Neil Peart Totally Explained

Everything about Neil Peart totally explained

Neil Ellwood Peart OC, (born September 12, 1952 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian musician and author. He is best-known as the drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush.
   Peart grew up in Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada (now part of St. Catharines) working the occasional odd job. However, his true ambition was to become a professional musician. During adolescence, he floated from regional band to regional band and dropped out of high school to pursue a career as a full-time drummer. After a discouraging stint in England to concentrate on his music, Peart returned home, where he joined local Toronto band Rush in the summer of 1974.
   Early in his career, Peart's performance style was deeply rooted in hard rock. He drew most of his inspiration from drummers such as Keith Moon and John Bonham, players who were at the forefront of the British hard rock scene. As time progressed, however, he began to emulate the jazz and big band musicians Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. Peart is also a pupil of jazz instructor Freddie Gruber. Peart has received many awards for his musical performances and is known for his technical proficiency and stamina.
   In addition to being a musician, Peart is also a prolific writer, having published several travelogues, and due to his position as Rush's primary lyricist. He worked on the Bubble Game and Ball Toss, but his tendency to take it easy when business was slack resulted in his termination. By his late teens, Peart had played in local bands such as Mumblin’ Sumpthin’, the Majority, and JR Flood. These bands practiced in basement recreation rooms and garages and played church halls, high schools and roller rinks in towns across Southern Ontario such as Mitchell, Seaforth, Elmira and Timmins. Tuesday nights were filled with jam sessions at the Niagara Theatre Centre.

Career prior to joining Rush

At eighteen years of age, after struggling to achieve success as a drummer in Canada, Peart traveled to London hoping to further his career as a professional musician.
   While in London he came across the writings of novelist and Objectivist Ayn Rand. Rand's writings became a significant philosophical influence on Peart, as he found many of her treatises to individualism and Objectivism inspiring. References to Rand's philosophy can be found in his lyrics, most notably "Anthem" from 1975's Fly By Night and "2112" from the 1976 Rush album, 2112.
   After eighteen months of dead-end musical gigs, and disillusioned by his lack of progress in the music business, Peart placed his aspiration of becoming a professional musician on hold and returned to Canada.
   Peart officially joined the band on July 29 1974, two weeks before the group's first US tour. Peart procured a silver Slingerland kit which he played at his first gig with the band, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann in front of over 11,000 people at the Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 14.

Early career with Rush

Peart soon settled into his new position, also becoming the band's primary lyricist. Before joining Rush, he'd written few songs, but, with the other members largely uninterested in writing lyrics, Peart's previously underutilized writing became as noticed as his musicianship. The band was still finding its feet as a recording act, and Peart, along with the rest of the band, now had to learn to live from a suitcase.
   His first recording with the band, 1975's Fly by Night, was fairly successful, winning the Juno Award for most promising new act, but, the follow up, Caress of Steel, which the band had high hopes for, was greeted with hostility by both fans and critics. In response to this negative reception, most of which was aimed at the B side spanning epic "The Fountain of Lamneth", Peart responded by penning "2112" on their next album of the same name in 1976. The album, despite record company indifference, became their breakthrough and gained a following in the United States. The supporting tour culminated in a three night stand at Massey Hall in Toronto, a venue Peart had dreamed of playing in his days on the Southern Ontario bar circuit and where he was now introduced as "The Professor on the drum kit" by Lee.
   Peart returned to England for Rush's Northern European Tour and the band stayed in the United Kingdom to record the next album, 1977's A Farewell to Kings in Rockfield Studios in Wales. They returned to Rockfield to record the follow up, Hemispheres in 1978, which they wrote entirely in the studio. The recording of five studio albums in four years, coupled with as many as 300 gigs a year, convinced the band to take a different approach thereafter. Peart has described his time in the band up to this point as "a dark tunnel."
   From this point on, Peart's career was near exclusively with Rush:

