RIP Neil Peart

RIP - one of the greatest for sure.  

Bummer. RIP.

....

Watching the Time Stand Still video last week- I earned new respect for him in his interviews.

Very sad.

Not the biggest Rush fan but he Was a Monster On Drums

Where are the wind chime thingies, that go tinkle tinkle on his kit?

No way! What a master drummer and songwriter! Saw them a few times around 80/81. Wasn't the most exciting of shows viewer wise imo but the music is topnotch musicianship.  

RIP!

One of my if not favorite Rush songs. Had all the early albums in the 70's. All The Worlds A Stage live album got a lot of spins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l0KmbGnq4g

Saddened to hear this.  My first big Rock concert was Rush on the Permanent Waves tour.  I never saw them again though, and I regret that.  Wonder if Geddy & Alex will do some sort of tribute show?  

Tuques at half-mast.

I saw the Moving Pictures, Signals, and Grace Under Pressure shows plus a later tour stop with Jethro Tull opening. Air drumming to Neal was always a Rush (sorry). RIP. 

Fear trilogy played on the Grace tour. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e-QIVbPMd3A

Trilogy here

Neil. Sorry for misspelling his name above. 

Funny, I find that I'm very sad about this even though I wasn't a huge fan of his. I totally respected his ability and approach, I just thought he was a bit too mechanical for my taste. I became more impressed with him on a personal level when I heard that long after he had fully established himself as a star drummer he took lessons to gain more "swing" to his playing, which I thought was pretty admirable.

He still never "swung" enough for me, but he was undeniably one of the greats of all time and he always did it his way.

Oig.

I couldn't put up with Geddy Lee's voice long enough to form an opinion on Neil Peart.

RIP

Wow.....

Saw the Hemispheres and Permanent Waves tours, and had all their albums up to then.  Great performances.

A friend and I just listened to a chunk of this amazing Millard recording on Tuesday at concert volume, recording grabbed from DIME:

Rush
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, CA
June 12, 1981
Mike Millard first generation cassettes via JEMS
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Vol. 17

Recording Gear: AKG 451E microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550
cassette recorder

JEMS 2019 TRANSFER: first-generation cassettes made by Mike Millard for Barry G >
Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted transfer > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0
24/96) capture > iZotope RX MBIT+ resample 16/44.1 > iZotope RX and Ozone mastering >
Peak Pro 6 (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 2112 Overture
02 The Temples of Syrinx
03 Freewill
04 Limelight
05 Hemispheres Prelude
06 Beneath, Between & Behind
07 The Camera Eye
08 YYZ
09 Drum Solo
10 Broon's Bane
11 The Trees
12 Xanadu
13 The Spirit of Radio
14 Red Barchetta
15 Closer to the Heart
16 Tom Sawyer
17 Vital Signs
18 Natural Science
19 Working Man
20 Hemispheres Armageddon
21 By-Tor and the Snow Dog
22 In the End
23 In the Mood
24 2112 Grand Finale
25 La Villa Strangiato

For those who don't know the late, great Mike Millard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Millard

I had no idea Millard ever captured Rush (he was best known for Led Zeppelin).  What an amazing combination of performance, live sound, and bootleg sound capture!  I wondered how many stage mics were used to capture all the sounds coming from Neil?!  Thanks Ken for posting the picture of his kit.

Two other things:
The announcement was made today, but Wikipedia says he passed away Tuesday, the same day we listened to the show noted above.  Wooooooo!

and...

Neil had an amazing career, and a tragic personal life:
"On August 10, 1997, soon after the conclusion of Rush's Test for Echo Tour, Peart's first daughter and then-only child, 19-year-old Selena Taylor, was killed in a single-car accident on Highway 401 near the town of Brighton, Ontario. His common-law wife of 23 years, Jacqueline Taylor, succumbed to cancer only 10 months later on June 20, 1998."

I've been meaning to read the book he wrote during his motorcycle travels after the 2 deaths.

 ^^^^ The Camera Eye ~ Like That One have moving pictures cd somewhere. 

