Neil Peart, Rush Drummer Who Set a New Standard for Rock Virtuosity, Dead at 67

Rolling Stone ^ | January 10, 2020 | Brian Hiatt

[tuffydoodle]

Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist for Rush, died Tuesday, January 7th, in Santa Monica, California at age 67, according to Elliot Mintz, a family spokesperson. The cause was brain cancer, which he had been quietly battling for three-and-a-half years. A representative for the band confirmed the news to Rolling Stone.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Man, I’m old......RIP. I wore my first copy of 2112 out in about a month, playing it over and over.

[SunkenCiv]

• Rush drummer Neil Peart dead at 67
• 'Rush' Drummer Who Praised Ayn Rand Now Pounds Rand Paul (Neil Peart: Support Democratic Party)
• Stupid repetitive crap (kinda like Rush): Hitler Finds Out Neil Peart Is Retiring

[TomServo]

I made my Mom sit thru the first side with me. :-)

[Jack Black]

GOAT?

As in "Greatest of All Time"

Well, I'll go out on a limb and assume that none of Mr. Pearts immediate family are mourning by reading Free Republic threads because I am going to "go there".

I've spent several days listening to various Rush songs, especially those that contain his solos and I certainly don't see him as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time, no matter who else and how many of them insist he was.

I feel like this is just another giant con job being pulled off by Rush's fanatic fans, like getting them into the Rock and Roll hall of fame.

I base my feelings on this: When you look at the greatest rock drummers what jumps out at one is how closely they are tied to the greatest rock bands. Topping the lists invariably is John Bonham, drummer for Led Zepplin, surely a candidate for the greatest rock band ever, and nearly always the winner of the greatest rock song ever (Stairway to Heaven), etc. Maybe the Zep aren't your number one, but objectively they are certainly in everyone's top 10.

So, the list of other "greatest rock drummers" tracks really closely with the list of Greatest Rock Bands: It frequently includes Keith Moon (The Who being another "everyone's Top 10 rock bands list), Charlie Watts (the Rolling Stones), Ginger Baker (Cream and Blind Faith) and even Ringo (the Beatles).

What unites all these bands in their greatness is their many awesome rock songs. Song, after song you can easily name off the top of your head: Zepplin: aside from Stairway, you have "Communication Breakdown", "Whole Lotta Love", "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll" "When the Levee Breaks". etc, etc. All these were legitimate charting hits, and Zepplin was a band that many a 1970s AOR station was built around.

I'm sure everyone can name Beatles songs. I don't particularly like the Beatles, and I don't own any of their records, but I was resently introduced to this game of "Name 20 Beatles Songs" by my daughter. She's 30 - and her friends were playing this game and she lost horribly, because she didn't grow up with her mom and dad playing old Beatles CDs. But, a kid in the 1960s it wasn't hard for me.

Now, look at Rush? Other than their fanatic fans can anyone name more than one or two Rush songs. I know "Tom Sawyer", is there another one that got played on the radio?

Can anyone honestly claim the Rush are one of the Ten Greatest rock bands, up there with the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and the other true legends at the apex of rock?

I think not.

Now the counter-argument is that even though Rush wasn't that popular or influential, and didn't have many memorable hit songs, that Neal Peart was still supremely talented. OK, that's plausible. After all Steve Vai, arguably the greatest technical rock guitarist ever, played in White Snake.

But then, again you go to the songs. The role of the rock drummer, is to make the song rock. That's the essence of rock and roll, and there are a lot of ways to do it. You have the bombastic in-the-pocket groves of Bohnmam, the relentless four-on-the-floor snare work of Charlie Watts. The drummer for the Ramones, Tommy Ramone, puts out a beat that infectiously makes people start bopping around.

Neal Peart? His drumming seems flat to me, which Rush song makes you want to get up and dance, or bounce your heard to while driving?

So you are left with his greatness claim resting on these long ponderous drum solos, played on the "Biggest Kit Ever Used By A Touring Band (tm)". And if greatness is defined as doing a drum roll across more tom-tom drums than anyone else, they Neal Pert may win.

I'll close with this thought: ask your friends promoting the Neal Peart is the greatest drummer ever in rock who the greatest guitar player is? Or the greatest bass player? Alex Lifeson? Geddy Lee?

Uh huh, sure.

The promotion of Rush may be the most successful Canadian propaganda campaign in history!

None of this is to say anything bad about Neil Peart. I'm happy that Rush achieved the success that they did, and saddened at the passing of Mr. Peart, he spent his life playing music and making people happy and that's a nice way to spend your life.

But greatest Rock Drummer of All time, no way.

May he rest in peace.

[cdcdawg]

Okay, that’s a really long way of saying you really don’t like Rush, and you really do like Zepplin. It sounds like you have spent a lot of time arguing Zepplin vs. Rush.

