RUSH's ALEX LIFESON: 'Moving Pictures' Was 'The Most Fun Record We Ever Made'

In a new interview with Fox San Antonio, RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson reflected on the making of “Moving Pictures”, the band’s eighth studio album, which was originally released on February 12, 1981. The LP was recorded in October and November 1980 at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada, which was ultimately nicknamed the trio’s own personal Abbey Road recording studio. Lifeson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We did a lot of records at Le Studio. ‘Moving Pictures’ was the most fun record we ever made. It was such a great energy and a great vibe. It was winter — it was a very cold winter as well. When I say ‘very cold’, I mean minus 30, minus 40. You’d have a week of that kind of weather. But it was still a lot of fun to work there. We would snowshoe or cross country ski to the studio. I generally drove over [laughs], but it was part of that whole Canadian experience, the Great North.

“When we started working on ‘Moving Pictures’, everything came along just so effortlessly,” he continued. “We were well prepared, we’d written all the material, we knew what we were doing. We went in, we got sounds. We did things a little differently. We actually mixed it down on digital, which was one of the first Sony digital machines. Compared to modern digital, that thing was a ‘Model T’. But the record sounds great. So, so long as you get the results.

“Yeah, that was really, really a lot of fun to do,” Alex added. “We made a couple of videos there that were fun. I remember when we did ‘Witch Hunt’, we were down in the parking area. They set up mics and we were the mob crowd in the background in ‘Witch Hunt’ in the opening. And if you listen carefully, you can hear us laughing because we’d had a few drinks and we were screaming and yelling about the most ridiculous things as a mob. But some of the things that we were saying are totally unrelated to anything. But it was such a feel-good record, making ‘Moving Pictures’.”

In April 2022, UMe/Mercury and Anthem Records label groups released an expanded 40th-anniversary edition of “Moving Pictures”. “Moving Pictures – 40th Anniversary” was made available to fans in six distinct configurations, including the (1) Super Deluxe Edition, (2) three-CD Deluxe Edition, (3) five-LP Deluxe Edition, (4) one-LP Edition, (5),Digital Deluxe Edition, and (6) Dolby Atmos Digital Edition.

“Moving Pictures”‘ adventurous-yet-accessible music catapulted the forward-thinking Canadian band to even newer heights as it began navigating the demands of a new decade. The album’s seven songs expertly blended RUSH‘s intrinsic prowess for channeling its progressive roots into radio-friendly arrangements, a template the band had mastered to a T all throughout its previous album, 1980’s deservedly lauded “Permanent Waves”.

The album’s lead-off track, “Tom Sawyer”, became one of RUSH‘s most cherished FM favorites in addition to taking its rightful place as a perpetual concert staple for decades to come. Next, the band shifts into the multi-generational dreamscape of “Red Barchetta”, which chronicles the thrills and chills of a high-stakes backroads car race. The instrumental barnburner “YYZ”, lovingly named after the airport identification code for Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, runs the gamut of the band’s forever impressive progressive chops in under four minutes flat. Side A closes out with the observational luminescence of “Limelight”, a timeless, if not prescient look at how introverted artists grapple with public demands while trying to maintain a personal level of earned privacy.

Side B commences with the expansive palette of “The Camera Eye”, a multi-layered, ten-minute-long travelogue that takes a bird’s eye view of the inherent hustle and bustle of New York City counterbalanced with the intense energy and deep-rooted history of London. “Witch Hunt” (subtitled as being “Part III of Fear”) offers a grim view of prejudice and mob mentality, while the album wraps up with the angular, cutting-edge “Vital Signs”, a propulsive track that clearly foreshadows a number of the more adventurous musical directions RUSH would undertake as the ever-shifting 1980s continued to unfold.

RUSH — bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist/vocalist Alex Lifeson, and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart — maintains a large and uniquely passionate worldwide fanbase that acknowledges and respects the band’s singular, bold, and perpetually exploratory songcraft that combines sterling musicianship, complex compositions, and distinctive lyrical flair.

RUSH has sold more than 25 million albums in the U.S. alone, with worldwide sales estimated at 45 million (and counting),and has been awarded 24 gold, 14 platinum, and three multi-platinum album distinctions.

RUSH has received seven Grammy nominations, and the band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 1994 and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013.