Hey guys! Thanks so much for watching. Here is the Rush Playlist. All the Rush songs I have watched... so far :) ruclips.net/p/PLqspKksRqaUVia4e736aSQdeyr_KIN-hI * I realized afterward that the links I had been sent were studio and live (isolated). So yes I assumed the glock part was a studio overdub. Live yes, you can do that. Wouldn't be normal to lay that down in a studio setting at the same time as a drum track. Killer isolation for a live concert though. WOW! Have a great day everyone!
Watching Neil play Mystic Rhythms flawlessly at the Compaq Center in ‘92 blew me away. I didn’t get to see the video so I had no idea it was just him and not sequencers. Now that I’ve heard this isolated track, I have to go relearn The Spirit Of Radio. Ta.
Every time you say “click” or “ overdub” when discussing Neil’s playing a Rush fan immediately dies from outrage while another Rush fan silently sheds a tear. Please end this needless suffering.
Early on, he had a real glockenspiel as part of his kit. Later on, he added the MalletKat to replace it, which allowed him to not only play glockenspiel parts, but to trigger other percussion and "keyboard" sounds in a much simpler, more compact format. Great piece of technology if you can afford one.
EVERYTHING, every chime, ding, crack, ping and all the booms you hear is Neil Peart. Now go click on the correct video and you'll definitely hear why I say that on this recording is someone else. You can tell he's playing a different set. The overall sound his give is a much more rich and maybe somber tone. Plus Neil being the composer of his outlines is much smoother in the transitions
@@twistdhood2 😂 After one of Andrew’s early Rush reactions, he posted one called Subdivisions. I got so excited until I started watching and it was a drum lesson. It was a nice drum lessons, but not what I was expecting. 😊
Sub-di-visions. There is a video of Neil playing completely isolated drums from this song. And back in the day it was a big leap in Neil's evolution as a drummer. After Moving Pictures and throughout the 80's Neil showed a remarkable progress in his compositional style. He was aiming to excellence all the time. Nowadays in Rock drumming some things are taken from granted, but back in the day, Neil was almost breaking ground.
He used to have (around the time Permanent Waves was recorded) a touring (and studio) kit that included a glockenspiel, along with tubular bells, chimes, wood blocks, etc. A lot of that was replaced with midi controllers, to make room for more drums, cymbals, etc. I don’t know if it was overdubs on the album, but I’ve seen him play that part live several times, while holding down the quarter notes on the bass drum. He was a phenomenon, more than just a drummer. Seeing them live was always amazing.
Yep. He may not have played it live in the studio, but I've seen him play it live on stage in person many times. First it was a glockenspiel, then he moved on to electronic versions, starting with (I believe) a MalletKat in the late 80s.
Ditto. He played that part. It pissed me off when he started using the midi thing in lieu of the actual glockenspiel (and especially the chimes - there was something very special about him turning, standing, and playing the chimes with the mallet). Still, he was playing it!
In a couple of interviews on The Drum Channel, Neil has noted how his role as lyricist gave him a unique advantage - to be able to build drum parts knowing where there are opportunities to accent lyrics with pauses, time changes and fills.
Neil's ghost note game is comparatively recent: he only really started emphasizing them after working with Freddie Gruber (basically he felt he was in a total rut in the early nineties, so he got a recommendation from (if I remember correctly) Steve Smith of Journey that he should work with Gruber, who was an old-time confidant of Gene Krupa among other jazz drumming greats). For a year he basically relearned how to drum (this after already having been winning "drummer of the year" awards for the best part of 20 years!) from scratch: doing rudiments on a practice pad, more or less completely reimagining the architecture of the kit, and even changing to traditional grip after decades of nearly exclusive matched grip. For the tours since then, the older songs have had their drum parts somewhat reimagined with a looser but still feeling the pulse feel.
