{"id":1328,"date":"2020-01-11T19:32:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T01:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=1328"},"modified":"2020-01-11T20:04:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T02:04:46","slug":"rush-songwriter-drummer-neil-peart-widely-remembered-for-his-libertarian-idealism-individualism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/rush-songwriter-drummer-neil-peart-widely-remembered-for-his-libertarian-idealism-individualism\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush songwriter-drummer Neil Peart widely remembered for his libertarian idealism, individualism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lifelong libertarian idealism of Neil Peart, the Rush songwriter-drummer who died Jan. 7 and whose passing the LFS noted in a previous blog, has been highlighted in several of the major media essays and obituaries that have followed his death at 67 after struggling privately for three years with cancer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Neil Peart, Rush drummer and songwriter Credit: Creative Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In\u00a0 a short note titled <\/span>\u201cFarewell to Rock\u2019s Greatest Drummer (and Randian),\u201d<\/a> NR writer and New York Post columnist Kyle Smith offered high praise about the Canadian musician\u2019s talent, positive ideas and legacy:<\/span><\/p>\n

“Fan polls routinely agreed he was the greatest rock drummer of his time (or indeed of all time, I would argue, though some would go with Keith Moon). I\u2019m not sure any rock track boasts drumming that can match Peart\u2019s breathtaking work on the 1981 song \u201cTom Sawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unusually for a drummer, Peart also wrote the big majority of his band\u2019s lyrics, which were among the most ambitious ever attempted in the hard-rock space. Like many other rock lyricists (Roger Waters, Pete Townshend), Peart was a genius at tapping into the restless alienation of late-teen boys who think they\u2019re smarter than everyone around them. It occurred to me many years later that it\u2019s an odd kind of gift, to keep your mind stuck in that mode of detachment, anger and frustration as you advance into middle age and accumulate mansions and supermodel girlfriends. Peart told\u00a0Rolling Stone\u00a0<\/em>four years ago, \u201cI set out to never betray the values that 16-year-old had, to never sell out, to never bow to the man. A compromise is what I can never accept.\u201d Well, no one wants to hear rock lyrics about property taxes and the failings of the kitchen staff.”<\/p>\n

Consider then the lyrics to “The Trees,” his Prometheus Hall of Fame-nominated Rush song released in 1978 on the Canadian group’s album Hemispheres.<\/em><\/p>\n

The song – which in concise haiku-style fashion imagines trees as conscious social creatures like humanity in their power dynamics… a premise that might well be the foundation for a modern fantasy\/sf novel – weaves a metaphoric fable about envy, revolution, and coercive egalitarianism among the different kinds of trees that make up a forest.<\/p>\n

“There is unrest in the forest
\nThere is trouble with the trees
\nFor the maples want more sunlight
\nAnd the oaks ignore their pleas<\/p>\n

The trouble with the maples
\nAnd they’re quite convinced they’re right
\nThey say the oaks are just too lofty
\nAnd they grab up all the light
\nBut the oaks can’t help their feelings
\nIf they like the way they’re made
\nAnd they wonder why the maples
\nCan’t be happy in their shade?<\/p>\n

There is trouble in the forest
\nAnd the creatures all have fled
\nAs the maples scream ‘oppression!’
\nAnd the oaks, just shake their heads<\/p>\n

So the maples formed a union
\nAnd demanded equal rights
\n‘The oaks are just too greedy
\nWe will make them give us light’
\nNow there’s no more oak oppression
\nFor they passed a noble law
\nAnd the trees are all kept equal
\nBy hatchet,
\nAxe,
\nAnd saw”
\n
\nRolling Stone\u00a0<\/em>magazine also published several tributes, including an essay by Hank Shteamer analyzing Peart’s unusual focus on variations in drumming timed to different lyrics and choruses.<\/p>\n

