Is Neil Peart your favorite drummer?

[Slime]

Here we go again!

 

Is Neil Peart your favorite drummer?

 

Key distinction yet again! - "favorite", not necessarily "the best"

 

What say you??

[Maverick]

He shares the top spot with Bill Bruford. 

 

Which one am I listening to right now? He's my favorite. 

[KariY]

Well, who else it could be? 

[zepphead]

Some are close.... very close...... but Neil will always be my #1.

[IbanezJem]

For the whole package (longevity, excellence, style, innovation) it`s Neil. Bonzo might be close, but in a very different way. 

[pjbear05]

Neil is #1, but I didn't get into Rush until my late 30's.  Before then it would have been a 3 way tie:

Carl Palmer (ELP) Bill Bruford (Yes/KC) & Phil Collins (esp. his work with Brand X).

[NoahLutz]

Meg White is easily my #1.  Perhaps if Neil had more time to work with Gruber he could have mastered the feel and technical skill that seems to come so naturally to her.  

[Union 5-3992]

Neil is my favorite drummer. Geddy also tops my list for bass players.

 

Alex comes close to the top but he's facing a much larger field. 

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Neil's #1 easy. Everyone else--literally everyone else, I don't care how skilled, what genre, how prolific, how unique--is only fighting for 2nd place.

 

But here are some of those #2 contenders:

 

Phil Collins

Etienne Bowler

Mike Portnoy

Mike Mangini

Roger Taylor

Dominic Howard

Charlie Benante

Bill Ward

Bill Bruford

Taylor Hawkins 

[Entre_Perpetuo]

4 minutes ago, Union 5-3992 said:

Neil is my favorite drummer. Geddy also tops my list for bass players.

 

Alex comes close to the top but he's facing a much larger field. 

 

Alex is my number one but he's the only one who's tied with someone else on their respective instrument (Brian May). I generally agree with this though. It took me a long while to realize Alex was really deserving of my #1 spot, because there is such a massive field of incredible guitarists to sort through.

[Malignant Narcissist]

In an episode of the US comedy Mike and Molly (with Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell), Molly hears Mike listening to some Rush (Tom Sawyer I think) in his room and says something about the drummer sounds good or she'd date the drummer or whatever. 

Based on the comments on the drumming, my wife told me she quite liked 'that Rush song on Mike and Molly because of the fancy drumming...'.

So if Neil P's drum fills can convert my wife to Rush then he's won hands down...or hands on drum sticks or whatever.

 

It's funny because as a non-drummer, I don't really know what determines a good drummer per se. I hear the Mastodon drummer's (Brann Drailor) drum fills and it seems amazing to me. Same for some of the Opeth drumming. Same for some of MIke Portnoy's drumming. 

Same for some of Gavin Harrison's drum fills in Porcupine Tree. Same for all the umpteen drummers in metal, jazz and prog rock out there. 

But I think there's probably so much to consider if someone's good technically (drum fills, complex time signature, polyrythms, control of the where the emphasis on the beat is..) or has good 'feel' or whatever you want to call it that all you can do, unless you're a drum student or analyst, is go for what sounds good. 

And at the very least, on especially the 1st half of Rush's catalogue, Neil P sounds damn good to me!

[Sun & Moon]

Earl Palmer is #1.

 

Clyde Stubblefield, Ziggy Modeliste, Bonzo, Art Blakey, Jo Jones, just to name a few others I like. There are a lot of great drummers out there like Abe Laboriel Jr. and Stanley Randolph as well.

[Fordgalaxy]

Not anymore. Danny Carey now fills the #1 position.

[Bahamas]

On 9/7/2022 at 8:53 AM, Slime said:

Here we go again!

 

Is Neil Peart your favorite drummer?

 

Key distinction yet again! - "favorite", not necessarily "the best"

 

What say you??

Key - "favorite".

 

Yes, absolutely. 

[BigMontanaSKY]

He was supernaturally talented. BTW Bonham was a powerful drummer but not as brilliant as Peart. Just saying.

[Timbale]

Neil is always going to be top 5 because he's a great drummer who was the drummer for my favourite band at a totally formative age.   I have gone through phases where other players, most of whom still reside in my top 5 or 10, have been more favoured because I'm so into them in the moment.  When I really got into 70's Genesis, Phil took that #1 place for some time.  I had a period where Tony Williams was my #1, and all I could do was listen to the Miles Davis Quintet over and over and over.  Simon Phillips, through his work with Townshend and then the Who, eclipsed everyone for a chunk of time.  But Neil is always there...he got in so deep, and was so interesting in the way that he progressed - particularly his move from prog rock 70s guy to embracing 80s-style drum patterns guy - that he's always going to have a special spot.  He gets knocked out of #1 for me...but he often finds his way back to the tip of the list.

[NoahLutz]

On 9/8/2022 at 7:28 AM, NoahLutz said:

Meg White is easily my #1.  Perhaps if Neil had more time to work with Gruber he could have mastered the feel and technical skill that seems to come so naturally to her.  

@goose I’m glad someone finally found my joke funny!

[TheAccountant]

For me Neil gets the #1 spot easily.  Not even close.  Keith Moon would be nearest competition but thats not very close.  After that their is another big gap and then their would be a big pack of drummers

[Texas King]

Neil is my #1, but some others are close!