Neil Peart - Dead at 67

[emtee]

Not sure  I remember a bigger global
outpouring from musicians and fans. Not
even when Bonzo died.

I wonder what he would have thought?

Strange how these things happen after
someone is gone. I have a feeling his stance
on strangers as friends would have been
modified had he been able to hear everyone"s
heart felt comments.

[Stadler]

John Lennon, though that could be a measure of how he died.

(Said the man who is fast turning into the forum curmudgeon, apparently.)

[DragonAttack]

It's not a competition.  The internets certainly make a difference as well.  So, let's please not go there.

But....nothing will ever top Lennon's passing.  Due to the circumstances, Ritchie Valens, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lynyrd Skynryd....just plain sucked.  But time has passed. And Hendrix, and this artist, and that artist.

George Harrison's passing still hurts.  Freddie Mercury's due to AIDs (and because no band's music moved me like their's did when they were 'on').

Hell, I had tickets for both Lynyrd Skyryd and Led Zeppelin before being cancelled due to deaths. Our next planned concert after Bonham's death was Queen at Joe Louis Arena.  'Things come in threes' was certainly on our minds.

Oh, and then there was Elvis.  The great Groucho Marx died three days later, but one hardly knew due to all the press coverage regarding Presley.

[King Postwhore]

I remember Gen Simmons and Paul Stanley being upset over the coverage of Eric Carr's death.  Very little coverage because he passed away the same day as Freddie Mercury. 

[KevShmev]

As has been noted, the presence of social media and the 24-hour news cycle certainly makes a difference when assessing the coverage of the passing of a significant musician.  Had John Lennon or Freddie Mercury died during this era, the coverage would still be going full force.  Heck, the Michael Jackson coverage was pretty relentless for a while and that was only 10 years ago.  It's impossible to say if the coverage and sentiment of Neil's passing has equaled that of Bowie or Prince, recent deaths that were massive big deals, but it's pretty close, and I am still surprised at the scope.  I don't think had it been Geddy or Alex that we would have seen quite this much chatter and coverage.  I think many of who were longtime Neil fans somehow underestimated how big and far-reaching his impact and popularity was, hard as that is to imagine.  A few co-workers commented at how it blew all of their FB pages up and how they didn't know that so many friends were fans of Rush and/or Neil Peart. 

[King Postwhore]

I've got to say, I saw many people post about Neil that I didn't expect to. 

[KevShmev]

From Rush's official Twitter:

Our most heartfelt thanks go out to family, friends, musicians, writers and fans from around the globe for the incredible outpouring of love and respect for Neil since his passing. These touching tributes help to lessen the pain of this terrible loss and remind us all to celebrate his remarkable life and our connections to it. - Geddy & Alex

 

[Lethean]

That's a wonderful statement.

[TAC]

Yeah, that's great to hear from them.

[TAC]

So I think there's literally a million clips on youtube of Neil...but I was watching this show, Vapor Trails tour from Atlanta, and Neil's playing on Ceiling Unlimited is amazing, especially the intro. I am actually a big fan of the Vapor Trails album, but not of this song. Well, this live version and Neil's playing convinced me otherwise.

https://youtu.be/s9ASan4kop4?t=722

[KevShmev]

I like Ceiling Unlimited, but it feels like one of those songs that would have been better served with a lighter touch, not the aggressive one that almost all of the VT songs have.  There's a really good melody in there, but it kind of gets lost in the aggression.

[TAC]

I like Ceiling Unlimited, but it feels like one of those songs that would have been better served with a lighter touch, not the aggressive one that almost all of the VT songs have.  There's a really good melody in there, but it kind of gets lost in the aggression.

Should be no surprise that I feel the complete opposite..

This live version is quite powerful and gives it a life that the studio version just doesn't have.

[ytserush]

Thank you for your post TV, I’m sorry I just dropped my post right after yours like that. I’m sorry for your loss and I’m glad you cherish your relationship with such a great soul like his.

Please don't apologize. There is absolutely no need to apologize for sharing your feelings.  It's difficult for so many of us to process this loss because of what the music meant to so many of us. My pain is maybe different perhaps,  but no more deeper than anyone else's. Thank you all for your kind words, though. It means a lot right now..

You've had to carry it longer. Perhaps not as long as some but longer than others. You know them. We don't.

Please tell Geddy and Alex that we are thinking of them. I'm hoping that Geddy's optimistic nature is going to help me get through this.  It's all quite the cluster.

