Rush released Working Men in the United States and Canada on November 17, 2009. The 12-track live compilation included an extra for fans who already owned the band’s concert releases: a previously unreleased R30 performance of “One Little Victory,” which had been left off the original concert DVD.
Europe had received the collection four days earlier. Available on CD and DVD, Working Men drew from Rush in Rio (2003), R30 (2005) and Snakes & Arrows Live (2008). Anthem announced it as Rush’s first best-of live compilation, as Blabbermouth reported before its release. Both formats followed the same running order, condensing selections from those three projects into roughly an hour.
Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart played material reaching across decades, although the recordings themselves all came from the 2000s. “Working Man” traced the selection back to Rush’s self-titled 1974 debut, while “Far Cry” represented 2007’s Snakes & Arrows. Those choices made the collection a look at how the band was performing its catalog during that decade, with older songs sharing space with material written much closer to the concerts.
Even the selections from Moving Pictures came from different concert releases. “Limelight” opened the compilation in its Snakes & Arrows Live version, while the closing “YYZ” came from Rush in Rio. “Tom Sawyer” also came from Snakes & Arrows Live. Three songs from the same 1981 studio album consequently appeared across two different live projects, with the running order moving between tours instead of following one concert from beginning to end.
R30 supplied five of the compilation’s performances. The concert release documented Rush’s 2004 anniversary tour, whose set list deliberately reached into different parts of the band’s history. “We felt it was important to touch on all of our periods of songwriting,” Lifeson explained in a recollection published on Rush’s website. That approach helps explain the range of material available for Working Men, from “Working Man” to the much later “One Little Victory.”
The latter song had opened Vapor Trails in 2002, the studio album that followed Rush’s six-year absence from recording. It was already part of the band’s catalog when Working Men arrived; the previously unreleased element was this particular live performance. The original R30 DVD had omitted eight songs from the concert, including “One Little Victory.” Its appearance here gave listeners another piece of that show alongside the familiar performances already available on the earlier releases.
The remaining gap closed soon afterward. The complete R30 concert reached Blu-ray in the United States in December 2009, restoring all eight omitted performances, including the version of “One Little Victory” featured on Working Men.
