“2112” by Rush

Rush went all in on "2112", the 20-minute title piece of their 1976 album 2112 and still the longest song the Canadian band ever recorded. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson wrote the music, Neil Peart wrote the words, and the album sleeve tells the story twice over: once in the sung lyrics, and again in journal entries from a narrator who signs himself only "Anonymous, 2112". Peart's liner notes also tip the hat to Ayn Rand.

It plays like a prog epic built on hard-rock muscle, all crashing overture and dramatic lurches from section to section. The overture and "The Temples of Syrinx" were sliced off and released as a single, and the whole saga was later turned into a comic booklet that used the lyrics as its dialogue.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.