So as a bass player, I was amazed by those ghost notes. I saw him play this live and realized he's not using a double-kick pedal for that part. He just uses one foot. That might not be a big deal to drummers, but it floored me that he was able to do it so cleanly and fast.
position of your foot allows the petal to kind of use the hammer to swing 2 times, its precision to its finest just got to hit the right part of the petal. it allows for faster paced beats
First of all thanks for all of your videos. Love your channel! As a Rush fan of 30+ years it always makes me happy to see folks discover this amazing band. Neil is why I play drums. Your analysis of this song is great. I love the comment about his playing feeling organic, his parts changing with the music. Neil worked hard to not repeat patterns over and over in their songs. It's one of the things I most appreciated about the way he composed his parts. The small details are amazing. Keep up the good work Andrew!
In one of the concert DVDs (perhaps Rio), there is an interview with their monitor engineer. He almost functions as a fourth member. The monitors were programmed to switch feeds from moment to moment based upon the requirements of the song. It sounded in description as a very intricate dance intended to avoid train wrecks.
His playing is so tasty. Always the perfect fill and grove for every song. So clean! His toms seem to be tuned lower than in the old days, here. I love listening to his isolated lines. The ghost notes in this song remind me of those in La Villa Strangiato.
Neil's quickness and agility allowed Alex and Geddy to really explore and expand they're sound and song writing, which opened up a unique sound live. You are absolutely correct when you mentioned the fact that we did wonder how they were going to pull it off live, no doubt, BUT THEY DID, EVERY TIME! Being very fortunate, I witnessed 16 0f my 24 live shows between 1975 and 1982, and after every album I purchased, there was A NEED to experience it live, at all costs, as I mentioned before, they had an extra gear they could lach onto, and display it live CONSISTENTLY! Bytor and the snow dog (studio version) Andy, PLEASE! First album with Neil, one the first songs they wrote together, EYE OPENER in 1975! Thank you so much for the reactions Andy, it's very much appreciated
I've been a Rush fan since the "Presto" era, but Neil's playing never ceases to amaze and confound me. The way he wrote and played his parts is absolutely stunning. He had the composition sense of a classical musician in a rock setting. Truly a spectacular drummer. You keep mentioning "Subdivisions". Rush has a song called "Subdivisions". You gotta react to it. It's such a relatable song, especially for a former teenage introverted music geek like myself. 😁
@@AndrewRooneyDrums moreover subdivisions is one of the finest examples of intricate yet subtle drumming that is musical, contributing to the atmosphere of the song. Neil changes the drumming to modulate the song
He's playing single stroke "huertas", mixed with sixteenth notes in the opening drum fills. He utilizes the huerta a LOT in his playing. Also, he's playing the xylophone. You'll notice one bar at the beginning and end of those sections where he's not playing anything with his hands. That is when he'd swap his sticks for mallets to play the xylophone and then swap them back at the end of the section. As technology progressed, he replaced the xylophone with a MalletKat, and was able to play the MalletKat with his sticks.
So, having watched the Anatomy of a Drum Solo video set *(Highly Recommended to any drum enthusiast), there are times when he is double sticking rhythms and other times he's single sticking, regardless of the note. I personally think his when writing for his songs, he is making conscious choices about what patterns and what sticking his drum work play will be such that he arrives at the other end in a manner to be deliberate. Think of it very much of the same thing pianists go through figuring out what fingers to use on runs to manage crossovers and end up where you don't tangle yourself up and can reach the next notes. His composition on all of his songs has a narrative and progression, rather than the wash/rinse/repeat of lesser drummers. The addition of the electronic equipment just expanded his repertoires of available sounds that he at his disposal to further expand the overall soundscape. I remember hearing all the flack that was generated when the electronic equipment entered his kit, there were some that quipped that he was a traitor to tradition. Their 40 career proved otherwise. Honor Neil by celebrating him.
I’ve been really enjoying the videos about Rush, I never really saw reactions to Neil before. As a “guitarist” I thought I knew a bit about percussion and rhythm, but you have shown me I actually know very little. It’s pretty amazing to hear the intricacies and creativity he had when you break it down in your videos. Great job!
