The genre Neil Peart believed saved drumming: “The torch was passed”
There comes a point in every drummer’s journey where they have to be introduced to the genius of Neil Peart.
Although Keith Moon, John Bonham and even Buddy Rich have been models for what pure virtuosos sound like, what Peart was doing in Rush almost defied explanation every single time he picked up two sticks. He was in the business to bring drumming to the forefront every single time he played, but there were more than a few times when he started to get concerned about where all the fun went.
Then again, it’s not like Peart gave a care about what kind of music was on the charts at the time. Rush is one of those few bands that persisted despite never having that many hit singles, and while their own fanbase intersected with casual rock and roll fans every now and then with albums like Moving Pictures, Peart was far more content making music that explored a lot more areas than what you’d find in your usual Top 40.
That said, it’s not like every one of their albums was exactly a masterpiece, either. They were certainly one of the greatest prog bands to ever come out of the 1970s, but Hemispheres does have more than a few moments where they disappear up their own ass. Hell, one of the songs is subtitled ‘An Exercise in Self-Indulgence’ for God’s sake, but there’s a good chance that many hardcore fans would have gladly chosen this period over the dreaded keyboards that worked their way into their sound.
While it’s strange to have such a big problem with one single instrument, it’s not like some of them didn’t have a point. Geddy Lee had been toying with keyboard textures as far back as A Farewell to Kings, and while it took them a while to get committed, Grace Under Pressure was either going to delight or infuriate anyone who was looking for them to actually move in a different direction. But while Peart got used to working with drum machines and building up a sense of internal rhythm, there had to be a point where that got too boring.
The whole reason he worked with Freddie Gruber was to bring that human feel back into his playing, but that’s not what the pop market wanted. A lot of the greatest synth-pop acts were locked into the grid whenever they performed, so when the grunge wave kicked in with drummers with a real sense of feel, Peart couldn’t have been happier to hear a sense of authenticity again.
For him, rock had been in the doldrums, and it took bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden to kick things off again, saying, “In the ’80s there was no place for a drummer to play. I was very concerned about the future of drumming. We got to the ’90s and suddenly all sorts of bands came up with drummers who are playing. The recent bands coming out of Seattle and from across the States are revealing some fantastic drummers. Somehow, the torch was passed. These drummers were practicing and improving throughout the ’80s, preparing for the time when they’d get the chance.”
Drums might not be the first thing that people think about when they talk about grunge, but it’s a lot more important than you’d think. Matt Cameron helped tie all of Soundgarden’s tunes together despite all of them being in strange time signatures, and while Kurt Cobain gets a lot of the praise as the heart of Nirvana, no one would have been latching onto the Seattle bandwagon had Grohl not hit that iconic drum fill and stomped out every other hair metal act at the top of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
The art of percussion might have been a special thing for Peart, but even in the days when the charts look the most dire, there are always going to be people willing to buck the trend and come up with a new approach. And in an era when everything gets quantised, hearing a drummer that can lay back in the groove like the grunge bands could was a massive breath of fresh air.
