History created Neil Peart as much as Neil created history

[zappafrank]

As I've contemplated Neil's impact on the world (myself included) these last few days, one thing that's really struck me is that musical history created Neil Peart as much as Neil created musical history. And what I mean by this is that when you consider where in the timeline of life Neil fell, it really was a perfect storm to allow for Neil to be Neil.

 

Rising from the ashes of the British invasion and some of the more bombastic players, into the era of both progressive rock and arena rock, into the advent of New Wave and advances in electronic equipment, coupled with new directions in mass media (MTV, VHS)... Neil was there every step of the way, right in the thick of it, being shaped by it as much as he shaped it. Had Neil come to be, so to speak, just a few years on either side of any of that, I think we'd be having a much different conversation about his contributions, all of which would still be very impressive, no doubt, but I dare say not necessarily to the extent that we came to know.

 

It mean, it's pretty amazing, isn't it? I think about Neil's views around PeW when he was talking about Ultravox and Peter Gabriel and the Police, and how much he was influenced by the creative things they were doing with rhythm, or a few years later quickly shifting from "I don't like wires, I hit things and they make a sound" to embracing and pioneering what could be done with electronic percussion.

 

Hell, even in the 90's when Neil started taking lessons with Freddie Gruber... one could even argue that Neil was ahead of the curve of the big band revival in the 90s.

 

All of it, perfect timing.

 

Listen what Neil was doing every step of the way: very very reminiscent of the zeigeist yet very uniquely its own thing, all the while advancing that zeigeist at the very same time!

 

Who the hell does that?!

 

Neil Peart, that's who.

[Blue J]

Interesting perspective...I can see all of that, yes. Interesting!

[9/4]

No artist works in a vacuum. An artist like Neil can achieve commercial success if they innovate at the cutting edge, yet produce work which has wide appeal (very difficult to do both!). Contrast that with someone like the late guitarist Alan Holdsworth, who was placed as much on a pedestal by his peers as Neil was, but Alan's music was well ahead of its time (arguably, even decades later, it may still be), appealing to a relatively narrow audience, so while Alan received enormous acclaim from his peers, he didn't achieve commercial success and died almost penniless. Neil and Alan are the two artists whose passing has hit me hardest. Edited January 15, 2020 by 9/4