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My brother says Neil Peart is the greatest rock drummer ever (2 Viewers)

I’d be very interested if one of you guys did what I did for Bob Dylan- you don’t have to do 100 songs but maybe the top 20? Love to read something like that. 

 
Here are their top 10 greatest songs per Ultimate Classic Rock: 

1. Tom Sawyer 

2. The Spirit of Radio 

3. Fly By Night 

4. Limelight 

5. 2112 Orchestra/The Temple of Syrinx

6. Red Barchetta

7. Closer to the Heart 

8. Freewill

9. Subdivisions 

10. Time Stands Still 

Thoughts? 

 
I’d be very interested if one of you guys did what I did for Bob Dylan- you don’t have to do 100 songs but maybe the top 20? Love to read something like that. 
I would do a top 100 countdown list if there is enough interest. Would give me an excuse to throw a list together and talk more Rush. :cool:  

Edit: I am not a Dylan fan, which is why I did not follow that thread. Music threads like that are usually right up my alley. 

Here are their top 10 greatest songs per Ultimate Classic Rock: 

1. Tom Sawyer 

2. The Spirit of Radio 

3. Fly By Night 

4. Limelight 

5. 2112 Orchestra/The Temple of Syrinx

6. Red Barchetta

7. Closer to the Heart 

8. Freewill

9. Subdivisions 

10. Time Stands Still 

Thoughts? 
Fly by Night always gets way overrated because it remained a classic rock mainstay, but while it's a good tune, I don't think most fans consider it one of their best.  Hell, the band put it to bed in the live sets in the late 70's and never played it again. 

 
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I’d be very interested if one of you guys did what I did for Bob Dylan- you don’t have to do 100 songs but maybe the top 20? Love to read something like that. 
I have thought about this, but it would be more like the Beatles thread. More a personal list than the expected.  I would write a little bit about why or how some of the songs impacted me or the nostalgia they bring when i hear them. I would eliminate live songs and Feedback from the list, with a few exceptions where i actually like the live version of a song better.
 

the beauty of Rush fandom Is that you can talk to 5 different fans and get five completely different top 10 lists. For the casual fan, Tom Sawyer and Limelight, etc. will always be there, but for the die hards, its much different.  they were such a musical and diverse band that its hard to argue someone else’s favorites.  I am not sure if I am the biggest Rush fan on the board, but I’d be near the top. I have gone months listening to nothing but, and i suspect i will be doing that for the next few. 

If i did it, it would be every song from worst to first. I think some might be surprised at my least favorite. 

 
Like everyone else, I have been listening to a lot of Rush since Neil's Death. Rediscovered Presto. Really like "War Paint", both the music and the lyrics.
I rank Presto as their most underrated album. Some great tunes in there but it gets very little love. I relistened to Hold Your Fire recently after reading some praise for it on this thread and Presto is every bit as good. For me, still a (big?) tier below Signals and prior, but still good.

 
1. La Villa Strangiato

2. 2112 Overture/Temple of Syrinx

3. Spirit of Radio

4. Red Barchetta

5. A Farewell to Kings

6.Subdivisions

7. YYZ

8. Limelight

9. The Trees

10.  Closer to the Heart



 
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First of all I want to say it's been a helluva few years since I have been here at this forum, not just personally but for all of us. Peart's passing had hit the drumming community with a shock, Yet the drumming community had responded with even more perspective of what has has contributed to the art.

There are many many videos of Peart playing. Drum Channel has a few of Peart talking, with other drummers such as Doane Perry who played with Jethro Tull and the legendary Jim Keltner. Drums have a vocabulary all on it's own. They tell stories all the way back in ancient culture. This is for tim and his brother. With much love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llY1_4fZzJ8

Edit: if you watch this video, you hear Peart and Keltner talk about Ringo, and how he was very underrated.

 
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To me, and I have studied with cats like Tony Williams, the best drummers are very articulate because we share a vocabulary and can speak to each other using vocabulary. Just listen to how Peart speaks. It's his whole approach. It's relaxed, natural, and at the same time communicating with another drummer sharing the same vocabulary.