Every thing you hear on the record was reproduced by the three of them, and only the three of them, in concert. Neal was very compositionally oriented and had to play it perfectly each time, as did Alex and Geddy. Rehearsed to the point of over-rehearsed, they were amazingly impressive live.
Neil was the drummer that inspired me to want to play the drums. I did not realize the ghost notes Neil was playing on this song until i heard this isolated version. Now i cant play this song without them, It is critical to the groove and feel of the song. All the high concert tom work and the majority of his 32nd fills are all singles, thats what gives them that driving power, and crispness. When you play doubles, sometimes that "Crispness and power" can get lost. Best example of tom fills with doubles by Neil is on the Overture of Hemispheres and also the finale fills on " Losing it" from Signals that are in a 5/8 time signature. I love your channel Andy. For a very accomplished drummer, you are incredibly humble. I love that about you my KIWI friend! I hope to meet you someday and jam. Cheers mate!
Seen these guys live and they are talented , Neil was a monster and had a drum set that was three kits with a xylophone to make the bell sounds you heard and a huge gong. Great video 🤘
Saw Rush live in 2001 for the first time. I think I bought my first Rush album in 80/81, so 20 years prior, Previously, I thought they were nerdy cool. Then I realized how good they were.
This is a live recording from 1980. Back then, Neil had orchestra bells tucked under his concert times just left of the hi-hat. In later years he substituted a MalletKAT. But, same thing.
Neil was a perfectionist...Always wanted to go about and beyond. I actually have a Rush Neil Peart transcription book of his drum parts note for note and book of bass guitar transcription
In the mid-70s up to about 1980 I was able to see them live four times. One time I had purposely bought backstage up high tickets so I could watch him play drums. I'm not a drummer or a guitarist, but I really enjoyed their music and that concert was great.
Thanks for these Rush reactions. I have been a Rush fan from the early 80's back in my university days. I saw the live in the early nineties but always preferred the 70/80s stuff. Although I did not stop listening to them I ended up only going back to what I have loved and missing out on the later stuff as family life dominated. These videos you have made have rekindled my passion for them and I have started going through the back catalogue from Permanent Waves. What your videos have reminded me and I don't think I fully appreciated is the craft these 3 showed. It was so effortless you forget how technically gifted they all are. While I can't see them live anymore I can appreciate the full back catalogue. For you, you get the joy of listening to all this for the first time, very lucky indeed.
I believe all the 32nd notes are singles. He had mentioned in an interview that early in their career it was explained to him that certain stockings don’t translate to big PA’s very well. I believe this was mentioned on his “Taking Center Stage” video. The bells, in this performance, played on his MALI-Kat
They didn’t use click tracks much, but as some of music became more keyboard oriented, they used early sequencers. If you look at shows like Grace Under Pressure, you’ll sometimes see he uses headphones so he could hear them so he’d be in time. Then came along in ear monitors with customizable mixes which made it so much easier. Well, something like that.
When talking about ghost notes or similar things where the volume has them blending in or being lost among other things.... keep in mind this particular recording is from a live concert, and the microphone setup may not have been as precise as in a studio. They set up the mics and run through sound checks, but there's some variance amongst the shows. FYI, it wasn't until much much later in his career that Neil used improvisation in the songs. For most of his career, he was very compositional, and never wanted to repeat the same things during songs. That's why it sound so organic and not cut-and-paste. He'd listen to a song, figure out not only which beats and rhythms would work, but which melodies and effects could bring out the song the best, and compose his percussion. Towards the last few albums, he'd be more improvisation. He'd take the recordings of Alex and Geddy and play it several times, improvising, then go back and figure out what he liked best and mix and match pieces to get what he liked and have it feel a bit more spontaneous (since each piece was originally spontaneous). Also, the producer would stand in front of him and direct him like a composer. You'll hear differences in his style as time progresses, as you should. You should give "Vapor Trail" from "Vapor Trails Remixed" a listen. It's got wonderful drumming.
