Greatest Rush Instrumental

Overture

From the 2112 album, "Overture" opens up one of Rush's concept suites. Geddy Lee's voice is recorded as an instrument in the early parts of the song, as he sings no words. However, there is, despite the Overture's overall instrumental nature, only one line sung at the end, as the piece transitions to "The Temples of Syrinx": "And the meek shall inherit the earth." Like some overtures, music from the 2112 overture is repeated or built upon in other places in the suite such as "The Temples of Syrinx" and "Oracle: The Dream."

La Villa Strangiato

Found on the Hemispheres album, this was Rush's first entirely instrumental piece, clocking in at 9:37. The instrumental's subtitle is "An Exercise in Self-Indulgence." The multi-part song was inspired by a dream guitarist Alex Lifeson had, and the music in these sections correspond to the occurrences in his dream. The opening segment was played on a nylon-string classical guitar, while the live versions were played on an electric guitar. The next segment introduces the main theme of La Villa, the Strangiato theme. The song progresses to include an increasingly complex guitar solo backed by string synthesizer, followed closely by bass and drum fills. The Strangiato theme is then revisited before the song ends abruptly with phased bass and drums. The song is divided as follows:

• I: "Buenos Nochas, Mein Froinds!" - (0:00)
• II: "To sleep, perchance to dream..." - (0:27)
• III: "Strangiato theme" - (2:00)
• IV: "A Lerxst in Wonderland" - (3:16)
• V: "Monsters!" - (5:49)
• VI: "The Ghost of the Aragon" - (6:10)
• VII: "Danforth and Pape" - (6:45)
• VIII: "The Waltz of the Shreves" - (7:26)
• IX: "Never turn your back on a Monster!" - (7:52)
• X: "Monsters! (Reprise)" - (8:03)
• XI: "Strangiato theme (Reprise)" - (8:17)
• XII: "A Farewell to Things" - (9:20)

According to Lee, "We spent more time recording 'Strangiato' than the entire Fly By Night album. It's recorded in one take but it took 40 takes to get it right! It was our first piece without any vocals at all. So each section had to stand up with a theme and musical structure of its own."^[1]

"La Villa Strangiato" translates roughly to "Strange Village" or "Weird City".^[1]

YYZ

Where's My Thing?

From the Roll the Bones album. "Where's My Thing?" was their second song nominated for a Grammy, in 1991, losing to Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover". The song is much more pop-like than the rest of Rush's work, featuring an upbeat tempo and a brass-like synthesizer line. This song was subtitled, "Part IV (Gangster of Boats Trilogy)" originally as a joke, since it's the fourth part of trilogy. There is no official continuation of the alleged trilogy, though subsequent instrumentals are similar in style and blend when played in reverse sequential order, starting with The Main Monkey Business.

Leave That Thing Alone

From the Counterparts album. During the Counterparts, Test for Echo, and Vapor Trails tours, and featured on the Different Stages and Rush in Rio live albums, "Leave That Thing Alone" preceded Peart's drum solo and was played with an extended ending to showcase Lee's bass work. This track was the third song nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1994, losing to Pink Floyd's "Marooned."

Limbo

From the Test for Echo album. Like the "2112 Overture," "Limbo" features vocals by Lee; however, his voice is being used as an instrument as he is not singing any words. The song also includes samples from Bobby "Boris" Pickett oldie "The Monster Mash": 'Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist' and 'Ahh, Mash Good!'.

"The Main Monkey Business", "Hope" and "Malignant Narcissism"

Rush's album Snakes & Arrows is the first Rush album to feature multiple instrumental tracks: "The Main Monkey Business", "Hope", and "Malignant Narcissism." The first, "The Main Monkey Business," is slightly more than six minutes long. As with "Limbo" and "2112 Overture," Lee's voice is being used as an instrument as no words are being sung. The other two songs, "Hope" and "Malignant Narcissism," are the two shortest songs ever recorded by Rush at just more than two minutes long. This was a distinction previously held (excluding the short sections of the multi-parted songs like "2112" and "La Villa Strangiato") by the short track "Need Some Love" on the album Rush. "Hope" is a solo guitar piece written by Lifeson. "Malignant Narcissism" features Lee on a fretless bass and Peart on a four-piece drum kit.^[2] "Malignant Narcissism" contains dialog of a woman's voice, "Usually a case of malignant narcissism brought on during childhood." The last word in the phrase is repeated, each time lower than the last. The phrase itself comes from the Movie Team America: World Police, made by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. "Malignant Narcissism" became the fifth instrumental to be nominated for a Grammy under the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance, in 2008, losing to Bruce Springsteen's "Once Upon A Time In The West."^[3] Hope became the sixth instrumental to be nominated for a Grammy under the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2009, only under the Songs For Tibet: The Art of Peace album which Rush contributed to with a live version of the song. ^[4] It lost to Zappa Plays Zappa's "Peaches en Regalia."

Broon's Bane

Found on the Exit...Stage Left live album, "Broon's Bane" is a short classical guitar arrangement performed by Lifeson as an extended intro to "The Trees". The song is named after Terry Brown (Brown is also referred to as "T.C. Broonsie" during the intro to Jacob's Ladder) who produced Exit...Stage Left and 10 other Rush albums. It is not featured on any other live or studio recording by Rush. The song repeats and builds upon the same three-beat line, coming to a climax about one minute into the piece before segueing into "The Trees."

Cygnus X-1 (Live Recordings)

On the live album Rush in Rio, an abridged version of Cygnus X-1 is performed as an instrumental. The piece contains the themes from 1:26 to 4:59 in the studio recording of the piece, shortened slightly by about 20 seconds. In other words, it includes the Prologue part without the spoken words. Also, the keyboard synthesizer heard in the studio recording is replaced with a more synthesized voice played by Lee with foot pedals. This is the same excerpt of the piece played as part of the R30 Overture.

R30 Overture

The opening song of Rush's 2004 tour dates featured an instrumental combining sections of one song from each of the band's first six albums.

The songs featured in the medley were:

1. "Finding My Way'" (Rush)
2. "Anthem" (Fly by Night)
3. "Bastille Day" (Caress of Steel)
4. "A Passage to Bangkok" (2112)
5. "Cygnus X-1 Prologue" (A Farewell to Kings)
6. "Hemispheres Prelude" (Hemispheres)