Family tragedy & continuing on

Soon after the culmination of Rush's Test For Echo Tour on July 4, 1997, Peart's daughter and only child, 19-year-old Selena Taylor, was killed in a single-car accident on the 401 highway near the town of Brighton, Ontario on August 10. His common-law wife of 22 years, Jacqueline Taylor, succumbed to cancer only 10 months later on June 20 1998. Peart, however, maintains that her death was the result of a "broken heart" and called it "a slow suicide by apathy. She just didn't care."
In his book, Peart writes of how he'd told his bandmates at Selena's funeral, "consider me retired."
Since the release of Vapor Trails and reuniting with his fellow band mates, Peart has returned to work as a full-time musician. Rush has since released a cover EP, Feedback in June 2004 and their 18th studio album Snakes & Arrows in May 2007, which were supported by two additional tours in 2004 and 2007, respectively.

Musicianship

Style and influences

Peart is consistently ranked as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time by both fans, fellow musicians, and magazines His influences are eclectic, ranging from John Bonham, Michael Giles, Phil Collins, Steve Gadd, and Keith Moon, to fusion and jazz drummers Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Bill Bruford and Gene Krupa. The Who was the first group that inspired him to write songs and play the drums. Peart is distinguished for playing "butt-end out", reversing stick orientation for greater impact and increased rim-shot capacity. "When I was starting out", Peart later said, "if I broke the tips off my sticks I couldn't afford to buy new ones, so I'd just turn them around and use the other end. I got used to it, and continue to use the heavy end of lighter sticks - it gives me a solid impact, but with less 'dead weight' to sling around."
Peart had long played just matched grip, however, he decided to shift to traditional as part of his style reinvention in the mid-1990s under the tutelage of jazz coach Freddie Gruber. Historically he's played Zildjian cymbals exclusively (from the "A" series, save for various effect cymbals, like Wuhan China cymbals), switching only very recently to Paragon, a line created for him by Sabian. In concert, Peart uses an elaborate 360-degree drum kit, with a large acoustic set in front and electronic drums to the rear. During the late 1970s, Peart augmented his acoustic setup with diverse percussion instruments including orchestra bells, tubular bells, wind chimes, crotales, timbales, timpani, gong, temple blocks, bell tree, triangle, and melodic cowbells.

Solos

Peart is often regarded as one of the finest practitioners of the in-concert drum solo. He is known for extensive, intricate drum solos containing odd time signatures, complex arrangements (sometimes total separation between upper and lower limb patterns: for example an ostinato dubbed "The Waltz"), and exotic percussion instruments. These solos have been featured on every live album released by the band. On the early live albums (All the World's a Stage & Exit...Stage Left), the drum solo was included as part of a song. On all subsequent live albums, the drum solo has been included on a separate track. His most recent instructional DVD, Anatomy of a Drum Solo, is an in-depth examination of how he constructs a solo. He uses his solo from the 2004 R30 30th anniversary tour as the basis for examination, along with other lectures and demonstrations on how to construct a drum solo that's musical instead of indulgent.

