Between The Wheels

I say "Wheels can take you around, wheels can cut you down" so often during my everyday life. This is truly one of the best songs ever written. I am often shocked to hear that many so called Rush fans actually don't like this album. Regardless of the first seven songs, GUP should be considered one of their best solely for this song. The lyrics, the music, the vocals... it all just moves me in a way that's hard to explain. This is possibly my favourite song of all time.

Remember that this album was released in 1984, and had as its them the fear of nuclear destruction (the phrase "Grace Under Pressure" is Hemingway).

This song addresses the wastefulness of the Cold War. The "Reeling by on celluloid" reference is stating that people sometimes seek refugee in entertainment and mindless activities instead of facing their fears and responsibilities.

Interresting to hear your comments. I must tell, I bought this record beacause my friend was playing drums in a swedish coverband playing Rush (only). I bought it lissened to it and put it away. For about a year. Didn't like it. When I then lissened to it again i got stuck. It was a strange feeling. Like the feeling a get from Edward Hoppers paintings. I dont like the "form" but a kind of like the "message", if there is a massage. Just "Grace under pressure" is telling what I feel. This song I like because it goes from one tempos to another. From darkness to a more constructice beet. From the bottom you try to get to the surface. Strange and beautiful.

I beleive this song reflects on the frail nature of our lives. How easily things can change if you can't keep up or time starts to pass you by. As they say, you can go from boom to bust (not that it has anything to do with the Great Deperssion)

I think this song is about how quickly things can deteriorate if you don't keep up. I like how the song points out "Wheels can take you around / Wheels can cut you down" I like the idea that the same thing can either help or harm depending on the situation.

only 7 comments on this fantastic song...a truly underrated Rush beauty...haunting chorus

"You know how that rabbit feels Going under your speeding wheels Bright images flashing by Like windshields towards a fly Frozen in the fatal climb -- but the wheels of time -- Just pass you by... "

Don't think that the drenching irony of bringing back this lost gem from the GUP album in 2005 (for the R30 Tour) and then for the Snakes & Arrows Tour was lost of a number of us paying attention here in the good ole US of A.

The lyrics practically describe what America has been living through in the last decade or so.

The juxtaposition of a pop culture awash in stupidity and meaningless affect while soldiers come home and drown in their own shattered psyches, alcohol & drugs and (for far too many) eventual suicide.

We are two very separate and incongruous nations in that respect.

Neil was looking at what happened to those who lived between the two World Wars (often called the "Lost Generation" - a phrase used by Hemingway who, as another commenter mentioned, was the source of the album title) and was beginning to see parallels to our own modern culture in the early 80s and now the 21st century.

Considering the tone of his disappointment with what we've become (excellently expressed on Snakes & Arrows with Armor And Sword and The Way The Wind Blows) it didn't surprise me that the band played this two tours in a row probably at the suggestion of Peart.

What scares me is we have enough ego-maniacs who believe in "American exceptionalism" who somehow think that the "boom" will never go "bust" so we're burning America out as a world power. I think we're past the point of....

"Wheels can take you around Wheels can cut you down

We can go from boom to bust From dreams to a bowl of dust"

When I left college after two years, my roommate gave me a copy of this song to remind me not to let the wheels of time pass me by.

The opening lines of this song bring to mind a person who has either become a TV junkie, living life through fiction, or so afraid of what is happening in the real would (on TV), they cut themselves off from society.

Life can go by so fast and seem overwhelming.
"What is my purpose?" "What should I do?" Do something. Anything. Don't just sit there.

The song seems to suggest everyone's imput is needed. As another Rush song says, "Get out there and rock, and roll the bones."

I love how this song goes from very melancholy in the beginning to a more upbeat sound during the solo part and then back to that foreboding sound of the beginning

Maybe even a book...