All the World's a Stage (album)

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***All the World's a Stage*** is a double live album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1976. The album was recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto on June 11, 12, and 13 during their *2112* tour. The title of the album alludes to William Shakespeare's play *As You Like It*, which would again be referenced by Rush in their 1981 song "Limelight".

## Content

This performance of "2112" omits the "Discovery" and "Oracle: The Dream" sections of the studio recording. Altough the final 32 seconds of "Discovery" are played as a lead-in to "Presentation", the liner notes and track listing do not indicate this. Rush would not perform the entire suite live until the 1996–97 Test for Echo Tour, as documented on the live album *Different Stages*.

The album closes with a bit of post-show chatter among the band members and the sound of a slamming of a door as they leave the venue.

According to the liner notes, this live album (Rush's first) 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.

The medley of "Working Man"/"Finding My Way" is a split tune which runs as follows: "Working Man (first half)/Finding My Way/Working Man (second half)/Neil Peart incorporated drum solo" before the band jams out the end of the medley.

## Reception

*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. It was certified platinum in the US in 1981 after the release of *Moving Pictures*. In Canada, Gold certification came on December 1, 1976, and platinum on August 1, 1978.

## 1997 remaster

A remaster was issued in 1997.

* The tray has a picture of the star with man painting (mirroring the cover art of *Retrospective I*) with "The Rush Remasters" printed in all capital letters just to the left. All remasters from *Rush* through *Permanent Waves* are like this.
* The original CD omitted "What You're Doing" and the post-show chatter due to recording length constraints (CDs could hold only 75 minutes at the time). By 1997, however, advances in recording technology had increased that maximum time to 80 minutes; the missing song and chatter are included in the remaster. Prior to its release, the same live version of "What You're Doing" was included on the compilation *Chronicles* in 1990.
* The album's original triple gatefold artwork with concert pictures is included with the remaster.

*All the World's A Stage* was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette for the "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. *All the World's A Stage* is included in the *Sector 1* set.

*All the World's A Stage* was remastered for vinyl in 2015 by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion. The high definition master prepared for this release was also made available for purchase in 24-bit/96 kHz and 24-bit/192 kHz formats, at several high-resolution audio online music stores. These masters have significantly less dynamic range compression than the 1997 remasters and the "Sector" remasters by Andy VanDette.

## Track listing

All lyrics are written by Neil Peart; all music is composed by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, except where noted.

* II. The Temples of Syrinx
* III. Presentation (Lifeson, Peart)
* IV. Soliloquy
* V. Grand Finale"

* I. At the Tobes of Hades
* II. Across the Styx
* III. Of the Battle
	+ a. Challenge and Defiance
	+ b. 7/4 War Furor
	+ c. Aftermath
	+ d. Hymn of Triumph
* IV. Epilogue"

## Personnel

* Geddy Lee – lead vocals, bass
* Alex Lifeson – guitar, vocals
* Neil Peart – drums, percussion
* Terry Brown – engineer
* Hugh Syme – design
* George Graves – mastering on original album
* Bob Ludwig – remastering

## Charts

**Album**

1. ↑ Music Canada, Gold Platinum Database. http://www.musiccanada.com/GPSearchResult.aspx?st=all%20the%20world%27s%20a%20stage&ica=False&sa=rush&sl=&smt=0&sat=-1&ssb=Artist
2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-08-23. Retrieved 2014-09-20. Unknown parameter `|deadurl=` ignored (`|url-status=` suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. ↑ "12 MONTHS OF RUSH: 14 ALBUMS FROM MERCURY ERA FOR RELEASE IN 2015". *Rush.com*. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
4. ↑ "Rush - new 2015 vinyl and hi-res reissues thread". *Steve Hoffman Music Forums*. Retrieved 10 July 2015.

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