Exit...Stage Left

Exit...Stage Left
Live album by Rush
Released October 29, 1981
June 3, 1997 (remastered CD)
Recorded June 10–11, 1980 at The Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland (Side 2); March 27, 1981 at The Forum, Montreal (the rest of the album)
Genre Progressive rock, hard rock
Length 76:36
Label Anthem (Canada)
Atlantic (Japan)
Epic/Sony (Japan)
Mercury
Producer Terry Brown
Rush chronology

Moving Pictures
(1981)		 Exit...Stage Left
(1981)		 Signals
(1982)
Singles from Exit...Stage Left
  1. "Closer to the Heart (Live)"
    Released: 1981
  2. "A Passage to Bangkok (Live)"
    Released: 1982
  3. "Tom Sawyer (Live)"
    Released: 1982
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Rolling Stone [2]

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.[3]

Album editing and changes

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. Before the remastered version was released, the same live version of "A Passage to Bangkok" was released on the compilation Chronicles in 1990.

Track listing

All songs written by Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, except where noted.

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "The Spirit of Radio"   5:11
2. "Red Barchetta"   6:46
3. "YYZ" (Lee, Peart; includes a Peart drum solo) 7:43
Side two
No. Title Length
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
Side three
No. Title Length
8. "Broon's Bane" (Lifeson) 1:37
9. "The Trees"   4:50
10. "Xanadu"   12:09
Side four
No. Title Length
11. "Freewill"   5:31
12. "Tom Sawyer" (Lifeson, Lee, Peart, Pye Dubois) 4:59
13. "La Villa Strangiato"   9:37

Live changes from studio versions

"YYZ" is extended from 4:24 (studio version) to 7:45 by a Neil Peart drum solo from 2:22 to 5:31. The second verse of "Beneath, Between, & Behind" is omitted. The introductory classical guitar solo from the original recording of "La Villa Strangiato" is played on electric guitar and doubled in length. This live change is recognized by iTunes, on the iTunes essential Live Guitar Heroics. Lee sings part of a nursery rhyme in Yiddish[4] during the "Danforth and Pape" section; the liner notes include a translation of his words. Also, a short bass and percussion solo is added to the end of "Monsters! (Reprise)".

Personnel

Title and cover art

The title is from the signature catchphrase "Exit, stage left!" of the Hanna-Barbera pink mountain lion cartoon character Snagglepuss (coincidentally, Time Warner, former owners of Rush's later label Atlantic Records, owns the H-B properties today). The term "stage left" is a stage direction used in blocking to identify the left side of a theater from the point of view of the performer, as opposed to the point of view of the audience.

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 front and back cover of this live album, though each has been modified in some way. The 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.[5] 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 (from the point of view of the artist), 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 Top LPs & Tapes 10

Singles

A Passage to Bangkok / Freewill (USA 12" promo)

Closer to the Heart / Freewill (USA 7") (#69 Billboard Hot 100; #21 US Mainstream Rock)

Closer to the Heart / The Trees (UK 7")

Tom Sawyer / A Passage to Bangkok (UK 7")

Tom Sawyer / Red Barchetta / A Passage to Bangkok (UK 12")

Remaster details

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Rolling Stone review
  3. ↑ BBC News Entertainment Thin Lizzy top live album poll Accessed 16 April 2006.
  4. ↑ "Notes on Exit...Stage Left linernotes". Power Windows (Rush tribute page). Retrieved 08/01/2012. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ↑ "Permanent Waves Album Cover Details Explained". 2112.net. November 29, 2009. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  6. ↑ http://www.themasterdiskrecord.com/2011/11/andy-vandette-on-remastering-14-rush-albums