The project celebrates the half-century milestone marker for the Toronto band with a wide-ranging 50-track super deluxe anthology that encompasses the entirety of the band’s long and storied career for the first time - bookended with the first ever reissue of their debut 1973 single and a live recording of the last song they ever performed together as a band at their final concert in 2015 at The Forum in Los Angeles.
“Rush 50” will be available to fans in five distinct configurations, including the (1) Super Deluxe Edition, (2) Rush Store Exclusive Super Deluxe Edition, (3) 7-LP Deluxe Edition, (4) 4-CD Deluxe Edition, and (5) Digital Edition.
“50? Is that all?,” jokes Geddy Lee, “…seriously…it’s a cool collection…but look at all those songs – I’m exhausted just reading the effin list!”
In July 1974, Lee, guitarist/vocalist Alex Lifeson, and the late, great drummer/lyricist Neil Peart came together to solidify Rush’s lineup that brought the world at large many multiple decades’ worth of masterful progressive-rock-leaning musicianship and scores of rock radio masterpieces, iconic lyrics and storytelling.
“Rush 50” serves as a complete career-spanning Rush anthology on seven LPs and four CDs, featuring 50 tracks in total — seven of them previously unreleased — alongside numerous choice selections from every studio album, live release, and deluxe reissue the band has officially released over the years. Amongst the Holy Grail unreleased tracks are the first-ever official CD and LP reissue of Rush’s very first single on Moon Records from 1973, “Not Fade Away” and “You Can’t Fight It,” a pair of early gems that fans have been clamoring to be released officially for decades – newly remastered from the original analog tapes. Other studio rarities found on RUSH 50 include Vault Editions of 1974’s “Working Man” and 1978’s “The Trees,” both of which showcase alternate guitar solos by Alex Lifeson, with the former track only having been available as a digital single while the latter cut has never been officially released beyond its appearance on instrument-based video games.
Additionally, five unreleased live songs have been culled from some of Rush’s most legendary performances. Four of them — including two non-album cuts, “Bad Boy” and “Garden Road” — originate from a pair of the band’s earliest live shows at (1) Laura Secord Secondary School in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, on May 15, 1974, and (2) the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 26, 1974. The two live tracks from the Ontario show include original drummer John Rutsey (“Need Some Love” and “Before and After”), while the other two from the Cleveland gig feature Neil Peart behind the kit (“Bad Boy” and “Garden Road”). Rush visited New York’s iconic Electric Lady Studios in December of 1974 with their unreleased performance of “Anthem” being presented here. The “Rush 50” collection’s last unreleased live offering comes from Rush’s final career performance with Peart that took place at The Forum in Los Angeles, California, on August 1, 2015 — a masterful, nuanced medley construction of “What You’re Doing / Working Man / Garden Road” newly mixed from the multi-tracks by longtime Rush producer & engineer Terry Brown.
Besides these long-sought-after rarities, "Rush 50" embodies the full arc of Rush’s growth and ultimate prowess in the studio setting, as evidenced by the restless nomadic manifesto of “Fly by Night,” the vulnerability linchpin “Closer to the Heart” and the crackling energy of the airwaves in “The Spirit of Radio” and “Tom Sawyer.” The collection continues to showcase at least one studio track from all 20 official studios albums while also spotlighting officially released live recordings such as “YYZ,” “La Villa Strangiato” and two Neil Peart masterpiece drum solos.
The Super Deluxe Edition includes four CDs, seven LPs, and new artwork from Hugh Syme, the band’s longtime creative director who has designed the collection’s brand-new 50th anniversary graphics along with 29 new illustrations that celebrate the vibrant essence of Rush’s songs. The seven high-quality 180-gram audiophile black-vinyl LPs each feature additional new artwork from Syme in premium tip-on jackets. Each LP in the Super Deluxe Edition has been cut via Direct Metal Mastering and they have been pressed at GZ Media in the Czech Republic. The included 104-page hardcover book sports detailed essays from noted rock journalists David Fricke and Philip Wilding, who both recount their individual experiences with the band and convey their crowning achievements — and all of it is centered around incredible career-spanning photos of the band in action.
"Exclusives to the Super Deluxe Edition are 20 new illustration lithographs by Syme – showcasing one song from each studio album, and a second hardcover book, the brand-new 100-page graphic novel The Fullness Of Time. written and illustrated by Fantoons, the graphic novel visually brings to life a conversation between Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson reflecting on the trials, tribulations and successes recording each studio album with contributions from many of the producers and engineers who were instrumental in the evolution of Rush’s sound over the years — Terry Brown, Peter Henderson, Paul Northfield, Peter Collins, Rupert Hine, Kevin “Caveman” Shirley, Stephen W. Tayler, and Nick Raskulinecz. Finally, all of the contents in "Rush 50" are housed in a premium box with rotating lid and a “Rush 50” golden jubilee emblem.
The Rush Store Exclusive version of the Super Deluxe Edition of "Rush 50" will offer everything noted above plus four bonus lithos showcasing Rush through time, newly illustrated by Fantoons from the characters created for the graphic novel depicting the band in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s.
The third configuration of RUSH 50 will be released in a seven-LP Deluxe Edition, which is the vinyl-only equivalent of the Super Deluxe Edition with slightly different outer gold graphics, and it also features the 104-page hardcover book with the aforementioned essays, photos, and new Syme artwork in tow.
The fourth “Rush 50” configuration will be the four-CD Deluxe Edition, which features all 50 tracks from the Super Deluxe Edition, and it includes Syme’s new artwork and the contents of the 104-page hardcover book as well.
Finally, the fifth configuration, the Digital Edition, is the digital equivalent of the Super Deluxe Edition.
Get more details and pre-order your “Rush 50” box set here.
See also:
Rush bassist Geddy Lee to launch memoir with North American events
Rush: Alex Lifeson’s Envy Of None release That Was Then video
Rush stream visualizer video for Signals classic New World Man
Rush: Alex Lifeson’s Envy Of None to release new EP
Search Rush at hennemusic
