Exit...Stage Left

Infobox Album | Name = Exit...Stage Left
Type = Live album

Artist = 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
Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:lb4uak1k5m3x link]
* "Rolling Stone" Rating|2|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=21467 link]
Last album = "Moving Pictures"
(1981)
This album = "Exit...Stage Left"
(1981)
Next album = "Signals"
(1982)

"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.

Track listing

All songs written by Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, except where noted.
# "The Spirit of Radio" – 5:11
# "Red Barchetta" – 6:46
# "YYZ/drum solo" (Lee, Peart)/(Peart) – 7:43
# "A Passage to Bangkok" – 3:45 *
# "Closer to the Heart" (Lifeson, Lee, Peart, Peter Talbot) – 3:08
# "Beneath, Between & Behind" (Lifeson, Peart) – 2:34
# "Jacob's Ladder" – 8:46
# "Broon's Bane" (Lifeson) – 1:37
# "The Trees" – 4:50
# "Xanadu" – 12:09
# "Freewill" – 5:31
# "Tom Sawyer" (Lifeson, Lee, Peart, Pye Dubois) – 4:59
# "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 75 minutes at the time. The track did appear on the original LP, 8-track cartridge and cassette issues, and was later included in the remastered CD, when CD times had increased to 80 minutes.

Personnel

* Geddy Lee - bass and rhythm guitars, synthesizers, vocals
* Alex Lifeson - electric and acoustic guitars
* Neil Peart - drums, percussion

Notes

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 scene is on the left side of the stage, thus "Exit...Stage Left" which is of a photo of a concert in Buffalo, New York at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium."Exit...Stage Left" was voted 9th best live album of all time in a poll by Classic Rock Magazine in 2004 [BBC News Entertainment [http://news.billinge.com/1/hi/entertainment/music/3526300.stm Thin Lizzy top live album poll] Accessed 16 April 2006.]

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

ingles

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) with THE RUSH REMASTERS printed in all caps just to the left. All remasters from Moving Pictures through to Hold Your Fire are like this. This is just like the cover art of Retrospective II.
* 1. Includes the track A Passage to Bangkok which was left off the original CD issue due to time constraints, as CDs could only hold 75 minutes at the time, but later increased to 80 minutes. The track also appears in the LP, 8-track cartridge and cassette issues.

The vinyl LP version had two LP's with all songs included.

References