All the World's a Stage (album)

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All the World's a Stage
Live album by
Rush
ReleasedSeptember 29, 1976 (1976-09-29)
RecordedJune 11–13, 1976
VenueMassey Hall, Toronto
Genre
Length79:32
LabelMerucry
ProducerRush, 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 link
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide link

All the World's a Stage is a double live album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in September 1976 by Mercury Records. The album was recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto on June 11–13, 1976, during the band's breakthrough 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".

Content[edit]

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.[3]

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[edit]

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.[4]

Reissues[edit]

A remaster was issued in 1997.

  • The tray has a picture of the star with man painting (mirroring the cover art of Retrospective I) with "The Rush Remasters" printed in all capital letters just to the left. All remasters from Rush through Permanent Waves are like this.
  • The original CD omitted "What You're Doing" and the post-show chatter due to recording length constraints (CDs could hold only 75 minutes at the time). By 1997, however, advances in recording technology had increased that maximum time to 80 minutes; the missing song and chatter are included in the remaster. Prior to its release, the same live version of "What You're Doing" was included on the compilation Chronicles in 1990.
  • The album's original triple gatefold artwork with concert pictures is included with the remaster.

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.[5]

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.[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]

Track listing[edit]

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 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[edit]

  • Geddy Lee – lead vocals, bass guitar
  • Alex Lifeson – guitar, vocals
  • Neil Peart – drums, percussion
  • Terry Brown – engineer
  • Hugh Syme – design
  • George Graves – mastering on original album
  • Bob Ludwig – remastering

Charts[edit]

Chart (1976-1977) Peak
position
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[8] 6
US Billboard 200[9] 40

Certifications[edit]

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[10] Platinum 100,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[11] Silver 60,000^
United States (RIAA)[12] Platinum 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The Great Rock Discography".
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
  3. ^ "The real story behind how Rush made a Farewell to Kings".
  4. ^ Music Canada, Gold Platinum Database. http://www.musiccanada.com/GPSearchResult.aspx?st=all%20the%20world%27s%20a%20stage&ica=False&sa=rush&sl=&smt=0&sat=-1&ssb=Artist[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Andy VanDette on Remastering 15 Rush Albums | the Masterdisk Record". Archived from the original on 2014-08-23. Retrieved 2014-09-20.
  6. ^ "12 MONTHS OF RUSH: 14 ALBUMS FROM MERCURY ERA FOR RELEASE IN 2015". Rush.com. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  7. ^ "Rush - new 2015 vinyl and hi-res reissues thread". Steve Hoffman Music Forums. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 5146a". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Rush Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  10. ^ "Canadian album certifications – Rush – All the World's a Stage". Music Canada.
  11. ^ "British album certifications – Rush – All the World's a Stage". British Phonographic Industry.
  12. ^ "American album certifications – Rush – All the World's a Stage". Recording Industry Association of America.

External links[edit]

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