The drums are what we can all share. To me, the drum is the most beautiful, the most ancient, the most vital to humankind, because it is how we speak to each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_YJ6GXDhaU

 
Speaking of drummers with a HUGE vocabulary:

Ralph Peterson Jr:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZMDThmQsmE

Jeff "Tain" Watts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPpciCh4i0Q

Jack DeJohnette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3CZHr5uiNM

Bill Stewart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnaExhv2_Gc

Sput Searight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE3mHd7M_js&list=RDfE3mHd7M_js&start_radio=1

I am adding this in because I saw a Miles show with the late Ricky Wellman on the drums, same huge kit, and the only person missing was Prince, and even then Foley McCreary would had matched him. Miles loved Wellman, DC Go-Go chops, you see Miles giving Wellman props after his solo. Marilyn Mazur of percussion is just gorgeous, this is a fantastic show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM3k0U-RiwQ

 
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I watched a little of the Rush documentary on Netflix (and I could only watch so much of it, and the late Peart could had passed for Tom Hanks' doppelganger later in life), but it was interesting to see how one of his first kits had two 18" in diameter bass drums. His later Slingerland chrome kit had 22" bass drums "could had been 20" too in an earlier kit), but later with his Tama kit where he added electronics, he did use an 18" with it. Maybe with a trigger, I forget. Today's drummers have kind of two schools of thought when it comes to bass drums sizes: a big 26" bass drum ala Bonham, or a 20"/18" bass drum that fits the modern EDM/Hip hop styles ala drummers ala Chris Dave and JoJo Mayer, who also use more than one snare, with one tuned down and with a thicker head that can also be used as a tom ala Sput Searight and Larnell Lewis. The median bass dum size is usually 22", yet drummers like Steve Gadd who used a 22" mostly throughout his career is using a 20" bass drum. Terry Bozzio's main bass drums are also now 20", although he has like seven more of various sizes in his mega kit.

Chris Dave and drummers who play similarly like him play more texture and linear, dynamics are big in their style, and what they play can get very dense. You don't want the bass drum to eat up the rest of the kit, especially when using multiple snare sounds and other effects like cymbal stacks. You play them just like they were another drum, just on the floor. "Micro kits" use an even smaller one in a 16" bass drum as drummers like Questlove and Mark Guiliana use kits like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCE094md8nE

That's a beautiful sounding kit, and at that tuning the tiny bass drum really stands out without eating up the rest of it.

All hail tiny bass drums, Bill Stewart kicks the hell outta this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnaExhv2_Gc

 
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One more with the micro kit, this time with Stanton Moore playing them. That tiny bass drum sounds fat here, yay tiny bass drums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PMNTFS-SB0
I never looked at the thread because I'm not a Rush guy. But 14yo floppinho is a drummer/percussionist...and now I wish I'd been following along. 

He has a Ludwig questlove breakbeat set...kinda like what you linked above. We live in a tiny NYC apt, and even that small thing takes up a bunch of space...but sounds great and breaks down easy. 

He's been doing some jazz (at school and at Jazz at Lincoln Center) and rock (school of rock performance classes and now with friends at school). He went to a crazy NYC public school called the Special Music School for middle school- played percussion, including a lot of snare and tom etudes, marimba and other random stuff. Playing now in the Juilliard pre-college program- just saw his percussion ensemble and the symphony play over the last week...some insanely talented kids there.

Ill be sure to keep checking back in...and I'm sure I'll be asking questions, now that I've found where the drummers are hanging out!

 
I never looked at the thread because I'm not a Rush guy. But 14yo floppinho is a drummer/percussionist...and now I wish I'd been following along. 

He has a Ludwig questlove breakbeat set...kinda like what you linked above. We live in a tiny NYC apt, and even that small thing takes up a bunch of space...but sounds great and breaks down easy. 

He's been doing some jazz (at school and at Jazz at Lincoln Center) and rock (school of rock performance classes and now with friends at school). He went to a crazy NYC public school called the Special Music School for middle school- played percussion, including a lot of snare and tom etudes, marimba and other random stuff. Playing now in the Juilliard pre-college program- just saw his percussion ensemble and the symphony play over the last week...some insanely talented kids there.

Ill be sure to keep checking back in...and I'm sure I'll be asking questions, now that I've found where the drummers are hanging out!


If he is growing up in NYC, man there are a ton of great drummers who play there that he can check out and learn from. All the major cats play and/or live there, cutting edge cats who are changing the game. Sounds like he is getting some great education too, props. Julliard? Congrats man, you should be very proud of him, that's awesome that he is in programs like that one.