Rip and all, but Rush always hit me like a shot of bong water and a quart of Schlitz Stout.

2112 > A Farewell To Kings > Hemispheres were the Rush albums that did it for me.

Personally I could never get in to Rush (although they were much better live then on record IMO) but they were still balls-out great, and IMO they always did things the way they should be done, with integrity.

You don't have to like them to respect them, and they are deserving of the highest professional respect in an industry that isn't usually deserving of that.

It's a sad day in rock 'n roll.

Rush: Time Stands Still:Showtime

Why You Should Watch:

Paul Rudd narrates this well-produced 2016 documentary for which the rock band Rush granted filmmakers exclusive behind-the-scenes access as their final tour, launched in May 2015, comes to a crescendo in Los Angeles. The film emphasizes the musicians’ almost symbiotic relationship with their ferociously loyal fans, who likewise feel a quirky sense of ownership when it comes to “their” band. Candid interviews with bandmates Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart add more insights.

Symbiotic relationship with their ferociously loyal fans>>>

They talk about getting on airplanes, seeing dozens and dozens of shows, great program, seen it three times

Seems I've been pronouncing his name wrong since high school.  Lots of album spins in my youth.

Godspeed Neil Peart, thanks for the beats. 

We are the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx...

>>>Seems I've been pronouncing his name wrong since high school.  Lots of album spins in my youth.

Damn, I guess I have too.

I also got into Rush in high school in the late 70's and the friend who turned me onto them was also responsible for getting me into the GD, Neil Young, Zeppelin, Yes and a TON of other music.  I'm still grateful to him to this day and we still see Kimock and Phish shows together once in a while. 

Anyways, I think back then I was just absorbing everything like a sponge, and while I thought Geddy's voice was definitely different and very strange, it didn't deter me from getting into their music any more than any other of the male rock singers who could sing in a high key (Jon Anderson, Freddy Mercury, Robert Plant, Ian Gillian, etc).  I'm not saying he's in their league, but it wasn't something at the time that turned me off (and I totally get why people can't deal).

I didn't get a chance to see them until after high school, but when I did, it was my first big indoor arena show (Cow Palace, '84).  I went up with a bunch of friends (some of whom I still hang out with) and all of us but the driver were dosed to the gills.  Gary Moore with special guest Neal Schon opened and put on a guitar god clinic, so the crowd was proplerly primed.

The set Rush themselves played was on the short side and included a lot of songs from their new album, which to me diverged from their past, hard prog rocking identity and had too much electronic shyte, but I was still blown away and spent the next decade or so really delving into their old stuff and hitting every Bay Area show just to see them play those older songs, even if they were few and far between (or worse: medleys).  But it got to the point that they played more "new" material than old, and to me, the shows were just not the same, so I stopped going.

Then in 2015 I heard they were playing more complete versions of songs like Cygnus X1, Hemispheres and 2112, so I had to go.  This was their 40th anniversary show and the last time I saw them.  They opened with 9 newer songs (written '83 or later), which to me seemed to suck the life out of the old, meat-in-yer-seat crowd at the San Jose SAP center (but provided plenty of bathroom/smoke break opportunities), so by the time they got to the good stuff, the energy was not what it could have been (for me, anyway).  It was still great to see them perform those songs, and I'm very glad I went, especially now that it's over. 

As for the music, much of the appeal for me was that Peart, Lee and Lifeson all had recognizable instrumental voices, and were all very capable of playing lead simultaneously when they jammed.  Rush helped me develop a taste for longer, more progressive songs and I resonated with Neil Peart's lyrics and think it shows something about the man that he could be such a robotic, technical beast on the skins, but could write with such heart.

He was also a fellow avid cyclist (yeah, we both doubled down on nerd-ness).

After I heard the news, I spent the next 4 hours watching old concert footage (cranked to eleven, of course), and while I felt a little sadness at the ending of yet another band from the years when I was coming of age, I mostly felt joy that I got to live in that time and have those experiences because things are different now, and to me, not for the better musically speaking.

