the book Rush and Philosophy: Heart and Mind United, Jim Berti & Durrell Bowman wrote of the song: "Red Barchetta" itself repeatedly "fixes" its temporal complications at the ends of many sections. In the exciting passage that most closely approximates the feeling of speeding, unhindered, down an empty road (when the protagonist "commits his weekly crime", 2:28-2:58), the music is filled with syncopated accents that keep thrusting us forward. In addition, each phrase takes away two beats from normative four-measure groups in 4/4; we're moving faster than can be contained within standard phrases. But the last group, punctuated with Lee's "adrenaline surge", brings back those two beats—we're entering a new zone, where time can now flow freely. And indeed, in the next section (2:58-3:18), while changing harmonies takes us on a bit of a journey, the phrases lock comfortably into relaxed four-bar groups in 4/4. The following guitar solo (3:18-3:41) introduces further metric complications, alternating 4/4 and 3/4 bars for eight units of seven beats each. But again the last unit brings back the "missing" beat, making for a satisfying conclusion of eight beats before we head back into the main song. And for the final, peaceful phrases built around Lifeson's guitar harmonics (from 5:10), while the initial groups imply 4/4 phrases lasting a somewhat unexpected two, six and again six bars, from 5:32 to the song's fade normative eight-bar groups sound the rest of the way. Reception Rolling Stone listed the song at number 5 on their list "The 10 Best Rush Songs". Ultimate Classic Rock ranked the song number 3 on their list of "All 167 Rush Songs Ranked Worst to Best". See also List of songs recorded by Rush References Further reading 1981 songs Rush (band) songs Songs about cars Songs written by Alex Lifeson Songs written by Geddy Lee Songs written by Neil Peart Song recordings produced by Terry Brown (record producer)