The first song Neil Peart wrote for Rush
Most people remember Neil Peart as the drummer of Rush and one of the finest to have ever sat behind the kit. Yet, the late Canadian was far from a one-trick pony. Running alongside his undoubted technical ability was that he was also the band’s chief lyricist, meaning that most of the words sung by Geddy Lee were the invention of the tubeteika-donning man sat at the back of the stage. It might not have been the traditional approach, but it bore immense success.
Peart’s lyrics grappled with various topics and themes, delving into the worlds of science fiction, fantasy and philosophy, as well as more intellectual forays into humanitarian and libertarian areas. Regarding the latter, the drummer faced criticism for his apparent fandom of controversial Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand. Following the release of the 1976 song ‘2112’, which follows an individual’s struggle against a collectivist totalitarian state, he credited Rand with inspiring him 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 later. “They were calling us ‘Junior fascists’ and ‘Hitler lovers’. It was a total shock to me”.
As a reaction to the claims of his ideological dedication to Rand’s Objectivism, Peart maintained: “For a start, the extent of my influence by the writings of Ayn Rand should not be overstated. I am no one’s disciple.”
In a discussion with Rolling Stone in 2021, a year after Peart’s death, it was put to Geddy Lee that he and Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson were presented with a range of “pretty out-there” lyrics by Peart in the 1970s. The interviewer stressed that he didn’t want to belabour the Ayn Rand topic, as everyone knew that Peart had moved beyond it. However, he did use an example of this type of lyric from 1975’s ‘Anthem’: He said: “I know they’ve always told you selfishness was wrong… Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more”. Accordingly, he was “curious” to hear what Lee and Lifeson made of Peart’s lyrics at first.
In response, Lee looked back on a pivotal era of the band. Whilst taking his trip into the past, he named the first song Peart ever wrote for Rush, ‘Beneath, Between and Behind’, a track which featured on the 1975 album Fly by Night. This record also holds ‘Anthem’.
The frontman said: “Exactly, and at first, it was a huge leap of faith for us to just accept that. It wasn’t his idea to write the lyrics. Alex and I sort of said, ‘Make him do it. He reads a lot of books. Let him do it.’ When they first started coming along, I think the first one he wrote was ‘Beneath, Between and Behind’. And then when he wrote the lyrics for ‘Anthem’, they were a little more intense and a little more about things that I would say were not second nature to our thinking, at least expressed in that way, like some of the lyrics you just quoted, ‘begging hands and bleeding hearts’.”
Lee continued: “That whole thing was not something Alex and I thought of or talked about. Once we got on the road and got to know each other more and started sharing reading material, I think we got a better understanding of Neil, and he got a better understanding of us. A lot of times, he would inspire us to read something that was a little out of our comfort zone, and so through all that, we kind of developed that acceptance of that style of lyric, but it was definitely night and day when that album came out”.
He concluded: “As much as some people loved it, other people were disturbed by it because that was not the Rush they had invested in from the previous record. It was definitely a new band.”