 
If he is growing up in NYC, man there are a ton of great drummers who play there that he can check out and learn from. All the major cats play and/or live there, cutting edge cats who are changing the game. Sounds like he is getting some great education too, props. Julliard? Congrats man, you should be very proud of him, that's awesome that he is in programs like that one.
Thanks, man. He's a great kid, and apparently a really good musician- mostly just flat out loves performing.

Yeah- we live in the thick of things. Mercury Lounge is across the street, and we're walking distance to a ton of spots. His first jazz experience was with an outfit called NY jazz academy. They were cool...but cooler still was where they practiced- a place called Michiko Studios right off times square. Up a couple flights of stairs into two floors of a warren of rehearsal rooms for every pro NY musician you could imagine, from opera to Broadway to jazz to heavy metal. All just pouring out of the rooms into the hallways where I'd wait for him. I'd constantly see folk walking by that I KNEW were probably massive in their field. You get accustomed to seeing stuff here, but every time I walked into Michiko I was just blown away and felt like a tourist visiting NYC for the first time.

Do you gig, teach, do it professionally?

 
as drummers like Questlove use kits like this:
Swear to God, drummer, was wondering what you thought of his drumming and him while I was reading your posts. Then you mentioned him and a light went on. Be interested to hear what you think, though the technical details are lost on me. 

 
Thanks, man. He's a great kid, and apparently a really good musician- mostly just flat out loves performing.

Yeah- we live in the thick of things. Mercury Lounge is across the street, and we're walking distance to a ton of spots. His first jazz experience was with an outfit called NY jazz academy. They were cool...but cooler still was where they practiced- a place called Michiko Studios right off times square. Up a couple flights of stairs into two floors of a warren of rehearsal rooms for every pro NY musician you could imagine, from opera to Broadway to jazz to heavy metal. All just pouring out of the rooms into the hallways where I'd wait for him. I'd constantly see folk walking by that I KNEW were probably massive in their field. You get accustomed to seeing stuff here, but every time I walked into Michiko I was just blown away and felt like a tourist visiting NYC for the first time.

Do you gig, teach, do it professionally?


I stopped playing for a number of years other priorities came into focus, but before I used to gig and studied with cats like Tony Williams and other name instructors when I lived in San Francisco. I used to teach way back in the day, but what I taught back then would be completely different to what I would teach today. I am currently trying a new approach not just the drums but to music. I sing more now than I used to, and I plan to be a vocalist and a drummer, and to do that requires my technique to be more relaxed on the drums, and how I express both my voice with the drums should sound as one.

I am not the kind of cat who at my age can play bar or weekend stuff with other cats. I like modern, cutting edge music. I really dig drummers like Chris Dave, Stanton Moore, Mark Guiliana, Ari Hoenig, along with all drummers like Tony, Billy Cobham, Vinnie Colatuita, there are just too many out there to mention (except Dave Grohl, he's basically Sib Hashian of the band Boston, but worse in the way that he has to force himself into every conversation to promote Dave Grohl, like Henry Rollins).

Your son is growing up during a time where drummers are creating new and exciting styles, it's as groundbreaking today as it was during the late 60's and early 70's. Or during the birth of be-bop jazz, or during the jazz age when drummers led 30 piece orchestras. PLus he has YouTube, I didn't have the internet when I was a kid, but it didn't stop me from buying records with all of my fave drummers.

Chris Dave leads his own band, and he's phenomenal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXdJBHVm44k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGv366y_UjQ

Sput Searight leads a few of them, and he is unreal. He also plays keys and composes music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql_WbyrlNWU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI0B-M5bmeQ

Larnell Lewis composed this tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fit9lDhXCQ8

And he can play "Enter Sandman" by hearing only once:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd_UcjMusUA

It's a great time to be a drummer. It always has been, because of the drums.

ETA: I gotta add Joey Peebles to this list, I love this cat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZG9U1HxNds

 
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I stopped playing for a number of years other priorities came into focus, but before I used to gig and studied with cats like Tony Williams and other name instructors when I lived in San Francisco. I used to teach way back in the day, but what I taught back then would be completely different to what I would teach today. I am currently trying a new approach not just the drums but to music. I sing more now than I used to, and I plan to be a vocalist and a drummer, and to do that requires my technique to be more relaxed on the drums, and how I express both my voice with the drums should sound as one.

