rocky chains
Member
A little thought exercise for my Rush brain to share. We all know that Rush had an ethic of playing chunks of their latest album when on tour. To keep within their set list time constraints, that usually meant shedding older songs in the setlist from past tours. Some songs appeared on the album debut tour, were kicked out, and never returned. These songs are like orphans, exiled from the setlist family. Some songs were pushed out after a tour, but returned later, like for a Thanksgiving holiday visit. Like Jacob's Ladder, which came back for a visit on R40. Or Ghost of a Chance, Circumstances, and Digital Man that all returned for a little family time on the Snakes and Arrows tour.
I was wondering today, while listening to Chemistry from a Signals tour bootleg, which songs, like Chemistry, were performed only once on the album tour and then dropped forever from the set. True orphans. This is what I came up with:
First LP — from the true first LP tour, and I would say from the point where Neil joined the band, I think these songs were performed but then dropped forever after Fly By Night tour commenced: Here Again and Fancy Dancer. And I guess Garden Road (R40 tour snippet notwithstanding). Note - this is not necessarily a fair exercise for this tour, because both of those songs were likely played for a year or longer prior to the first LP being issued. So they had already had a long run of love from the band.
Fly By Night — No songs performed on this tour were permanently dropped. (For example Beneath, Between, and Behind reemerged in 1980/81.)
Caress of Steel — I Think I'm Going Bald was performed only on the Caress tour.
2112 — Twilight Zone never returned. Technically it was not on the 2112 tour, but surfaced for a little time on the All the World's Stage tour, which was a sort of extension of the 2112 tour. Passage to Bangkok appeared on later tours (Hemispheres, PeW and Snakes and Arrows).
A Farewell to Kings — Cinderella Man was performed only on the AFTK tour and never returned.
Permanent Waves — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped. However, Entres Nous made a one-off future appearance on the Snakes and Arrows tour.
Moving Pictures — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped. Witch Hunt didn't debut until the GUP tour and it remained through Power
Windows and came back again for Snakes and Arrows and Time Machine.
Signals — Countdown and Chemistry were performed on this tour only, never to reappear. Losing It made a future one-off appearance much later on the R40 Tour.
Grace Under Pressure — Afterimage, Kid Gloves, and The Enemy Within never returned.
Power Widows — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped.
Hold Your Fire — Lock and Key, Prime Mover, and Turn the Page never returned.
Presto — Scars and War Paint never returned. Presto made a future one-off appearance later on the Time Machine tour.
Roll the Bones — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped.
Counterparts — Double Agent and Cold Fire never returned. Between Sun and Moon made a future one-off appearance later on the Vapor Trails tour.
Test For Echo — Half the World, Limbo, Test For Echo, Virtuality, and Time and Motion never returned.
Vapor Trails — Earthshine, Ceiling Unlimited, Ghost Rider never returned. How It Is made a one-off appearance on the R40 tour.
Feedback — The Seeker, Heart Full of Soul, and Crossroads never returned.
Snakes and Arrows — Larger Bowl, Armour and Sword, Spindrift, The Way the Wind Blows, Malignant Narcissism, and Hope never returned. Faithless made a one-off appearance on the Time Machine tour.
Clockwork Angels — Carnies, 7 Cities of Gold, Halo Effect, Wish Them Well, and The Garden didn't return on the R40 tour, the only future tour left for the band at that point. Note that BU2B made a one-off appearance on the pre-album Time Machine tour.
An additional note — Alex had a some solo guitar spots that were one and done (Hope on S&A tour, O'Malley's Break on Time Machine, and Peke's Repose on Clockwork Angels tour). Of course, Broon's Bane straddled two tours. Neil's drum solos morphed over time and it seemed like each tour retained a lot of the patterns/styles/approaches from the prior tour, while also always bringing in something new and dropping some older bits.
Final reflections -- Not all albums were treated the same on a tour. Some albums had a big percentage performed on the debut tour (AFTK, Hemispheres, PeW, MP, Signals, GUP, PoW, ). Some albums got short changed on their debut tours (Caress and 2112 likely due to shorter set times, Roll the Bones, Counterparts, and Vapor Trails due to the longer times and greater number of songs on CD releases).
It's striking that Roll the Bones had only a small handful of songs performed, but they had staying power. Dreamline, Roll the Bones, and Bravado in particular.
Test for Echo and Snakes and Arrows had a big slab of songs performed on their tours that were subsequently orphaned.
Fly By Night (the album, not the song) seems to have a special place in the band's heart, given the persistence of By-Tor, Anthem, and In the End in the set in the early years; the resurfacing of In the End and B,B,&B in 1980/1981, and Anthem and By-Tor popping up post mid-1990s.
Test For Echo is the only album that had no durable song, in terms of set list presence. Of the 7 songs performed only Driven and Resist (refashioned as an acoustic number) returned, and then, only for a single tour for Driven, and two tours for the refashioned acoustic Resist. Feedback is similar but it is an anomaly for obvious reasons. All the other albums had durable setlist songs that became entrenched, lingered, or kept reappearing - like In the Mood, By-Tor, Bastille Day, 2112, Xanadu, The Trees, Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer, Subdivisions, Red Sector A, The Big Money, Force Ten, The Pass, Roll the Bones, Animate, One Little Victory, Far Cry, and Headlong Flight.