[Cool Chris]

I have a feeling his stance
on strangers as friends would have been
modified had he been able to hear everyone"s
heart felt comments.

I gotta believe he knew how everyone felt, that was what made him feel so uncomfortable, all the adulation, correct? But I wonder if the detachment (for lack of a better word) many of his fans felt are contributing toward the outpouring of grief. We couldn't tell him everything he has meant to us in person at meet & greets and whatnot, so we do it now through message boards, social media, etc...

Also, I lost who said it, and even what thread it was in, but someone said something like "Rush isn't my favorite band, but they are the most important in my musical development." That seems like a common theme I've been reading. How important Rush was to them, how much Rush meant to them, beyond "OMG I love their music!!!"

My wife, who knows nothing about anything when it comes to music* and doesn't follow the news at all outside of NPR in the car, said to me today "Did you hear the drummer from Rush died?" I told her I knew something about it. Just the fact that it made it to her realm of knowledge says something. I doubt she'd be aware of Charlie Watts or Ringo Starr dying. 

*she knows Rush because on a road trip many years ago someone played Rush in the car for hours and she couldn't stand it.

[ytserush]

An radio interview with Sully Erna from Godsmack is circulating. I'm glad to hear he had become friends with Neil as Sully had asked Neil to play drums on their track Serenity which written about Ghost Rider. Neil declined, but it looks like he made a friend regardless.

This is the sad revelation:

According to Erna, he knew about Peart's battle with brain cancer "for a while," but was "asked, out of respect for Neil and the privacy he liked to live in, to just not say anything. But I knew, when they were ending the RUSH tour, that he was sick," Sully claimed. "And then I knew it, even up to a year ago or so, he was in a wheelchair and he couldn't speak. And it was just becoming more and more sad to me. And then I got the call a few days ago [letting me know about his death]. And they weren't supposed to release [an official statement about it] till [Friday], they told me, so I just chose to honor that request and keep my mouth shut.

That's just a gut punch to read.

Sully should've kept his mouth shut after his death too. I think it's really disrespectful to his family and his memory to bring up that aspect of his illness. MP is starting to approach that line with his constant media appearances, but I hope people don't start using Neil's death to further their own agendas.

There are photos floating around that dispute much of his timeline of events.

[ytserush]

From Rush's official Twitter:

Our most heartfelt thanks go out to family, friends, musicians, writers and fans from around the globe for the incredible outpouring of love and respect for Neil since his passing. These touching tributes help to lessen the pain of this terrible loss and remind us all to celebrate his remarkable life and our connections to it. - Geddy & Alex

 

Bastards!  Had the tears thing under control for a while.

[ytserush]

So I think there's literally a million clips on youtube of Neil...but I was watching this show, Vapor Trails tour from Atlanta, and Neil's playing on Ceiling Unlimited is amazing, especially the intro. I am actually a big fan of the Vapor Trails album, but not of this song. Well, this live version and Neil's playing convinced me otherwise.

https://youtu.be/s9ASan4kop4?t=722

Hard to believe that was almost 18 years ago.  That tour was so full of life and rebirth. Kind of like the like the album. Are you going to make me pull out Rush In Rio?

[ytserush]

I like Ceiling Unlimited, but it feels like one of those songs that would have been better served with a lighter touch, not the aggressive one that almost all of the VT songs have.  There's a really good melody in there, but it kind of gets lost in the aggression.

Totally disagree. The aggression makes the song along with the whirlwind back and forth. Makes the album too. One of their best.

[ytserush]

I like Ceiling Unlimited, but it feels like one of those songs that would have been better served with a lighter touch, not the aggressive one that almost all of the VT songs have.  There's a really good melody in there, but it kind of gets lost in the aggression.

Should be no surprise that I feel the complete opposite..

This live version is quite powerful and gives it a life that the studio version just doesn't have.

Studio version has life too. At least the original mix does. Remix does seem to be castrated though.

[Architeuthis]

So I think there's literally a million clips on youtube of Neil...but I was watching this show, Vapor Trails tour from Atlanta, and Neil's playing on Ceiling Unlimited is amazing, especially the intro. I am actually a big fan of the Vapor Trails album, but not of this song. Well, this live version and Neil's playing convinced me otherwise.

https://youtu.be/s9ASan4kop4?t=722

Wow, thanks for the link.  That is an amazing sounding video from that tour that I didn't know about. I watched a few more songs and now I got to get a copy on dvd somehow.. 