As a bonus, the tribute, titled \u201cHow Neil Peart\u2019s Perfectionism Set Him Free,\u201d<\/a> links to a video of Rush performing their Ayn-Rand-inspired \u201cAnthem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSubdivisions,\u201d one of Rush’s most beloved songs, is also one of their simplest. Geddy Lee\u2019s insistent synth riff gives the track \u2014 a fan favorite from 1982\u2019s\u00a0Signals<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a muted, almost drone-y quality. So you might hear it 100 times before you realize what\u2019s going on just underneath the surface: That Neil Peart,\u00a0the band\u2019s brilliantly obsessive supergenius of a drummer, has gone to the trouble of crafting a different drum part for every single verse…<\/p>\n

Realizing what\u2019s going on, you might wonder, is he simply showing off? Tossing out rhythmic Easter eggs for the drum-geek faithful?<\/p>\n

But consider the song\u2019s lyrics \u2014 written, like those of nearly every Rush song from 1975 on, by Peart himself. \u201cSubdivisions\u201d is an achingly poignant chronicle of the suburban teenager navigating cruel social hierarchies on one side (\u201cIn the high school halls \/ In the shopping malls \/ Conform or be cast out\u201d) and soul-crushing sameness on the other (\u201cGrowing up, it all seems so one-sided \/ Opinions all provided \/ The future pre-decided \/ Detached and subdivided \/ In the mass production zone\u201d). \u201cNowhere is the dreamer \/ Or the misfit so alone,\u201d Lee sings, and Peart\u2019s ever-morphing beats \u2014 set against the song\u2019s cyclical, almost lulling form \u2014\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0that misfit dreamer, railing against conformity, struggling to find a voice in a dreary and oppressive world. Like the Neil Peart aesthetic as a whole, the song\u2019s drumming is at once profoundly nerdy and totally exhilarating.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Will Collier writes in NR online a more extensive tribute<\/a> to Peart. Here’s an excerpt:
\n\u201cA youthful interest in Ayn Rand\u2019s fiction led to the lyrics for \u201cAnthem,\u201d the lead track on Rush\u2019s second album and Peart\u2019s first collaboration with his new band mates. The young man who\u2019d been picked on in high school for being a cape-wearing oddball \u2014 his own parents admitted in the wonderful 2010 documentary\u00a0Beyond the Lighted Stage<\/em>, \u201cWe thought he was weird\u201d \u2014 called out to others finding their own individualism:<\/p>\n

Know your place in life is where you want to be<\/em>
\nDon\u2019t let them tell you that you owe it all to me<\/em>
\nKeep on looking forward, no use in looking \u2019round<\/em>
\nHold your head above the crowd and they won\u2019t bring you down<\/em><\/p>\n

While Peart always denied being a full-fledged Randian \u2014 \u201cI am no one\u2019s disciple,\u201d he said in later years \u2014 Rand\u2019s work would directly influence Rush\u2019s breakthrough album\u00a02112<\/em>: The first side consists of a seven-part rock epic derived in part from Rand\u2019s novella \u201cAnthem,\u201d replacing the light bulb discovered by Rand\u2019s nameless, oppressed hero with a long-forgotten electric guitar.<\/p>\n

211<\/em>2 was, to the surprise of almost everyone involved, a huge success. The science-fiction showcase of the title suite married to Rush\u2019s kinetic and complex hard rock won the band the first of its ten platinum albums and vaulted them from opening act to headliner status for the remainder of their long career.”<\/p>\n

* Join us<\/strong>! \u00a0To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join <\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf\/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
\nLibertarian futurists believe cultural change is as vital as political change (and often more fun!) in achieving universal individual rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lifelong libertarian idealism of Neil Peart, the Rush songwriter-drummer who died Jan. 7 and whose passing the LFS noted in a previous blog, has been highlighted in several of the major media essays and obituaries that have followed his death at 67 after struggling privately for three years with cancer. In\u00a0 a short note … Continue reading Rush songwriter-drummer Neil Peart widely remembered for his libertarian idealism, individualism<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,37],"tags":[272,267,167,271,273,265,268,269,266,270],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obit","category-memorial-tributes","tag-272","tag-anthem","tag-ayn-rand","tag-coercive-egalitarianism","tag-hemispheres","tag-neal-peart","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame","tag-rolling-stone","tag-rush","tag-the-trees"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-lq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}