Did I miss anything?
Cheers.
I was wondering today, while listening to Chemistry from a Signals tour bootleg, which songs, like Chemistry, were performed only once on the album tour and then dropped forever from the set. True orphans. This is what I came up with:
First LP — from the true first LP tour, and I would say from the point where Neil joined the band, I think these songs were performed but then dropped forever after Fly By Night tour commenced: Here Again and Fancy Dancer. And I guess Garden Road (R40 tour snippet notwithstanding). Note - this is not necessarily a fair exercise for this tour, because both of those songs were likely played for a year or longer prior to the first LP being issued. So they had already had a long run of love from the band.
Fly By Night — No songs performed on this tour were permanently dropped. (For example Beneath, Between, and Behind reemerged in 1980/81.)
Caress of Steel — I Think I'm Going Bald was performed only on the Caress tour.
2112 — Twilight Zone never returned. Technically it was not on the 2112 tour, but surfaced for a little time on the All the World's Stage tour, which was a sort of extension of the 2112 tour. Passage to Bangkok appeared on later tours (Hemispheres, PeW and Snakes and Arrows).
A Farewell to Kings — Cinderella Man was performed only on the AFTK tour and never returned.
Permanent Waves — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped. However, Entres Nous made a one-off future appearance on the Snakes and Arrows tour.
Moving Pictures — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped. Witch Hunt didn't debut until the GUP tour and it remained through Power
Windows and came back again for Snakes and Arrows and Time Machine.
Signals — Countdown and Chemistry were performed on this tour only, never to reappear. Losing It made a future one-off appearance much later on the R40 Tour.
Grace Under Pressure — Afterimage, Kid Gloves, and The Enemy Within never returned.
Power Widows — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped.
Hold Your Fire — Lock and Key, Prime Mover, and Turn the Page never returned.
Presto — Scars and War Paint never returned. Presto made a future one-off appearance later on the Time Machine tour.
Roll the Bones — No songs from this tour were permanently dropped.
Counterparts — Double Agent and Cold Fire never returned. Between Sun and Moon made a future one-off appearance later on the Vapor Trails tour.
Test For Echo — Half the World, Limbo, Test For Echo, Virtuality, and Time and Motion never returned.
Vapor Trails — Earthshine, Ceiling Unlimited, Ghost Rider never returned. How It Is made a one-off appearance on the R40 tour.
Feedback — The Seeker, Heart Full of Soul, and Crossroads never returned.
Snakes and Arrows — Larger Bowl, Armour and Sword, Spindrift, The Way the Wind Blows, Malignant Narcissism, and Hope never returned. Faithless made a one-off appearance on the Time Machine tour.
Clockwork Angels — Carnies, 7 Cities of Gold, Halo Effect, Wish Them Well, and The Garden didn't return on the R40 tour, the only future tour left for the band at that point. Note that BU2B made a one-off appearance on the pre-album Time Machine tour.
An additional note — Alex had a some solo guitar spots that were one and done (Hope on S&A tour, O'Malley's Break on Time Machine, and Peke's Repose on Clockwork Angels tour). Of course, Broon's Bane straddled two tours. Neil's drum solos morphed over time and it seemed like each tour retained a lot of the patterns/styles/approaches from the prior tour, while also always bringing in something new and dropping some older bits.
Final reflections -- Not all albums were treated the same on a tour. Some albums had a big percentage performed on the debut tour (AFTK, Hemispheres, PeW, MP, Signals, GUP, PoW, ). Some albums got short changed on their debut tours (Caress and 2112 likely due to shorter set times, Roll the Bones, Counterparts, and Vapor Trails due to the longer times and greater number of songs on CD releases).
It's striking that Roll the Bones had only a small handful of songs performed, but they had staying power. Dreamline, Roll the Bones, and Bravado in particular.
Test for Echo and Snakes and Arrows had a big slab of songs performed on their tours that were subsequently orphaned.
Fly By Night (the album, not the song) seems to have a special place in the band's heart, given the persistence of By-Tor, Anthem, and In the End in the set in the early years; the resurfacing of In the End and B,B,&B in 1980/1981, and Anthem and By-Tor popping up post mid-1990s.
Test For Echo is the only album that had no durable song, in terms of set list presence. Of the 7 songs performed only Driven and Resist (refashioned as an acoustic number) returned, and then, only for a single tour for Driven, and two tours for the refashioned acoustic Resist. Feedback is similar but it is an anomaly for obvious reasons. All the other albums had durable setlist songs that became entrenched, lingered, or kept reappearing - like In the Mood, By-Tor, Bastille Day, 2112, Xanadu, The Trees, Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer, Subdivisions, Red Sector A, The Big Money, Force Ten, The Pass, Roll the Bones, Animate, One Little Victory, Far Cry, and Headlong Flight.
Did I miss anything?
Cheers.
