When did neil peart become a big deal????

That must be a small world that revolves around your friend

 

I play the drums and may harbor some bias, but nevertheless. Mr. Peart should be, due to his artistry, be a big deal in the musical community. He is unique and individual in his styles, and if one were to believe the press(no reason not to)he has continued to learn and educate his own playing. This is a rare human quality that he had enough human brevity to understand that his journey with his instrument was not complete. As a teenager first learning how to play it has become my opinion that the drum industry owes him a few financial points for convincing us teenagers in about 1979-198? that we needed to own these mammoth double bass, concert toms, a zillion cymbal drum sets. This did help us young men hone our negotiation skills as in many cases we bargained these sets out of doting yet unwitting parents. In my case it also exposed me to Tama drums (along with Stewart Copeland and Stan Lynch). Of which I still play. In fact I am on my fourth set in 40 years.

 

They played the Palladium on the PW tour as well- I was there. And they cooked!

 

He was considered a bit deal pretty early. Having a big drum set and playing lots of notes in non-4/4 time signatures will do that...

 

Around here, the first album that seemed to really highlight Peart was the live album, All The World's A Stage. That would have been late 1976. The band had already become established with their first three releases, and 2112 certainly gave them a higher profile, but I believe the focus on Peart began with that live album. I can still remember that period and the buzz about him. They played a local gig late December of that year and it seemed like everybody I knew went to see them, and all anyone would talk about afterward was Neil. I would say that by the start of 1977, the persona of Peart as a high profile drummer was already established.

 

I first heard Rush when I was about 10 (Signals was released and my sister bought the cassette). I always loved Neil Peart's style and chops. I finally went to see Rush live in '92 and my opinion of Neil took an about-face. I'll leave it at that.

 

I'd say that summer of '76 tipped the balance. I was a freshman in college and no one was playing them. 2112 hit that spring. They hit the road with BOC. I saw them in a small city in northern North Dakota. By the time I got back to school, copies of 2112 were blasting out of the dorm rooms and then the live album hit months later. That's when you started hearing talk at keggers where Peart was referred to as a new god. And they toured. And toured. And the legend kept growing.

 

They were not received as well as they'd hoped for with Caress taking a different path, later we would come to appreciate, and downed records sales compared to Fly By Night. I'm guessing that perhaps they were not as well received in other venues as they were here. They were however the headliner for the whole tour.

 

Ahh, you were referring to Canada, re: the Caress tour dates. Ok, that makes more sense

 

The greatest drummer with no swing.

 

Big deal ????....since forever.....duh !

 

You really think so? I don't, I tend to believe his drumming for the band is just a choice of style for him.

 

Bonham was the best. but fell short due to his ******* niss and got drunk and mean and nasty and sloppy. stewart Copeland is a better drummer than Bonham too..

 

That's great! I can't believe they cutaway on the stick toss at the end!

 

Lol. Not sure how you came to that conclusion, but I had to quote it because I find it so amusing.

Any chance you're Tom Harrison in real life?

 

No, but apparently we're a critical finicky lot out here I've read.

 

In and around 78 I remember some article in the British press about Rush, especially Pearts lyrics being Right Wing. This overshadowed his ability as a drummer, especially in the political climate of the time.

 

I was going to say around 76/77..

 

Great video, but the pianist is horrible.
Here's a good version with Buddy and excellent piano. Neil does a pretty good Buddy.

 

I was in junior high, I believe, when performance videos of Red Barchetta, Tom Sawyer, Limelight and Vital Signs started appearing on MTV. It was the very early 80s. By the time I was in high school, my friends and I would sit around and listen to Moving Pictures and play air drums. We'd say stuff like, "Neil must be ambidextrous, but in his legs also."

 

Those headliner dates were probably planned as a result of their relative success with Fly By Night. At the time they would have been seen as an up and coming band, with the anticipation that this success would continue with the next album. But they didn't get the sales or radio play from COS. They did have a certain established fan base here, which helped, but it didn't help them expand their fan base beyond that, and of course by then they we starting to think that their popularity had peaked.

Oh, those silly Canucks....

 

I don't know if that's true or not - but put it this way - the ONLY time they bothered to play my hometown was on the 'Down The Tubes Tour' - I was too young at the time but my brother went to the show. I believe they headlined but I don't know if headlining in a place you consider so far beneath you that you never bothered playing there anytime before or since says a lot about one's status/popularity at that particular point in time.

 

That was likely all down to the "...genius of Ayn Rand" dedication/acknowledgement on the sleeve of 2112, which Neil had later said was put there (after someone pointed out the similarities between the 2112 story and that of an Ayn Rand book) as a way to avoid a potential infringement lawsuit. But it followed him/them around to the point where as you say the British press accused the band of being fascist/Nazis which was a pretty bizarre accusation given that members of Geddy Lee's immediate family were holocaust survivors.