Of course.
― pomenitul, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:26 (four years ago) link
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.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 10 January 2020 22:30 (four years ago) link
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.
― akm, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:30 (four years ago) link
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
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 10 January 2020 22:31 (four years ago) link
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!!!
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 10 January 2020 22:31 (four years ago) link
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.
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:36 (four years ago) link
― 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
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 10 January 2020 22:38 (four years ago) link
in what other rock bands is the drummer (arguably) the biggest name?
eagles, i guess, but henley also sang
― mookieproof, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:40 (four years ago) link
This Heat/Charles Hayward
Lightning Bolt
― The Squalls Of Hate (sleeve), Friday, 10 January 2020 22:41 (four years ago) link
don caballero, i suppose
― mookieproof, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:42 (four years ago) link
The Carpenters
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 10 January 2020 22:42 (four years ago) link
Holy shit.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:43 (four years ago) link
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.
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:45 (four years ago) link
Christian Vander, sort of.
xps
― pomenitul, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:45 (four years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:46 (four years ago) link
I can only imagine the tributes coming in.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:47 (four years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:49 (four years ago) link
Awful news. Didn't he lose his wife and daughter in the same year, not that long ago?
Both Rush drummers are gone now.
― henry s, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:51 (four years ago) link
Man, even though I never expected to see him play live ever again, this is devastating.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:52 (four years ago) link
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.' "
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:54 (four years ago) link
sonned by neil peart
― mookieproof, Friday, 10 January 2020 22:56 (four years ago) link
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.
― it's after the end of the world (Matt #2), Friday, 10 January 2020 23:02 (four years ago) link
RIP, amazing drummer and seemed like a good guy.
― help yourself to another slice of apple ... crumble (Willl), Friday, 10 January 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:05 (four years ago) link
Looping the rap section of Roll The Bones as I pour out my 40
― help yourself to another slice of apple ... crumble (Willl), Friday, 10 January 2020 23:07 (four years ago) link
I even like that stupid song.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:07 (four years ago) link
Man, life is just so, too short.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:08 (four years ago) link
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...
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:09 (four years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EN862QfWsAQOwOr?format=jpg&name=medium
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:11 (four years ago) link
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
― it's after the end of the world (Matt #2), Friday, 10 January 2020 23:11 (four years ago) link
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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:12 (four years ago) link
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.
― An Oral History of Deez Nutz (PBKR), Friday, 10 January 2020 23:15 (four years ago) link
Master of Treacle at 5:09 10 Jan 20I 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"
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 10 January 2020 23:18 (four years ago) link
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.
― Jeff W, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:26 (four years ago) link
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).
― 29 facepalms, Friday, 10 January 2020 23:49 (four years ago) link
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.
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.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 11 January 2020 00:13 (four years ago) link
There's also the story that they wanted Mission of Burma as an opener.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 January 2020 01:04 (four years ago) link
yeah I remember that from the Burma doc, so crazy
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 11 January 2020 01:12 (four years ago) link
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
― Un sang impur (Sund4r), Saturday, 11 January 2020 01:16 (four years ago) link
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 guttedI 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.
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 11 January 2020 01:16 (four years ago) link
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!"
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 January 2020 01:25 (four years ago) link
The fact that I could recognize it just by the drums says a lot (about me, yes, but also Peart).
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 January 2020 01:27 (four years ago) link
Did Neil ever explain in an interview why he stopped being interested in electronic drums? I know that sometimes they were brought along on tour for older songs, but AFAIK they were not used in any new songs after the mid-1980s. Interesting contrast to, say, Danny Carey for whom electronic drums became a perennial feature of his style.
― Melomane, Saturday, 11 January 2020 02:23 (four years ago) link
just heard the news. when i was learning how to play drums, he was an untouchable god in modern drummer magazine. i got really into 2112 shortly thereafter, of course. i loved reading his interviews - obviously a guy who thought hard about his craft and was always looking to improve.
RIP Neil Peart.
― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Saturday, 11 January 2020 02:24 (four years ago) link
more people should rephow well neil's lyrics colortheir intricate jams
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 11 January 2020 02:25 (four years ago) link
Rush embodied Rock & Roll in a way that transcended whether you were a fan or not-they did exactly what they wanted to do-exactly the way they wanted to do it. NO COMPROMISE.Love them - or not. RESPECT is totally due.Neil Peart fused Heart.Mind.Body. To a seamless whole.R.I.P.— Vernon Reid (@vurnt22) January 11, 2020
― j., Saturday, 11 January 2020 02:27 (four years ago) link
xpost Peart is triggering lots of stuff, even when it doesn't sound electronic. But towards the end they started to downplay the electronics, synths, etc.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 January 2020 02:54 (four years ago) link
Also, xpost, Reid quotes a Lifeson solo in the title track from "Times Up.'
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 11 January 2020 02:55 (four years ago) link