Yeah Alex was definitely pulling his weight. He's a great player and writer. He came up with a lot of the music during soundchecks that they would record for later when they went back in the studio. I have board bootlegs from some of their Hemispheres shows where they were playing Cygnus Book 1 and 2 as a single piece and the stuff Alex is pulling off is insane. To do it in the studio is one thing but to do it live is quite another. I'd be hard pressed to find somebody more versatile. Every other album practically they were going off in some new direction. It was more difficult for him to stand out because there are a lot of great guitarists out there and he was always content to do what the song required.

Yup
Colossal Crisps

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https://www.backroadspubandgrill.com

Just started reading Ghost Rider this morning . He’s (was) a really , really , good writer . About 50 pages in . It’s fantastic .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

His other book road show was good as well.

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Elections have consequences.

I wish they had the tribute concert on stream plus tehy are looking at putting his statue up in you guessed it Lakeside Park

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

A terrific read. Still can't believe he's gone:

https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/rush/dr ... 4.2020.php

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Honestly,was he the best ever? Yest. He wrote lyrics that soared, that made us think and wonder.Yet he was a drummer, a position that most disparage as a throwaway. He gave us soaring lyrics and entire sides of albums,when albums existed, to listen to and try to comprehend. Yet he was humble,never a grandiose rock star. He was in the back letting us wonder what he really ment. Lakeside Park. The Trees. By Tor and the Snow Dog ,They all entranced us, inner city kids. Suburban youths. We all where enraptured by his words. By Alexes cords.My first concert was Rush at the International AMp on Halted in 1980 ,I heard them before but live I was enraptured. Never to love another band more . One came close but always when I was in distress or lost these three made me whole.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

Eh, best is subjective.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Um I try to be low key but fuck you he was the best ever periood

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I tend to break it up a bit by category
1. Buddy Rich - GOAT
2. Neil - GOAT in Rock
everyone else.

It is normally subjective and I get why stylistically people may have Bonham as a fav or Ginger Baker....Neil could be the GOAT simply by pushing rock drumming to as far as it could ever go.

Quite honestly.....stylisticaly....Jimmy Chamberlain has more fills that just blow my mind and I'm more intrigued by his style....he's still not Neil Peart.

Kind of like guitarists. You have EVH....but style was Randy Rhoads is my subjective favorite....EVH just had a bigger impact even though I prefer Randy's playing.

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In high school my neighbor was a kid who played drums in band and went on to get a degree in music from IU. He's the best musician I've ever played with...just a monster drummer. He says the thing that makes Peart unique is his limb independence. His hands and feet can play independently from each other which he says comes from a lot of practice. There is a rumor he was ambidextrous but that wasn't true. People usually talk about YYZ and La Villa Strangiato but my friend says a song called "Scars" is the hardest song to play right. I guess his hands and feet are all working independent from another and he's using his left foot to trigger the snare. I'm not a drummer but there is a clip on youtube and what he's doing does look pretty insane.

https://youtu.be/99P7uxHDpEc

Yeah I saw an interview with Peart where he called that ability “ discoordination “ . I’m a terrible guitar player but hybrid picking is along the same lines where you play the rhythm on the top 3 strings while holding the pick with your index finger and thumb while finger picking the melody on the bottom 3 strings . It’s amazing to see someone be able to separate the two . I first saw Steve Howe do it on the “ Sketches in the Sun” video . Richard Thompson also employs it a lot .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I was noodling yesterday, and my annual attempt at “Sketches in the Sun” reared its ugly head for about two minutes. Until next year...

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Not a mult.

Peart was the reason I took up the drums. I heard The Spirit of Radio for the 1st time and it was like "I want to do that. Much like Ringo, he was responsible for a whole generation of kids picking up the sticks. I played along to all his records and had no idea I was playing things in 5/4, 7/4, 9/8, 11/8 until much later. I think his greatest strength by far was his compositional skills - he put a ton of thought into crafting parts like no other - always inventive, always musical and always appealing to the listener.

