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Rush Marking 50th Anniversary with Expansive 50-Track Box Set Featuring Classics, Rarities, and More

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A new career-spanning box set celebrating Rush’s 50th anniversary, appropriately titled Rush 50 and featuring 50 tracks, will be released on March 21 in multiple configurations and on multiple formats.

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The expansive collection features a mix of classic songs, deep cuts, live performances, and fan-requested rarities. It includes at least one song from every Rush studio album, live release, and reissue, as well as seven previously unreleased tracks.

[Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Reveal Why Rush Didn’t Extend Their 2015 Farewell Tour]

Rush 50 is bookended by the first single Rush released in 1973 (“Not Fade Away”/“You Can’t Fight It”) and a previously unreleased recording of the last songs the Canadian prog-rock trio ever played live (a medley of “What You’re Doing”/“Working Man”/“Garden Road”), in August 2015.

“50? Is that all?…[S]eriously…it’s a cool collection…but look at all those songs,” quipped Rush frontman Geddy Lee in a statement. – “I’m exhausted just reading the effin list!”

The box set will be available in two Super Deluxe Editions, as well as a seven-LP vinyl set, a four-CD package, and digitally.

About the Super Deluxe Editions of Rush 50

The regular Super Deluxe Edition features the seven-LP and four-CD versions of the set, as well as two hardcover books.

The first book is a 104-page volume boasting essays from rock journalists David Fricke and Philip Wilding and a career-spanning selection of photos. The second is a graphic novel titled The Fullness of Time, which brings to life a conversation between Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson reflecting on the making of each of the band’s studio albums.

The Super Deluxe box set also features 20 exclusive lithographs by longtime Rush artist Hugh Syme, each one inspired a song from a different Rush studio album.

A second version of the Super Deluxe Rush 50 box set will be available exclusively from Rush’s official store. It features everything included in the regular Super Deluxe Edition, plus four addition lithographs created by Syme.

You can check out an unboxing video for the Rush 50 Super Deluxe Edition at the band’s official YouTube channel.

About the Other Versions of Rush 50

The separate four-CD and seven-LP Deluxe versions of Rush 50 will feature the same 50 tracks and the 104-page book.

The LPs featured in the Super Deluxe and Deluxe box sets are pressed on 180-gram audiophile vinyl. Each LP is housed in a jacket featuring a unique design by Syme.

Rush 50 will offer the first-ever CD and LP reissue of the band’s debut single, which featured a rocking cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and “You Can’t Fight It,” an original tune co-written by Lee and original Rush drummer John Rutsey. Both tracks have been newly remastered from the original analog tapes.

The box set also will include “Vault Editions” of “Working Man” (1974) and “The Trees” (1978), both of which feature alternate guitar solos by Lifeson. The “Vault Edition” of “Working Man” was only available previously as a digital single, while alternate mix of “The Trees” was only released as part of instrument-based video games.

The previously unreleased live cuts on Rush 50 include performances of two non-album tracks, “Bad Boy” and “Garden Road.” They were recorded at an August 1974 show at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland. There’s also an unreleased version of the tune “Anthem” recorded live in December 1974 at the famed Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

Bringing the collection to a close is the aforementioned previously recording of the a previously unreleased recording of the “What You’re Doing”/“Working Man”/“Garden Road” medley from Rush’s final concert. The show took place on August 1, 2015, at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

The Rush 50 box set can be pre-ordered now.

Rush 50 Box Set Track List (Four-CD Version):

CD 1

  1. “Not Fade Away”**
  2. “You Can’t Fight It”**
  3. “Working Man” (Vault Edition)**
  4. “Need Some Love” (Live at Laura Secord Secondary School, St. Catharines, ON, Canada – 5/15/1974)**
  5. “Before and After” (Live at Laura Secord Secondary School, St. Catharines, ON, Canada – 5/15/1974)**
  6. “Bad Boy” (Live at Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH – 8/26/1974)*
  7. “Garden Road” (Live at Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH – 8/26/1974)*
  8. “Anthem” (Live at Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY – 12/5/1974)*
  9. “Fly by Night”
  10. “Bastille Day”
  11. “2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx”
  12. “By-Tor & The Snow Dog” (Live at Massey Hall, Toronto, ON, Canada – 6/11-12-13/1976)
  13. “Something for Nothing” (Live at Massey Hall, Toronto, ON, Canada – 6/11-12-13/1976)

CD 2

  1. “Closer to the Heart”
  2. “Xanadu” (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London, U.K. – 2/20/1978)
  3. Drum Solo (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London, U.K. – 2/20/1978)
  4. “The Trees” (Vault Edition)*
  5. “La Villa Strangiato” (Live at Pink Pop Festival, Burgemeester Damen Sportpark, Geleen, Netherlands – 6/4/1979)
  6. “In the Mood” (Live at Pink Pop Festival, Burgemeester Damen Sportpark, Geleen, Netherlands – 6/4/1979)
  7. “The Spirit of Radio”
  8. “Natural Science” (Live at Manchester Apollo, Manchester, U.K. – 6/17-18/1980)
  9. “A Passage to Bangkok” (Live at Manchester Apollo, Manchester, U.K. – 6/17-18/1980)
  10. “Tom Sawyer”
  11. “Limelight” (Live at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON, Canada – 6/24-25/1981)
  12. “Vital Signs” (Live at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON, Canada – 6/24-25/1981)

CD 3

  1. “YYZ” (Live at The Forum, Montreal, QC, Canada – 3/27/1981)
  2. “Subdivisions”
  3. “Red Sector A”
  4. “Witch Hunt” (Live at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON, Canada – 9/21/1984)
  5. “New World Man” (Live at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON, Canada – 9/21/1984)
  6. “The Big Money”
  7. “Time Stand Still”
  8. “Distant Early Warning” (Live at NEC Arena, Birmingham, U.K. – 4/21-22-23/1988)
  9. “Superconductor”
  10. “Dreamline”
  11. “Stick It Out”
  12. “Test for Echo”
  13. “The Rhythm Method” (Live at World Music Theatre, Tinley Park, IL – 6/14/1997)

CD 4

  1. “One Little Victory” (Remixed)
  2. “Cygnus X-1” (Live at Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 11/23/2002)
  3. “The Seeker”
  4. “Between the Wheels” (Live at Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany – 9/24/2004)
  5. “The Main Monkey Business”
  6. “Workin’ Them Angels” (Live at Ahoy Arena, Rotterdam, Holland – 10/16-17/2007)
  7. “Freewill” (Live at Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH – 4/15/2011)
  8. “Red Barchetta” (Live at Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH – 4/15/2011)
  9. “Headlong Flight”
  10. “Manhattan Project” (Live at US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ; American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX; AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX – 11/25-28-30/2012)
  11. “Jacob’s Ladder” (Live at Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada – 6/17-19/2015)
  12. “What You’re Doing”/“Working Man”/“Garden Road” (Live at the Forum, Los Angeles, CA – 8/1/2015)*

* = previously unreleased
** = previously unreleased on CD and LP.

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