He alternates the hirtas. Sometimes they are 2 32nd notes followed by 16the and sometimes they are 3 16th note triplets followed by regular 16th notes. I could write easier than verbally describing it
The steady four on the bass in the chorus part is incredibly precise. I'm not a percussionist, I was a trumpet guy for many, many years, but I've been around long enough to know that maintaining a steady, consistent four beat like that seems easy on the surface, but a lot of players are not very attentive, so it gets uneven/sloppy. Neil could NEVER be accused of being inattentive.
And the Glock that you here is not an overdub. He plays it on and electric glock to his left. Everything is live. He used to have a acoustic one years ago but now with technology he can assign all percussive instruments to that electronic unit called a CAT I believe
@Andrew You thought THIS was “complex drumming” eh? Well.... SOMEBODY’s gotta break it to ya’ so, it might as well be me, that this was by FAR a good example of one of Neil’s simplest, most basic drumming routines in his enormous repertoire. Neil Is a thrill-seeker’s drummer. (I’m a closet- thriller and can’t get enough either!! lol) Good.Luck in your Peart/RUSH discoveries👋 The
I saw in an interview with a concert sound engineer who said that Rush was one of the few bands he worked with that never used a click track. And as far as the way that Neil composed his drums, he would more often than not play the the choruses, verses, and fills differently each time within the same song, not like a lot of the predictable, canned music that you hear too often.
I'm pretty sure there is a triggered synth part in this song that Neil has to be in perfect synch with when it comes in or it results in a bit of a train wreck, so there is extra pressure in this song to be spot on. Neil mentions that in the Taking Center Stage DVD. I do think there is one exception to the no click track rule (just like one exception to no overdubs). In Red Sector A there is something (don't know if it's a click or what exactly) Neil has to play in synch with. I recall Neil mentioning it somewhere, but I don't know where. In one of those live 80s videos, I know Neil switches from in ear monitors to headphones for that song which seems to offer some visual evidence of this.
Any live version of "Marathon" is a win for me, especially the full version from the "A Show of Hands" tour (there's an edited "single" version of that one, it sucks, skip it for the full version).
Generally speaking, I think Neil preferred single stroke rolls on his fills. Unless he was playing on two (or more) different drums and needed to get a certain pattern from the sticking (See: Scars), he pretty much stuck to the singles. Laboriously, I might add. I remember some interview I saw with him where he was talking about how he would hit so hard, and [paraphrasing here] he'd play singles, because he didn't want the faster fills to sound muddy. Everything it's own hit with it's own crisp note kind of thought. I think. I don't think anything was a RULE with Neil. So I'm sure someone might jump in here and point out 47 different times he didn't play singles, but in general, that's what I observed and have heard.
HEY ANDREW. DONT KNOW IF YOU KNOW THIS BOUT NEIL. BUT THAT BELL / RIDE PATTERN YOU HEAR HIM PLAY IN THIS SONG.. THAT IS A CLASSIC SIGNATURE NEIL PEART RIDE PATTERN. YOU WILL HEAR HIM PLAY IT IN OTHER SONGS 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
My other favorite drummer is Carter Beauford, I am pretty sure I spelled it right, his playing has so many, accents, I don’t know the right term. The beat has all these accents squeezed in that just amaze the listener. Check him out!
Yeah, no overdubs...he plays those bells on a pad (tympani?) live. Been a fan for 40+ years...and a guitar player. I STILL can’t get the guitar intro to this song...spent 20 years trying. Lol!
I know all of nothing about playing the drums, but I do play (attempt to) play acoustic guitar for about 20 years. I've never paid attention to time signatures because I've never taken a class in my life, but I've worn out many a tape learning a Led Zepplin, Doors, Dave Matthews, Animals, whomever song. I've always just gone with the feel of the song. That and when you play by yourself it's sooooo boring to play the same thing over and over again. So you just make stuff up. Slower, faster, whatever. But I never knew that there was a time signature thing. lol
First time listening to isolated drum tracks. You noticed the first time there was a lag or dropped beat in his playing and called it out, but there were several odd moments like that in the second half. Maybe you weren't sure if it was you or Neil, but I'm sure you've gone back over it and found out the truth. Neil was indeed, human. Mistake? Not really sure, but I hope the amount of Rush subscribers here doesn't keep you from addressing these in a positive way. One cannot be metronomic every single time. Enjoyed this! Thanks!
