Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Happy 35th anniversary Fly By Night!

Mon, Feb 15, 2010@5:27AM | comments removed/disabled

35 years ago today Rush released their 2nd studio album, 1975's Fly By Night. This was Rush's first album with drummer/lyricist Neil Peart and their first album produced by Terry Brown, who would go on to produce all of Rush's albums up through 1982's Signals. It peaked at #113 on the Billboard album charts and was certified both Gold and Platinum by the RIAA on December 1, 1993. Neil Peart taking over the lyrical duties led Rush to adopt a more literary-based lyrical style on Fly By Night, differing significantly from their debut album. Songs like Rivendell and By-tor and the Snow Dog are examples of the influence of fantasy literature on Rush's lyrics. Here's an interesting anecdote regarding the origin of By-tor and the Snow Dog from the 2006 Rush biography Chemistry:

... [Howard Ungerleider] moved on to crashing at Ray [Danniel's] house, where he had to suffer Ray's dogs - a German shepherd, which used to look at me and growl, it was always pissed off, and a little, white, fluffy thing, like a snowball, which just jumped up and down, he explains. One day it all got too much - for Howard. I was in Ray's back yard, the fucking snowdog thing was jumping up, and the German shepherd was biting me... Of course when he recounted it to the guys, they thought it was hilarious. A biter, and the Snow Dog, they laughed. Sounds like an epic song!...

In celebration of this momentous event, I thought that for my next poll I'd ask everyone what their favorite song off of Fly By Night is. Take the Poll and let us know. Here's Fly By Night:

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