The “unbelievable” tune Neil Peart called his favourite drumming song
Any number of Neil Peart drum solos could have easily been considered one of the greatest percussion performances ever laid down by human hands.
Rush didn’t expect to have one of the greatest drummers in the world land in their lap once they let go of John Rutsey, but aside from being one of the closest bandmates the world had ever seen, Peart was interested in working off of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson rather than shoehorning in a drum solo whenever he felt like it. But when he was in his natural habitat among other drummers, that’s when he truly felt that it was his time to shine.
Then again, there are more than a few times when Peart was more awestruck than anything else when seeing some of his heroes. It doesn’t seem like one of the single greatest drummers in the world would be all that humble about their skills, but as far as Peart was concerned, he was just another guy looking to have some fun playing music, and the idea of working with anyone from Ginger Baker to Buddy Rich would have been absolutely unreal if his 15-year-old self had known where he would end up.
But the way that Peart crafted his drum parts was a lot different from how everyone else thought in rock and roll. Even in the prog sphere, where songs were carefully constructed down to the last note, Peart’s approach almost had more to do with mathematics than actual creativity half the time. He wanted to make runs that didn’t even seem possible to the everyday drummer, but that was because a lot of his heroes had dared to dream big.
Everyone from Baker to Phil Collins to Keith Moon had been stretching the boundaries of where the backbeat could go, but years before there was progressive music, jazz was really where any professional went to hone their chops. These were the musicians who dissected every single piece of their songs so that they would sound absolutely perfect, and when working with Steve Gadd, Peart was getting an education as to what went into making fusion drumming.
Gadd could have played practically anything that had a drum head on it, but paying tribute to someone like Buddy Rich is no tall order. Some of the greatest drummers of all time had been asked to throw their hats into the ring and make their own take on one of Rich’s classics, but when working on ‘Love For Sale’, Peart remembered feeling like he had gone to another level once he and Gadd started going back and forth to create the bed track.
But aside from doing his own part, Peart was more than happy to sit there and watch Gadd lay down that kind of backbeat, saying, “Unbelievable. When he did ‘Love For Sale’ on the Buddy Tribute, he’s playing this quarter note, and it’s all implied! That was a big lesson to me actually. I listened and thought, ‘Why does that feel so good?’ That became my favorite song of all the stuff we recorded. I just listened to it, over and over again. I watched him play that.”
And judging by what Peart was known for, it’s no surprise that Gadd would have been right up Peart’s alley. After all, this was the same person who had laid down the jaw-dropping solo in the middle of Steely Dan’s ‘Aja’, but part of his genius is being able to let out that monster every now and again and then immediately switch back to being the support drummer whenever the time called for it.
It’s not the easiest tightrope to walk, but even if Peart wasn’t someone known for a lot of subtlety, he could appreciate the aspects of drumming that were a lot more understated. Half of his best drumming performances involve him flying around the kit, but even if someone tried to match him note-for-note whenever they played alongside him, Peart learned quickly that it’s about whatever feels right when approaching any track he plays on.
