Tomb of Hades lit by flickering torchlight,
Netherworld is gathered in the glare.
Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the north light,
Sign of Eth is rising in the air.
This version of “By-Tor And The Snow Dog” hails from the same February 20th, 1978 show that I highlighted earlier this week, the one at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Most of the archival tracks from Different Stages come from that particular set.
A couple things to note: First, young Geddy is clearly having a ball with this song. Whatever the vocalist equivalent of “chewing on the scenery” is, he’s doing it, and with so much gusto. (Or cocaine. Probably cocaine.)
Second, I love the guitar work in this version, especially as the song moves into the battle between the two eponymous characters. Alex really drags out the intro to that sequence, playing like he has all the time in the world. His fingers crawl up and down the frets, finding notes tucked between other notes, little secrets he’s left for himself only to be uncovered by playing the song live. It’s really quite beautiful to hear.
Third, this live track is so dang fast. Maybe the guys are too young and hungry to let the rest notes actually rest, or maybe it’s the energy of playing in front of thousands of people, or maybe it’s (again) all the cocaine—but they speed through the syncopated instrumental at the end like they’re playing on fast-forward. The end result is that, at least to me, this “By-Tor” sounds like a totally different song.
After listening to mostly albums from the mid-80s onward of late, it’s striking, how high-pitched his voice is here! Also, I dig how much he plays with the timing of the lyrics, which he doesn’t tend to do for the most part at shows that I’ve seen. Also, the drums are mixed very forward in the recording, which might be partly my crappy computer speakers.