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Journalists writing about the band and [[progressive rock]] consider "Before" and "After", especially "Before", the only ''Rush'' song representative of their output that began with Peart's replacement of Rutsey. This is in its complex structure with a "quieter" and "ethereal" lengthy intro that uses the bass guitar for melody and grows, before an abrupt sound and tempo change.{{efn|<ref name = "AlexBody"/><ref name = "SongBySong19731982"/><ref name = "Banasiewicz"/>{{rp|12}}<ref name = "Thrillist">{{cite web|last=Hoffman|first=Jordan|date=July 29, 2019|url=https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-rush-songs-ranked|title=All 180 Rush Songs, Ranked|website=[[Thrillist]]|access-date=January 20, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Jon|year=2010|title=Rush: Chemistry|publisher=Helter Skelter|location=[[London]]|isbn=978-1905139286}}</ref>{{rp|33}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Wagner|first=Jeff|year=2010|title= Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal|publisher=[[Bazillion Points]]|location=[[Brooklyn]]|isbn=9780979616334}}</ref>{{rp|21}}<ref>{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=James|year=2012|section=Before and After|title=Rush: Changing Hemispheres|isbn=978-0956696076|publisher=Abstract Sounds Book, Ltd}}</ref>}} According to Popoff, Rutsey's drumming activity during "After" was close to that of Rush's early Peart songs.<ref name = "Popoff2020"/> James Richard, Alex Body, and Ryan Reed preferred "Before" over "After".<ref name = "AlexBody"/><ref name = "SongBySong19731982"/><ref name = "UCR"/> Richard argued "Before" had "creativity and melodic strength" not present in "After", and Reed called "Before" a nice touch to an overall "plodding" blues suite.<ref name = "SongBySong19731982"/><ref name = "UCR"/>
Journalists writing about the band and [[progressive rock]] consider "Before" and "After", especially "Before", the only ''Rush'' song representative of their output that began with Peart's replacement of Rutsey. This is in its complex structure with a "quieter" and "ethereal" lengthy intro that uses the bass guitar for melody and grows, before an abrupt sound and tempo change.{{efn|<ref name = "AlexBody"/><ref name = "SongBySong19731982"/><ref name = "Banasiewicz"/>{{rp|12}}<ref name = "Thrillist">{{cite web|last=Hoffman|first=Jordan|date=July 29, 2019|url=https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-rush-songs-ranked|title=All 180 Rush Songs, Ranked|website=[[Thrillist]]|access-date=January 20, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Jon|year=2010|title=Rush: Chemistry|publisher=Helter Skelter|location=[[London]]|isbn=978-1905139286}}</ref>{{rp|33}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Wagner|first=Jeff|year=2010|title= Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal|publisher=[[Bazillion Points]]|location=[[Brooklyn]]|isbn=9780979616334}}</ref>{{rp|21}}<ref>{{cite book|last=McCarthy|first=James|year=2012|section=Before and After|title=Rush: Changing Hemispheres|isbn=978-0956696076|publisher=Abstract Sounds Book, Ltd}}</ref>}} According to Popoff, Rutsey's drumming activity during "After" was close to that of Rush's early Peart songs.<ref name = "Popoff2020"/> James Richard, Alex Body, and Ryan Reed preferred "Before" over "After".<ref name = "AlexBody"/><ref name = "SongBySong19731982"/><ref name = "UCR"/> Richard argued "Before" had "creativity and melodic strength" not present in "After", and Reed called "Before" a nice touch to an overall "plodding" blues suite.<ref name = "SongBySong19731982"/><ref name = "UCR"/>


