The 1984 Rush song that Neil Peart was never satisfied with: “We did our best”
Neil Peart didn’t want to construct Rush records like every other rock and roll band.
The Canadian icons were practically building every single song they had from scratch, and while they could jam every now and again and come out with something fantastic, Peart was carefully choosing every single drum fill he played to make sure everything sounded absolutely perfect on their recordings. But even when someone’s searching for absolute perfection, there were bound to be a few times where he came up a little bit short compared to every other record.
Then again, it wasn’t like Rush’s model for greatness was bringing in the big bucks by any stretch, either. Some of the best songs that they ever made were far from singles material, and even if prog fans could handle an episodic song that went on for minutes on end, it was hard for anyone to fully grasp what they were even doing when they made records like Caress of Steel in their early days.
Not even Peart could defend some of their weird albums, but by the time they worked on their 1980s material, they had a better idea of what they wanted out of their music. The new wave scene was becoming one of the biggest obsessions in their rehearsal space, and while they weren’t going to suddenly start sounding like The Police on their records, Peart could at least find a way to incorporate some reggae rhythms into songs like ‘The Spirit of Radio’.
When going through their discography, though, things start to get a little bit testy when looking at their synthesiser period. The average rock and roll fan was used to the roaring guitars from Alex Lifeson, so seeing them replace those Jimmy Page-style leads with a bunch of squelchy Casios was always going to be a massive gamble. But, really, Grace Under Pressure is far from the terrible 1980s schlock everyone thinks about.
In fact, the whole record is actually one of the band’s best from a lyrical perspective. ‘Distant Early Warning’ and ‘Red Sector A’ are some of the most heartwrenching songs that the band would ever write, but while songs like ‘Afterimage’ are the band playing to their strengths, ‘Kids Gloves’ was a tune that Peart always felt needed a bit more time in the oven before it was ready to be on the record.
The whole thing had a lot of interesting elements, but Peart felt that it didn’t come together in the way it should, saying, “When a track doesn’t reach people it’s really your fault and we’ve had that experience on almost every album. I think you have to say that if a song doesn’t connect with people then the fault of accessibility lies with communication. [Like] ‘Kid Gloves’ on Grace Under Pressure. We did our best but didn’t achieve what we wanted. You pay a price in that the song is lost and it leaves a little pang of sadness.”
That didn’t mean that Rush were going to stop experimenting, but after hitting an album this great, there came a point where they needed to move in a different direction. Lifeson wasn’t going to be any happier trying to find his place in the band all over again, and even if Hold Your Fire was a glorious slice of 1980s cheese, the fact that they were still able to sound pretty good even when working in a different medium was commendable enough on its own.
Because while every single Rush album wasn’t meant to be the typical hit, their drive to be absolutely fearless on every one of their records is what every band should strive for. Each of their songs could have been a classic or a horrible mistake, but Peart figured that he would rather go down doing what he loved than trying to cower to whatever his higher-ups wanted him to be.