I do not consider Peart to be the GOAT (I would choose Bonham, with Moon right behind him, then Peart), and I would not fit any definition for being a Rush fanatic, but there’s a lot to your analysis that I find lacking. You would be hard-pressed to find a list of the greatest rock drummers made by rock drummers that excludes Peart from the top 10. Expand to beyond rock, and you have to include some jazz greats that might push some beloved people out of the top positions.

“I’ve spent several days listening to various Rush songs, especially those that contain his solos and I certainly don’t see him as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time, no matter who else and how many of them insist he was.”

Have you really spent several days listening to various Rush songs? One would think your opinion has been formed over several decades, probably in reaction to obnoxious Rush/Peart fanboys. They are sort of like Mike Tyson fanboys in that you start picking apart their idol because of their obnoxious ravings. I get it. I have had them telling me that Alex Lifeson is a better guitarist than Steve Morse since the mid 80’s.

“I feel like this is just another giant con job being pulled off by Rush’s fanatic fans, like getting them into the Rock and Roll hall of fame.”

Their fans get under your skin. Got it. Rush is in the HOF mostly because other rock musicians respect them. You don’t like Rush, a lot of musicians do. Rush is usually pretty polarizing. Prog rock usually is. A lot of it is weird. I can’t listen to much Yes, or King Crimson, or ELP without wanting to hear something else. It’s all hard to play, and a lot of it is at least equally hard to listen to.

“I base my feelings on this: When you look at the greatest rock drummers what jumps out at one is how closely they are tied to the greatest rock bands. Topping the lists invariably is John Bonham, drummer for Led Zepplin, surely a candidate for the greatest rock band ever, and nearly always the winner of the greatest rock song ever (Stairway to Heaven), etc. Maybe the Zep aren’t your number one, but objectively they are certainly in everyone’s top 10.”

Ascribing greatness to a drummer because of the greatness of the band is a pretty limited view. I can’t name the punter on the 1972 Dolphins; he was at least good enough to never cost them a game. Beyond that, who knows? The Beatles can be claimed as the greatest band of all time. Nobody would list John or George as “great” guitarists. The Eagles were an amazing band. Don Henley was always a serviceable drummer. The Eagles were a much better band than Don Henley was a drummer.

“The drummer for the Ramones, Tommy Ramone, puts out a beat that infectiously makes people start bopping around.”

Tommy Ramone only played on four albums. He was very easily replaced and nobody noticed. He came back for his fourth album, and nobody noticed that either.

“Neal Peart? His drumming seems flat to me, which Rush song makes you want to get up and dance, or bounce your heard to while driving?”

If YYZ doesn’t get your head moving, then you are just predisposed to not like it because you don’t like Rush.

“I’ll close with this thought: ask your friends promoting the Neal Peart is the greatest drummer ever in rock who the greatest guitar player is? Or the greatest bass player? Alex Lifeson? Geddy Lee?”

I have never seen anyone list Geddy Lee or Alex Lifeson as the GOAT. There are plenty of people who list Geddy Lee among the best rock bassists of all time. A few do the same for Alex Lifeson with guitarists. I see both of them as being really good, and playing stuff that is very difficult, but I don’t rank them anywhere near the top. Neither of them rank with Peart in their respective roles, not even close.

“So, the list of other “greatest rock drummers” tracks really closely with the list of Greatest Rock Bands: It frequently includes Keith Moon (The Who being another “everyone’s Top 10 rock bands list), Charlie Watts (the Rolling Stones), Ginger Baker (Cream and Blind Faith) and even Ringo (the Beatles).”

Moon and Baker are in the pantheon of rock drummers. Moon actually proved to be replaceable, but that’s really just a testament to how good Kenny Jones was. Charlie and Ringo played nice roles in great bands. They rank well behind Stewart Copeland, Mitch Mitchell, Bill Ward, Dave Grohl, Chad Smith, Danny Carey, Kenny Jones, Danny Seraphine (woefully underrated) and even Phil Collins as drummers.

“Song, after song you can easily name off the top of your head: Zepplin: aside from Stairway, you have “Communication Breakdown”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “Black Dog”, “Rock and Roll” “When the Levee Breaks”. etc, etc. All these were legitimate charting hits, and Zepplin was a band that many a 1970s AOR station was built around ...

Now, look at Rush? Other than their fanatic fans can anyone name more than one or two Rush songs. I know “Tom Sawyer”, is there another one that got played on the radio?”

This is just a matter of when you grew up. That applies to most of your post. Sure, “Tom Sawyer” got a lot of radio play. So did “Limelight”, “Free Will”, “Spirit of Radio”, “Closer to the Heart”, “2112: Overture”, “Fly by Night”, and “Working Man”. I had one Rush album, Moving Pictures, and that was on 8 track. I don’t think I even had anything to play it on after about 1982.

