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Big lose for Rush and their fans. I was surprised when I first started to like them that Neil wrote all the songs for Rush. What a very talented lyricist.
A giant now departs us. I just can't believe it. Neil Peart, my choice for rock's top drummer, is gone. I'd used to always idolize him when I was younger, and with good reason. Just an amazing talent and a guy who pays attention to detail very well. He'd play any tune at any speed and always handled alternating time signatures better than any drummer I've heard. Neil handled dynamics extraordinarily well. He was also a very good writer, and he put so much of himself into Rush's material. Yes, he did lyrics, but he also put together some brutally challenging drum charts and made songs much harder to play from a musician's point of view, all the while making it easy.
I'll miss Neil Peart for the man he was. Rush will never, ever be the same again. Ever.
Alex Van Halen was the one that made me want to pick up the sticks. But it was Neil that made me want to get serious/better. Its never amounted to more than just a hobby, but I pretty much play to Rush every night and listen to them daily. So Neil's lyrics and drumming has been part of my daily routine for 35 years.
Never met the guy and have never been less than 20 concert rows from him. But this news is just utterly devastating.
No, dude: this hurts bad. I'm not a celebu-tard follower, by a long shot, but the closest thing I've ever had to pop culture heroes would be Rush. Both as a unit, and individually. Modest guys, all. Neil was Asperger-y, just like me, and I truly always 'got' his lack of comfort with fame. Wish I'd met the man, but then again, who did or who really would want to? He kept the hell away from fans and everyone else except under (very) controlled conditions. I'd certainly do exactly the same thing, if fame found me, almost to the letter.
Yet he was a genius, hugely inspirational to so many drummers I won't even start, we all know it. Posted elsewhere by me:
I've had few "heroes" per se in my life, those being others I've looked up to for inspiration: dignity, achievement, courage, etc. Always found the real inspiration came from within, most of the time. BUT: Rush (the band) are certainly one (as a group) and also several (as individuals). Neil Peart, their righteous drummer, has passed at age 67 after a couple year illness that got out there in the wild as rumor despite their desire to keep it quiet.
Rush's abrupt breakup in '15 was about the time Neil was "getting tired" and I'd not be surprised if that was the REAL start to a long illness. Neil was a virtuoso drummer, IMO the greatest rock and roll drummer ever, John Bonham (Zeppelin) was NOT nearly as proficient or inspiring, thank you very much. Rush are missed, but it was their time after c. 19 studio albums and decades of tours. I saw 'em twice in '15, and that was that, after maybe 25 shows in three decades (starting in '84).
I could, and might later, write more about how inspiring Neil was to thousands of quirky teens and quirky-er adults. A black, black day, this. Godspeed, Neil: you made a very large impact. I'll leave it with the following, self-deprecating lyrics from "Losing It," 1982 (Signals album). In contrast to what he wrote, he DID make a difference:
"Some are born to move to the world and live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die, than never to have known it
For you the blind, who once could see: the bell tolls for thee
The bell tolls for thee..."
...And at the last, I remember this: buying Moving Pictures, the album, must have been 1983 or late 1982 after hearing "Signals" when I was 15 or 16. My dad had a great stereo that I helped him but together, being a bit of an egghead kid. I listened to it track one ("Tom Sawyer") through track eight ("Vital Signs") w/o pause except to flip the album. I have not before, or since, been so moved by a suite of tracks that flowed together as a whole like nothing else. Their magnum opus. Incredibly moving.
Country can buzz off, Mozart is gibberish to me, Jazz puts me to sleep: I am born to jam Prog Rock, and that was, and is, the cornerstone album of the genre. I'll never, ever, forget because other than perhaps the Beetles White Album or Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, nothing else flows like it past five decades.
No, dude: this hurts bad. I'm not a celebu-tard follower, by a long shot, but the closest thing I've ever had to pop culture heroes would be Rush. Both as a unit, and individually. Modest guys, all. Neil was Asperger-y, just like me, and I truly always 'got' his lack of comfort with fame. Wish I'd met the man, but then again, who did or who really would want to? He kept the hell away from fans and everyone else except under (very) controlled conditions. I'd certainly do exactly the same thing, if fame found me, almost to the letter.
Yet he was a genius, hugely inspirational to so many drummers I won't even start, we all know it. Posted elsewhere by me:
I've had few "heroes" per se in my life, those being others I've looked up to for inspiration: dignity, achievement, courage, etc. Always found the real inspiration came from within, most of the time. BUT: Rush (the band) are certainly one (as a group) and also several (as individuals). Neil Peart, their righteous drummer, has passed at age 67 after a couple year illness that got out there in the wild as rumor despite their desire to keep it quiet.
Rush's abrupt breakup in '15 was about the time Neil was "getting tired" and I'd not be surprised if that was the REAL start to a long illness. Neil was a virtuoso drummer, IMO the greatest rock and roll drummer ever, John Bonham (Zeppelin) was NOT nearly as proficient or inspiring, thank you very much. Rush are missed, but it was their time after c. 19 studio albums and decades of tours. I saw 'em twice in '15, and that was that, after maybe 25 shows in three decades (starting in '84).
I could, and might later, write more about how inspiring Neil was to thousands of quirky teens and quirky-er adults. A black, black day, this. Godspeed, Neil: you made a very large impact. I'll leave it with the following, self-deprecating lyrics from "Losing It," 1982 (Signals album). In contrast to what he wrote, he DID make a difference:
"Some are born to move to the world and live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die, than never to have known it
For you the blind, who once could see: the bell tolls for thee
The bell tolls for thee..."
...And at the last, I remember this: buying Moving Pictures, the album, must have been 1983 or late 1982 after hearing "Signals" when I was 15 or 16. My dad had a great stereo that I helped him but together, being a bit of an egghead kid. I listened to it track one ("Tom Sawyer") through track eight ("Vital Signs") w/o pause except to flip the album. I have not before, or since, been so moved by a suite of tracks that flowed together as a whole like nothing else. Their magnum opus. Incredibly moving.
Country can buzz off, Mozart is gibberish to me, Jazz puts me to sleep: I am born to jam Prog Rock, and that was, and is, the cornerstone album of the genre. I'll never, ever, forget because other than perhaps the Beetles White Album or Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, nothing else flows like it past five decades.
I love that you quoted "Losing It," because that's the first song I thought of after the news broke, followed by "Afterimage."
Rush broke some much ground, especially for musicians. Neil Peart undoubtedly inspired more kids to pick up a pair of drumsticks than any other drummer.
And, in my not-so-humble opinion, Rush is responsible for the genesis of prog-metal. "2112," "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres " and "Natural Science" all sound like the blueprints for bands like Dream Theater, Ray Alder-era Fates Warning, Shadow Gallery, and the thousand other bands in their wake.
Then, when everyone thought Rush was another band going through the motions, they returned from their hiatus (they were actually broken up, but in true Rush fashion, made no public hoopla of it) and stunned with Vapor Trails.
There will never be another band like them. RIP Neil Peart.
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
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RIP Neil Peart!
I have 17 Rush albums, and have been quite a fan. I'll never forget being in a Music Plus in early 1989, hearing The Rhythm Method, and asking the cashier what I was listening to. I promptly became a Rush fan, buying one CD after another, and eventually incorporating Peart's 32nd note rips among other things into my own playing. Great stuff.
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In Memoriam: Neil Peart (1952 - 2020)
