Bearing a Gift Beyond Price: A Tribute to Neil Peart, Rush Drummer and Lyricist (1952-2020)

My fandom for the Canadian rock band Rush--whose legendary drummer and lyricist, Neil Peart, passed away last week--goes back roughly 40 years

So I can't cite exactly how or why or when or through whom I got into them.

I'm guessing that via some combination of rock radio and junior high word of mouth, I became aware of (long after its release) "Fly by Night"--a 1975 gem that the band eschewed live after 1978--and was intrigued enough to buy the 1980 album Permanent Waves sometime following its January release.

I can't say exactly when that might've been, but I know I had Permanent Waves before Moving Pictures came out in February 1981.

I instantly loved the first song on Permanent Waves, "The Spirit of Radio," still consider it my favorite Rush song and ranked it in the top 10 of my All-time Favorite Rock Songs when I last compiled a list in 2015.

Back then, loving a band meant knowing the names of the people in the band, which was easy for a Rush fan as there were only three members (and if you look really closely at the Permanent Waves front cover, their last names are included in the art).

Geddy Lee, a really skinny guy with long hair and a high-pitched voice, was the vocalist and bass player.

Alex Lifeson was the guitarist, and a key part of the trio's sonic inventiveness.

And Neil Peart not only had a crazy massive drum kit, he was almost always referenced as "one of the best drummers in the world."

And while Lifeson, Lee and Peart collaborated on the band's music, once he joined Rush in mid-1974--John Rutsey was the band's original drummer and played on their eponymous debut--Peart wrote virtually all of the lyrics.

Some have likely called his lyrics "dense" in both senses of the word, and he may well have had too much of an Ayn Rand fascination at one point. But Peart showed a real sensitivity and social consciousness that I always appreciated:

- "Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive"

- "And the men who hold high places must be the ones to start, to mold a new reality closer to the heart"

- "No his mind is not for rent, to any god or government"

- "In the high school halls, in the shopping malls, conform or be cast out"

- "I can't pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend"

- "If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice"

- "Just between us, I think it's time for us to recognize the differences we sometimes fear to show"

- "Who can face the knowledge that the truth is not the truth?"

- "Freeze this moment a little bit longer, make each sensation a little bit stronger"

- "All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars"

- "And if the love remains, though everything is lost, we will pay the price but we will not count the cost"

Certainly, these lyrics were enhanced by accompanying what I thought were rather cool, mostly hard-rocking songs, played with the utmost technical proficiency.

After first getting into "Fly by Night" and then Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures, I soon came to know much of Rush's earlier output, including the 2112 album with its famed "Overture" and "The Temple of Syrinx."

A friend had the band's first live album, All the World's a Stage, and I would excitedly buy the next one, Exit...Stage Left.

My freshman year of high school, in the fall of 1982, began a few months before I really started attending rock concerts with friends, so I rued not seeing the Signals tour at the Rosemont Horizon (now known as Allstate Arena).

But I first saw Rush on June 30, 1984 at the Rosemont Horizon, on their Grace Under Pressure Tour.

When I next saw them, in January 1992 at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles--I was living out
there at the time--it felt like I was seeing an "old" favorite, though Geddy/Alex/Neil were still great.

But the last 7 of the 9 times I saw Rush live were shows in seven different years between 2002 and 2015, at the amphitheater in Tinley Park, IL, headlining at Milwaukee Summerfest or at Chicago's United Center.

So, somewhat astonishingly, despite never quite being deemed "cool" by the rock intelligentsia--Rush was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, many years after first being eligible--the trio never lost their staying power.

Though there were Rush concerts I robustly loved, like this one in 2010, there were also quite candidly times--including the last few--when their setlists were a bit esoteric for my tastes and the shows tended to drag in parts.

Including--gasp--sometimes during Peart's extended drum solos.

Though my reverence for his drumming talent is immense, there were times when I wondered why he needed quite so many drums.

And of those I've seen in person--such as Dave Grohl, with Nirvana in 1993--as well as just on video (John Bonham of Led Zeppelin), I tend to prefer sheer brutality on a smaller kit.

Still, I believe what I posted on Facebook the other day holds true:

With the deaths of Ginger Baker and Neil Peart, every drummer in the world has moved up two notches.

Anyway, I imagine that to the public at large, I'm a major Rush fanatic and to true Rush "geeks," I'm something of a poser.

