Songfacts®:

• A rather apprehensive song, "Between The Wheels" reflects fears of nuclear war that were top of mind in 1984 when it was released:
  
  Another war
  Another wasteland
  And another lost generation
  
  That linem "another lost generation" is from a quote by Gertrude Stein used by Ernest Hemingway at the beginning of The Sun Also Rises: "You are all a lost generation."
• "Between The Wheels" is the closing song on the 1984 Rush album Grace Under Pressure, chosen for that slot because it perfectly captures the tension hanging over the entire album. Speaking to Uncut magazine, Geddy Lee explained that the song "finishes the album in a powerful, ominous and brooding fashion, apropos the album title and the circumstances we found ourselves in when making this record. For most of these sessions, we felt like we were indeed stuck between a rock and a hard place."
  
  Lee's comment cuts to the heart of both the song's themes: feeling crushed by forces beyond one's control, and the grueling creative process behind the record itself. Having recently parted ways with their longtime producer Terry Brown, Rush cycled through a string of false starts before finally settling on Peter Henderson. The heavy anxiety of those unstable sessions, coupled with the Cold War dread woven throughout the tracks, meant "Between the Wheels" was the only logical conclusion. It left the album exactly where it belonged: suspended in a state of unease rather than wrapped up in a neat resolution.