I am not the kind of cat who at my age can play bar or weekend stuff with other cats. I like modern, cutting edge music. I really dig drummers like Chris Dave, Stanton Moore, Mark Guiliana, Ari Hoenig, along with all drummers like Tony, Billy Cobham, Vinnie Colatuita, there are just too many out there to mention (except Dave Grohl, he's basically Sib Hashian of the band Boston, but worse in the way that he has to force himself into every conversation to promote Dave Grohl, like Henry Rollins).

Your son is growing up during a time where drummers are creating new and exciting styles, it's as groundbreaking today as it was during the late 60's and early 70's. Or during the birth of be-bop jazz, or during the jazz age when drummers led 30 piece orchestras. PLus he has YouTube, I didn't have the internet when I was a kid, but it didn't stop me from buying records with all of my fave drummers.

Chris Dave leads his own band, and he's phenomenal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXdJBHVm44k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGv366y_UjQ

Sput Searight leads a few of them, and he is unreal. He also plays keys and composes music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql_WbyrlNWU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI0B-M5bmeQ

Larnell Lewis composed this tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fit9lDhXCQ8

And he can play "Enter Sandman" by hearing only once:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd_UcjMusUA

It's a great time to be a drummer. It always has been, because of the drums.
Amazing....can't wait to show him all of these- thank you!

I'm from Marin...so I may have even seen you play!

 
Amazing....can't wait to show him all of these- thank you!

I'm from Marin...so I may have even seen you play!


I didn't play that many gigs in SF lol, but I did study with Chuck Brown up in Novato. He taught Terry Bozzio and Dave Garibaldi. I sold my car before I moved to SF (because having a car in SF would had meant it either got stolen by someone or City Tow), so I took the bus up to Novato every Friday night. That sucked. The only hair bands left up in the Bay Area existed in Marin County. That and thrash. But Bay Area thrash ruled back then. The best thrash out there.

 
Swear to God, drummer, was wondering what you thought of his drumming and him while I was reading your posts. Then you mentioned him and a light went on. Be interested to hear what you think, though the technical details are lost on me. 


There is a drummer up in SF that did a whole history of Questlove, I didn't realize he was that influential. I think he is as important to music as the drummers of James Brown are. But I never really got into him only because I wasn't into hip-hop. It's hard enough to keep up with all the drummers I have listened to lol. I eman take a drummer like Hal Blaine. He's recorded with everyone, and had Grammy's (when that award really meant something) upon Grammy's. That's just one drummer, then you get into Elvin Jones, or Pete La Roca, I mean it's endless.

 
Vinnie Colauita rules YouTube. He dominates it, he just does not stop doing something incredible, and people just don't get enough of him. It's even more insane when you transcribe what he plays. It's one thing when you hear the notes, it's another when you see the notes. How he fits the rims of the drums into this solo is just flat out Vinnie, what else can you say:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfDor3OA8gU

 
The only hair bands left up in the Bay Area existed in Marin County. That and thrash. But Bay Area thrash ruled back then. The best thrash out there.
Vain? They were Bay Area, and still kicking around. One of my guilty pleasures. Love 'em. Davy Vain. Was a thrash producer, too. Produced Death Angel. 

 
Vain? They were Bay Area, and still kicking around. One of my guilty pleasures. Love 'em. Davy Vain. Was a thrash producer, too. Produced Death Angel. 


I forgot the label that produced a lot of thrash and progressive metal up there that had players like Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, Tony MacAlpine and such. I chatted with drummer Deen Castronovo after one of his clinics, and he recorded a lot of those thrash records up there (he was Journey's drummer for a while before he freaked out on a meth binge lulz). Buckethead might had been on a few tracks of bands up there. I tune into SOMA FM on internet radio, and their "Metal Detector" station is pretty dope, they play a lot of Bay Area thrash as well as bands like Gorguts (lulz, these Death Metal band names). One of the cats who developed an Arch Linux based distro - Archlabs, which I use - got me into a lot of metal recently. Really dope stuff. I mentioned Metal Detector to him (he lives in New Zealand), and he digs it.

 
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I'll bet @NYRAGE might know what or who you're talking about as far as the label goes. 

All those names sound vaguely familiar, but I really don't know. That's cool about the metal. Keep on rockin' in the free world! 

 
I just listened to When the Levee Breaks again and disagree with the thread starter's brother. 

Still a great drummer though. 

 
I'll bet @NYRAGE might know what or who you're talking about as far as the label goes. 

