All the World's a Stage (album)

Last updated
All the World's a Stage
Rush ATWAS.jpg
Live album by
ReleasedSeptember 29, 1976 (1976-09-29)
RecordedJune 11–13, 1976
Venue Massey Hall, Toronto
Genre
Length79:32
Label Mercury
Producer Rush, Terry Brown
Rush chronology
2112
(1976)
All the World's a Stage
(1976)
A Farewell to Kings
(1977)
Singles from All the World's a Stage
  1. "Fly by Night/In the Mood (Live)"
    Released: December 1976 [1]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg link
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal 8/8 [2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The Essential Rock Discography 8/10 [4]
MusicHound Rock Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg link
The Virgin Encyclopedia of 80s Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]

All the World's a Stage is a double live album and the first collection of live recordings by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 29, 1976 by Mercury Records. The album was released following the breakthrough success of their fourth studio album 2112 (1976), and was recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto from June 11–13, 1976, during the 2112 tour. The title of the album alludes to William Shakespeare's play As You Like It , and would again be referenced by Rush in the 1981 song "Limelight".

Contents

Content

According to lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, the release of a live album in late 1976 "was definitely something we used to buy us more time" as Rush worked on the studio follow-up to their commercial breakthrough album 2112 , released earlier that same year. [7]

This album captures the entire setlist that was regularly performed during headlining shows of the 2112 tour. However, due to technological limits of approximately 20 minutes per side on vinyl, the positions of "Lakeside Park" and "2112" were swapped with "Fly By Night / In The Mood" and "Something For Nothing".

Due to stage time constraints during the 2112 tour of 1976, this performance of the song "2112" omits the "Discovery" and "Oracle: The Dream" sections of the studio recording. Although the final 32 seconds of "Discovery" are played as a lead-in to "Presentation", the liner notes and track listing do not indicate this. While the entirety of "Discovery" would be performed during the A Farewell To Kings tour of 1977-78 and Hemispheres tour of 1978–79, Rush would not perform the entire suite live until the Test for Echo tour of 1996–97, as documented on the live album Different Stages .

Alternate recordings of "2112" and "Something For Nothing" from the June 11–13 performances were released as part of the 2112: 40th Anniversary box set in 2016.

According to the liner notes, All the World's a Stage marks the end of the "first chapter of Rush" and would begin a trend of Rush releasing a live album after every four studio albums. This lasted until 2003, when the band released a live album and DVD of each subsequent studio album's tour.

Fellow Toronto band Max Webster was the opening act for all 3 Massey Hall performances recorded for the album.

Reception

All the World's a Stage was Rush's first US Top 40-charting album and went gold, alongside A Farewell to Kings and 2112 on November 16, 1977. It was certified platinum in the United States in 1981 after the release of Moving Pictures . In Canada, Gold certification came on December 1, 1976, and platinum on August 1, 1978. [8]

Reissues

A remaster was issued in 1997.

All the World's a Stage was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette for the "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. All the World's a Stage is included in the Sector 1 set. [9]

All the World's a Stage was remastered for vinyl in 2015 by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion. [10] 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. [11]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Neil Peart; all music is composed by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, except where noted.

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Bastille Day" 4:57
2."Anthem" 4:56
3."Fly by Night"/"In the Mood"Peart, Lee/Lee5:03
4."Something for Nothing"Lee, Peart4:02
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Lakeside Park"5:04
2."2112"
I. "Overture"
II. "The Temples of Syrinx"
III. "Discovery"
IV. "Presentation" (Lifeson, Peart)
VI. "Soliloquy"
VII. "Grand Finale"
15:45
Side three
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."By-Tor and the Snow Dog" 11:57
2."In the End"Lifeson, Lee7:13
Side four
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Working Man"/"Finding My Way"Lifeson, Lee/Lifeson, Lee14:56
2."What You're Doing"Lifeson, Lee5:39

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1976-1977)Peak
position
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [12] 6
US Billboard 200 [13] 40

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [14] Platinum100,000^
United Kingdom (BPI) [15] Silver60,000^
United States (RIAA) [16] Platinum1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. Canongate Press. ISBN   978-0-86241-541-9.
  2. Popoff, Martin (October 2003). "Rush — All The World's A Stage (Anthem '76)". The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 1: The Seventies. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 237. ISBN   978-1-8949-5902-5.
  3. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0195313734.
  4. Strong, Martin Charles (2006). "Rush". The Essential Rock Discography (8th ed.). Open City Books. pp. 938–939. ISBN   1-84195-860-3.
  5. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). "Rush". MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 965. ISBN   1-57859-061-2.
  6. Larkin, Colin (2003). "Rush". The Virgin Encyclopedia of 80s Music. Virgin Publishing. pp. 414–415. ISBN   1852279699.
  7. "The real story behind how Rush made a Farewell to Kings". 14 November 2017.
  8. [ permanent dead link ]
  9. "Andy VanDette on Remastering 15 Rush Albums | the Masterdisk Record". Archived from the original on 2014-08-23. Retrieved 2014-09-20.
  10. "12 MONTHS OF RUSH: 14 ALBUMS FROM MERCURY ERA FOR RELEASE IN 2015". Rush.com. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  11. "Rush - new 2015 vinyl and hi-res reissues thread". Steve Hoffman Music Forums. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  12. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 5146a". RPM . Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  13. "Rush Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  14. "Canadian album certifications – Rush – All the World's a Stage". Music Canada.
  15. "British album certifications – Rush – All the World's a Stage". British Phonographic Industry.
  16. "American album certifications – Rush – All the World's a Stage". Recording Industry Association of America.