (EP) |
| Compilations: Archives | Chronicles | Retrospective I | Retrospective II | The Spirit of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987 | Gold |
| Related articles |
| The Rush Portal
Rush discography | Rush music videos | History of Rush | Rush instrumentals | Victor | My Favorite Headache | A Work In Progress | Anatomy of A Drum Solo | "Fear" Series | Cygnus X-1 Series |
