Thursday Throwback: YYZ by Rush
Because of the whole band premise of the Rock Band series, instrumental tracks for regular Rock Band DLC are very rare (more common on the RBN, however). The only track I can remember at the top of my head, is the recently released Frankenstein back in January. So I thought I would share one of my favorite, and arguably the most popular instrumental song in the whole Rock Band platform, YYZ by Rush.
Rush is definitely one of the most popular artists in Rock Band, with three different packs (including the entirety of 2112), two on-disc songs, and five singles. We have even featured three of their songs as previous Thursday Throwback picks: Limelight, Closer to the Heart and Working Man (Vault Edition).
YYZ was released in 1981, on their studio album Moving Pictures. It wasn’t released as a single, so its popularity is mainly down to it being one of the favorites at concerts. The name comes from the airport code of Rush’s hometown of Toronto. The band always know when they are home, as YYZ appears on their luggage. YYZ was first featured on the setlist of Guitar Hero II, along with Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, and then finally as part of the full album release of Moving Pictures in Rock Band.
I’m glad to report that the exclusion of the vocals does not effect the rest of this song. While your singers can take a breather, everyone else should prepare for a workout, because its difficulty of the song is pretty high. 4-tier guitar starts off relatively simple in the intro, which then turns into a little harder riff, and then turns into a strumfest at around the two minute mark, with a solo later on. 4-tier bass follows a very simple pattern to the guitar throughout most of the song, hence the same difficulty, but towards the end it gets even harder, so watch out. As you would expect from Neil Peart, 5-tier drums is the hardest of the instruments, with loads of foot pedal usage, switches in cymbals, and loads of tricky fills throughout, so I would recommend playing in Pro mode for that extra challenge.
Got any ideas for any artists we haven’t featured yet? Or different songs by artists we have featured? Any ideas would be great!
After looking through this site, why don’t you head on over to my growing fansite, The Tribute Pages which features loads of tributes of video games, TV shows and movies. Much appreciated!
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That drum pattern was very tricky. Took me a while to get the pass. I love it the most on bass. Lots of fast tricky HOPOs.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I maintain that Moving Pictures was the most fun DLC harmonix has released to date.
crashb648 Reply:
May 17th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Well your opinion is widely accepted, as when people usually name their favourite DLC, this and Boston are usually mentioned first.
Xanadu Reply:
May 17th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Oh wow, I forgot about Boston. That was the first pack I bought on RB.
Some Random Person Reply:
May 18th, 2012 at 9:01 am
Nice username for a Rush fan.
Ah, if only we could get that song in the game…
… along with everything else they’ve ever done.
Speaking of GH II Setlist, that needs to be updated for Killing in the Name.
Thanks for featuring this. I really need to get this, even though I have it in GH:SH, I play RB the most.
crashb648 Reply:
May 17th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
No Problem! I had a few requests to feature this track, so hopefully people enjoyed a revisit to YYZ
Easily among my favorite tracks. Like other say, Moving Pictures is easily the best DLC pack there is, across all instruments. And I’ll never forget their Time Machine tour, playing Moving Pictures in its entirety. Watching them play YYZ live is pretty amazing (although they almost always have that in the setlist)
PAD Reply:
May 17th, 2012 at 11:26 pm
I disagree. Iron Maiden is easily the best DLC pack across all instruments. Or maybe Jimi Hendrix. Or Judas Priest. Or.. You get the picture.
Nick Reply:
May 17th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
ah. one of THOSE types of responses.Thanks for your insight, you have completely proved me wrong, about everything. I have no hopes or dreams left anymore thanks to your insightful and poignant comment disagreeing with my opinion. All I can do now is give up all my worldly possessions and move into the wilderness, to take up a life of meditation and contemplation. Thank you so much for taking a few moments out of your day to make that comment, it has changed my life!
Whoa! RB has been slowly getting me into Rush and this song is exactly my favorite kind of progressive rock. I already dug Red Barchetta after I got it from one of Track Packs (and of course Tom Sawyer in RB1), I might just pick up all of Moving Pictures because of this article.
crashb648 Reply:
May 18th, 2012 at 3:56 am
You won’t regret it! It’s an awesome pack!
Some Random Person Reply:
May 18th, 2012 at 9:04 am
Also, get “2112″ if you haven’t already. Seriously.
* Although there are about five minutes in all with no drums or bass, and vocals are quite sparse and there are no keys. But OMG “2112″!
While instrumental tracks are somewhat rare in the mainline DLC, I think they’ve released that each instrument (excluding keys) has at least one DLC song that leaves it out.
YYZ was a huge moment for Rock Band, as it was the first song to exclude ANY one of the four core instruments. And this was such a noteable event that it actually caused a delay in releasing the content while they hammered out unexpected kinks caused by the missing vocals.
Some Random Person Reply:
May 18th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Huh? Plenty of songs don’t have keys.
But yeah, there are a good number of instrumentals (no vocals), at least one NiN song with no guitar, and “Landslide” which is guitar and vocals only. There is no instrument on which you could play every song released for Rock Band.
If you want to include disc songs, “Song of the Century” from Green Day: Rock Band is vocals ONLY.
Whizzer Reply:
May 18th, 2012 at 9:37 am
T’s comment probably pertains to before keys were added to Rock Band. Back then, there were four instruments, including vocals.
I wasn’t around when Moving Pictures was released, but I did read in the store, when I bought it, that it required the latest update. One Pearl Jam track from Ten didn’t include vocals, another from Backspacer didn’t include drums, and a Megadeth track didn’t include guitar. Not sure which tracks miss bass, and which one was the first (not sure if the above mentioned tracks were the first to miss that particular instrument either).
Nick Reply:
May 18th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Bass went the longest without missing a track, I believe. The first one I recall was Landslide, but there may have been another. Not including RBN.
I hadn’t really heard much Rush before encountering YYZ on Guitar Hero. It seemed a bit mad at the time but I found myself liking it. Was pleased to see it appear as part of Moving Pictures for Rock Band. I saw them perform the whole album live along with a large selection of their catalog last year on their Time Machine tour, which was a great show to see.
I think Iron Maiden’s “Iron Maiden (Live)’ would be a great throwback. It’s a lot of fun, especially with “improvised” harmonies and the big rock ending.