10 Even More Perfect 1970s Rock Albums With No Bad Songs

4. Fly By Night - Rush

Fly by Night was a hugely important album in the history of Rush and in the landscape of '70s rock.

The band's second album, this is the first record to feature the brilliant Neil Peart. Not just was Peart brought in as the group's new drummer, he was also responsible for penning the lyrics for six of the eight tracks featured on Fly by Night as Rush moved towards a more prog rock sound.

Peart's drumming brought a whole new dimension to Rush, with it brilliantly meshing with the rippling basslines of Geddy Lee and the laser-focussed guitar work of Alex Lifeson here. Of course, it also helps that Lee is on his wailing best for so much of Fly by Night, with Best I Can magnificently capturing the wails of both Lee's vocals and Lifeson's Gibson Les Paul.

While the jangling, punchy title track was released as the sole single from this record, the show-stealer on this 1975 album is the eight-part, eight-minute By-Tor and the Snow Dog that has Rush run through a whole variety of different styles while always somehow still sounding exactly like Rush.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.