So here are some of the man's words, which are as true, if not truer, today than when he wrote them decades ago:

When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance

Cities full of hatred
Fear and lies
Withered hearts
And cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons
Dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude
And scoffing at the wise

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill

They say there are strangers who threaten us
Our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness to danger us
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand

___________________________________________________________________________________

Everybody got to deviate from the norm
Everybody got to escalate from the norm
Everybody got to elevate from the norm

______________________________________________________________________________

Philosophers and plowmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the heart

RIP Mr Peart

ha, just randomly found this pic on my phone of the last show I caught (40th Anniversary of Peart joining the band)

Hey Hall-io, nice post and pic, Happy New Year to you and yours.

>>Anyways, I think back then I was just absorbing everything like a sponge. 

Same time zone here with Rush, some of my friends thought Rush was too over the top, but we analyzed the lyrics anyway.  Cool that you got to see them live.  I'm 3 days in on the Sirius Deep Tracks celebration of Neil Peart's life, it's been fun time- traveling...listening to the old tracks off the albums. 

not sure why people don't like rush. 

I don't like Rush, and I'm not sure why either.

>>Seems I've been pronouncing his name wrong since high school.  Lots of album spins in my youth.

Damn, I guess I have too.<<

So . . . rhymes with "shart"?

Not "shirt"?  Damn Canadians...

It’s “pier-t”

Yes, thanks for clearing that up, Fishcane.

I had been mispronouncing Peart for long past my introduction to Rush in 1976.

I don't like Rush, and I'm not sure why either.

I've thought about this over the years. I respect the hell out of them for a lot of things, but other than a few songs I don't dig them. I tend to get bored by them quickly. I think it's a lack of blues or emotion content in their presentation. I can't put my finger on it but that's the best I've been able to come up with. This is my favorite Rush video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjbvZJaxcbw&t=17s

I spent a lot of years denying my earliest music interests. Rush led Zep sabbath etc. thinking My tastes just outgrew them. In the 80s I got caught up in the dead scene and we all know us deadheads are pretty iconoclastic. Exclusionary  to a fault. I eventually got sick of that whole “ let’s out-obscure each other” approach to music and the rise of the silly jam band thing and revisited my roots. Gosh some of that music that got beat on by the fm radio haters is great stuff. I realized that genres can live side by side on the same shelves. I’m glad that I revisited rush in the late 90s thru the end as they really had a fantastic second half and finished on top of their game. To have their final studio track be the garden is such a fitting finale. Just too bad Neil didn’t get to enjoy retirement for long

Happy New Year Jamjuice and Peak, hope to hear some epic trip reports soon (didn't you guys go to New Zealand?).

Turtle, apparently a lot of people do like Rush based on their sales: 

"Rush released its eponymous debut album in March 1974. 24 gold and 14 platinum (3 multi-platinum) records later, the band is only third behind The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for the most consecutive gold or platinum albums by a rock band."

https://www.rush.com/albums/

... but I know what you mean, it seems like they really polarize people.  It might be because they're not easy to classify. They're an amalgamation of rock, prog, metal with all kinds of other influences mixed in and who jump from different time signatures multiple times in the same song. And at times they can evoke feelings [of an almost human nature], which may be deemed  'uncool' by tough guys. 

Or it could just be Geddy's voice, which has been described a "rat caught in a wringer", or a "hamster on helium".  Sometimes I wish they would have gotten a singer who could play keys so Geddy could focus solely on being an even more ripping bass player than he already is (if that's even possible!).

>>> some of that music that got beat on by the fm radio haters is great stuff. I realized that genres can live side by side on the same shelves. II realized that genres can live side by side on the same shelves.

So true! 

Geddy Lee explains how to pronounce Peart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq84CpHo9cU

Neil's audiobooks are free right now on Amazon... just picked up Ghost Rider and one other.

Of course Neil and Mickey Hart were friends too

RIP 

I know it’s a race but I gotta say I usually see it elsewhere before here nowadays.in the heyday it would’ve been here first but there is a delay now that wasn’t here before 

Actually I just checked time stamps, nope 3:58 there and 4:20 here