But in these polarized times I think we can tend to forget that to love someone or something--whether a friend, family member of lover, leader or country, band or baseball team, etc.--doesn't mean constant, automatic or unquestioning approval and adulation.

It means your life wouldn't be nearly as good without them. And your appreciation is both immense and intense.

I love--and always will--a lot the music Neil Peart helped make with Rush.

I loved his drumming, his lyrics and even a sense of humor that probably wasn't always obvious.

I am sorry for his suffering, of late from the brain cancer that ended his life at just 67, and the loss of his daughter and wife during a brutal 10-month stretch in 1997-98. (He would remarry and have another daughter.)

Unaware of his illness, or whatever part it likely played in Rush's retirement, I was shocked and gutted by the news of his death, even given this grim article about how the coming decade will see an ongoing parade to the grave of rock heroes, beyond the legends already lost.

But with nearly any death, excepting those of someone particularly young or via unnatural means, I like to offer this condolence:

As you weep for what has been lost, smile for all that has been gained

The truth is, I gained a whole lot via my fandom of Neil Peart and Rush.

"Love and life are deep" he wrote in the song, "Tom Sawyer."

And then in "Dreamline" some years later:

"When we are young
Wandering the face of the Earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning that we're only immortal
For a limited time"

Thanks for the magic, Neil Peart.

Your drumbeats will live on for quite some time.

And not just on indelible songs--such as these--and DVDs I can watch upon my wall.

Rush to Judgment? Canadian Trio Still Rocks Soundly, but Doesn't Thrill (Me) Throughout -- Milwaukee Concert Review

Concert Review

Rush
Summerfest, Milwaukee
July 4, 2013
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Compared to the general population, the music press over the years and some avid music-fan friends who have long been left cold by the Canadian power trio, I think I count as a pretty heavy-duty Rush fan.

I have enjoyed their music since getting the Permanent Waves album as an 11-year-old in 1980; I own most of their albums--mostly acquired immediately upon release--including such lesser lights as 1993's Counterparts; and I've seen them live 8 times since 1984.

(Funny thing is I remember going to see them at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles in 1992 and thinking that I was reliving my youth and that they seemed a bit long in the tooth; I was all of 23 and Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart all had yet to hit 40.)

But compared to serious Rush fans, I'm likely something more of a lightweight.

To wit: Thursday night at the Marcus Amphitheater of Milwaukee's Summerfest, during a break following the band's initial 10 song set--which opened with a few hits (at least in Rush world) but primarily featured album cuts not among their best-known songs--I asked the guy next to me how he liked the show so far. During the set, he hadn't noticeably sung along, played air guitar or drums or likely even smiled. (See the setlist on Setlist.fm)

He said he liked it, but went on to share how he hadn't been as into their lyrical themes since they shifted from science fiction to more social and emotional matters since the death of Peart's wife and daughter in the late '90s. In anticipation of Rush returning to the stage to play the bulk of 2012's Clockwork Angels accompanied by a string section, the guy asked if I'd read the book--a novelization based on the album was penned by Kevin J. Anderson, to which I was oblivious--and proceeded to tell me about it.

And I was just looking for validation for feeling a bit vexed that "Limelight"--played in the opening set at most Rush shows this tour--was eschewed in favor of relative obscurity "The Body Electric."

Not being a Rush beginner, nor someone unaware of their tendencies on recent tours, I know that they like to start shows with a mix of hits and album cuts that they've decided to resurface.

My problem with this in Milwaukee is that in skipping "Limelight," they didn't give me enough classic ear candy--until later in the show--and they also left off one of my favorite album cuts, "The Pass," which they've consistently played on this tour.

And while I don't mean to piss off Rush fans who love Clockwork Angels--and therefore, presumably, the 9 songs they played with strings attached--I just don't think it's all that great. It has stellar moments, but in full becomes laborious.

So a bit ironically, during this section of the show--and even the earlier part sans "Subdivisions," "The Big Money" and "Force Ten"--I found myself perceiving Rush a bit like my friends who aren't fans. In other words, I appreciated their technical prowess on their instruments and found them sonically stellar, but the songs were just too esoteric for me to be playing air guitar and drums. As I often say about opera, I appreciated what I was watching & hearing much more than I was feeling it.

Fortunately, near the end of their 3-hour show, Rush played stellar versions of the classics of my youth--"The Spirit of Radio," "YYZ," "Tom Sawyer" and "2112/Temples of Syrinx"--that allowed me to rock out quite geddily (pun intended).

