Exit...Stage Left Cover Art
Live album by Rush
Released - October 1981
Recorded - June 10-11, 1980 at The Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland; March 27, 1981 at The Forum, Montreal
Genre - Progressive rock, hard rock, heavy metal
Length - 76:36
Label - Anthem (Canada), Mercury
Producer - Terry Brown
Professional reviews
• Allmusic link
• Rolling Stone link
Exit...Stage Left is a live album by Canadian band Rush, released in 1981. A video release with the same name, with slightly different content, was released in 1982 on VHS and later on Laserdisc, and in 2007 on DVD.
The album was voted 9th best live album of all time in a poll by Classic Rock Magazine in 2004.[1]
Contents
• 1 Track listing
• 2 Contributes and Changes
• 3 Personnel
• 4 Title and cover art
• 5 Charts
• 6 Singles
• 7 Remaster details
• 8 References
Track listing
All songs written by Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, except where noted.
1. "The Spirit of Radio" – 5:11
2. "Red Barchetta" – 6:46
3. "YYZ" (Lee, Peart) – 7:43 (includes a Peart drum solo)
4. "A Passage to Bangkok" – 3:45 *
5. "Closer to the Heart" (Lifeson, Lee, Peart, Peter Talbot) – 3:08
6. "Beneath, Between & Behind" (Lifeson, Peart) – 2:34
7. "Jacob's Ladder" – 8:46
8. "Broon's Bane" (Lifeson) – 1:37
9. "The Trees" – 4:50
10. "Xanadu" – 12:09
11. "Freewill" – 5:31
12. "Tom Sawyer" (Lifeson, Lee, Peart, Pye Dubois) – 4:59
13. "La Villa Strangiato" – 9:37
Tracks 1-3 and 8-13 of the original vinyl were recorded in Canada during the Moving Pictures tour, while tracks 4-7 were recorded in the UK during the Permanent Waves tour.
* The original CD issue did not include "A Passage to Bangkok" due to time constraints, as CDs could only hold 74 minutes at the time. The track did appear on the original LP, 8-track cartridge and cassette issues, and was later included on the remastered CD, when CD times had increased to 80 minutes.
Contributes and Changes
"YYZ" is expanded from 4:30 to 7:00 by an extended Neil Peart drum solo. (* Eddy_litE needs to comment here: “And what a drumsolo! THE drumsolo!!”) In "La Villa Strangiato," the introductory acoustic guitar solo from the original recording is played on electric guitar, and Lee adds a short bass solo near the end of the piece.
Personnel
• Geddy Lee - bass and rhythm guitars, synthesizers, vocals
• Alex Lifeson - electric and acoustic guitars
• Neil Peart - drums, percussion
Title and cover art
The title is from the signature catchphrase "Exit, stage left!" of the Hanna-Barbera pink mountain lion cartoon character Snagglepuss.
The whole title came from a character in an American cartoon called Snagglepuss.
He's a great little creature, a lion, and every time there's trouble he flees, uttering 'Exit...stage left' or 'Exit...stage right'. But the fact of the matter was that the album cover picture was taken from stage left. And coincidentally that's the direction in which Snagglepuss runs most of the time.
—Geddy Lee, Sounds magazine #66, November 1981
We wanted to have Snagglepuss's tail on there. You know, 'Exit Stage Left', with a picture of just his tail. Forget it! They wanted all kinds of legal hassles and tons of money.
—Neil Peart, Jam! Showbiz, October 16, 1996
An item from each of Rush's previous eight studio album covers can be seen on the cover of this live album. The owl from Fly by Night flies above Apollo, the man in the suit from Hemispheres, who stands next to the woman from Permanent Waves. The puppet king from A Farewell to Kings sits atop a box stenciled with the "Rush" 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. This entire foreground scene, shot in Toronto's then-abandoned Winter Garden Theatre, is on the left side of the stage, thus "Exit...Stage Left".
Rush's prior live album, All the World's a Stage, is also duly represented via the cover's background image - a photo of a concert in Buffalo, New York at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Both album covers show Rush's live setup without anyone on-stage, including their white shag carpet, which they actually stopped using prior to the release of Exit...Stage Left.
Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)
Year Chart Position
1981 Billboard's Pop Albums 10
Singles Information
"Tom Sawyer"
• Released:
• Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart & Pye Dubois
• Produced by: Terry Brown
• Chart positions:
"Closer to the Heart"
• Released:
• Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart & Peter Talbot
• Produced by: Terry Brown
• Chart positions: #69 US Hot 100; #7 US Mainstream Rock
Remaster details
A remaster was issued in 1997.
• The tray has a picture of three fingerprints, light blue, pink, and lime green (left to right, mirroring the cover art of Retrospective II) with "The Rush Remasters" printed in all capital letters just to the left. All remasters from Moving Pictures through A Show of Hands are like this.
• Includes the track "A Passage to Bangkok" which was left off the original CD issue due to time constraints.
References
1. ^ BBC News Entertainment Thin Lizzy top live album poll
Accessed 16 April 2006.
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Notes on this release:
New vinyltransfer using the original first German Mercury/Phonogram pressing.
This release is the best sounding version I know exsists. It uses the original US stampers as mastered by Bill Kipper. Though some might prefer the Robert (Bob) Ludwig mastered version, but it is near impossible to find a copy with all sides mastered by him. And all in all, I’m quite fond of the work Bill has done. He’s done many of the pressings that note Bob Ludwig as the mastering engineer, while Bill’s markings are etched in the vinyl. Over the years I came to appreciate Bill’s full bodied, yet well balanced and fine detailed signature. This one simply sounds stunning!
Quality of record is simply pristine. It has been barely played before this rip because when I bought my albums back in the day I usually made a copy to a Nakamichi tapedeck (truly miss that beast some days!) and played that.
My transfers are straight rips and I never use any EQ - NR - or level changes on my rips - unless otherwise noted –
Enjoy!
EddylitE - december 2009
©2009 - Hipper than Hell Records * Eddy_litE appears courtesy of himself * You have been Aped
"The music in these files was originally recorded on analog equipment.
We have attempted to preserve, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording.
Because of it's high resolution, however, these files can reveal limitations of the source."
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Turn Me Up!™
To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performances this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (www.TurnMeUp.org)
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