Fly by Night (album)

Fly by Night
Studio album by Rush
Released	February 15, 1975
Recorded	December 1974 – January 1975 at Toronto Sound Studios in Toronto, Canada
Genre	Progressive rock, hard rock
Length	37:38
Label	Anthem (Canada) Atlantic (Japan) Epic/Sony (Japan) Mercury
Producer	Rush, Terry Brown
Rush chronology
Rush (1974) Fly by Night (1975) Caress of Steel (1975)
Singles from Fly by Night
"Fly by Night" Released: May 1975 "Making Memories" Released: 1975

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Music Emissions	[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[3]
The Daily Vault	B+[4]

Fly by Night is the second studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in February 1975. Contrary to their previous album, which featured a much more hard rock sound, this album was the first to showcase the progressive rock sound that the band has become renowned for. This release was also the first to feature long-time drummer Neil Peart.

Music and lyrics

After the departure of John Rutsey, who retired from the band due to diabetes and dislike of touring, the band recruited Neil Peart as his replacement. As such, this album marks Neil Peart's first recording with the band. Peart also became the band's main lyricist, leading the band to adopt a more literary lyrical style that differed significantly from their self-titled debut album. The songs "By-Tor & the Snow Dog" and "Rivendell" are examples of the inclusion of fantasy themes into Rush's music. The line-up of Peart, bassist and singer Geddy Lee, and guitarist Alex Lifeson has remained the same ever since.

"By-Tor & the Snow Dog" was inspired by Rush roadie Howard Ungerleider's story of him staying at Anthem records manager Ray Danniels's house, where Danniels's German Shepherd growled at him, and a tiny dog also owned by Danniels tried to jump on him. Ungerleider told the band members about the incident, which they found hilarious.

"Anthem" features lyrics inspired by elements of the philosophy of Ayn Rand, whose influence on Peart's writing would reach its apogee on Rush's 1976 album 2112. The autobiographical title track is based on Peart's experience of moving from Canada to London as a young musician (before joining Rush). The original hand-penned lyrics for both "Anthem" and "Fly by Night" include different or additional lyrics not sung in the original songs. The original lyrics to "Fly by Night" include a prologue which is not found in the recorded version of the song.

On the original vinyl release, the chimes heard at the end of "By-Tor & the Snow Dog" continue into the locked groove, and thus play indefinitely on manual record players.

Production details

Fly by Night was recorded at Toronto Sound Studios on Overlea Boulevard in Toronto. Rush also recorded parts of their first album at the same studio. Since the first album sessions, the studio had upgraded its equipment from a Cadac console with an Ampex MM-1000 two-inch 16-track and a MM-1000 8-track, to a two-inch analog 24-track master tape recorder. Pictures shown on the album artwork indicate that the studio used a 24-track recorder made by Studer and a Neve mixing console, a combination that was widely considered to be state-of-the-art by audio engineers. These were the preferred brands by many top studios worldwide up through the mid-1990s when digital recording equipment became the standard. Fly by Night is the band's first album to be produced by Terry Brown, who had remixed the band's debut album. Brown would maintain this role through 1982's Signals. The high fidelity recording of Fly by Night helped move the band forward in a direction that piqued the interest of audiophiles, who would seek out this type of recording while also getting familiar with the band's material. It set an early standard of excellence in this area not often prioritized by the harder rock bands of the mid-1970s rock era.

Track listing

Personnel

• Geddy Lee – lead vocals, bass guitar, classical guitar
• Alex Lifeson – guitars
• Neil Peart – drums, percussion

Chart positions

Sales certifications

Singles

Discography

Remaster details

A remaster was issued in 1997. It was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette as part of the three-volume "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. In addition to the standard audio CD, the album was also included on an audio DVD in the Sector 1 set, remixed into 5.1 surround sound.^[5]

Fly By Night was remastered for vinyl in 2015 by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion.^[6] The high definition master prepared for this release was also made available for purchase in 24-bit/96 kHz and 24-bit/192 kHz formats, at several high-resolution audio online music stores. These masters have significantly less dynamic range compression than the 1997 remasters and the "Sector" remasters by Andy VanDette.^[7]

External links

• Official Rush Home Page

References