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Rush's Fly By Night 35th Anniversary!

Permanent Waves

Permanent Waves

Digital Man
On this day in 1975 the hard rock classic Rush album "Fly By Night" was released. :banana:


rush-fly-by-night.jpg



A major milestone for the band, this was the first Rush album to feature Neil Peart as drummer and primary lyricist. It was also the first produced by Terry Brown who would go on to produce every subsequent Rush album through Signals. The album saw Rush develop a much tighter, complex, and more original sound than on their debut album which featured drummer John Rutsey (R.I.P.), much due to the influence of Neil (as Alex and Geddy have mentioned numerous times in interviews in subsequent years). It is, imo, the first "true" Rush album because without Neil there really is no Rush as we know them, as evidenced by the huge leap in song writing ability, individual performance, and lyrics on Fly By Night contrasted with Rush's self titled debut of a year earlier.

Fly By Night is an absolute hard rock classic that not only produced many Rush classics (Anthem, By-Tor and the Snow Dog, Fly By Night, etc.) but ushered in the "classic" period of Rush ('75 to '82) and was the first album to give us a taste of the prog-hard rock sound Rush was to master on subsequent releases.

Happy B-day FBN! :thmbsp:
 
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Could be my favorite Rush album. "In The End", penned by Lee & Lifeson sans Peart, is superb.
 
Mystic said:
"In The End", penned by Lee & Lifeson sans Peart, is superb.
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:yes:

Fly by Night is one of my Rush favorites as well. The solo in By Tor is amazing, as is the drumwork. The FBN album cover is one of the best of any rock albums out there, IMO.
 
I saw them in March of that year, of course it was awesome with Aerosmith as headliners in a opera house seating 2500.
 
Great album. This album is Rush's most underrated album, IMO. 'By-Tor and the Snowdog' is my favorite track off this one.
 
just dave said:
When they used to really ROCK.
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Permanent Waves said:
Says you! :tongue:

Much of their later stuff is heavier, more powerful, and more aggressive than anything on this! :D
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I think Rush still had lots of that blues-rock crunch that characterized the debut album left on Fly by Night. There's still some of that Led Zeppelin feel on songs like Best I Can. Neil was more explosive/loose/really fast on this album, sort of like Keith Moon. Not to say that he lacks these attributes now, but he didn't seem as disciplined or tight on FBN. So there's a defense of Rush rocking harder on FBN. :D

But I'm not going to take the side of Fly By Night being Rush at their hardest rocking. Snakes and Arrows is much harder edged. We can't forget songs like Distant Early Warning and Dreamline if we're going to talk ROCK! :rockon: I'm gonna give Fly By Night a spin to celebrate FBN35. :music:
 
Jailtime said:
I think Rush still had lots of that blues-rock crunch that characterized the debut album left on Fly by Night. There's still some of that Led Zeppelin feel on songs like Best I Can. Neil was more explosive/loose/really fast on this album, sort of like Keith Moon. Not to say that he lacks these attributes now, but he didn't seem as disciplined or tight on FBN. So there's a defense of Rush rocking harder on FBN. :D

But I'm not going to take the side of Fly By Night being Rush at their hardest rocking. Snakes and Arrows is much harder edged. We can't forget songs like Distant Early Warning and Dreamline if we're going to talk ROCK! :rockon: I'm gonna give Fly By Night a spin to celebrate FBN35. :music:
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Really? I'm not hearing that much blues influence on FBN (it's there, but pretty underlying and not so prominent imo), maybe the reason I like it so much more than their debut album (blues is ok, but I'm not a HUGE fan). To me it just seems like streamlined hard/prog rock...but Best I Can (probably my least favorite song on the album) does sound more Zeppelinesque and there is still the Zep influence throughout the album.