However, "After" was not without praise for its musical content. Jordan Hoffman called it a "solid" blues song.<ref name = "AlexBody"/> Although Body was disappointed the lyrics were "more of the same", he highlighted its guitar work. "The unison riffs are particularly pronounced here, weaving around Lee's vocals expertly," he wrote. He also called the solo during the breakdown Lifeson's "best [[Jimmy Page]] impression and, in some ways surprisingly, it really works".<ref name = "AlexBody"/> The_Phoenician, a writer for [[Ultimate Guitar]], called the overall experience "ridiculous[ly] powerful" thanks to "After", which "kick[s] ass": "Alex Lifeson's guitar game is top-notch when compared to his contemporaries and Geddy Lee letting it rip without restraint sounds very refreshing. And although I said that the track lacked some Peart, Jo[h]n Rutsey's got some serious groove going on there as well." He placed the suite on his list of the "Top 7 Underrated Rush Masterpieces That Everyone Should Check Out".<ref>{{cite web|author=The_Phoenician|date=February 28, 2025|url=https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/top_7_underrated_rush_masterpieces_that_everyone_should_check_out-121301|title=Top 7 Underrated Rush Masterpieces That Everyone Should Check Out|publisher=Ultimate Guitar|access-date=April 9, 2025}}</ref>
However, "After" was not without praise for its musical content. Jordan Hoffman called it a "solid" blues song.<ref name = "AlexBody"/> Although Body was disappointed the lyrics were "more of the same", he highlighted its guitar work. "The unison riffs are particularly pronounced here, weaving around Lee's vocals expertly," he wrote. He also called the solo during the breakdown Lifeson's "best [[Jimmy Page]] impression and, in some ways surprisingly, it really works".<ref name = "AlexBody"/> The_Phoenician, a writer for [[Ultimate Guitar]], called the overall experience "ridiculous[ly] powerful" thanks to "After", which "kick[s] ass". He called Lifeson's guitar work exceptional and Rutsey's drum groove "serious"; in addition, "Geddy Lee letting it rip without restraint sounds very refreshing." He placed the suite on his list of the "Top 7 Underrated Rush Masterpieces That Everyone Should Check Out".<ref>{{cite web|author=The_Phoenician|date=February 28, 2025|url=https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/top_7_underrated_rush_masterpieces_that_everyone_should_check_out-121301|title=Top 7 Underrated Rush Masterpieces That Everyone Should Check Out|publisher=Ultimate Guitar|access-date=April 9, 2025}}</ref>


== Parts ==
== Parts ==

Revision as of 14:57, 9 April 2025

"Before" and "After"
Suite by Rush
from the album Rush
ReleasedMarch 18, 1974
Recorded1973
Genre
Length
  • 5:33
  • 2:17 ("Before")
  • 3:16 ("After")
LabelMoon
Composer(s)
Lyricist(s)Geddy Lee
Producer(s)
Rush suite chronology
"Before" and "After"
(1974) 		"By-Tor and The Snow Dog"
(1975)
Rush instrumental chronology
"Before"
(1974) 		"Of the Battle"
(1975)

"Before"/"After", stylized on the sleeve's tracklisting as "Before" and "After", is a two-piece suite by Canadian rock band Rush. With John Rutsey as drummer, the suite was composed by bassist and lead vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson and penned by Lee. It is the seventh track on the band's 1974 self-titled debut album, released by Moon Records, and their first multi-part track, although not their first epic.[a] Thrillist ranked the suite the 35th best all-time Rush song in 2019, while Ultimate Classic Rock placed it 129th in 2018.

Retrospective journalists described "Before" and "After"'s song structure as an indicator of Rush's output following the first album, where Neil Peart was drummer and the prominent lyricist. "Before" is an acoustic guitar-driven folk instrumental ballad that gradually builds up then abruptly goes into "After". The second movement is a much more aggressive hard rock power ballad featuring the heavy metal boogie rock style and relationship subject matter of the album's other tracks.

Background

See also: Rush (Rush album) § Recording and composition

Rush (1974), the Canadian rock band's self-titled debut studio album, was recorded and mixed in two periods of sessions in 1973. The first was two days in the summer at Studio B of Toronto's Eastern Sound under production of David Stock, the second in November at the Terry Brown-owned Toronto Sound for three days.[1]: 141, 152  As with all other Rush songs, the lyrics for "Before"/"After" were hastily written on site at Eastern Sound by Rush's bassist and lead vocalist Geddy Lee.[1]: 142  This was a consequence of drummer John Rutsey, who was initially tasked with writing lyrics. He tore them up by the day he was supposed to submit, which was the second day at Eastern Sound.[1]: 144  The track was first recorded at Eastern Sound with overdubs tracked during the Toronto Sound sessions.[2] The album was released on March 18, 1974, by Moon Records in Canada.[3] "Before"/"After" was the seventh track, its name stylized as "Before" and "After" on the tracklisting.[4]

