Rush: Classic or Dud?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jSdyDt-Ync

he also never stopped learning new things to incorporate into his technique. when he felt like he was getting too stiff, he studied with freddie gruber to get looser. i found and find him so inspiring xp

RIP to a true master

Neil Peart and Rush made such a sweet place for outsiders and misfits that was never ugly or mean. Their earnest striving for excellence on their own terms will always resonate with the best kind of idealists.
RIP Neil Peart.
Exit the the warrior, Rush forever. pic.twitter.com/tsywyvWrkz

— matt sweeney (@theheavyjamz) January 10, 2020

was going through trending on Twitter and saw back to back heartfelt tributes from Gene Simmons and Ron Sexsmith, that's a rare kind of impact

plus brian wilson and chuck d

Ah Twitter. Of course. I just saw a reply guy elsewhere say, re Peart regretting the A. Rand influence as life went on, that Peart didn't get it and "I could explain it" to him.

Of course.

I didn’t grow up loving Rush; despite the putative ‘adolescence’ of their stuff i was in my mid thirties when they suddenly became one of my, idk, top 10 favorite bands. It was actually random exposure to mid 80s Rush that flipped the switch for me, the earnest and humane quality of that era of the band. I came to love almost all their records and also to just really like them as people. I managed to see them one time (MN State Fair, time machines tour) and am so grateful I did. Read Peart’s affecting ghost rider book and during one of the worst weeks of my forties that documentary that covered their retirement was so moving to me. I am so surprised and saddened by this.

they had not announced prior to this that he had cancer, correct? I suppose this explains their decision to stop touring a few years ago.

no, no one knew....in fact it sounds like he died on the 7th and it's just coming out now, he was very private

...In Ghost Rider (which is a little shaggy but at times very powerful, losing his daughter and wife in the space of one year, my god) he talks politcs a bit, mostly just vitriol at seeing George W Bush on TV in his travels, but he was very angry at the Bush administration at that time.

he seemed like a person that tried to grow and change

It was actually random exposure to mid 80s Rush that flipped the switch for me, the earnest and humane quality of that era of the band

same!!!

One of the greatest drummers for one of the greatest bands ever.

Feel awful for his family, Alex and Geddy. Hope they’re doing ok

One of the reasons why he was the ‘air drum’ king is that his compositional skills were so good; rhythms and fills as riffs and hooks of their own. That’s a big part of his legacy.

One of the reasons why he was the ‘air drum’ king is that his compositional skills were so good; rhythms and fills as riffs and hooks of their own. That’s a big part of his legacy.

― Master of Treacle, Friday, January 10, 2020 4:36 PM (thirty-five seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes! this is so true. like rush was proggy to me but it always felt part of the songcraft

"earnest and humane" is a good way to describe them

in what other rock bands is the drummer (arguably) the biggest name?

eagles, i guess, but henley also sang

This Heat/Charles Hayward

Lightning Bolt

don caballero, i suppose

The Carpenters

Holy shit.

I think he’s the single biggest influence for rock drummers of the last 30 years. If you talk about one person.

Rush aside, that’s a massive achievement.

Christian Vander, sort of.

xps

I had no idea he was sick. Heartbreaking, for someone I knew so little about he was in a lot of ways an idol to me in different ways at different stages of my life.

I can only imagine the tributes coming in.

He was one of those few giant-kit drummers who really did use everything. A casual fan friend of mine came with me to a show once and noticed just how orchestrated it all was. He rarely repeated his fills the same way in each song, the parts were always totally thought out and evolving and surprising from beat one.

Awful news. Didn't he lose his wife and daughter in the same year, not that long ago?

Both Rush drummers are gone now.

Man, even though I never expected to see him play live ever again, this is devastating.

Just an incredible anecdote in retrospect from Godsmack's singer some months back:

“He did a review on me and Shannon's drum battle. And it might have been the last time he went on camera, because he'd been retired. He literally is done — he shut off that part of his life now. He feels he's done everything he can do. Literally, he told Shannon that right to his face. Shannon's, like, 'Aren't you gonna play a little?' And he's, like, 'Nah, I think I'm done.' Shannon's, like, 'Yeah, but you're not even gonna have a drum set in your basement?' He goes, 'Son, I think I've done everything I can do on the drums.' "

sonned by neil peart

So sad about this, Rush were the #1 band for my troubled adolescence years. Co-sign on the heart and emotion they/he put into it. Especially in the UK they were seen by the music press as a joke, but who gets to be the gatekeepers of meaning in music? The listeners, that's who! Rush always got the last laugh on their detractors, and in the end history caught up with their legacy.

Just air-drummed to Subdivisions in tribute, and now my arms hurt. RIP Neil.

RIP, amazing drummer and seemed like a good guy.