[WildRanger]

It really is. 20 years ago, that never would have happened.  While Rush was "mainstream" in the 90's, they were usually either ignored by the mainstream or bashed.  For decades, the only time Rolling Stone would mention them was in a negative way.  Neil never would have made their best drummers list back then, yet there we were in the 2010's with Neil being (I think) 4th on that list, and then the entire band making the cover of RS! Maybe it is the younger critics nowadays who have embraced them and the grumpy old dipshit ones are either retired or gone, but there was a huge resurgence of Rush in the last 15 years or so where it became cool to be a fan of the band (when it was allegedly uncool to be a fan of theirs in the 80's and 90's).  Madison Square Garden putting his picture up like that is a testament to how huge the Neil Peart legacy now is.

One of the reasons is that in the 80's Rush and Iron Maiden were some of high schoolers most beloved bands. Now, those high schoolers are in positions of influence, and the guy in charge of the screen there at MSG was probably listening to Rush in high school in 1984.

There were three bands that were HUGE in my high school while I was there:  AC/DC, Van Halen, and Rush.  Everyone else was a close or distant second, but still second.  Remember covering your books in paper bags?  There are more textbooks in Monroe's archives with the "AC/DC", Flying VH, and Pentagram logos etched into the real cover of the book to shake a tamborine at.  I used to make mirrors and sell them (wood frame, painted glass, with the logo of a band etched into the paint, with tin foil behind it) and I made more AC/DC than all others combined.   VH and Rush were the second most popular (then Ozzy).

Wait, Rush, AC/DC and VH were more popular rock bands than Zeppelin? I can't believe.

It seems there was a big overlap between VH fans (and the fans of hard rock in general) and Rush fans. No one cared for prog rock tag. Rush achieved a mass appeal then.

[Big Hath]

So I think there's literally a million clips on youtube of Neil...but I was watching this show, Vapor Trails tour from Atlanta, and Neil's playing on Ceiling Unlimited is amazing, especially the intro. I am actually a big fan of the Vapor Trails album, but not of this song. Well, this live version and Neil's playing convinced me otherwise.

https://youtu.be/s9ASan4kop4?t=722

Wow, thanks for the link.  That is an amazing sounding video from that tour that I didn't know about.

From the person that released the audio that was used:

This matrix comprises of an audience DAT master with a mono In-house SBD feed. Geddy\'s bass really sounds nice with an extra pop in his strings, thanks to the SBD source. The AUD recording fills out the bottom end with great emphasis and provides the overall fill in the mid-bass and the lower highend range. I decided on a final mix value of about 60/40...AUD/SBD. This mix yielded the presence of the SBD while retaining the ambiance of the AUD source.

[jammindude]

All the live versions of the VT stuff is so much better than the studio versions.   And it's not just the clipping in the original that makes it annoying.   There's something about the way they double tracked Geddy's vocals on that album that really give it this shrill "nails on a chalkboard" sound.   And I know outsiders have said that about Geddy in the 70s, but it never bothered me on the older albums.  But I definitely hear it VT.   Ceiling Unlimited is a perfect example.   It's such a great song, but to my ears, the double tracked vocals kill it.   The live versions are so much better. 

[KevShmev]

All the live versions of the VT stuff is so much better than the studio versions.   And it's not just the clipping in the original that makes it annoying.   There's something about the way they double tracked Geddy's vocals on that album that really give it this shrill "nails on a chalkboard" sound.   And I know outsiders have said that about Geddy in the 70s, but it never bothered me on the older albums.  But I definitely hear it VT.   Ceiling Unlimited is a perfect example.   It's such a great song, but to my ears, the double tracked vocals kill it.   The live versions are so much better.

I know what you mean. I listened to a bit of VT the other day, and when I turned on One Little Victory, which I rarely go for anymore, and I had trouble getting through it because of how brutal the vocal melodies are. They just sound ugly, and I can't tell if it is because of the double tracking or if they are just bad melodies. I will have to re-visit the live version.  A shame, too, because the intro is so bad ass.

[Anguyen92]

It really is. 20 years ago, that never would have happened.  While Rush was "mainstream" in the 90's, they were usually either ignored by the mainstream or bashed.  For decades, the only time Rolling Stone would mention them was in a negative way.  Neil never would have made their best drummers list back then, yet there we were in the 2010's with Neil being (I think) 4th on that list, and then the entire band making the cover of RS! Maybe it is the younger critics nowadays who have embraced them and the grumpy old dipshit ones are either retired or gone, but there was a huge resurgence of Rush in the last 15 years or so where it became cool to be a fan of the band (when it was allegedly uncool to be a fan of theirs in the 80's and 90's).  Madison Square Garden putting his picture up like that is a testament to how huge the Neil Peart legacy now is.

