2112

Alex Lifeson - guitars
Neil Peart - percussion
Geddy Lee - bass and vocals

Produced by Rush and Terry Brown
Engineered by Terry Brown
Arrangements by Rush and Terry Brown
Recorded and mixed at Toronto Sound Studios, Toronto, Ontario
Roadmaster - Howard (Herns) Ungerleider
Roadcrew - Major Ian Grandy, L.B.L.B., Skip (Detroit Slider) Gildersleeve

Graphics - Hugh Syme
Photography - Yosh Inouye, Gérard Gentil (Band)

Management by Ray Danniels, SRO Management, Inc., Toronto
Executive Production - Moon Records

A very special thank you to Ray, Vic, Terry, Howard, Ian, Liam, Skip, and Hugh for sharing the load.

Special thanks to ......(insert your name here)
Special guest Hugh Syme - keyboards on 'Tears'

© 1976 Mercury Records © 1976 Anthem Entertainment

Notes

  • Mercury/Polygram, March 8, 1976
  • Highest Billboard Chart Position: 61 - Certified Gold by RIAA: November 16, 1977 - Certified Platinum: February 25, 1981 - Certified 2x Platinum: December 1, 1993 - Certified 3x Platinum: November 17, 1995
  • The Red Star is not included on the cover of the South Korean pressing of 2112; a red star is found on the North Korean flag. This was apparently done by Mercury Records to avoid any potential ideological conflicts.
  • Reissued November 15, 1993 as a Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Ultradisc II - 24 KT Gold CD.
  • Reissued December 18, 2012 as the 2112 Deluxe Edition including 5.1 surround sound and various packaging options.
  • Reissued March 17, 2015 as the 2112 hologram vinyl edition by Universal Music Enterprises on 200-gram, heavyweight vinyl with a download code for a 320kbps MP4 vinyl ripped Digital Audio album as well as high resolution Digital Audio editions in DSD (2.8mHz), 192khz / 24-bit, 96kHz / 24-bit. Sales of the 2112 Hologram Edition brought it back into the Billboard Top 200, coming in at #149.
  • Reissued December 16, 2016 as the 2112-40th Anniversary Edition including a newly remastered CD of the original 2112 album by Abbey Road Studios, and an additional CD of rare, live and previously unreleased material.
  • Click here for the '2112' Transcript Archive.

In Their Own Words

"Polygram had written us off before '2112' had come - we'd seen their financial predictions and we weren't even on it!" - Neil Peart, Classic Rock, October 2004
"We wanted the finale to be ambiguous: I took the optimistic view that the priests were vanquished and the temples destroyed, but I remember Neil talking about the two factions still at war when a third party swoops in to take overall control. He and I talked about the Ayn Rand concept of 'Sense of Life'-how each of us views the world and makes decisions based on individual values-and in that spirit it felt best not to spell everything out. Was it a rebellion of the oppressed masses or an invasion of liberating forces? That's up to you to decide-and, I believe, one of the essential things that listeners were engaged by and responded to so well."- Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life
"I had used the double necked Rickenbacker and Taurus bass pedals when we played 'A Passage To Bangkok' live - I used to play rhythm guitar and bass pedals during Alex's solo." - Geddy Lee, The Guitar Magazine, November 1993
"The quickest ever was 'The Twilight Zone' from our '2112' album. That was written and recorded in one day." - Neil Peart, "Stories From Signals", Signals Tourbook
"The Twilight Zone is a little gem with a very strong lead guitar motif from Alex, Ged's verse vocals up in the stratosphere and then the chorus slipping into an eerie flanged vocal that is in the 'zone'. This is all held together by Neil's very concise, driving percussion closing with the airy guitar solo which makes this one of my favourite Rush tunes." - Terry Brown, PROG, Issue 52 January 2015
"I was in their studio in Toronto - my first ever visit to their legendarily private inner sanctum - and one thing led to another. Geddy and I were huddled on the floor with my Arp Odyssey synth, operating envelope filters and playing notes to produce the soundscape that opened the overture of 2112. I then went down the hall for a few hours, and developed my Mellotron string and horn parts for Geddy's song, Tears. It's still a-very fond memory." - Hugh Syme, Classic Rock Special Edition, June 11, 2012
"All those paeans to American restlessness and the American road carried a tinge of wistfulness, an acknowledgment of the hardships of the vagrant life, the notion that wanderlust could be involuntary, exile as much as freedom, and indeed, the understanding that freedom wasn't free. In the mid-'70s, the band was driving to a show in downtown Los Angeles, at the Shrine Auditorium, and I noticed some graffiti splattered across a wall: 'Freedom isn't free,' and I adapted that for a song on 2112, 'Something for Nothing.'" - Neil Peart, Traveling Music
"The prog-rock experiments of the band Rush are among works that should be preserved for future generations, says a committee tasked with saving the best in Canadian television, radio, film and music. The band's 1976 album 2112, a unique blend of classic rock and synthesizers that made Rush a sensation both in Canada and the United States, is one of 12 cultural pieces named Thursday as MasterWorks by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust. The public-sector group promotes the protection of classic Canadian works and selects a dozen every year for preservation, offering funds for those in danger of being lost...'The safeguarding of these selections is so important to the foundation of Canadian culture.' added president David Novek..." - Jam Showbiz, October 19, 2006
"I would definitely fear the realization that the best record we made was 10 or 20 years ago. That would be hard to live with." - Neil Peart, TheStar.com, October 21, 2006
"To me, it's raw and immature and all that it should be - it's 30 years ago...A lot of our early stuff does (make me cringe) but on the other hand, I know that it's genuine." - Neil Peart, Jam!Music, October 22, 2006
"During March of this year came the album that was to take Rush beyond the cult status it had acquired in the U.S. - 2112." - All The World's A Stage Press Kit, 1976

Promos

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