Planet Rock - USA (2020-04)

38

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“Why ridiculous?”

he replied.

“We grew up with their

music. For 40 years Rush

were part of my mental

landscape.”

“Bonham, Moon, Baker

and now Peart,” texted anĥ

other pal, Donald. “There

can’t be any really great

drummers left.”

“Animal from The Mupĥ

pets,” I texted back, a poor

attempt at levity. I was still

in denial. I hadn’t listened

to anything by Rush that

morning, and I wouldn’t

listen to anything by Rush

for quite a few days.

Donald contacted me

again later. “Here’s the best fan comment I’ve

read so far,” he wrote: “‘I can’t help thinking

he’s chuckling somewhere knowing there’s

hundreds of bands with gigs tonight trying to

¿JXUHRXWDQ μHasy’ Rush song.’” That was

quite good. Clearly others were in denial too.

Later still, I was thinking about another

joke I’d made. Interviewing Alex Lifeson for a

cover story in this magazine last year, broachĥ

ing the fact that Neil’s young daughter Olivia

had reportedly been learning drums from him,

I jested that perhaps all Alex and Geddy had to

do was wait 10 years or so and then they could

clip someone has posted of Rush performing

$QWKHPLQWKHPLGĥ¶V1HLO¶VGHIWSRZHULV

already astonishing, and he’s rocking the

RQHĥKDQGHGVWLFNWZLUOV KHOLNHO\OHDUQHG

watching one of his heroes, Keith Moon.

(YHQFLUFD5XVK¶VDOEXPFly By Night Neil

DOUHDG\KDGHQRXJKVNLOODQG¿QHVVHWRUHVWRQ

KLVODXUHOVĦEXWKHQHYHUZRXOG

Rush were the kind of band you could

actually grow up with, or maybe, in fact, to.

7KH\ ZHUHQRWWKHGHYHORSPHQWDOO\ĥVWXQWHG

individuals of hard rock cliché, or at least not

for long. It was Neil, moreover, the geeky,

painfully shy guy whom Alex and Geddy

dubbed The Professor, leading the charge of

the enlightened brigade. When not pictured

dwarfed by the latest incarnation of his everyĥ

WKLQJĥandĥWKHĥNLWFKHQĥVLQNGUXPNLWKHZDV

generally photographed smoking and reading.

You wonder, really, how many of Neil

Peart’s lyrics made it into teenage Rush fans’

English essay assignments, his insights and

SKLORVRSKLFDOPXVLQJVSDVVHGRɱDVRXURZQ

original thought. It wasn’t until I was in my

PLGĥWZHQWLHV,Eegan to realise just how acute

Neil’s lyrics were. Like many Rush fans, I’d

grown used to mapping out stages of my life

alongside the band’s successive album releases;

hence, even when on holiday in Italy in 1991,

I tracked down a cassette copy of Roll The Bones

in Florence the day it was released there.

It was the second track Bravado, a song

also commendable for Neil’s fabulous,

reform Rush with Olivia

replacing Neil.

The gag had landed a

little bumpily and I wasn’t

sure why, since, in my experiĥ

ence, Alex was usually happy

to indulge such tosh. Everyĥ

thing is clearer with hindĥ

sight. I’d inadvertently reĥ

minded him of Neil’s brain

cancer diagnosis, something

he and Geddy had already

been keeping secret for two

years. No wonder the poor

guy was thrown.

“ You can do a lot in a

lifetime/ If you don’t

burn out too fast.”

Ī)5200$5$7+21POWER WINDOWSī

Even aged 22, Neil Peart was a drumming

colossus. Scrolling down through the Rush Is

A Band Twitter feed that currently leaves me

WHDU\ĥH\HGGRZQSDVWQHZVRIDSRVVLEOH1HLO

tribute statue in Lakeside Park, Ontario,

down past a photo of the handwritten letter

1HLOVHQWWR ĥ\HDUĥROG5XVKIDQ 3DWULFN

Jones, brother of Manic Street Preachers’

bassist Nicky Wire, in 1981; down past heartĥ

felt tributes from Bryan Adams, Carl Palmer

and David Coverdale, I keep playing a video

38

“NOBODY

PLAYED

AROUND

A DRUM

KIT LIKE

PEART.”

Mystic rhythms:

Verizon Wireless

Amphitheatre, Irvine,

California, 2010.