Music

"Before" and "After"
The folk instrumental "Before" transitioning into the sung heavy metal boogie rock "After". The music calms down before the electric guitar gets louder and the track suddenly shifts into "After".
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The introductory "Before" section is an acoustic guitar-driven folk instrumental ballad that serves as Rush's only song with a tone critics labeled "beautiful", "lush", and "non-rocker".[b] It gradually builds up to a "dreamy apogee" before suddenly transitioning to "After".[5][9] "Before" starts with phased guitar arpeggios and harmonic sounds, such as a bell sound made by only touching the fret.[6][9] At 1:11, a distorted guitar begins playing the chord progression and the bass guitar takes a melodic role.[6] The song gets calmer at 1:48, with "interplay" between the bass and cymbals, before the electric guitar gets louder and a snare rolls.[5][6]

"After" is a "chugging", aggressive, and anthemic hard rock power ballad featuring the other album tracks' heavy metal boogie rock style.[c] "After" plays at a moderately bright tempo in alla breve and A mixolydian mode.[11]: 32  All of its four verses follow the chord progression of A–G–D repeated six times, then two measures in B before following A–G–D again twice.[11] The chord progression of the chorus, involving the singing of four "Yeah"s, is C–D–B♭–A.[5][11]: 32–37  A breakdown emphasizing the simple drum pattern, which starts at 3:16, is accompanied by quick bursts of a guitar riff and a lead guitar line filling in the gaps.[5][6] The song climaxes with Lee stressing his final "yeah" while drenched in delay and reverb.[5][6]

Lyrics

"After"'s lyrics are also usual for the album, the subject feuding with their partner while pleading to save the relationship.[5] Its themes of communication issues and a partner causing heartbreak reflect the songs of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Kiss. The latter two acts released their debut albums between 1973 and 1974, a time period where Rush were opening acts for both bands.[12]: 4  There is also a sentiment of carpe diem seen in the band's other early songs written by Lee and John Rutsey. Other examples include album opener "Finding My Way", "Best I Can", and "Garden Road". Paul Thomas Webb suggested this originated from both musicians' fathers dying of heart failure during their childhoods.[9]

Reception and legacy

"Before" and "After" is considered by retrospective writers the self-titled album's only indicator of the style and songwriting of Rush's later music, where Neil Peart (pictured in 2010) was lyricist and drummer.

Discussion of "Before" and "After" was non-existent in contemporaneous reviews of Rush, its only mention as a best-cut in a Billboard review.[13]: 50  The only recorded live performance of "Before" and "After" currently available took place at Laura Secord Secondary School in 1974. It, along with seven other filmed performances at that location, was released on a bonus Blu-Ray and DVD for the R40 box set (2014).[14] On the set list of Rush's first American tour, which lasted three months and was also the first with Neil Peart, "Before" and "After" was the only Rush song absent.[10] The song, however, was covered in retrospective reviews, and positively. A 2024 PopMatters review called it Rush's most "sophisticated" track.[9] Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it the 129th best of Rush's 167 studio album songs in 2018, while Thrillist placed it 35 out of all of the band's 180.[15][16]

Journalists writing about the band and progressive rock consider "Before" and "After", especially "Before", the only Rush song representative of their output that began with Peart's replacement of Rutsey. This is in its complex structure with a "quieter" and "ethereal" lengthy intro that uses the bass guitar for melody and grows, before an abrupt sound and tempo change.[d] According to Popoff, Rutsey's drumming activity during "After" was close to that of Rush's early Peart songs.[2] James Richard, Alex Body, and Ryan Reed preferred "Before" over "After".[5][6][15] Richard argued "Before" had "creativity and melodic strength" not present in "After", and Reed called "Before" a nice touch to an overall "plodding" blues suite.[6][15]

