8/14: Beneath, Between, and Behind
Behold: the first song the guys ever wrote together!
Whoa, ten score years ago defeat the kingly foe,
A wondrous dream came into being.
Tame the trackless waste, no virgin land left chaste
All shining eyes but never seeing.
On this day in 1974, Neil officially played his first show with Rush. They opened for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band at Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena, a venue mostly known for its retractable dome. Alas, the site was demolished in 2012; else it would have made a good stop on the North American Rush pilgrimage I’ve been half-seriously contemplating.
Anyway, in honor of such a banner day, I’m featuring “Beneath, Between, and Behind,” the first song that Neil, Geddy, and Alex wrote as a band.
I love this song. In my opinion, it’s a rare example of a perfect first draft—not that the guys’ skills and musicality couldn’t be improved, but somehow the first song they wrote together managed to absolutely nail the sound that would come to define Rush through most of the 70’s and early 80’s—and, for that matter, the post-hiatus years. Later tracks like “Bastille Day,” “A Farewell to Kings,” “2112”—even, I could argue, “The Anarchist” and “The Wreckers”—live in the same brassy, post-bluesy genre as “Beneath, Between, and Behind.”
Lyrically, well, it’s a hot mess. But it’s our hot mess. The song is so profoundly Neil: earnest, idealistic, with a heaping dose of fantasy and philosopher-poet. I have no freakin’ clue what the song is actually about. But Neil is mostly just playing in the sandbox, experimenting with words as percussion and pairing melodies to metaphors to evoke emotions.
It’s goofy, yes. But it’s so much fun, who could possibly care about the goofiness?
In Geddy Lee’s autobiography, he writes about this song. I remember it being about the failure of America to live up to its greatest ideals, which makes it evergreen. I sing the chorus to this song for days after I hear it.