Neil Peart Drum Solo on David Letterman

drumman wrote:
Sheila's cool but she gets a bit sloppy, she tries to play real fast and doesn't pay
attention to being more accurate with her execution.

occasionally the attention to accuracy or perfection can destroy music. She's fluid and musical through and through. She plays alot of stock latin riffs and is good at it. i wonder if the pumps help ('')maybe i'll try it

not a huge fan of rush or neil peart. he seems a bit stiff to me especially just by looking at his posture. I thought he loosened up after a while and played well and the electronic drumming was cool, reminded me of bruford. he's got some chops but definitely not my idea of fluid but more compositional. i think that's why he nails the swing chart he's more like a classical player to my ears. i like him more after seeing this.

The reason I am contributing to this thread so much is because I think this clip of Neil's sub- par performance is really mis-leading as to how great he really is.

I'm quite sure if anyone interested at all, would go back to his earlier works with Rush, particularly on the albums
Farewell to Kings, Hemisheres, 2112, Moving Pictures, and Signals you might get a better perception of him, rather than
just what you've seen in this ''drum-off'' type setting.

I personally thought this was the worst performance I've ever seen of him truthfully.

Neil was probably my biggest influence when i was learning how to play drums, and by emulating what he did, stylistically, and composition wise, it pretty much set me up to be able to play a whole lot- very easily, cause after learning compositions like Natural Science, and The Trees, etc, going on and playing stuf from The Stones, and Beatles was a snap.

I learned a tremendous mount from Neil and Rush. Plus he made me think and take an interest in literature.
I don't know of any other drummer that had the kind of impact on me that Neil did.

Neil does what he does better than anyone else, and I am going to go and research and listen to as much of Sheila's work as i can. I would like to make the suggestion that we do the same for Neil and Rush before saying anyone is better judging from one performance. ---D.L.

Dave,

Regarding, Neil, again, I mean no disrespect.
I am not coming to quick judgment regarding
his performance or impact on drumming.

Coming up, people would bring him up to me,
talking about about him, having me listen to
his riffs etc. and telling me about how great
he was but you have to have understand that
this was all during a time that I was already
deep in the 70's movement in Jazz and Rock
(Fusion). Billy, at the time, was already in
my life and changing me, not to mention
Tony and Steve.

Add to that, this was AFTER Palmer, Shrieve,
Bruford and Barlow rocked my world. Peart
just did not have that kind of impact for me
because he came later. He'd probably be the
first to acknowledge Billy's impact on the
drumming world. I think you understand.
Billy and Tony and changed everything and
undercut the very ground we walked on.

I know that Neil did change the world for
a lot of rock players crossing over and for
those cases, he deserves great credit. He
is a quality player.

I hope that I am expressing this respectfully.

Regards,

Hi Pete,

I value all the opinions here, and I know everyone has different tastes, and influences-That's totally cool

That's what is great about this forum. Every time I come on here I see something I haven't seen before, and I always learn something from just about everyone that contributes to the threads.
I just wanted to make everyone aware that this clip on letterman was not a shining moment for a legend like Neil.

I am also heavily influenced by Billy, Tony, Bruford as well. How could I be a drummer and not be? haha
I was completely obsessed with MO for quite some time. I wish Billy was on drum week!

I never take anything personally on here..it's all just opinions and viewpoints which I think are all valid in they're own way.

So it's all good Cheers!!---D.L.

Cool, Dave.

Yeah, it is truly amazing what unites
us, here, in Billy. His example shows
us that what is new can be downright
overwhelming and even to the point
of being uncomfortable.

Tony was like that, too. Many did not
like what he did, as a youngster or
even later on. Even now, people still
do not realize what some of these
drummers did BACK THEN!!



Beauty is real beauty, when it is
forever, more intensely appreciated.

That is what we are talking about.
It is about what lasts.

Thanks, buddy.

Regards,