YYZ (song)
| "YYZ" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
"YYZ" is an instrumental song that appears on the Rush album Moving Pictures. It became one of the band's most popular songs and has been a live staple for Rush since the release of the album in 1981. On the live album A Show of Hands, a version of the song is played with drummer Neil Peart performing a three-and-a-half minute drum solo in the middle. This solo is featured in "Anatomy of A Drum Solo", also titled The Rhythm Method.
One of the better known bits of trivia about the song is that its introduction, in the odd time signature of 5/4, plays out the letters "Y-Y-Z" in Morse Code (-.--/-.--/--..) YYZ is the airport code for Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, the city where Rush was formed during the late 1960s (Neil Peart once said, "It's always a happy day when YYZ appears on our luggage tags!"). The initial guitar riff also plays out the YYZ code using the dissonant interval of the tritone, playing a tritone lower than the starting pitch during each 16th note. The riff is written in the key of C, making the diminished fifth (the tritone) F#. The synthesizer melody played above it is a rare example of the Locrian mode.
"YYZ" was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental category in 1982.
The intro to "YYZ," minus the keyboards, was used note for note by alternative rock band Primus in the performance of "John the Fisherman" released on their 1989 live album Suck on This. "YYZ" had also been covered by Dream Theater during their time as Majesty, and has been released on The Majesty Demos.
The song is featured as a playable encore song in the video game Guitar Hero II, and was also covered by Primus in full during some shows in 2004.
You can also find the intro of YYZ featured in the live Godsmack drum "battle" between drummer Shannon and singer Sully Erna. The track is called "La batalla de los Tambores", and can be seen in their live shows, and also on the live DVD entitled "Changes". The drum battle is in three parts, the third act starting with the intro to YYZ.
ʃ==External links==
- A live performance video of YYZ on YouTube.
- A downloadable .wmv version of a fan-made video of YYZ featuring an animated Neil Peart on drums
- [http://www.neilpeart.net/movies/yyz_vid.html The same video on Neil Peart's site, embedded from YouTube, accompanied by au
== Headline text ==Insert non-formatted text here thor's notes.]
 | This rock song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |