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Three forgotten songs


LeaveMyThingAlone
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Fly by Night

New World Man

Show Don't Tell

 

What do these 3 songs have in common? They have all been highly successful songs commercially for Rush, yet none have been played live by the band since the 1980's. New World Man is their only Top 40 song, Show Don't Tell got a ton of play on MTV, and Fly By Night is a staple of FM radio to this day. I like all 3 songs quite a bit, though they don't seem to get a ton of love from other hard-core fans on the boards. I would say New World Man and Fly By Night are two of Rush's catchiest tunes and Show Don't Tell has one of those classic Alex sick guitar riffs I love. Three forgotten songs that are also 3 of their most successful songs. Why no love from the fans or from the the boys in the band?

Edited by LeaveMyThingAlone
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I'll tackle this from what I understand:

FBN is one of those super early songs that not only Geddy cant sing anymore but they all look back at it as best left in the past.

New World Man did sort of disappear after the Power Windows tour but came back again a couple times in the RTB and VT set lists years later.

Show Don't Tell was featured in three tours...Presto, RTB and Counterparts. Geddy chuckled and said he hadn't thought of that song in a long time in a somewhat recent interview about their videos. Also something about not missing having to switch back and forth between bass and the keyboards to perform that live.

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Good tunes. Big fan of SDT. NWM played on the VT tour 2002, SDT played on RTB and CP tours. FBN - Geddy's voice makes that a definite no go.. I saw every major tour since 1981 and never saw FBN played
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I'm not sure if they meant to never play Fly By Night again when they dropped it all those years ago. Maybe they tried to rehearse it again at some point but something with the song didn't work or sound right. I would have loved to see them play it.

 

New World Man was played on the VT tour. I'm a little surprised it didn't show up more often given it's popularity but I guess they thought that there were other songs more interesting to play.

 

Show Don't Tell had a good run being played three tours in a row. I like the song but don't feel like it was one of those must play one last time before we retire kind of songs. I wouldn't have objected to it being included on one of their later tours though.

 

I'm not sure if it's a lack of love from the band when it comes to what got played and what didn't. A lot of it has to do with how big their catalog is. Once they got to the point where there was too much to choose from, some songs just got forgotten about and never made the set again.

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Could you imagine Geddy trying to sing Fly By Night now?....lol

My thought was that they should have had it in the R40 encore and let the fans sing it, with the lyrics on screen. That would have been a nice gesture to the faithful and to new fans.
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If Show Don't Tell was played on 3 tours, I'd say that's a fair amount to satisfy. Something from Presto on R40 would've been nice though.

 

As the #1 lead song on Presto, I would think it would get more play. Rush always packs quite a punch with the first songs of their albums. I think Show Don't Tell and Test for Echo are the only 2 album lead off songs that fizzled in terms of live play

Edited by LeaveMyThingAlone
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I've read Neil is embarrassed by Fly by Night. So maybe that has something to do with it? But he was also embarrassed by Lakeside Park and they brought it back... I think that one has more to do with Ged's ability to sing it.
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They could have tried to down tune FBN like they did with other songs from the 70s. But I think it may have sounded awkward. I'm trying to think how that riff would sound played in the same tone they did Temples in and I just don't think it would have worked.
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I don't like New World Man all that much, but I LOVE the other two!
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Probably the guys looked at these as 'oh god, do we really have to play these again?'

 

90% of their catalog is more interesting than these tunes. You could throw closer to your heart in that list as well since many times they turned it into an Alex goof rant to make it interesting.

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All three mentioned having 4 hours of songs rehearsed for R40 that needed to be shaved down to almost half that time so maybe SDT or NWM did almost make the final set list. Neil mentioned in an interview about wanting to do Hand Over Fist for that tour for instance
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Probably the guys looked at these as 'oh god, do we really have to play these again?'

 

90% of their catalog is more interesting than these tunes. You could throw closer to your heart in that list as well since many times they turned it into an Alex goof rant to make it interesting.

Goof rant? That's La Villa.
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90% of their catalog is more interesting than these tunes. You could throw closer to your heart in that list as well since many times they turned it into an Alex goof rant to make it interesting.

 

90% of stuff from 2112 to Moving Pictures sure...but their entire catalog? No way. Just thinking of all the forgettable stuff from Bones to Clockwork makes me realize this

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Neil mentioned in an interview about wanting to do Hand Over Fist for that tour for instance

 

Wow, really? That would have been an odd and

Puzzling choice. I can’t think of too many songs in their catalog that would be less interesting to hear live than Hand Over Fist.

It's just Neil's way of wanting to say "f**k you" to the fans just one more time.

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