The one band Neil Peart never wanted to be in: “How awful”
It’s impossible to dream up a band like Rush if you tried.
The biggest names in progressive music were already used to thinking outside the box whenever they made a record, but it seemed like the rules never mattered once Neil Peart thought of the perfect lyric or Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson pumped out the best riffs that they could. They always played by their own rules to some degree, but Peart felt that there were some lines that he was glad the band never had to cross during his lifetime.
But when you think about it, not many musicians have the luxury of being as lucky as the Canadian power trio were. If anything, they should have been dead in the water after only a handful of records, but through sheer force of will, albums like 2112 was the kind of album that would not be kept down no matter how little commercial potential it had. The fans would find it on their own, and the rest of the music world had to submit to what the band were doing every time they made a record.
Can we just focus on how wild that is? Every single band in history usually has to deal with label bullshit at least once in their lifetime, and yet three random dudes from Canada are able to make the most cerebral rock and roll music ever created and the label couldn’t say anything about it. That would be enough to give anyone the freedom to go wild, but they still kept a level head about things.
They were always willing to learn new things when they went into the studio, and even when they started actually getting chart success, it was almost like the mainstream came to them. ‘Red Barchetta’ and ‘Tom Sawyer’ weren’t cut out to be massive singles or anything, but they were still some of the catchiest prog tunes anyone had ever come up with. Then again, getting that kind of golden ticket doesn’t prevent you from stepping on your bandmates’ toes every now and again.
Lifeson said numerous times that he wasn’t too much of a fan of their keyboard-driven albums, but they hardly let it get to them that much. Those little animosities tended to fade over time, and while you can chalk it up to Canadian politeness if you want, Peart felt that it came from a genuine love of each other rather than looking at what a band like The Police were going through at the same time.
Sting may have been a fabulous songwriter, but Peart remembered being horrified at the idea of being stuck in that kind of band when talking to Stewart Copeland, saying, “I said [to Stewart], ‘You must have played here: and he said, ‘Yeah, a couple of times.’ And he said, ‘There’s a piece of someone’s ear over there; I think I kicked Sting over there.’ I understand what some bands can be like. I’m not judging. But how awful. It was funny to me, that just my describing a conversation that Alex, Geddy and I had about our future plans was of total disbelief to him. He couldn’t believe that a band could be like that.”
But that always comes from a sense of mutual respect between every member of the band. It’s pretty clear that Sting would be the one coming up with the classics for The Police, but since never cared about hits, it was always about working on someone else’s idea and maybe tweaking things along the way when they hit the occasional bump in the road, whether a lyric is too wordy for Lee to sing or if some of Lifeson’s effects gets in the way of the song.
It was a lot about listening to each other, but more than anything, Rush learned a long time ago not to treat any member like they are expendable. Peart might have been the new guy ever since he joined on Fly By Night, but maintaining a power trio like that was making sure that every member was just as important as the person next to them.