Don't know why I picked it out of all the options, but I put on "Snakes & Arrows." It's my favorite of their later works, Neil's lyrics in particular are really strong.

Looping the rap section of Roll The Bones as I pour out my 40

I even like that stupid song.

Man, life is just so, too short.

I feel unfortunately there’s going to be a few songs that’ll be hard to listen to for a while...Time Stand Still, the Garden, Losing It...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EN862QfWsAQOwOr?format=jpg&name=medium

I can’t help thinking he’s chuckling somewhere knowing hundreds of bands with gigs tonight are trying to figure out “an easy Rush song.”

— Jon Wurster (@jonwurster) January 10, 2020

That's a great pic btw

I’ve probably told this story elsewhere on this thread. But there was some Rush Night on VH-1 a gazillion years ago in which they showed two documentaries on the band – at least one of which I showed my wife, who like so many women, hated Rush.

I wouldn’t say she ended up loving Rush but she did respect the hell out of them after that. Peart’s story (including the part with him riding a motorcycle across North America after his daughter and wife (partner?) passed away) was a big part of that.

I can't believe I'm tearing up, but here we are. My favorite high school band; my first concert and first drink.

One of a handful of bands your first instinct is to air drum instead of air guitar.

Like Naive Teen Idol said above, he was a very fine lyricist, pithy at times. "The Spirit of Radio" is one of best songs about a listener's relationship to music, yet it is not all doe-eyed enthusiasm, but knowing realism in the face of cynicism. And I don't care what anyone says, I love the allusions to "The Sound of Silence." "Subdivisions" one of the best songs about teen disaffection: "Any escape might help to smooth the unattractive truth/But the suburbs have no charm to soothe the restless dreams of youth" is up there with "Hope I die before I get old."

In the early 90s to early 00s I didn't listen to them much, but got back into them again and found them a wiser, more human band than I remembered.

A some-time poet-warrior who brought phat beatz. RIP Neil. My life would be poorer without you.

Master of Treacle at 5:09 10 Jan 20

I feel unfortunately there’s going to be a few songs that’ll be hard to listen to for a while...Time Stand Still, the Garden, Losing It...

my mind went to "Afterimage"

I can’t really process this yet. But once again I’m glad I made the effort to go see Rush one more time on their last UK tour. The solos were as awesome as ever. But as someone else said upthread, every song included a unique drum idea. RIP Neil.

Glad that he live to see the band get some kind of critical acceptance. Not sure he was bothered either way. Seeing obits in major newspapers seems jarring (in a nice way) for someone who was the drummer of a cult band (sort of).

Very interesting interview from 1986. I'll quote a summary from a friend on FB:

Neil held a surprising amount of respect for artists like Peter Gabriel and even Thomas Dolby for working rhythmic ideas into their song craft. But in terms of some of his favorite (then contemporary) drummers: he name drops Stewart Copeland of The Police, Warren Cann of Ultravox, and Steve Jansen of Japan. And goes into very candid detail about the flexibility and compositional wellspring electronics such as drum machines have in terms of music.

Three years earlier in another interview for Modern Drumming detailing the compositional background of 'Moving Pictures': Neil confesses that the song 'Vital Signs' was deliberately influenced by Warren Cann's metronomic machine precision like style among other things. Some hyper critical Rush fans may write off their eighties output as a 'dark' period, but clearly not Neil given he absorbed the output of the era like a sponge.

There's also the story that they wanted Mission of Burma as an opener.

yeah I remember that from the Burma doc, so crazy

I knew they were broad-minded but Japan definitely surprised me!

Imagine playing at this level in your 60s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kb8UWieKnk

I went to lunch, car radio was on local classic rock station & the dj talking about Rush and i half heard him say of Neil Peart “he was one of the best drummers alive” and i yelled IS to to no-one as i was & then dj says something about brain cancer & i froze, like nononono & checked my phone and saw the awful news

i am so gutted

I was a latecomer - didnt fully lock in until 2008 or so, but was able to see them live & they made my every musical wish come true in that show. Neil as a drummer was often more than my brain could process, and how you build music around his drumming is really an art in itself...but lyrically i found him so fascinating & endearing. The spongelike quality of his lyrucs, taking in so many books & ideas & story fragments that seem on paper like they could never be songs ... I think of Steve Harris in the same way, there’s something very innocent & boyish about the desire to turn all these things into songs ... it fills me with joy that Neil was so open.

Also, that he & his loved ones preserved the privacy of his illness & even his death is so perfectly Neil Peart. all on his own terms. it softens the blow just a fraction.

I'm at the theatre with my kids, about to watch Mean Girls, which starts in a few minutes, and I swear to God I just caught the drummer in the pit quietly warming up with "Subdivisions!"