The lyrics-oriented drumming of Neil Peart

 

The lyrics-oriented drumming of Neil Peart

 By Luis Ricardo Méndez

           Neil Peart´s recorded legacy with Rush is impressive and distinctive. Throughout his long career with the band he came up with many great drum patterns and fills, as well as some of the best crafted lyrics in rock music. To the meticulous listener, though, the connection between drums and vocals that Peart was able to achieve is equally remarkable.

          In this article we´ll explore how "The Professor" employed his percussive abilities to highlight the message of the lyrics. This is also a personal attempt at explaining why these unique drumming moments have always caught my ear since I first listened to them. All excerpts examined are taken from Rush studio recordings. You may need to listen to them several times, but make sure to listen to the whole songs in their entirety.

          Let´s begin by taking a look at two of Peart´s classic fills, which he used as building blocks on some of the examples to be discussed. The fill shown below first appeared in the instrumental song "YYZ", from Rush´s Moving Pictures album, released in 1981. This fill is featured as a mini drum solo at around 1:50 of the song, and it adds a lot of excitement and motion to the music. We will refer to it as the YYZ fill. 

           The next fill was first recorded in the song "Cinderella man", from the album A Farewell to Kings, released in 1977. This fill is played there twice, at around 0:43 and then slightly varied at 2:13. Since it creates a sense of suspense and anticipation, we will call it the suspense fill. 

            Now it´s time to move on and see the varied ways in which Peart related his drumming to the lyrics. Of course, all the vocals of the songs were impeccably delivered by legendary bassist/singer Geddy Lee.

1. Second nature (Hold your fire, 1987)  

          This fill occurs at 2:58, in bar 12 of the second bridge of the song. It´s played as a percussive interjection between the lines "It´s hard to take the heat, it´s hard to lay blame", and "to fight the fire while we´re feeding the flames".

          Observe how Peart combined the YYZ fill and the suspense fill to create this unique phrase. The particular make up of this fill effectively leads the attention of the listener to the closing vocal line of the bridge, which makes the message of the lyrics have much more impact. An interesting exercise is to compare this fill to the one played at 1:35 in the first bridge. Mentally interchange both fills to notice the different effect each one generates.

 2. Red lenses (Grace Under Pressure, 1984) 

          The fill shown above is played at 3:55 in the rideout section. This is a very intriguing fill. On the surface, it sounds as if Peart had launched into the YYZ fill but half way through it he changed his mind and decided to play a different one (see brackets in the example).

          However, when considering the meaning of the surrounding lyrics a surprising purpose is revealed - the fill mirrors the contrasting ideas expressed in the line "you see black and white and I see red (not blue)". The unsettled nature of the first part of the fill matches the agitation expressed in the statement "I see red", while the second part conveys the change of mood implicit in the words "not blue".

          Also, notice how the whole fill is resolved on the second beat of the following bar, right where a ringing guitar chord is played.

 3. Turn the page (Hold Your Fire)

         

          This transcription shows what happens at around 4:12 in the rideout of the song. Here Peart employed the drums to literally reflect the meaning of the lyrics. Notice how he mimics the "future coming fast" by adding fast double bass flurries to the punctuations of the snare drum and china cymbal. Besides the word painting technique already described, the increased rhythmic motion also helps to rise the intensity level of the section.

4. Presto (Presto, 1989)

This fill occurs at 5:12 when Lee sings the line "I´d set everybody free". In his A work in progress DVD  Peart claimed he didn´t play fills under a singing part. But as we can see, there were instances where he did so to achieve a specific purpose.

In this case Peart played his fill along with the vocals to embody the yearning expressed in the lyrics. The accent pattern on the snare makes it feel like Lee is gathering up energy to set everybody free, and then he magically sets them free when the fill goes down the toms. This is also an excellent example of tension and release, both musically and emotionally.

In addition, note how in the three bars preceding the fill Peart used his bass drum and crash cymbals to stress certain syllables of the vocals while playing the groove. He referred to this procedure as punching up the vocals. 

5. Virtuality (Test for Echo, 1996)

          The example above is another fine example of word painting from the drums, which Peart pointed out in A work in progress when he talked about the drum parts he composed for the song. This fill occurs in the last chorus right after Lee sings "send your impulse ´round the world", where we can hear Peart sending that impulse around his world of drums.

6. Anagram (Presto)

          This last example occurs at 3:25, right before the intro reprise at the end of the piece. Observe how the suspense fill effectively sets up the arrival of the section. Also, listen to how Peart and Lee stop playing the groove to punctuate the vocal line. This slowing down of the rhythmic motion makes the message of the lyrics stand out more.

          At the end of the section both the vocals and the drums make an exciting closing statement. That effect is achieved by means of the rhythmic acceleration and the upward/downward melodic motion that occurs between the line "the saint turns to sin" and the drum fill. The overlapping point occurs on the word "sin", where the pitch of the small tom that starts the fill matches the high note sung by Lee. On the other hand, the length of the fill makes the contradiction of the lyrics stay a little longer in the listener´s mind.

          Maybe Peart himself didn´t think of some of the observations made here about his drum fills, but the relationship between drums and vocals in the music of Rush is undeniable. And as Peart once stated about his drum fills, "they probably roll out that way for a good reason". In any case, we as drummers can be inspired by his ideas to find our own way of interacting with the lyrics and, ultimately, to make more meaningful contributions to the music we create.

 

Note from the author:           The above is a tribute to the late great Neil Peart that I wrote in 2023. I submitted it to an online drum magazine called Drumming Review, but on publication they changed the title to "How Neil Peart wrote drum fills off Geddy´s vocal parts". Drumming Review became Drum Spy, and the article is now available there. At first I didn't mind those changes, but after giving it some thought, I decided to share the article again with a name that better reflects my original purpose.