If anything sounds "harder" in older Rush it is, to me, Alex's more "metalish" guitar. It's more piercing/wailing/bright/soloing/etc. than some later work when he added more rhythm/texture/depth to his sound and thus his guitar doesn't stand out as much in the mix. But this "blazing" guitar work is, I think, more of a pseudo-hardness; there is, on the surface, more of a "metal" edge that "rocks", but the sound over all is much thinner than the more layered sound he later developed, the sound that's as heavy and powerful and even overwhelming as a locomotive. :yes:

Another example of this "false heaviness" would be, imo, old Iron Maiden compared to newer Maiden (2000's or even 90's). Old Maiden is certainly metal, but though the guitar work shrieks and wails, the overall sound isn't that heavy imo...it's a little weak/thin/anemic. But newer Maiden (especially their last 3 albums), is denser, with more bass, layers, and texture, and thus produces an overall heavier and more powerful sound imo. (Of course some of this has to do with Maiden's sometimes horrid production in the 80's, not that it's ever been all the great, even recently).

I suppose what I am saying is there is a "light metal" sound where the guitars can be wailing and piercing and, on the surface, it is very "rocking", but compared to a heavier more dense sound (as found on Rush's Counterparts, Test For Echo, and especially Vapor Trails and Snakes and Arrows and even on the heavier songs on Grace Under Pressure) it just is not as heavy nor as powerful.


jayk said:
hard to believe they've been around that long. i didn't 'discover' them til '78.
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I didn't until '91! :tears: (But I was only 13/14 then).
 
Permanent Waves said:
I suppose what I am saying is there is a "light metal" sound where the guitars can be wailing and piercing and, on the surface, it is very "rocking", but compared to a heavier more dense sound (as found on Rush's Counterparts, Test For Echo, and especially Vapor Trails and Snakes and Arrows and even on the heavier songs on Grace Under Pressure) it just is not as heavy nor as powerful.
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There is definitely more of the "wall of sound" element in Rush's later work. FBN lacks this element, you can tell that there's just bass, guitar, and drums. Not nearly as complex as something like Leave that Thing Alone. But I love the tone of Alex's guitar on FBN. That solo in By Tor is just mind blowing. He's good enough so it's nice to hear him stand out in the mix once in a while. That's why I like SnA so much, Alex charges to the forefront quite often in that album.
 
So what's the best version of this LP? Original US? UK? Canadian?

Gimme a country, label (Mercury?), catalog number. If yours kicks ass, what's in the deadwax.

Ken
 
KeninDC said:
So what's the best version of this LP? Original US? UK? Canadian?

Gimme a country, label (Mercury?), catalog number. If yours kicks ass, what's in the deadwax.

Ken
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Mine kicks ass! :D It's a Mercury label, catalog # SRM-1-1023. Manufactured in the US by Polygram Records. Only thing in the deadwax is the catalog number followed by BS-HRM. Says "Masterdisk" in the deadwax too, don't know if that's relevant though.
 
So will the same actors that groused about "another" Pink Floyd topic unleash their vitriol towards yet "another" Rush topic? :)
 
Ooh, missed this yesterday. Rush didn't immediately trip my trigger when I first heard them, but they grew on me quick, & became one of my favorite bands. I'm gonna guess it was '76, & I woulda been 14 or 15, but that was the 70s, so I could be off a year or so, lol. :D By-Tor & the Snow Dog was my fave on that one, but I like pretty much all their work. :smoke:
 
Jailtime said:
There is definitely more of the "wall of sound" element in Rush's later work. FBN lacks this element, you can tell that there's just bass, guitar, and drums. Not nearly as complex as something like Leave that Thing Alone. But I love the tone of Alex's guitar on FBN. That solo in By Tor is just mind blowing. He's good enough so it's nice to hear him stand out in the mix once in a while. That's why I like SnA so much, Alex charges to the forefront quite often in that album.
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This thread prompted me to get out my copy of FBN on and give it a play. I think Jailtime has it nailed as to why I like it so much. The music is not as complex, true, but that allows you to really focus on the band itself and the actual production quality (sound) of the album, which is extremely good for 1975! I guess it is time to get out Perm Waves now! :music:
 
Last time I listened to FBN was in the early 90's on cassette. I think it is "high time" to get the LP out and give it a spin.
 
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