La Villa Strangiato

Rush's first fully instrumental track, subtitled "An Exercise in Self-Indulgence" — and it earns the name gloriously. The nine-and-a-half-minute piece is based on Alex Lifeson's recurring nightmares, which he regularly inflicted on his bandmates by calling them up to describe in detail. As Geddy explained: "Alex doesn't really call them nightmares. They're just strange dreams. He's plagued with them and he drives us crazy by calling us up all the time to tell us about them."

The piece cycles through 12 distinct sections, each representing a different aspect of Lifeson's dreamscape. It opens with a delicate classical guitar passage that Lifeson recorded on the final day at Rockfield, sitting alone on a hard plastic chair amid packed road cases while Terry Brown watched from the control room. Part of his classical studies had included flamenco guitar, and the Latin-flavored opening reflected that training — though he played it with a pick because, as he admitted in 1980, "my fingers aren't that quick, yet."

"La Villa Strangiato" became one of Rush's most celebrated live pieces, a showcase for all three musicians' virtuosity. It was performed at nearly every Rush concert from its debut onward and evolved constantly through different arrangements over the decades. It proved that Rush could create compelling, complex music without a single lyric — a lesson they would apply to future instrumentals like "YYZ" and "Leave That Thing Alone."