2112 (album)

Background

In January 1976, Rush ended its tour to support 1975's Caress of Steel. The band had enjoyed writing and recording the album. However, guitarist Alex Lifeson recalled the group was in a state of confusion after the tour, sensing the disappointing reaction from crowds after playing songs from it on stage. The album marked the band's foray into progressive rock with lengthy, story-based songs, more complex song structures, and cerebral lyrics, which made it difficult to receive radio airplay and promote effectively. Vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee said the band could not understand the underwhelming response, and later dubbed the tour the "Down the Tubes Tour" as they struggled to meet their $125-a-week salary while crowds declined. Lee added, "That really shakes your confidence. We were so confused and disheartened." In 1980, Lifeson, who had formed the band in 1968, said this was the only moment in its history when he felt close to giving up.

In addition to their financial hardship, Rush's international label, Mercury Records, considered dropping them. Peart recalled seeing label owner Polygram's financial predictions for the forthcoming year, and the band were not listed. To help the situation Rush manager Ray Danniels flew to the label's head offices in Chicago to try to regain confidence and spoke highly of the band's ideas for a new album without having heard any of it. This followed the group's conscious decision to exclude Danniels from the writing and recording sessions, and only played the album to him when it was finished.

Writing and recording

Rush put down musical ideas for 2112 in backstage dressing rooms, hotel rooms, and in their van while touring Caress of Steel in the second half of 1975. Lifeson said 2112 was the first Rush album that "really sounded like Rush".

In January 1976, the band entered Toronto Sound Studios to record with their longtime associate Terry Brown assuming his role as producer, operating a Studer 24-track machine. Lifeson plays a 1968 Gibson ES-335 for the majority of the electric guitar parts, with some lead parts played on a Gibson Les Paul Standard. For the acoustic sections, he plays a 12-string Gibson B-45 and a six-string Gibson Dove. His amplifiers were the Fender Super Reverb and a Twin Reverb. A section of "Discovery" features a Fender Stratocaster that Lifeson borrowed from a friend.

Songs

Side one

Side one is occupied by the 20-minute futuristic science-fiction song "2112". The seven-part track is based on a story by Peart who credits Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand, inventor of the philosophy of Objectivism and author of the dystopian fictional novella Anthem, the plot of which bears several similarities to "2112". The band had read the book, and Peart added the credit in the album's liner notes to avoid legal action. The reference to Ayn Rand led to Barry Miles, in the British paper NME, accusing the band of being "fascists"; this particularly offended Geddy Lee, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, and he defended the song as an "anti-totalitarian, anti-fascist story". Music writer and professor Rob Bowman calculated that in the entire piece, 2:34 of the song contains improvised guitar solos. "Overture" contains the lyric "And the meek shall inherit the earth", a reference to the Biblical passages Book of Psalms 37:11 and Matthew 5:5 and borrows a short sequence from Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

"2112" tells a story set in the city of Megadon in the year 2112, after an intergalactic war in 2062 forces many of the planets to be ruled by the Solar Federation (symbolized by the Red Star on the cover artwork), where individualism and creativity are outlawed. The population is controlled by a cabal of priests living in the temples of Syrinx, who take orders from giant banks of computers that control all aspects of life ("The Temples of Syrinx"). An unnamed protagonist finds a guitar inside a cave and rediscovers the lost art of music ("Discovery"). Upon playing the guitar to the priests, they destroy it and declare music a waste of time and against the computers' plan ("Presentation"). In a dream, an oracle shows him a planet established simultaneously with the Solar Federation, where an elder race flourish in creativity and individuality ("Oracle: The Dream"). in an ending he described as a "double surprise ... a real Hitchcock killer".

Side two

Side two contains five individual songs that display the band's more traditional hard-rock sound and Lee's higher-pitched vocals featured on their previous albums.

"A Passage to Bangkok" is a song about marijuana; Lee said it is "a travelogue for all the places in the world that grow the best weed". The track mentions a number of cities and countries, specifically Bogotá, Jamaica, Acapulco, Morocco, Bangkok, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Kathmandu. The band were big fans of the television series The Twilight Zone and based the track on the stories written for it from its host, Rod Serling. Lifeson asserted that its lyrical tie-in with the "2112" suite makes the track act as a coda to the record.

