"Stick It Out" is a song and single by the band
Rush from their 1993 album ''
Counterparts
Counterpart or Counterparts may refer to:
Entertainment and literature
* "Counterparts" (short story), by James Joyce
* Counterparts, former name for the Reel Pride LGBT film festival
* ''Counterparts'' (film), a 2007 German drama
* ''Counterp ...
''. The song debuted at number one on the ''Billboard''
Album Rock Tracks chart, becoming the band's only number one debut of their five chart-toppers. The song also reached number one on the ''
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
''
Cancon
Canadian content (abbreviated CanCon, cancon or can-con; ) refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requirements, derived from the Broadcasting Act of Canada, that radio and television broadcasters (includ ...
chart.
music videowas made for the song. It was briefly featured on an episode of ''
Beavis and Butt-Head
''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, ...
''. "Stick It Out" has been featured live on several of Rush's tours, including the ''Counterparts'', ''Test for Echo'', and Time Machine Tours.
Background
Drummer and lyricist
Neil Peart
Neil Ellwood Peart OC (; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian-American musician, best known as the drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an ...
said of the song:
It’s just a play on the words, really. "Stick It Out" meaning both a kind of arrogant display, 'stick it out', but also the endurance thing; if you have a difficult thing to endure, stick it out and you get to the end. It was the pun on both of those, really, so again the duality in the song is a bit leaning both ways. The sense of forbearance, of holding back, and also the idea of fortitude: stick it out, you know, survive.
But that was more of a piece of fun. That song, I would say, both lyrically and musically, verges on parody, and that was one I think we just had fun with, and lyrically I certainly did, too. 'Stick it out' and 'spit it out' and all that was just a bit of word play.
Lead singer and bassist
Geddy Lee
Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib; July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968, at the re ...
said:
I love the riff. It’s a great riff song. I love playing it, and it’s a very bass-heavy song, which always makes me happy. Lyrically, it’s kind of so-so. I don’t know. I think the best thing about it is the vibe and that it’s stripped down to a trio, back to doing riff rock.
Track listing
Personnel
*
Geddy Lee
Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib; July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968, at the re ...
– bass guitar, vocals,
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
*
Alex Lifeson
Aleksandar Živojinović, (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Rush. In 1968, Lifeson co-founded the band that wo ...
– guitars
*
Neil Peart
Neil Ellwood Peart OC (; September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian-American musician, best known as the drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an ...
– drums, percussion
See also
*
List of Rush songs
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
List of ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 1990s
References
1993 songs
1993 singles
Rush (band) songs
Music videos directed by Samuel Bayer
Song recordings produced by Peter Collins (record producer)
Songs written by Neil Peart
Songs written by Alex Lifeson
Songs written by Geddy Lee
Atlantic Records singles
Grunge songs
{{1990s-rock-song-stub