On February 28, 1981, "Rush" released the single that would become their most successful and famous "Tom Sawyer".
It's amazing to think that the band did not really like the song at the time of the recordings. In one of his interviews, Geddy Lee noted:
"I remember being disappointed in the studio, thinking we really didn't capture the spirit of the song. We thought it was the worst song on the record at the time – but it all came together in the mix. Sometimes you don't have the objectivity to know when you're doing your best work."
In another interview, Geddy Lee noted that the band did not anticipate the song's great success at all:
"The one song that we have to play for the rest of our lives. When we wrote it, we had no idea that it would touch such a nerve with people. In many ways, it's the quintessential Rush song."
It is interesting to note that the band selected "Tom Sawyer" as the opening track on the 2002 "Vapor Trails" album tour, something the band had never done before. After all the trauma and tragedy that drummer Neil Peart went through with the death of his daughter and partner within 10 months, the band members felt that "Tom Sawyer" would prove best that "Rush" is back and their here to stay.
Another interesting statistic is that the band usually start the song with a count of 1 to 4, but in the "Vapor Trails" tour there was no such count, at least not in the usual way. Peart gave the signal to start and play the song by simply closing the Hi-Hat cymbal with his foot and this was the sign to start counting quietly from 1 to 4. This can be seen on "Rush In Rio" DVD- Before the show starts you can hear the cymbal sound that started the show. See here exactly at 1:45.
For more interesting details about the song and the immortal album from which it is taken, read our review on "Moving Pictures".
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