Before and After (Rush song)

"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, it was composed by bassist and lead vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, Lee serving as lyricist. It is the seventh track on the band's self-titled debut album released on March 18, 1974 by Moon Records, and is their first multi-part track, although not their first epic.^[a]

The album's only "beautiful" and "lush" "non-rocker", "Before" is an acoustic guitar-driven folk instrumental ballad that gradually builds up. It abruptly goes into "After", a much more aggressive hard rock power ballad featuring the heavy metal boogie rock style and relationship subject matter of the LP's other tracks. Retrospective journalists described "Before" and "After"'s song structure as an indicator of the band's output following the first album, where Neil Peart was drummer and the prominent lyricist. Thrillist ranked the suite the 35th best all-time Rush song in 2019, Ultimate Classic Rock 129th.

Rush (1974), the Canadian rock band's self-titled debut studio album, was recorded and mixed in two periods of sessions in 1973: in the summer at Studio B of Toronto's Eastern Sound for two days under production of David Stock, and 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 the spot 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, tearing them up by the day he was supposed to submit them, which was the second day at Eastern Sound.^[1]: 144 The track was first recorded at Eastern Sound with overdubs tracked at Toronto Sound.^[2] When the album was released on March 18, 1974 by Moon Records in Canada, "Before"/"After" was track seven, its name stylized as "Before" and "After" on the tracklisting.^[3]

"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".

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The introductory "Before" section is an acoustic guitar-driven folk instrumental ballad that serves as Rush's only "beautiful" and "lush" "non-rocker".^[b] It gradually builds up to a "dreamy apogee" before suddenly transitioning to "After".^[4][8] "Before" starts with phased guitar arpeggios and harmonic sounds, such as a bell sound made by only touching the fret.^[5][8] At 1:11, a distorted guitar begins playing the chord progression and the bass guitar takes a melodic role.^[5] The song gets calmer at 1:48, with "interplay" between the bass and cymbals, before the electric guitar gets louder and a snare rolls, transitioning into the next section.^[4][5]

"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.^[10]: 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.^[10] The chord progression of the chorus, involving the singing of four "Yeah"s, is C–D–B♭–A.^{[4][10]: 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.^[4][5] The song climaxes with Lee stressing his final "yeah" while drenched in delay and reverb.^[4][5]

The lyrics are also usual for the album, the subject feuding with their partner while pleading to save the relationship.^[4] Its themes of communication issues and a partner causing heartbreak reflect not only the songs of Led Zeppelin, but also Aerosmith and Kiss, acts that released their debut albums between 1973 and 1974 and where Rush were opening acts.^[11]: 4 There is also a sentiment of carpe diem seen in other of the band's early songs written by Lee and John Rutsey. Other examples include album opener "Finding My Way", "Best I Can" which was ultimately recorded for Fly By Night (1975), and "Garden Road" which was performed live but never studio-recorded; Paul Thomas Webb suggested this originated from both musicians' father dying of heart failure during their childhoods.^[8]

Rush garnered favorable reviews upon its release, but discussion of "Before" and "After" was non-existent, its only mention as a best-cut in a Billboard review.^[12]: 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).^[13] On the set list of Rush's first American tour, which last three months and was also the first with Neil Peart, "Before" and "After" was the only Rush song absent.^[9] The song, however, was covered in retrospective reviews, and positively. A 2024 PopMatters review called it Rush's most "sophisticated" track.^[8] Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it the 129th best of Rush's 167 studio album songs in 2018, Thrillist 35 out of all of the band's 180.^[14][15]

Journalists writing about the band and progressive rock consider "Before" and "After", especially "Before", the only Rush song representative of the group's output that began with Neil Peart's replacement of Rutsey, in its complex structure with a "quieter" and "ethereal" lengthy intro that uses the bass guitar for melody and grows before an abrupt sound change, and chemistry between Lee and Lifeson's playing.^[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".^[4][5][14] Richard argued "Before" had "creativity and melodic strength" not present in "After", and Reed called the introductory part a nice touch to an overall "plodding" blues track.^[5][14]

However, "After" was not without praise for its musical content. Jordan Hoffman called it a "solid" blues song.^[4] Although Body was down that 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".^[4] The_Phoenician, a writer for Ultimate Guitar, called the overall experience "ridiculous 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".^[18]