One of the reasons is that in the 80's Rush and Iron Maiden were some of high schoolers most beloved bands. Now, those high schoolers are in positions of influence, and the guy in charge of the screen there at MSG was probably listening to Rush in high school in 1984.

There were three bands that were HUGE in my high school while I was there:  AC/DC, Van Halen, and Rush.  Everyone else was a close or distant second, but still second.  Remember covering your books in paper bags?  There are more textbooks in Monroe's archives with the "AC/DC", Flying VH, and Pentagram logos etched into the real cover of the book to shake a tamborine at.  I used to make mirrors and sell them (wood frame, painted glass, with the logo of a band etched into the paint, with tin foil behind it) and I made more AC/DC than all others combined.   VH and Rush were the second most popular (then Ozzy).

Wait, Rush, AC/DC and VH were more popular rock bands than Zeppelin? I can't believe.

It seems there was a big overlap between VH fans (and the fans of hard rock in general) and Rush fans. No one cared for prog rock tag. Rush achieved a mass appeal then.

Well, I think they were referring to where things were at in like early 80s high school culture and while Led Zeppellin on the mainstream downslope in the early 80s due to Bonham's death, Rush, AC/DC, and Van Halen was achieving a mainstream peak.  It wouldn't be hard-pressed to see teenagers in that time period being more into Rush, AC/DC and Van Halen than Led Zeppelin.

[Lethean]

I know a lot of people didn't like all the vocal layers on Vapor Trails, but I really enjoyed them.  It was one of the things I liked best about the album.  It was a different approach and one that I thought sounded great for that album.

[Fritzinger]

I like Ceiling Unlimited, but it feels like one of those songs that would have been better served with a lighter touch, not the aggressive one that almost all of the VT songs have.  There's a really good melody in there, but it kind of gets lost in the aggression.

Totally disagree. The aggression makes the song along with the whirlwind back and forth. Makes the album too. One of their best.

100%.

This album settles for no compromise and that is why (please don't kill me) Vapor Trails is my favourite Rush album of all.

That sinister, sad and incredible restless feeling on that album is amazing. For instance, whenever Neil switches form the hi-hat to the ride cymbal during the instrumental sections: how incredible is that drive those three have on that album?? Like a perfectly working machine. You can really hear that they are a unity.

Plus, Neil's lyrics.

[Architeuthis]

Vapor Trails is a very important album.  After a five year hiatus, Rush came back with a vengeance with an electrifying tour.
Neils lyrics are very personal from his road to recovery.  Once I got to know and understand the lyrics, the music resonated with me on a whole new level.  This album is aging very well..

[RodrigoAltaf]

Vapor Trails is a very important album.  After a five year hiatus, Rush came back with a vengeance with an electrifying tour.
Neils lyrics are very personal from his road to recovery.  Once I got to know and understand the lyrics, the music resonated with me on a whole new level.  This album is aging very well..

VERY important indeed. Making that album, summoning the courage to get out of his own mental hell and activate his creative juices again was such a demonstration of strength and willpower! And I love how the lyrics work as a vehicle to purge his "depression", for lack of a better word, and how through the course of the album the mood slowly changes from loneliness to hoping for better days, until they're"endlessly rocking" on the last song.

[Max Kuehnau]

Vapor Trails is a very important album.  After a five year hiatus, Rush came back with a vengeance with an electrifying tour.
Neils lyrics are very personal from his road to recovery.  Once I got to know and understand the lyrics, the music resonated with me on a whole new level.  This album is aging very well..

VERY important indeed. Making that album, summoning the courage to get out of his own mental hell and activate his creative juices again was such a demonstration of strength and willpower! And I love how the lyrics work as a vehicle to purge his "depression", for lack of a better word, and how through the course of the album the mood slowly changes from loneliness to hoping for better days, until they're"endlessly rocking" on the last song.

Vapor Trails floored me when it came out. (I still remember the first time I listened to it very well.) I thought: Will he be as impactful as he once was after all that happened? Oh yes he was. In spades.

