Red Barchetta by Rush

With “Red Barchetta” Rush took on a classic piece of rock’n’roll subject matter: fast cars. Of course they treated the subject in a Rush-like, futuristic way: The story is set in a society where supercharged vehicles are no longer legal, until a young man finds one in his uncle’s garage and takes off on an uncharted thrillride.

A prog epic condensed into six minutes, this song is a fan favorite that’s never disappeared from Rush’s live set list for long. A Barchetta, by the way, was a racecar made by Ferrari.

The story on which “Red Barchetta” is based, “A Nice Morning Drive” by Richard Foster, was published in the November 1973 issue of Road & Track magazine.

Why are we not surprised to announce that the toughest part of a Rush song is the drums? This is Neil Peart in all his glory; and you have to do a little bit of everything: Fast rolls on multiple drums, multiple kicks with alternating hand accents, and lot of those fancy parts that Peart plays on cymbals (for the opening bars) and tuned percussion (in the midsection).

The good news is that the song is built on three distinct sections that alternate throughout, so once you get a feel for the structure, this mini-prog epic should make sense.

On guitar, the song is a good one to practice HOPOs, because it’s loaded with them—comparable to “China Cat Sunflower” in that respect, but not as fast-paced. Our tester found it relatively easy to Gold Star.

"Red Barchetta" as performed by Rush courtesy of Universal Music Enterprises and Core Music Publishing
Neil Peart, Gary Weinrib, Alex Zivojinovich
© 1981 Core Music/All Rights Reserved (SOCAN/SECSAC-USA)