September 29, 1976

RUSH released their first double live album, ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE. Recorded over three nights, June 11-13, 1976, at Massey Hall in Toronto, during the band’s breakthrough 2112 Tour. The release of the live album was, according to singer/bassist, Geddy Lee, “definitely something we used to buy us more time” to work on their studio follow up of 2112.

This album captures the entire setlist that was regularly performed during headlining shows of the 2112 tour. However, due to technological limits of approximately 20 minutes per side on vinyl, the positions of “Lakeside Park” and “2112” were swapped with “Fly By Night / In The Mood” and “Something For Nothing”.Due to stage time restraints during the 2112 tour of 1976, this performance of the song “2112” omits the “Discovery” and “Oracle: The Dream” sections of the studio recording. Although the final 32 seconds of “Discovery” are played as a lead-in to “Presentation”, the liner notes and track listing do not indicate this.

According to the liner notes, ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE marks the end of the “first chapter of Rush” and would begin a trend of Rush releasing a live album after every four studio albums. This lasted until 2003, when the band released a live album and DVD of each subsequent studio album’s tour.ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE was Rush’s first US Top 40-charting album and went gold, alongside A FAREWELL TO KINGS and 2112 on November 16, 1977.