[TAC]

It really is. 20 years ago, that never would have happened.  While Rush was "mainstream" in the 90's, they were usually either ignored by the mainstream or bashed.  For decades, the only time Rolling Stone would mention them was in a negative way.  Neil never would have made their best drummers list back then, yet there we were in the 2010's with Neil being (I think) 4th on that list, and then the entire band making the cover of RS! Maybe it is the younger critics nowadays who have embraced them and the grumpy old dipshit ones are either retired or gone, but there was a huge resurgence of Rush in the last 15 years or so where it became cool to be a fan of the band (when it was allegedly uncool to be a fan of theirs in the 80's and 90's).  Madison Square Garden putting his picture up like that is a testament to how huge the Neil Peart legacy now is.

One of the reasons is that in the 80's Rush and Iron Maiden were some of high schoolers most beloved bands. Now, those high schoolers are in positions of influence, and the guy in charge of the screen there at MSG was probably listening to Rush in high school in 1984.

There were three bands that were HUGE in my high school while I was there:  AC/DC, Van Halen, and Rush.  Everyone else was a close or distant second, but still second.  Remember covering your books in paper bags?  There are more textbooks in Monroe's archives with the "AC/DC", Flying VH, and Pentagram logos etched into the real cover of the book to shake a tamborine at.  I used to make mirrors and sell them (wood frame, painted glass, with the logo of a band etched into the paint, with tin foil behind it) and I made more AC/DC than all others combined.   VH and Rush were the second most popular (then Ozzy).

Wait, Rush, AC/DC and VH were more popular rock bands than Zeppelin? I can't believe.

It seems there was a big overlap between VH fans (and the fans of hard rock in general) and Rush fans. No one cared for prog rock tag. Rush achieved a mass appeal then.

Well, I think they were referring to where things were at in like early 80s high school culture and while Led Zeppellin on the mainstream downslope in the early 80s due to Bonham's death, Rush, AC/DC, and Van Halen was achieving a mainstream peak.  It wouldn't be hard-pressed to see teenagers in that time period being more into Rush, AC/DC and Van Halen than Led Zeppelin.

Ang, you have that right. I see that Stadler was quoted, but in junior high, which for me was 80-82, was when Back In Black, Moving Pictures, and the first few VH albums were coming out, and they were huge!

AS far as Zeppelin, I actually have no recollection of Bonham's death, but that same station played the shit out of Led Zeppelin. I knew plenty of kids that Zep was their favorite band. But AC/DC, Van Halen, and Rush were THE bands of that time.

[KevShmev]

I remember a couple of kids in grade school always hanging out with some kids from another school who always had one of those big giant radios with a cassette deck and they always had Tom Sawyer playing.  That was my intro to Rush. I am sure I saw the band at some point on MTV since Exit...Stage Left was supposedly play a lot in '82 or so, but it must not have registered with me (I was only 8!).  When the circle of friends that I got into around 1990, some of whom I am still friends with, played Rush for me, I hated Geddy's voice, but still thought Tom Sawyer was great, and the classic drum section at the end of the solo section was a big reason.  Even in my "Rush stinks except for this one song" phase, I thought that part was totally awesome, so much so that when I bought my first CD player near the end of 1990, Moving Pictures was one of the first 10 albums I bought on CD, although I stubbornly refused to listen to anything on it at first besides Tom Sawyer.    Only when I saw A Show of Hands in the fall of 1991 and had my mind blown did I finally give all of Moving Pictures its proper attention.  It's funny to think about now, but in 1990-1991, I was getting into so many different classic rock bands left and right that I wasn't about to waste any time with a band with a lead singer who got my nerves at the time.  And to this day, if someone says they do not like Rush because they do not like Geddy's voice, even though I grew to love it, I get it.

[Cool Chris]

And to this day, if someone says they do not like Rush because they do not like Geddy's voice, even though I grew to love it, I get it.

Well said. I am pretty particular about a band's vocals. If I don't like them the odds of me liking their music is slim to none. But interestingly I have always liked how Geddy's vocals fit with the music, from the first time I heard 2112. And my initial love for Rush was their late 70s material when Geddy was at his most... um, late 70s Geddy.

[SystematicThought]

Not sure  I remember a bigger global
outpouring from musicians and fans. Not
even when Bonzo died.

I can only think of Prince, at least in my short 26 year lifetime. And Michael Jackson. Prince was huge, obviously especially here in Minnesota.

It’s cool to see Neil getting such recognition and honor after his passing. Like I read somewhere: He was your favorite drummer’s favorite drummer. I still feel sad about his passing.

[WildRanger]

And to this day, if someone says they do not like Rush because they do not like Geddy's voice, even though I grew to love it, I get it.

I can get why some people would not like Geddy's voice, but anyone who claims Geddy is a BAD vocalist is just wrong and ignorant.