The one drummer Neil Peart called an absolute master: “It’s just inspirational to see”
Anyone who has ever picked up two sticks wanting to play rock and roll drums is bound to get into a staring contest with the work of Neil Peart sooner or later.
Despite not wanting to be considered a drumming god among men by any means, the work that ‘The Professor’ put in with Rush is still some of the finest percussion that has ever graced a rock and roll album, even managing to go above people like Keith Moon and John Bonham in many respects. The whole thing felt perfectly choreographed whenever you heard the power trio’s music, but there were still ways for Peart to push himself aside from being a drumming monster.
Because, really, rock and roll is only one facet of what people could do with percussion. There was a whole wealth of music to explore, and there was never a single genre that didn’t suit Rush whenever they made a record. Reggae? Sure. Heavy metal? Absolutely. Electronic music? That seemed tailor-made for the band, but even in the age of drum machines, there had to be a few pieces of machinery that were put through their paces when Peart tried to match them on record.
But Peart’s way of working on drumming never forgot about the human element behind everything. Freddie Gruber was among the finest drummers that he had ever worked with, and after spending time honing his chops and getting incredibly tight every single time he made a new record, Peart was able to recalibrate himself halfway through his career and start adding in that natural feel every now and again.
After all, that’s what his favourite drummers had been able to do. Bonzo swung like no one else on every single Led Zeppelin record, and if we go even further back to his drumming heroes, Buddy Rich was taking the basis of what percussion could be and turning it into as much of a lead instrument as any other artist on the bandstand. A lot of Rich’s acolytes found themselves playing rock, but the world of fusion wasn’t that far away, either.
While Peart had already begun making Rush’s masterpiece by the time the genre started peaking, hearing a band like Weather Report or Brand X play was enough to mystify any other musician. These players were eating and sleeping music whenever they got up onstage, and while everyone from Phil Collins to Bill Bruford was more than worthy of playing that kind of music, Peart had a special place in his heart whenever he played with Steve Smith.
He may have been known more for his work with Journey, but Peart felt that no one could touch what Smith could do when he was allowed to let loose, saying, “He just knocked all of us over with his musicality, his precision, and just how far he has taken his craft over the years. He is a master drummer. It’s a beautiful thing to see someone in possession of such a high level of mastery that he is enjoying right now. He’s earned it. It’s just inspirational to see what he has done.”
But as much as Smith was a fantastic player, the fact that he could play with that much precision makes what he did in Journey all the more impressive. He always knew when to lay back, but when he started putting together some of the band’s best singles during his time with the group, he focused more on writing parts that would be remembered forever than trying to show off at any given opportunity.
And that kind of art wasn’t lost on Peart when he started making Rush’s more mainstream records in the 1980s. He may have had a little more finesse than the average studio drummer, but having a drum solo as meticulously laid out as ‘Tom Sawyer’ was came from him listening to people like Smith and trying to make something that could become legendary decades after he played it.
