Rush is a Band

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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Happy 25th anniversary Moving Pictures

Fri, Feb 10, 2006@1:03PM | comments removed/disabled

[Rush - Moving Pictures (wikipedia)]

UPDATE - 2/11@9:45AM: I've had a couple people contact me regarding conflicting release dates for the album. So far I've seen 4 different dates, all in February of 1981 - so at least they agree on the month. :)


  • The Rush Calendar says Feb. 9.
  • Power Windows says Feb. 12 (this is the one I'm currently going with)
  • wikipedia says Feb. 28 (I'd bet that this is way off)
  • allmusic.com says Feb. 7.

25 years ago this Sunday (February 12, 1981) Rush released their 8th and most commercially successful studio album, Moving Pictures. The album was recorded and mixed at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec and was certified quadruple-platinum on January 27, 1995. From wikipedia:

... Following the formula of their previous album, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures follows a more radio-friendly format and includes the hit single Tom Sawyer, as well other radio standards such as Red Barchetta and Limelight.

With a title reference to Mark Twain's fictional character, Tom Sawyer is an abstract commentary on a free-thinking "modern day warrior". Likely Rush's best-selling single, lyrics for this track were written in collaboration with Max Webster lyricist Pye Dubois.

The second song on Moving Pictures is Red Barchetta. Displaying Neil Peart's literary style of lyric writing, Red Barchetta is a futuristic tale of a youth who "borrows" his uncle's disused, classic roadster for a Sunday drive. Lyrics were inspired by the short story A Nice Morning Drive [1] by Richard S. Foster. Peart, however, has reported that the car that inspired the song's title is a Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta.

Also included on the record is the Grammy-nominated instrumental YYZ. The song's title is the IATA Airport Code for Toronto Pearson International Airport. It is played repeatedly in Morse code (-.-- -.-- --..) at the beginning of the song. A staple within their live-performance repertoire, YYZ is widely seen as a signature Rush song, and one of the band's most popular instrumentals.

Limelight is another perennial radio favorite. Lyrics are autobiographical, based on Peart's own dissatisfactions with fame and its intrusions into daily life. The song contains two self-references-one, the line "All the world's indeed a stage", references their live album All The World's a Stage (as well as the famous line by William Shakespeare) while the line "caught in the camera eye" references the next track, The Camera Eye which would become Rush's last song to clock at over ten minutes.

The sixth song, Witch Hunt initially features voices and sound effects before jumping into the rock section of the song. The song would become a part of the Fear series of songs, which includes "The Weapon" from Signals, The Enemy Within from Grace Under Pressure, and Freeze from Vapor Trails.

Rounding out the album, Vital Signs shows distinct reggae flavor, the experimentation with which was likely inspired by The Police. Reggae influences would later creep into tracks found on the band's next studio release, Signals. ...

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