Exit...Stage Left
| Exit...Stage Left | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Live album by Rush | ||||
| Released | October 29, 1981 June 3, 1997 (Remastered CD) |
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| Recorded | June 10–11, 1980 at The Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland (Side 2); March 27, 1981 at The Forum, Montreal (the rest of the album) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 76:36 | |||
| Label |
Anthem (Canada) Atlantic (Japan) Epic/Sony (Japan) Mercury |
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| Producer | Terry Brown | |||
| Rush chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Exit...Stage Left | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | |
Exit...Stage Left is a live album by Canadian band Rush, released in 1981. A video release of the same name, with slightly different content, was released in 1982 on VHS and later on LaserDisc, and in 2007 on DVD.
The album was voted 9th best live album of all time in a poll by Classic Rock Magazine in 2004.
The first, third, and fourth sides of the original vinyl issue were recorded in Canada during the Moving Pictures tour, while the second side was recorded in the UK during the Permanent Waves tour.
The original CD issue removed "A Passage to Bangkok", as CDs could only hold 75 minutes at the time. It was included on the 1997 remaster, as CD capacity had increased to 80 minutes by that time. Before the remastered version was released, the same live version of "A Passage to Bangkok" was released on the compilation Chronicles in 1990.
"YYZ" is extended from 4:24 (studio version) to 7:45 by a Neil Peart drum solo from 2:22 to 5:31. The second verse of "Beneath, Between, & Behind" is omitted. On "La Villa Strangiato," the introductory classical guitar solo from the original recording is played on electric guitar and doubled in length, Lee sings part of a nursery rhyme in Yiddish during the "Danforth and Pape" section (the liner notes include a translation of his words), and a short bass and percussion solo is added before the "Monsters! (Reprise)" section.
The title comes from the catchphrase of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Snagglepuss. The term "stage left" is a stage direction used in blocking to identify the left side of a theater from the point of view of the performer, as opposed to the point of view of the audience.
The whole title came from a character in an American cartoon called Snagglepuss. He's a great little creature, a lion, and every time there's trouble he flees, uttering 'Exit...stage left' or 'Exit...stage right'. But the fact of the matter was that the album cover picture was taken from stage left. And coincidentally that's the direction in which Snagglepuss runs most of the time.
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Wikipedia