The Big Wheel: Background

“‘The Big Wheel’ is one of the pieces in which we see a lonely, suburban character. Other songs include ‘Circumstances,’ ‘The Analog Kid,’ and ‘Middletown Dreams.’ Music critic Bob Mack in his 1990 review of Presto says ‘Rush has been the only band that matters to lone-wolf suburban kids.’ Although this is typecasting, there is no doubt that Rush addressed such an audience directly.”—Christopher McDonald, Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class

“‘The Big Wheel’ seems to be autobiographical, but it’s really not. It’s where I’ve looked for a universal of that trade-off between innocence and experience, and that song certainly addresses that. Not in the circumstances of my own life so much. [Rather], I want to find universal things that others can relate to, and that’s a thing that’s part of everyone’s life, so I think that’s probably one reason why I’m drawn to it. And then so much of it is drawn from observing people around me, too, so that becomes a factor in it too; how they responded to life, and how they take to it. How they adapt to that innocence and experience thing.” (Radio Special)—Neil in Merely Players

“The allusion might be to visionary poet William Blake and his Songs of Innocence and Experience.”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

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