All those names sound vaguely familiar, but I really don't know. That's cool about the metal. Keep on rockin' in the free world! 
Just saw this. Too late. Drummer got it.

I wasn't a big fan of the Shrapnel artists, but that Exciter record is really good. Those guys are still great live almost 40 years later. Before I got into death metal, one of the first bands I ever hung out with was another Shrapnel artist, Keel. Nice guys, not the greatest music.

As far as great drummers go,  I like some of the underrated ones:  Stephen Morris (Joy Division/New Order) is a human metronome. Ringo was great, but always overshadowed. Even Karen Carpenter was pretty good, but mostly known for her singing (and quite the voice indeed).

 
It's been a while since I posted in this thread so in case I posted this already, my apologies. This is Miles Davis at a rock concert. His band: the cream of the crop, all of whom became seminal figures in jazz and jazz/rock - Dave Holland on electric bass (Holland is one of the premier upright acoustic bassists on the planet, he rarely plugged in even back then with Miles' bands), Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett on keys, Airto Moriera on percussion (check out his use of the cuica on the first tune "Directions". It's like a DJ scratching on a turntable), Gary Bartz on reeds, and Jack Dejohnette playing furiously on drums.

These guys outside of Miles were just kids back then, the look on Holland's face at the beginning is like "Holy ****, look at all those people", and his playing is what the rest of the band had to follow, especially Corea and Jarrett as they didn't have proper monitoring to hear each other. Miles conducted through his trumpet, he played a phrase or a note, Holland would hear it, and the beand moved along with it. Brilliant.

Jimi Hendrix played after this set. Not long before he died in Holland. Even he was knocked out by it.

 
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I think I have posted in this thread about "Greatest Rock Drummers" with Neal Peart as the baseline of subject matter. My argument always and will be no, only because IMO, Billy Cobham was way more influential. Why? Because he broke ground while playing with not only one of the most influential bands with Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's because his sphere of influence as not only a drummer but as a composer changed a huge part of the game.

Cobham was a game changer, here is a very informative and enlightening conversation between drummers such as Michael Shrieve, Mike Clark, Dave Garibaldi, Greg Errico, and Lenny White with Cobham.

This is for those who have kids who want to learn how to play the drums.

 
Rolling Stones released a new album with Steve Jordan playing most of the tracks. For those who aren't familiar who Jordan is, he was the original drummer with Dave Letterman's show. He's played with everyone from The Blues Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, The Pretenders, Neil Young, and Beyonce'.

But this here set every drummer on fire. Guitarist Steve Kahn in interviews said that this this album was so coveted by drummers because of the drum sound, and it's all due to Steve Jordan. It was recorded in a tiny club in Tokyo, Japan, and Jordan had not one set of hi-hats, but a double set on one pedal, made by Charlie Cordes. Kieth Richards said of Jordan while Jordan toured with him with X-Pensive Winos that Jordan can "bring the rock, and the roll".

This isn't rock and roll. This is just Steve Jordan:

 
This is pretty sick stuff. Bozzio never messes around, he does what he does, has the kit to do it with, nobody can touch him with it, and if there were a drummer that has built a name for himself just by what he does as a drummer, like many before him: Billy Cobham, Alphonze Mouzon, etc., he just keeps going and finding ways to express himself and the drums in new and exploratory ways:

 
Ndugu on drums, playing rock music. Ndugu is the drummer on Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" track.

As I have said way before when this thread started, to consider Peart as the greatest rock drummer ever, he'd have to be in the greatest rock band ever, and then we'd have to include Canada as in influence on rock music.

 
I think Billy Cobham is one of the greatest rock drummers ever. Certainly one of the most influential drummers in the 20th century. Pair him with a Tommy Bolin or John McLaughlin on guitar, he;s right there with them.

Here he is with the late Victor Bailey on bass, and Terje Rydpal on guitar, playing behind his behemoth kit with three bass drums, three snare drums (saw him play this kit in a trio in SF lol), and ya know, being Billy Cobham:

 
This thread makes me sad. I miss my brother.
I realize it's zero consolation and does nothing, but every time I see this thread I get a sick feeling in my stomach. It's so sad you lost your brother. My partner lost her 50yo brother and even after a couple of years it's still hard for her and her mom. I've given you so friendly natured crap over the years, but I absolutely hate that you lost your brother and that you have to live without him.
 

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