Fly by Night (album)

In March 1974, the second Rush line-up, consisting of guitarist Alex Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey, and singer and bassist Geddy Lee, released their self-titled debut album. In the following four months, however, Rutsey fell ill following complications with diabetes and had to sit out while the group continued with a replacement, Jerry Fielding.[2] Rutsey rejoined the group for a month of club dates before Lifeson and Lee decided it was best for Rutsey to leave due to the difficulty in managing his health on tour and musical differences between them. Lee recalled: "We were guilt-ridden at first, but we realised that it's just the way it had to be. He wasn't happy and we weren't happy".[2]

Rush auditioned five drummers, the fourth of which was Neil Peart of a local band named J.R. Flood. The three played along to "Anthem," a song mostly written while Rutsey was in the group that Rush later recorded for Fly by Night.[2] Lifeson and Lee were so impressed with Peart's style they felt embarrassed for the fifth drummer who had prepared by writing charts to their songs to follow.[2] Peart joined on July 29, 1974, Lee's 21st birthday, two weeks before the band's first U.S. tour kicked off on August 14 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann. By the end of the year the group had written new material for a follow-up album.[2][3]

After a five-day break, Fly by Night was recorded in December 1974 and mixed in January 1975 at Toronto Sound Studios during a gap in their U.S. and Canadian tour.[4][3][5][6] Lifeson said it took around five days to record and once the mixing had finished, the group packed their cases and travelled to Winnipeg for a concert on January 15.[7][6] It was the band's first album co-produced by Terry Brown who would maintain this role through to Signals (1982). Lifeson was pleased with the songs on the album and felt like it was a second beginning for the group.[2] Lee recalled the difficulty that their label's management had in understanding the material on the album, particularly "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" as they had wanted material in the style of their debut.[8]

The band wanted each song on Fly by Night to show a different side to their writing and playing, which resulted in an album of varied styles.[2][9] As Peart was a keen reader, he became the group's primary lyricist, which suited Lifeson and Lee because they preferred to write music. A Rolling Stone article reasoned this shift in roles to the "massive" difference in the lyrical styles between their first album and Fly by Night which contains more literary themes and references.[10] The songs "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" and "Rivendell" are examples of the inclusion of fantasy themes into Rush's music. The original hand-penned lyrics for "Anthem" and "Fly by Night" include different or additional lyrics not sung in the final recording, including a prologue for the latter. The tracks "Best I Can" and "In the End" were written before Peart joined the band, and were performed regularly during Rush's first North American tour.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[13]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[14]
Music Emissions	[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]

Fly by Night was released in February 1975 and reached No. 9 in Canada and No. 113 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The title track was released as a single in May 1975, reaching No. 45 in Canada and No. 88 in the United States. By October 1975, the album had sold 110,000 copies.[11] The original vinyl pressings contained an inner sleeve of photographs and handwritten lyrics by Peart.

Rush supported the album with a U.S. and Canadian tour that covered more than 70 cities from February to June 1975, opening for Kiss and Aerosmith. They performed their first major headline shows across Canada, including a sold-out gig at Massey Hall in Toronto for 4,000 people.[17][9]

In a review for Statesville Record & Landmark, Pam Simon thought the album "is a strange schizophrenic album, almost evenly divided between second-rate acoustic music and the dated concept of the power-trio format". She was critical of their more heavy metal direction and the pretentious nature of their songs and picked out "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" as such an example which she called "especially horrendous". Though Simon praised Lifeson's "more than competent" guitar work and Peart's drumming, she criticised Lee's voice for sounding too similar to Robert Plant.[18] Michael Dolgy in RPM Weekly wrote the album is "a loud but sensitive excursion into ball-blaster rock/roll".[17] Greg Prato of AllMusic said that the album was less straightforward than their debut album, and while it was not one of their best albums, it was one of their most important.[13]

Ultimate Classic Rock included the album on their list of the "Top 100 '70s Rock Albums", writing "Neil Peart wasn't just the new drummer; he was the spark that pushed them to greatness."[19]

A remaster was issued in 1997. It was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette as part of the three-volume "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. In addition to the standard audio CD, the album was also included on an audio DVD in the Sector 1 set, remixed into 5.1 surround sound.[20]

The complete album, along with the self-titled debut and Caress of Steel, was included as part of the 1978 Anthem release Archives. [21]

Fly By Night was remastered for vinyl in 2015 by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion.[22] The high definition master prepared for this release was also made available for purchase in 24-bit/96 kHz and 24-bit/192 kHz formats, at several high-resolution audio online music stores. These masters have significantly less dynamic range compression than the 1997 remasters and the "Sector" remasters by Andy VanDette.[23]

All lyrics written by Neil Peart, except where noted.

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[4]

Rush

• Geddy Lee – bass guitars, classical guitar, vocals
• Alex Lifeson – electric guitars, 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars
• Neil Peart – drums, percussion, lyrics

Production

• Rush – production, arrangement, cover concept
• Terry Brown – producer, engineer, arrangement
• John Woloschuk – assistant engineer
• Gilbert Kong – mastering at Masterdisk, New York
• Eraldo Carugati – cover painting
• AGI Chicago – art direction
• Jim Ladwig – art direction
• Joe Kotleba – design
• Richard Fegley – photography
• Howard "Herns" Ungerleider – By-Tor characters inspiration
• Moon Records – executive producer

• Fly by Night at Discogs (list of releases)