Exit... Stage Left

Exit…Stage Left is a live album by Canadian band Rush, released in 1981. A video release with 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.

Track listing
All songs written by Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, except where noted.

"The Spirit of Radio" – 5:11
"Red Barchetta" – 6:46
"YYZ" (Lee, Peart) – 7:43 (includes a Peart drum solo)
"A Passage to Bangkok" – 3:45 *
"Closer to the Heart" (Lifeson, Lee, Peart, Peter Talbot) – 3:08
"Beneath, Between & Behind" (Lifeson, Peart) – 2:34
"Jacob's Ladder" – 8:46
"Broon's Bane" (Lifeson) – 1:37
"The Trees" – 4:50
"Xanadu" – 12:09
"Freewill" – 5:31
"Tom Sawyer" (Lifeson, Lee, Peart, Pye Dubois) – 4:59
"La Villa Strangiato" – 9:37
Tracks 1-3 and 8-13 of the original vinyl were recorded in Canada during the Moving Pictures tour, while tracks 4-7 were recorded in the UK during the Permanent Waves tour.

* The original CD issue did not include "A Passage to Bangkok" due to time constraints, as CDs could only hold 74 minutes at the time. The track did appear on the original LP, 8-track cartridge and cassette issues, and was later included on the remastered CD, when CD times had increased to 80 minutes.

Contributions and changes
"YYZ" is expanded from 4:30 to 7:00 by an extended Neil Peart drum solo. In "La Villa Strangiato", the introductory acoustic guitar solo from the original recording is played on electric guitar, and it's expanded to twice as long with a more high pitched guitar part. This live change is recognized by itunes, on the itunes essential Live Guitar Heroics. Lee adds a short bass solo near the end of the piece.

Personnel
Geddy Lee - bass and rhythm guitars, synthesizers, vocals
Alex Lifeson - electric and acoustic guitars
Neil Peart - drums, percussion
Title and cover art
The title is from the signature catchphrase "Exit, stage left!" of the Hanna-Barbera pink mountain lion cartoon character Snagglepuss.

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.
—Geddy Lee , Sounds magazine #66, November 1981
We wanted to have Snagglepuss's tail on there. You know, 'Exit Stage Left', with a picture of just his tail. Forget it! They wanted all kinds of legal hassles and tons of money.
—Neil Peart , Jam! Showbiz, October 16, 1996
An item from each of Rush's previous eight studio album covers can be seen on the cover of this live album. The owl from Fly by Night flies above Apollo, the man in the suit from Hemispheres, who stands next to the woman from Permanent Waves. The puppet king from A Farewell to Kings sits atop a box stenciled with the "Rush" logo from Rush. Next to him is a painting of the Caress of Steel album cover, held by one of the movers from Moving Pictures, with another mover standing behind. Next to this is Dionysus, the nude man from Hemispheres. Behind this scene, the starman from 2112 hangs in the background, next to an "EXIT" sign. This entire foreground scene, shot in Toronto's then-abandoned Winter Garden Theatre, is on the left side of the stage, thus "Exit…Stage Left".

Rush's prior live album, All the World's a Stage, is also duly represented via the cover's background image - a photo of a concert in Buffalo, New York at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Both album covers show Rush's live setup without anyone on-stage, including their white shag carpet, which they actually stopped using prior to the release of Exit…Stage Left.

Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1981 Billboard's Pop Albums 10

Singles
Information
"Tom Sawyer"
Released:
Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart & Pye Dubois
Produced by: Terry Brown
Chart positions:

"Closer to the Heart"
Released:
Written by: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart & Peter Talbot
Produced by: Terry Brown
Chart positions: #69 US Hot 100; #7 US Mainstream Rock

Remaster details
A remaster was issued in 1997.

The tray has a picture of three fingerprints, light blue, pink, and lime green (left to right, mirroring the cover art of Retrospective II) with "The Rush Remasters" printed in all capital letters just to the left. All remasters from Moving Pictures through A Show of Hands are like this.
Includes the track "A Passage to Bangkok" which was left off the original CD issue due to time constraints.