Ghost Rider

The album's most nakedly autobiographical song — Peart's account of his motorcycle odyssey through grief. "Pack up all those phantoms / Shoulder that invisible load" describes the literal and emotional burden he carried across 55,000 miles. Lee was deeply moved by the lyrics and said the music and melody came to him naturally.

Named after both the Marvel character and Peart's memoir Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, it's the most intensely personal song in the Rush catalog. The open road imagery serves as both literal travelogue and metaphor for the journey through grief toward healing.

For longtime fans who had followed Peart's tragedy in real time, hearing these words set to music was an almost unbearably emotional experience. It confirmed what many had hoped: the journey had not broken him.