I can name a lot more Beatles songs than Van Halen songs off the top of my head: John was not a better guitarist than Eddie; Ringo was not a better drummer than Alex. I can name at least as many AC/DC songs as Zepplin songs; I would never claim that any part of AC/DC was better than any part of Zepplin.

“Can anyone honestly claim the Rush are one of the Ten Greatest rock bands, up there with the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and the other true legends at the apex of rock?”

Without looking, I can’t tell you the name of Pink Floyd’s drummer, and I have seen them in concert twice. Nobody was there to see him.

“After all Steve Vai, arguably the greatest technical rock guitarist ever, played in White Snake.”

Steve Vai toured with White Snake a time or two after their peak. I like his work on David Lee Roth’s first solo album. He’s great but overrated, a lot like Yngwie Malmsteen, and by mostly the same people for the same reasons.

“So you are left with his greatness claim resting on these long ponderous drum solos, played on the “Biggest Kit Ever Used By A Touring Band (tm)”. And if greatness is defined as doing a drum roll across more tom-tom drums than anyone else, they Neal Pert may win.”

A Bonham fan is complaining about long and ponderous solos? The neat thing about Peart’s use of the huge kit is that he actually used it. That was a big part of his playing. Bonham often used a pretty elaborate setup. I don’t see the problem with this. They both used all of that stuff. Drum solos are generally terrible because it’s letting the biggest flake in the band do his own thing without any structure. Peart and Bonham managed to make drum solos worth listening to. Bonham is probably the reason there are drum solos. A mixed blessing.

[1Old Pro]

Expand to beyond rock, and you have to include some jazz greats that might push some beloved people out of the top positions.

whatever happened to Louie Belson or Buddie Rich?

[cdcdawg]

Or Gene Krupa! The rock drummers probably wouldn’t exist without them.

[Lurker]

Terry Bozio belongs on that list.

In no particular order:

Baker
Peart
Bonham
Moon
Bozio

L

[1Old Pro]

Or Gene Krupa! The rock drummers probably wouldn’t exist without them.

Belson really gave back, did thousands of "lessons" to high schools and clinics. I saw him play twice with our jazz HS band in the 70's.

[Jack Black]

Okay, that’s a really long way of saying you really don’t like Rush, and you really do like Zepplin. It sounds like you have spent a lot of time arguing Zepplin vs. Rush.No, not at all. I'm not a big Zepplin fan. Like the Beatles, it's probably partly over-exposure to it.

One of my favorite bands is the Clash. One could argue Rush vs. the Clash possibly, they are both in tier 2.

;Have you really spent several days listening to various Rush songs? One would think your opinion has been formed over several decades, probably in reaction to obnoxious Rush/Peart fanboys. They are sort of like Mike Tyson fanboys in that you start picking apart their idol because of their obnoxious ravings. I get it. I have had them telling me that Alex Lifeson is a better guitarist than Steve Morse since the mid 80’s. Yes, this actually nails it. I should have said "spent the last several days "re-listening" to Rush because my personal fanatic fan-boy friend sent song-lists, video clips and hourly updates on the passing of Neil.

Anyway, thanks for responding to my long post in so complete a manner. It's nice to know that someone is out there. You made totally solid points and I'm probably being too hard on Neil and Rush both.

[cdcdawg]

Thanks for responding, AND thank you for mentioning The Clash. I sometimes forget about them when I’m looking for something to listen to. That’s a bad miss on my part. I have a feeling that London will be calling in the background while I work this morning.

I’ll stand by my Mike Tyson analogy. His fans are a lot like Rush fans; so far over the top that I find myself arguing against him, even though he was obviously an unbelievably good boxer and arguably the best.

Have a good one!

[cdcdawg]

Of those old school jazz drummers, he is not always mentioned with Krupa and Rich, probably because of their famous “drum battle” which set them apart. Bellson might have won had it been a 3 way battle.

[dfwgator]

Speaking of Genesis, I can’t even bear to watch the recent videos of Phil Collins on tour.

I’m glad at least he’s making a go of it, but it’s still heartbreaking to see the state he’s in not able to play the drums anymore.

[gnickgnack2]

I couldn’t even bear to watch the first videos of Phil Collins! I certainly enjoyed his drumming with Genesis, and his tambourine dance in his early lead vocalist years was fun. I also liked some of their storywork just after Gabriel left, but ever since There Used to Be Five...I mean, Now There Are Three, I have had little interest.

I unfortunately got away from Steve Hackett at the same time, but since seeing him three times the past three years, I am pretty much full-fledged gonzo. Saw him in October bringing back Selling England by the Pound and my first comment after the show was “Why didn’t I like that much when it first came out?” I did later, but it was even better live.

As for Phil, I knew he quit drumming...thought he quit all. I certainly respect his talent and liked some of his stuff, but there was always something off about him that I could never identify.

As for Phil