The time Neil Peart used Eric Clapton to outline Rush’s different music tastes: “It’s shit”
Rush might be deemed musical Marmite by many, but much like the black breakfast gloop, their distinctive sound has earned legions of fans worldwide, from the sunny beaches of Rio de Janeiro to the cold urban topography of post-Soviet Europe. A brilliant band bringing together three of Canada’s finest musical entities, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart, the trio fused their respective influences. It established a sound that exists all on its own.
The group had many different iterations before settling on its classic lineup, but it was the introduction of Peart in 1974 that saw them take things up a few notches. Binding his hard rock influences, such as Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, and John Bonham, with the jazz pioneers such as Gene Krupa, Peart was the piece of the puzzle high school friends Lee and Lifeson had been looking for since the outset. When auditioning for the role, he blew the other competitors out of the water.
Not only did his technical ability offer the musicians a dynamic ballast of a variety that they could only have dreamed of in the days of former drummer and band leader John Rutsey, but he also brought something different to the fold in that he assumed the role of lyricist. This allowed the frontman-cum-bassist and guitarist to concentrate on conjuring otherworldly sounds extracted from deep in time and space.
While Peart would see the band continue to evolve and craft a unique take on prog, not all of his efforts would be widely received with warmth. This list of misfires includes 1975’s Caress of Steel, Rush’s first truly conceptual effort.
It was such a stark change that it caught fans and the record label Mercury so off-guard that it flopped immensely. They were even nearly dropped because of how hard it failed. However, Peart would refine his work, and together, the trio committed to carrying on in the face of hostility and produced the follow-up masterpiece 2112 the following year.
Yet, despite its artistic triumph and the fact it opened Rush up to what many argue was their best era, Peart still came under fire as his lyrics on the title track drew heavily upon the controversial work of Ayn Rand and her novel Anthem. A hero for right-wing libertarians, the Russian-American author is famed for championing individual rights over the collective, and those theories have divided many. Outlining her philosophy in a broad sense, she once explained: “I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.”
This general idea resonated with Peart, and while there are many ways to poke holes in Rand’s writings, you cannot fault the Rush drummer for always striving to be authentic. He outlined the extent of this when discussing Eric Clapton, who split opinion in the Rush camp. Frontman Lee may have deemed Clapton’s own trio, Cream, as his favourite of all time, but Peart did not feel the same. He might have even thought of the Londoner as “shit” before he became more philosophical about people’s differences.
The general disagreement over Clapton did not matter to the band. Individuality was lkey to their success. Each member had their own context, and it was this that produced such a multifaceted sound. The drummer outlined this when speaking to Marc Allan in 1990.
Peart explained: “And I was glad to realize from the beginning too was really an important insight that I had in my young years is the difference between taste and quality. That I could recognise for instance Eric Clapton I was always thought was a good guitar player but never really liked his guitar playing.”
In his typically frank style, he continued: “Whereas I know there’s a lot of music that isn’t that great technically and a lot of reggae and a lot of R&B and stuff but I still really like it, and just learning that difference to say, well, this isn’t that great, but I don’t really like it, or this is great, but I don’t really like it it’s a really important distinction to make, but a lot of people never do make it, they think if they like something, its great. And if they don’t like it, it’s shit. It’s a very simple equation, but of course, in any kind of art, it doesn’t really apply.”