However, "After" was not without praise for its musical content. Jordan Hoffman called it a "solid" blues song.[5] Although Body was disappointed the lyrics were "more of the same", he highlighted its guitar work. "The unison riffs are particularly pronounced here, weaving around Lee's vocals expertly," he wrote. He also called the solo during the breakdown Lifeson's "best Jimmy Page impression and, in some ways surprisingly, it really works".[5] The_Phoenician, a writer for Ultimate Guitar, called the overall experience "ridiculous[ly] powerful" thanks to "After", which "kick[s] ass". He called Lifeson's guitar work exceptional and Rutsey's drum groove "serious"; in addition, "Geddy Lee letting it rip without restraint sounds very refreshing." He placed the suite on his list of the "Top 7 Underrated Rush Masterpieces That Everyone Should Check Out".[20]

Parts

No.TitleStarts at (approx.)Length
1."Before"0:002:17
2."After"2:173:16
Total length:5:33

Personnel

Sources: [1]: 141, 152 [4]

Rush

Technical personnel

  • Dave Stock – producer
  • Terry Brown – producer, remix engineer
  • Gilbert Kong – mastering
  • Jim Shelton – mastering consultant

Notes

  1. ^ The eight-and-a-half-minute "By-Tor & The Snow Dog" from the second album Fly By Night (1975), the first of several albums during the band's line-up with Neil Peart as drummer and lyricist that lasted until the end of the group in 2015, was the band's first narrative-driven, science fiction fantasy track.
  2. ^ [2]: 10 [5][6][7]: 12 [8]: 10 
  3. ^ [5][6][8]: 10 [9][10]
  4. ^ [5][6][7]: 12 [16][17]: 33 [18]: 21 [19]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Lee, Geddy (2023). My Effin' Life. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-315941-9.
  2. ^ a b c Popoff, Martin (2020). Anthem: Rush in the 70s. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1665177788.
  3. ^ Friedlander, Matt (March 18, 2024). "5 Fascinating Facts About Rush's Self-Titled Debut Album in Honor of Its 50th Anniversary". American Songwriter. Retrieved February 10, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Rush (Vinyl). Rush. Mercury Records. 1974. 9100 011.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Body, Alex (2019). "Before and After". Rush: Song by Song. Stroud: Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1781557297.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j James, Richard (2024). "Before and After". Rush 1973 - 1982: Every Album, Every Song. Sonicbond Publishing. ISBN 9781789521207. Retrieved January 16, 2025.
  7. ^ a b Banasiewicz, Bill (1988). Rush Visions: The Official Biography. New York: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0711911622.
  8. ^ a b Popoff, Martin (2017). Rush: Album by Album. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0760352205.
  9. ^ a b c d e Webb, Paul Thomas (April 18, 2024). "Finding Their Way: Rush's Debut Album at 50". PopMatters. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  10. ^ a b Popoff, Martin (2004). Contents Under Pressure. ECW Press. ISBN 9781770901414. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
  11. ^ a b c "Before and After [sic, this only has "After". No "Before" sheet music is in Rush Complete]". Rush Complete. New York: Core Music Publishing. 1983. pp. 32–37. ISBN 978-0-7692-0551-9.
  12. ^ Bowman, Durrell (2014). Experiencing Rush: A Listener's Companion. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 1442231300.
  13. ^ "Top Album Picks". Billboard. August 24, 1974. pp. 48, 50.
  14. ^ DeRiso, Nick (September 17, 2014). "Rush Release Trailer and Bonus Details for Upcoming 'R40' Box". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  15. ^ a b c Reed, Ryan (June 27, 2018). "All 167 Rush Songs Ranked Worst to Best". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
  16. ^ a b Hoffman, Jordan (July 29, 2019). "All 180 Rush Songs, Ranked". Thrillist. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
  17. ^ Collins, Jon (2010). Rush: Chemistry. London: Helter Skelter. ISBN 978-1905139286.
  18. ^ Wagner, Jeff (2010). Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. Brooklyn: Bazillion Points. ISBN 9780979616334.
  19. ^ McCarthy, James (2012). "Before and After". Rush: Changing Hemispheres. Abstract Sounds Book, Ltd. ISBN 978-0956696076.
  20. ^ The_Phoenician (February 28, 2025). "Top 7 Underrated Rush Masterpieces That Everyone Should Check Out". Ultimate Guitar. Retrieved April 9, 2025.
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