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With the unexpected death of drummer Neil Peart in January 2020, fans of Rush got some very, very bad news to process. Although the renowned lyricist has stopped playing the drums for some time now, his demise makes for an irrevocable point in the Rush story. Fortunately, this suffering is alleviated by the re-release of the album “Permanent Waves” from 1980. On the occasion of this ruby jubilee, the album has now been re-released in no less than four different versions.
The most eye-catching ’40th anniversary edition’ is the so-called ‘super deluxe edition‘ with three LPs and two CDs. This edition contains the already in 2015 remastered version of “Permanent Waves”, supplemented with bonus material that has not been released before. This material stems from concerts in Manchester, London and St. Louis in 1980 and has recently been cataloged by the original producer Terry Brown.
This impressive edition features new artwork from Hugh Syme, the designer of the famous original cover. It contains some exclusive items, including a forty-page book with mostly previously unreleased photographs. It also contains replicas of the original tour programme and of the rare 1980 British tour book. Besides a poster with the cover model Paula Turnbull and copies of three backstage passes, the set also contains handwritten text sheets from The Spirit Of Radio, Entre Nous and Natural Science.
In addition to this now hard to find ‘super deluxe edition’, the forty-year-old album will also be released on three albums. The first album contains the revamped original album, while the live material is on the other two albums. The three albums, together with a twenty-page booklet with previously unreleased photos, are packed in a fold-out cover, which again features Hugh Syme’s new artwork.
Rush has also thought about aficionados of physical digital media. After all, this ’40th anniversary edition’ will be released for them on double CD. The CDs are packed in a digipack with a new cover and a twenty-page booklet. The remastered album is on the first disc, while the bonus material is on the other. Just like the second CD of the ‘super deluxe edition’, A Passage To Bangkok, recorded in Manchester, is missing due to lack of space.
The download does of course include the live version of A Passage To Bangkok. This fourth and last of these anniversary editions consists of the album that was patched up in 2015 and the twelve bonus songs mixed by Terry Brown. It goes without saying that this version lacks the (paper) fuss of its physical counterparts.