While I realize these Rush staples shouldn't be all that a hardcore fan wants to hear, I can't deny that I much preferred the band's 2010 gig at the same venue, which included a full playing of 1981's great Moving Pictures album (and which I reviewed here).

Now, to anyone who might say that I knew what I was getting going in, I agree to a certain extent. Much of what has made Rush cool over the years (to those of us who think they are) is their commitment to making music the way they want, without deference to being decreed as hip, or--until their much delayed induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame this year--garnering critical adoration or even respect.

While I am enough of a fan not to only like songs they recorded before 1984--"Far Cry" from 2007's Snakes & Arrows was one of the best played on Thursday--the truth is I would have been a good bit happier to have heard "Red Barchetta," "Free Will" or the forever-neglected "Fly By Night" in lieu of a few of the songs played on Thursday.

If you were there and loved it, I'm glad you did. But to be fair to the shows I have loved--including by Rush--I can't say that this one consistently reached that level. The band's performance of what they played was superlative, but my enjoyment of it was a bit lesser.

Which isn't to say that I preferred Animation, the Rush tribute band who played at a nearby Summerfest stage prior to the show. Especially with the dazzling musicianship of Mssrs. Lee, Lifeson and Peart readily on display, I'll always appreciate the chance to see them.

But Animation at least filled in some of the songs I wanted to hear on this 4th of July.

---
Here's a clip of show-opener "Subdivisions" posted on YouTube by chinarider69: 

And for friends who haven't appreciated the greatness of Rush over the years, here's a "Rush for Beginners" playlist I put together on Spotify:

Rush Still Giddily (Geddily?) Rocking to the Power of 3

Concert Review

Rush
July 3, 2010
Marcus Amphitheatre, Summerfest
Milwaukee, WI
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I love Rush. If that makes me uncool, not hip, musically deficient, nerdy or anything else, so be it. Nothing I haven't heard before.

Mind you, I am not nearly as hardcore as many of the Canadian power trio's famously rabid fans. There are a number of Rush songs, both old and new, that I don't particularly enjoy and while I respect the band's right to indulge their own tastes by playing a healthy dose of obscure tunes in their concerts, this tendency has made their shows of late rather hit-or-miss affairs.

But given how much I like their 1981 album, Moving Pictures, as well as 1980's Permanent Waves--I still recall getting both on vinyl upon release--and other concert staples like 2112, when it was announced that Rush would be playing Moving Pictures in its entirety on their current Time Machine tour, I jumped at the chance to see them at Milwaukee's Summerfest (for a good bit less than tickets and parking cost for their shows tonight & Wednesday at Chicago's Northerly Island).

While there were a good deal more women at the show than might be expected--even Rush joked in a post-show video that seven is a record--and a good smattering of people under 25 or so, most of the audience were presumably longtime devotees, as indicated from the vast assortment of old concert tees on display. And from the response of the crowd (not quite packed, but well-sold), it would appear that most in attendance enjoyed Rush's performance as much as I did, if not more.

The first set of two was a bit heavy on lesser-known songs (see the setlist here), but once notoriously high-voiced lead singer and bassist Geddy Lee got past a bit of screechiness that opened The Spirit of Radio--the first song of the show, which followed a cheeky video showing that the band really does have a strong sense of self-deprecating humor--he settled in nicely to his now a-bit-lower register and everything sounded good.

As Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart are all fantastic musicians, the music itself was note perfect and when the Moving Pictures play-through kicked off the second set, the show really kicked into high gear.

Perhaps not for everyone's taste, but I loved it. Unapologetically.

Here's a bit of video I shot of Free Will, followed by a video on YouTube of Camera Eye, which I found to be a surprise standout (the video is actually from their Albuquerque show a few days ago).





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In conjunction with going to see Rush, I also made a point of watching their just released documentary DVD (it also has been playing on VH1 and Palladia), Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage.

Featuring plenty of music and interviews with the three band members, their associates and famous fans like Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, Les Claypool, Gene Simmons and others, it really was a fascinating look at the band's career. While seemingly devoid of the drug-infused drama that made for the best Behind The Music episodes, the band's beginnings and long run offers more than enough of interest, including how they dealt with the death of Peart's daughter and wife.

If you are a Rush fan like me, this is certainly worth your time. And if not, perhaps even more so. Available on Amazon and elsewhere, I heartily give it @@@@@.