Artwork

The album was packaged in a gatefold sleeve designed and produced by longtime Rush cover artist Hugh Syme. It marks the first appearance of the emblem later known by fans as the "Starman" logo, which was adopted into the band's stage design and future album covers. Peart used it on the front bass drum heads of his kit from 1977 to 1983, and again in 2004 and 2015. The Red Star, a symbol of the Solar Federation depicted in the "2112" suite, represents what Peart described as "any collectivist mentality", while the man represents the protagonist of the story and to Peart, "the abstract man against the masses". Syme said: "That he is nude is just a classic tradition ... the pureness of his person and creativity without the trappings of other elements such as clothing". In July 2013, the Starman logo was featured on a Canada Post stamp honouring Rush. The gatefold includes a photograph of the band dressed in white and standing in front of a wind machine, and was a shoot Lifeson remembered for being particularly awkward.

Commercial performance

2112 was released in March 1976 on vinyl, 8-track cartridge, and cassette tape. It received strong promotion from Polydor, the distributor of Mercury Records albums, who issued an advertising campaign based on graphics on the album sleeve, in major trade publications. It became Rush's second album after Fly by Night to enter the top ten on the Canadian Albums Chart, peaking at No. 5. In the US, it peaked at No. 61 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, the week of 29 May 1976, during a 37-week stay on the chart. It was the band's first to crack the U.S. top 100.

The album sold faster than any of Rush's previous albums. In June 1976, the album had outsold the band's past catalogue in Canada and the United States, 2112 became a strong seller in the United States; it reached gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 1977 for selling 500,000 copies. In November 1995, the album reached triple platinum for selling more than 3 million copies, becoming Rush's second-biggest seller after Moving Pictures.

Reception

Cashbox praised the album, calling it "a valid and melodic tale ... the story/song is a definite cohesive listen". In an article about 2112 for Creem, Dan Nooger wrote the album "features some significant Mellotron meanderings and amazingly eccentric lyrics".

2112 was included in IGN's list "10 Classic Prog Rock Albums". In a reader's poll held by Rolling Stone, it placed second on the list of favourite prog rock albums. In a 4.5 out of 5 star-review, AllMusic's Greg Prato said that "1976's 2112 proved to be [Rush's] much sought-after commercial breakthrough and remains one of their most popular albums."

The Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada, a non-profit Canadian charitable organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of Canada's audio-visual heritage, has sponsored MasterWorks, which annually recognizes twelve culturally significant Canadian classics from the film, radio, TV and music industries. In 2006, 2112 was one of the albums chosen to be preserved.

In 2018, the album won the Polaris Heritage Prize Audience Award in the 1976–1985 category.

Ultimate Classic Rock included the album on their list of the "Top 100 '70s Rock Albums". Prog readers voted 2112 the 15th best progressive rock album of all time.

2112 is the tenth favorite album of Megadeth co-founder and frontman David Mustaine.

Tour

Rush promoted 2112 with a concert tour of the United States, Canada, and for the first time in their career, across Europe, between February 1976 and June 1977. The tour saw the band perform over 140 shows.

Reissues

Track listing

Original release

:I. "Overture" (4:31) :II. "The Temples of Syrinx" (2:16) :III. "Discovery" (3:25) :IV. "Presentation" (3:41) :V. "Oracle: The Dream" (2:00) :VI. "Soliloquy" (2:19) :VII. "Grand Finale

40th Anniversary Edition (2016)

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's 1976 liner notes.

;Rush

• Geddy Lee – vocals, bass
• Alex Lifeson – guitar
• Neil Peart – drums, percussion

;Additional musician

• Hugh Syme – ARP Odyssey synthesizer on "2112", Mellotron on "Tears"

;Production

• Rush – production, arrangement
• Terry Brown – arrangement, production, recording, engineering, mixing
• Brian Lee – mastering
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• Hugh Syme – graphics
• Yosh Inouye – photography
• Gerard Gentil – photography (band)
• Ray Danniels – management
• Vic Wilson – management
• Moon Records – executive production

Charts

Certifications

References

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