Lyrics

Peart is also the main lyricist for Rush. Literature has always heavily influenced his writings and, as such, he's tackled a wide range of subjects. In his early days with Rush, much of his lyrical output was influenced by fantasy and science fiction literature ("By-Tor and the Snow Dog", "Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage", "The Necromancer", "Xanadu"), mythology ("The Fountain of Lamneth", "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres") and philosophy ("Anthem", "2112", "Something for Nothing"); however, nearly as much would deal with real world or personal issues such as life on the road ("Fly by Night", "Making Memories"), and lost innocence ("Lakeside Park").
   The song "2112" focuses on the struggle of an individual against the collectivist forces of a totalitarian state. This became the band's breakthrough release, but also brought unexpected criticism, mainly due to the credit of inspiration Peart gave to Ayn Rand in the liner notes. "There was a remarkable backlash, especially from the English press, this being the late seventies, when collectivism was still in style, especially among journalists," Peart said. "They were calling us 'Junior fascists' and 'Hitler lovers.' It was a total shock to me".
   Weary of accusations of fascism, or even simply ideological fealty to Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, Peart has sought to remind listeners of his eclecticism and independence in interviews. He did not, however, try to argue in defense of Rand's views: The 1980 album Permanent Waves saw Peart cease to use fantasy literature or ancient mythology in his writing. 1981's Moving Pictures showed that Peart was still interested in heroic, mythological figures, but would now place them firmly in a modern and reality based context. The song "Limelight" from the same album is an autobiographical account of Peart's reservations regarding his own popularity and the pressures with fame. From Permanent Waves onward, most of Peart's lyrics began to revolve around social, emotional, and humanitarian issues, usually from an objective standpoint and employing the use of metaphors and symbolic representation. Starting with 1987's Hold Your Fire and including 1989's Presto, 1991's Roll the Bones, and 1993's Counterparts, Peart would continue to explore diverse lyrical motifs, even addressing the topic of love and relationships ("Open Secrets", "Ghost of a Chance", "Speed of Love", "Cold Fire") a subject which he purposefully eschewed in the past due to what he perceived as an inherent hackneyed stereotype. However, 2002's Vapor Trails was heavily devoted to speaking about Peart's personal issues, combined with other humanitarian topics such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks ("Peaceable Kingdom"). The band's most recent album Snakes & Arrows deals primarily and vociferously with Peart's opinions regarding faith and religion.
   Opinions of Peart's lyrics have always been divided. While fans have lauded them as thoughtful and intelligent, some critics have called them over-wrought and bombastic. For example, in 2007, he was voted #2 on Blender magazine's list of "worst lyricists in rock".

Books

Peart is the author of four non-fiction books, the latest released in September of 2006. His growth as an author predates the published work by several years (not including his work as Rush's primary lyricist), through private letters and short travelogues sent out to a small circle of friends and family. Peart's first book, titled, was written in 1996 about a month-long bicycling tour through Cameroon in November 1988. The book details Peart's travels through towns and villages with four fellow riders. The original had a limited print run, but after the critical and commercial success of Neil's second book, Masked Rider was re-issued and remains in print as of 2006.
After losing his wife and only daughter, Peart penned . It follows Peart still carrying emotional scars, but building a new life. As with his previous two books, it's a first person narrative.
Thirty years after Peart joined Rush, the band found itself on its 30th anniversary tour. Released in September of 2006, Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour By Motorcycle details the tour both from behind Neil's drumkit and on his BMW R1150GS and BMW R1200GS motorcycles.

DVDs

Apart from Rush's video releases as a band, Peart has released two instructional DVDs

A Work in Progress. Miami, Florida: Warner Bros. Publications. 2002. ISBN 0757990290 Originally released on VHS in 1996 and re-released on DVD in 2002.
Anatomy of A Drum Solo S.l.: Hudson Music: Distributed by Hal Leonard. 2005. ISBN 1423407008

Awards and honours

Peart has received the following awards in the Modern Drummer magazine reader's poll:

Hall of Fame: 1983

Best Rock Drummer: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 2006, 2008 (won vote count, but ineligible*)

Best Multi-Percussionist: 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986

Best Percussion Instrumentalist: 1982

Most Promising New Drummer: 1980

Best All Around: 1986

1986 Honor Roll: Rock Drummer, Multi-Percussion � (* - As a member of the Honor Roll in these categories, he's no longer eligible for votes in the above categories.)

Best Instructional Video: 2006, for Anatomy of A Drum Solo

Best Drum Recording of the 1980s, 2007, for "YYZ" from Exit...Stage Left

Best Recorded Performance:

1980: Permanent Waves
1981: Moving Pictures
1982: Exit...Stage Left
1983: Signals
1985: Grace Under Pressure
1986: Power Windows
1988: Hold Your Fire
1989: A Show of Hands
1990: Presto
1992: Roll the Bones
1993: Counterparts
1997: Test for Echo
1999: Different Stages
2002: Vapor Trails
2004:
2007: Snakes and Arrows

Peart has received the following awards from DRUM! magazine for 2007:

Drummer of the Year

Best Progressive Rock Drummer

Best Live Performer

Best DVD ("Anatomy Of A Drum Solo")

Best Drumming Album (Snakes & Arrows) Along with his bandmates Lee and Lifeson, Peart was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to be so honoured, as a group.

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