Neil Peart RIP

[Joe in PNG]

One of the greatest drummers has gone:
Rush drummer Neil Peart dead at 67
(https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806)

[Norville]

Truly sad to hear, big Rush fan for many years.

[muzzleblast]

Damn!

I learned to play the drums, aspiring to the drum gods: Buddy Rich, John Bonham, and Neil Peart. There are many other greats.

Peart was also a fantastic lyricist.

One of the heroes of my youth is gone.

Sad day.

[farscott]

My wife just told me this sad news. There are no words for how influential the music of Rush has been in my life, going back to my teens and once providing a spark of brilliance when I was solving a particularly vexing engineering issue.

Condolences to his family and friends.

Fuck cancer!!

[JHC]

Damn!

I learned to play the drums, aspiring to the drum gods: Buddy Rich, John Bonham, and Neil Peart. There are many other greats.

Peart was also a fantastic lyricist.

One of the heroes of my youth is gone.

Sad day.

His lyrics were what most hooked me on this legendary band. I hope he has a lot of unreleased material. #NewWorldMan (https://pistol-forum.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=NewWorldMan)

[Shoresy]

Damn. I was hoping to see him play live as a bucket list item. His impact on music can't be overstated. :(

[muzzleblast]

Perhaps for a moment the words could be restated as "Bye Bye Canadian Pie, the Day the music Died".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAsV5-Hv-7U

[JHC]

“He’s a writer and a ranger and a young boy bearing arms”

[Baldanders]

Fuck me I'm weepy as shit. Rush was the first band I really got into. I brought all their albums, memorized their lyrics, saw them a few times in concert, they were basically my touchstone throughout high school.

Glad to have a place were people understand.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89kon5OIMEE

[muzzleblast]

Fuck me I'm weepy as shit. Rush was the first band I really got into. I brought all their albums, memorized their lyrics, saw them a few times in concert, they were basically my touchstone throughout high school.

Glad to have a place were people understand.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89kon5OIMEE

Thank you for sharing that video. I hadn't seen it previously.

[GOTURBACK]

Likewise Badlanders I saw them many many times, was my second concert after BOC back in 1979.... All the Worlds A Stage ....


Fuck me I'm weepy as shit. Rush was the first band I really got into. I brought all their albums, memorized their lyrics, saw them a few times in concert, they were basically my touchstone throughout high school.

Glad to have a place were people understand.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89kon5OIMEE

[Totem Polar]

Dammit. This literally is the end of an era. The guy was an icon; I saw them live several times.

[Dog Guy]

Neal Peart was one of the first two drummers who I recognized as not only being excellent at his craft, but also making the band around him better. Phil Ehart of Kansas was the other at that time, and I've found very few others since then. There may be others who can work the drums as well as or better than Peart, but very, very few who I listen to and think damn, he's an integral part of what makes them sound so good. Most bands, you could unplug drummer A and plug in drummer B and not notice the difference. Neal Peart wasn't like that. Rush would never have sounded like Rush without him. I saw more Rush concerts than any other band, probably because they toured so much. I don't think I missed a tour between 1984 and when they retired except for their last go. Peart once said "The only thing worse than touring is not touring", which probably explains why they actually performed so much over the years.

[Joe in PNG]

Neal Peart was one of the first two drummers who I recognized as not only being excellent at his craft, but also making the band around him better. Phil Ehart of Kansas was the other at that time, and I've found very few others since then. There may be others who can work the drums as well as or better than Peart, but very, very few who I listen to and think damn, he's an integral part of what makes them sound so good. Most bands, you could unplug drummer A and plug in drummer B and not notice the difference. Neal Peart wasn't like that. Rush would never have sounded like Rush without him. I saw more Rush concerts than any other band, probably because they toured so much. I don't think I missed a tour between 1984 and when they retired except for their last go. Peart once said "The only thing worse than touring is not touring", which probably explains why they actually performed so much over the years.

I'd add the Who to that list. Who covers without Moon's drum style (or Entwhistle's bass) tend to sound anemic and bland.

I got to see Rush live back in '92 (with Primus opening), and it was amazing.

[farscott]

Something about Rush and Neil Peart that always struck me was how hard they worked. Some bands would have one or two openers and maybe play ninety minutes -- and not sound good. For the entire latter portion of their career, Rush had no opening acts and played two ninety-minute sets while sounding amazing and playing very challenging pieces. My wife is amazed at how many versions of songs like "YYZ", "Limelight", "Subdivisions", and "Driven" I have on our iTunes account. Everyone of them is from a live album.

The same dedication to live playing went into songs and albums. And the band members are (and were) so modest.

[Joe in PNG]

Something about Rush and Neil Peart that always struck me was how hard they worked. Some bands would have one or two openers and maybe play ninety minutes -- and not sound good. For the entire latter portion of their career, Rush had no opening acts and played two ninety-minute sets while sounding amazing and playing very challenging pieces. My wife is amazed at how many versions of songs like "YYZ", "Limelight", "Subdivisions", and "Driven" I have on our iTunes account. Everyone of them is from a live album.

The same dedication to live playing went into songs and albums. And the band members are (and were) so modest.

Don't forget their self-depreciating sense of humor.
How many bands have toured with stacks of clothesdryers instead of amps? Or done polka versions of their own songs?

[greyghost]

Fuck Cancer

[Dismas316]

I echo a lot of Farscott’s thoughts. Great memories of Rush in the late 70’s and early 80’s as they hit their peak and I was a teenager in high school then. Saw them many times back then and brings back great memories. Was our favorite band back then. Cancer sucks!! God bless him and his family.

[RevolverRob]

Never been the biggest fan of Rush, but the world is a little darker without the shining light of Peart’s talent.

[JRB]

I had more than one formative moment as a youth set to a copy of 2112 playing in my walkman or a cassette deck.

RIP Neal

[Spartan1980]

One of my favorite songs of all time. Such HUGE sound from a three man band. Went to sleep at night many a night with "A Farewell to Kings" playing in my headphones. The world will never be the same. :(


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuHS-gjMiVw

[Cacafuego]

Met my best friend, 35 years and counting, because I had a Rush logo drawn on my Pee-Chee folder in Driver's Ed class. He and I saw them every tour since here in Vegas, and most tours traveled to see them again at least once - San Diego, Phoenix, Portland, Chicago. A Rush concert was one of the few places I've ever felt I really belonged.

Peart wrote books, too. "Masked Rider" is about bicycling in Africa. "Ghost Rider" is about a motorcycle trip around North America following the deaths of his daughter and wife. There are others. If you're a fan they're worth a read.

[Cypher]

Without question Rush had the most technical skill of any band I've ever seen in concert. I saw them in Omaha in 1981 and I saw them in Texas in 1984 actually in the Astrodome. I was amazed at how well they had their sound adjusted for that building.

I kind of quit following them after Grace Under Pressure but I saw some of their videos on YouTube of some of their more recent tours and I felt kind of bad because you could tell that Geddy Lee's voice was going

[mark7]

Without question, one of the finest rock drummers to ever sit behind a kit.

Rest In Peace, Neil- thanks for the music and the memories.

[Dismas316]

One of NP set up, only he could play this.

47048

[Robinson]

Peart was a tremendous talent. RIP.