Released 1990 Recorded 1989 | Format CD promo Length 4:51 | |
Genre Progressive rock, soft rock Label Atlantic (except Canada) | ||
"The Pass" is the second single from Rush's 1989 album Presto. The lyrics by drummer Neil Peart address teenage isolation and the tendency to romanticize it. The song peaked at #15 on the U.S. Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and a music video was made for the song.
The line "All of us get lost in the darkness/Dreamers learn to steer by the stars/All of us do time in the gutter/Dreamers turn to look at the cars" alludes to Oscar Wilde's "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" from his play Lady Windermere's Fan.
On the Rush in Rio DVD (2003), bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee introduces the song to the audience by saying it is one of the band's favourites. On the same DVD, in the documentary "The Boys in Brazil," Peart says he always gets emotional while playing the song, "not only for what it expresses explicitly lyrically, but because it is one of our better crafted ones."
A cover version was made by Brazilian band Fleesh in 2016.