I think Bonham could groove, swing and improvise better, but that was his background. Dude drove a band like a motherfucker. If Neil had a limitation, that was it. But hey, Buddy Rich couldn't rock - an eigth-note rock beat turned into dotted eights because he was used to playing swing. Louie Bellson was my guy when it came to jazz.

Mongo is right about "Scars." Just amazing work on that. I don't think his limb independence is what made him great, though. There is limb independence and limb interdependence. His playing wasn't really ambidextrous, he was clearly leading with his dominant hand and incorporate rhythms with his off hand. Simon Phillips leads with his left hand for rock, but leads with his right in a jazz combo setting. That level of ambidexterity is amazing.

The thing I love about Peart is that he was always trying to improve - taking lessons from Freddie Gruber and Peter Erskine later in his career. He felt his playing was too stiff (you hear that criticism from jazzers). I think Gruber neutered him. Sure, Peart "rounded" out his sound, but playing behind the beat didn't make him better in the context of Rush. His playing on Power Windows and Hold Your Fire was some of his best work ever.

Still can't believe he's gone.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

I'm just glad my kid got to see them twice on their last tour. They were still on top of their game. To be honest I don't think I've heard them sound better than they did on the last 2 tours.

Furious that Freddy Gruber point was a good one. One thing I noticed, at least I think I noticed, was on the last tour he was back to a normal grip. Might have imagined it?

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Elections have consequences.

He was on and off with the traditional grip. The Burning for Buddy stuff was all traditional, but with Rush...he was predominantly matched. During his solos when he'd bust out the snare drum / roll / rudiment part he would switch to traditional.

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I like how on the last tour they were like ok we've been here 8 minutes here's a drum solo...

I read a pretty cool story awhile back about how he finally met the guy that inspired Red Barchetta. It was from a story in Road and Track in the early 70's. When Moving Pictures came out he tried to get in touch with him but Road and Track didn't have any contact information for him. So years later one of the guy's friends tells him about Red Barchetta being inspired by his story. He heard the song hundreds of times on the radio and had no idea. So he writes Peart a note and they meet up on the Snakes and Arrows tour and it turns out the guy is a rider too so they go riding for a couple days...

http://www.bmwbmw.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8693

Caught this more in depth article about him and his passing. If yo were a fan it is worth reading.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/spi ... 54079.html

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Elections have consequences.

“My daughter died at 19, and my wife died at 42, and I’m 62 and I’m still going,” he told me in 2015, discussing his refusal to consider quitting smoking (which is not believed to be a likely cause of glioblastoma). “How many people have died younger than me? How many drummers have died younger than me? I’m already in bonus time. … Something is gonna kill me. Look, I ride motorcycles. I drive fast cars. I fly around a lot in airplanes. It’s a dangerous life out there. I like what one old-timer said about motorcycling: ‘If you love motorcycling enough, it’s gonna kill you. The trick is to survive long enough that something else kills you first.’ ”

Nah, better to stay inside and mask up so youll be safe !

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

I'm pretty sure Death is undefeated.

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Despite the irony of it being a Rolling Stone article, who did nothing but rip Rush to shreds their whole career....it's a beautiful article. His passing still hurts.

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I think they started to get treated better later on by Rolling Stone when David Fricke started to have more influence. You know Jann Wenner didn't like this though...

https://youtu.be/5MXI03-qRU0

That was just awesome.

My guys.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

+1 . Looked like Ged's wife was crying .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Timely video of some of his signature fills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a64-AoQTz7s

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His set from 2112 (the one on the cover of All The World's A Stage) sold for $500,000 at auction in December. It was the set he bought after he joined the band. He gave it away in a contest in the 80s and the guy who won ended up selling it to some museum and they were the ones who put it up for auction. The estimate was $130,000 so they were a little off...

Yesterday would have been his birthday, but I missed it.

R.I.P. Neil. Tragic that you went too soon. What a great guy you were, apart from being a superb drummer.

So did Peart.

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