Rush Archives
Syrinx Computers
Downloads:
Track Listing:
01 - Jacob's Ladder
02 - Xanadu
03 - Synthesizer Tests
04 - Drum Solo
05 - Guitar Solo
06 - Instrumental Tests 1
07 - Instrumental Jam
08 - Bass Solo
09 - Instrumental Tests 2
10 - The Spirit Of Radio
Notes:
- This is a very rare soundcheck recording, as there are only a few known from these relatively early tours.
- This soundcheck captures a very rare and complete early version of Jacob's Ladder.
- While the date and location are unknown, the arrangement of Jacob's Ladder proves it is prior to 1980, and the sound of Neil's new Tama kit further narrows it to September 1979.
This is an audience recording that seems to have never really made its way into common circulation (as of this 2020 writing), and has not made its way onto YouTube like the other better known Rush soundcheck recordings of this era. The first track however, a full performance of Jacob's Ladder, has been on YouTube for several years, labeled as being early version from the late 1979 warm-up tour (Aug 17 - Sept 22), and a video commenter even went as far as claiming he allegedly recorded it himself on December 31st 1979. As we know, Rush WAS playing Jacob's Ladder during the late '79 soundchecks, due to this approx 15 second clip from a 1979 interview. However, when I later located this recording among hundreds of others, the files were labeled as February 18th 1980 in Richfield, Ohio. That isn't hard to believe since the recorded content would have also been played on the Permanent Waves tour of 1980. Yet, it should be kept in mind I've encountered many instances where recordings were mislabeled with incorrect dates and/or locations, though this can usually be solved with a bit of research. In this case, listening to the recording itself doesn't provide any clues to help determine the location, however if you pay very close attention to how Jacob's Ladder is played, the subtle differences make it clear that it is indeed an early version that doesn't quite match the final studio and 1980 live versions, so must be from sometime in late 1979. Furthermore, when the taper is asking Geddy(?) what the name of the song is, I believe the response sounds something along the lines of "there's no name yet", but he definitely isn't saying "Jacob's Ladder".
So clearly there's still a bit of ambiguity about the date of this recording. Part of the problem with the aforementioned December 31 claim is they weren't even on tour that month, so in that case it would be more like rehearsal two weeks before the start of the Permanent Waves tour, which seems odd that they'd be doing a random soundcheck that far in advance. Geddy says "check, one, two" multiple times, and a lot of it is instrumental testing like they were preparing for a performance, so it's not just a practice rehearsal. With my best judgment, it is my opinion that the YouTube commenter claiming he recorded it on December 31 just made it all up. Regardless, it's impossible to determine the location unless we're ever presented with further documentation of its origins. The reason any of this matters is because I believe that archiving this type of material with the proper details is extremely important.
For a few years, I've had this recording labeled with the Richfield 1980 date and location, however, now after listening to the opinions of a few other people, and listening to this recording very closely, I know the 1980 date can not be correct. Another part of the problem I recently realized with the 1980 Richfield date is that there's another completely different soundcheck recording which already goes by that date. So from now on, and maybe forever, this soundcheck will have to be labeled "unknown".
Preview:
