EXIT... STAGE LEFT

My first ever concert was seeing Rush during the Moving Pictures tour, so of course when this album came out soon after in 1981, I picked it up immediately. At the time, I was only slightly disappointed, both due to the sound (a bit muddy - spring for the remastered version if you can), and for an incomplete tracklist. For example, at the concert I went to, they opened with an exciting version of Overture/Temples of Syrinx - a much better version than what's on the earlier, rawer live album All the World's a Stage. They also played Working Man and Fly by Night. I know those appear also on the previous live album, but still... I also wish Limelight would've been included, which was a highlight at the show and a big song on the radio at the time. Finally, the concert ended with the 2112 finale ("We have assumed control, we have assumed control..."). I remember Rush also introduced a new song they announced would appear on their next album - Subdivisions. It sounded great! Someday I hope that Rush will release an expanded version of Exit Stage Left, with all those tracks included. As for the album as it is now, I admit it has sentimental value for me, but I also love these versions of Rush's classics.

UPDATE: Actually, the 40th anniversary of Moving Pictures includes a concert from that tour, with nearly all the tracks I mentioned above! (Not Subdivisions though. But you can find that easily enough on A Show of Hands.) I wouldn't say it replaces Exit Stage Left per se (for example, the version of La Villa Strangiato is better on Exit, and the hit from Exit, A Passage to Bangkok, isn't on the Moving Pictures deluxe), but it does present a fuller picture of their tour that year. A Rush fan would be eager to have both!