The first Rush song to feature Neil Peart on vocals
From day one, Neil Peart tended to let his music do the talking. While he may have been one of the greatest drummers to walk the Earth, Peart was never willing to talk about how great it was in front of the camera, being just as happy sitting in the background and beating the life out of his drums across every single Rush song. Although Geddy Lee had most of the vocals covered, Peart did find himself getting in front of the microphone now and again.
First appearing on the album Fly By Night, Peart’s precision behind the drumkit dramatically differed from original drummer John Rutsey. Taking cues from John Bonham and Keith Moon, Peart delivered a clinic on making the drums the forefront of a song, playing melodic drum fills that served the music without sounding too flashy.
Aside from his massive skills behind the kit, Peart’s literacy made him a go-to choice for the band’s lyricist. Although Lee had written a handful of lyrics in the group’s early days, Peart’s different perspectives on the world led to the most nuanced lyric sheets in progressive rock history across songs like ‘Limelight’ and ‘Closer to the Heart’.
While the imposing tracks didn’t always translate to record sales, Peart was determined to make the music he wanted by any means necessary. After being encouraged to make hit singles, Peart’s defiance on 2112 was a middle finger to the establishment, kicking the album off with a 20-minute epic about space federations.
Inspired by the label leaning on them to make commercial material, Peart created a concept centred around different planets of the solar federation run by a high order of priests. When the song’s narrator finds a guitar, the priests treat any form of creative expression with disdain, smashing the instrument to pieces.
For the song’s final section, the federation gets overturned by another order, featuring Peart saying the line, “Attention all planets of the solar federation, we have assumed control”. According to Peart, this was supposed to be the best possible conclusion to the story, telling Classic Albums, “That’s the good guys. That’s the cavalry coming in at the end, so to me, it had a happy ending”. Although the song would be a landmark recording in Rush’s career, it would be one of the only times that Peart found himself in the vocal booth.
For the next few years, the band’s reputation as rock stars led to Peart shunning the front of the stage for good, penning the song ‘Limelight’ about his different insecurities with fame. After a few tours under his belt, Peart had the urge to get behind the mic again for the song ‘Subdivisions’.
Since the band were known for embracing synth textures, the name of the song comes from Peart, who sings it in a robotic voice that’s smothered in reverb in between sections of the chorus. Even though Peart may not have a vocal presence in the group like his bandmates, it was never about trying to be the next Freddie Mercury. Peart was happy behind his drums, but whenever he did speak up, fans listened to what ‘The Professor’ had to say.
