In 1981, Canadian band Rush released their eighth album Moving Pictures. This album would go on to earn commercial success and positive reviews, reaching No. 1 in Canada and No. 3 in the U.S. and U.K. It also featured an instrumental track that has an interesting backstory.
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“YYZ” clocks in at around 4 minutes 25 seconds of steady rhythm, with two live versions including a Neil Peart drum solo. Its title is an ode to the Toronto Pearson International Airport, whose IATA code is YYZ. The members of Rush formed in Toronto, specifically from the Willowdale neighborhood, where Alex Lifeson, original drummer John Rutsey, and Geddy Lee were childhood friends.
By the time Moving Pictures came out, Rush had been firmly settled in their lineup of Lifeson, Lee, and Neil Peart for several years. Peart was from Hamilton, Ontario, and auditioned for the role of Rush’s replacement drummer. He charmed Lee immediately, eventually winning over Lifeson as well, also becoming the band’s primary lyricist.
Because of Rush’s Toronto roots, “YYZ” is a special song for them. Both Lee and Peart have expressed their love for the area, saying “It’s always a happy day when YYZ appears on our luggage tags.”
Rush’s Grammy Nominated Instrumental Track Was Inspired By the Toronto Pearson International Airport
The inspiration for “YYZ” came when Rush was flying into Toronto. At the airport, a VHF omnidirectional range system will broadcast the airport identification code in Morse code. When they heard the rhythm of YYZ coming through the radio, signaling that they were coming into Toronto Pearson Airport, it stuck with them.
The song itself uses that Morse code rhythm throughout its composition. Using various instruments and arrangements, Rush reproduced the identification code as the backbone of the track.
According to Peart, he heard the Morse code and it immediately sparked an idea. “The rhythm stuck in my head and I said, ‘Guys!’ So then, thematically we said, ‘We’ll let’s use that airport — so much a part of our lives in those days and after — let’s use that as a metaphor in a sense.’ Again, in a playful way,” Peart recalled, according to the 2004 book Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years Of Rush At Home And Away.
“There was no sense of ‘Okay, this part is this part’ and all that,” Peart continued. “But there is a sense of bustling and coming and going and the grand emotion of that middle section of what airports can be. In our lives, airports were rich with symbolism. Departures and comings and goings; departures and arrivals. Separations and meetings. That was kind of woven into the song. The exotic nature of travel, too, and Alex’s guitar solo for sure too. He wove in that kind of eastern mode.”
Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns
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