FLY BY NIGHT

I bought Fly By Night in early '77 after hearing the All The World's A Stage live album. None of my music loving friends gave a damn about Rush. As far as I knew, I was the only Rush fan on the west coast of Canada.

With this album, Rush really came together as a band. The trio mesh perfectly and the youthful energy drips from every note. Geddy and Alex sound totally professional and Neil Peart is utterly dazzling throughout. I wonder how many listeners in the mid-'70's realized here is the debut of a genius drummer?

Anthem starts the proceedings as a monster track. It's quite original and much evolved from the bluesy hard rock of the post-Zeppelin era. Wonderful hard-hitting stuff.

Best I Can is a pretty simple riff, but Rush make a go of it with sheer energy and sincerity. Peart's drumming is chock full of accents and fills that keep things interesting.

Beneath, Between, Behind is a slightly off beat hard rock number with some rhythm changes that treat the listener. A pretty good tune.

By-Tor And The Snow Dog is fabulous. The lyrics evoke fantasy images as the music describes a tremendous battle. The band gets into a mighty groove then after some gorgeous short drum breaks, shuts down to a post-fight quiet slow section featuring bluesy Lifeson licks. Later everything ramps up to a crescendo and the song is over, leaving the listener stunned, amazed and drained. By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell. Snow Dog is victorious!

The title track Fly By Night is just plain catchy. Straight ahead hard rock done extremely well by a trio that sounds confident and has their future ahead of them. Not very proggy, though.

Making Memories is quite good, but the best stuff on the album is now over. It's not a bad song about being on the road, and Alex does some fine slide guitar.

Rivendell is the weak point here. Aggression gives way to mellow acoustic guitar and no drums. An OK break in the onslaught, however.

In The End starts with more acoustic guitar, then builds intensity and winds the album down in fine style.

4.5 stars.