He played those fills as singles as far as I can tell, and the Glock is most definitely not an overdub. I can’t think of any drum overdubs in Rush’s music; I doubt Neil would have ever gone for that
FYI, I commented above that I know of one. The cowbell in Witch Hunt. They originally never intended to play it live. Once Neil was able to trigger it electronically with his left foot that allowed them to play it live. He talks about that in Taking Center Stage DVD.
No click (he generally hated click as mentioned by me elsewhere, used it rarely for only a few songs ever), and no overdub on the "bells/glock/marimba/whatever" sounds, he has (had, prior to the midiKat controller combining functions digitally) all the instruments around him in the kit, including tubular bells, glock, chimes all over, bell trees, temple blocks, whatever you hear, prior to around 84, was physical instruments played in the performances.
Oops, sorry, Mark Milner said almost literally the same thing below my post, LOL, guess I should have scrolled down a little, sorry. Legendary to watch live in concert, my best seat ever was stage left, 2nd row of seats (literally just a few feet from the stage left equipment stacks, and an incredibly perfect view of the stage being about 8ft off the floor. That was Presto tour, with the giant (15-20ft tall) white rabbits that came out of the hats stage left and right, and at one point several stagehands came out from behind them, and "rocked the rabbits" with the song (long ago, but if I recall I think it was Superconductor when they did that particular rocking rabbit move, LOL)... always a fun show. The Clockwork Angels was amazing, the light rigs moving dynamically with the music, including sets of lights all over in rows that "flapped their wings" slowly in time as if angels were flying over the stage, was "wow"... (and the lighting during a rain sequence, truly looked like rain slashing in unison with the rear projection as the little sparks of light caught the arena fog). Definitely the most moving staging I've ever seen, although the lighting on the "A Show of Hands" version of La Villa Strangiato was very well done as well. One other tour (don't remember which, maybe Test for Echo) they had all the lights lights in rings from overhead, drop "down" in layers during Temples of Syrinx, basically making a "Temple" effect on the performance. Some of these things are so subtle, and sometimes position-dependent, that I think they are missed from certain locations in the arenas, but just amazing the details that they put into performances besides their own amazing musical performances.
This sounds like a live track. Some of the drumming is slightly different than the studio version. Also, the faint guitar and vocals are slightly different than the studio version. Anyone agree?
6:56 the tempo reset, I'd guess, is from two different performances spliced together. The version here, I'm pretty sure, is the version off the live album Exit... Stage Left. And I know there were several different locations recorded there. It might be that they preferred the back half of the song from Location B and the first half from Location A or whatever. This just being my opinion here: Exit... Stage Left is one of my least favorite live albums because of this. I know it's in the sacred golden era of Rush, but it was basically treated as close to a studio album as possible, with the audience mixed out, and fades into and out of the tracks. It didn't feel live. Neil would really play the glockenspiel live. But it's highly likely that it is overdubbed in this version because they thought the original live audio wasn't perfect enough. And that kind of thing bothers me. Just give me the live performance, warts and all. They ditched this style of live recording as time went on, until you get to Rush in Rio, where it was so raw the Boomers' precious ears couldn't handle an enthusiastic Brazillian crowd. My favorite Rush era was after Neil took lessons from jazz drummer Freddie Gruber. 1993 - onwards. Which makes me something of a pariah on Rush forums lol
Until I played in a band with a drummer who was a huge Rush head (and good enough to pull off a lot ofNeil's stuff, I never appreciated how damned funky Peart's drumming was at times.
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Hey guys! Thanks so much for watching. Here is the Rush Playlist. All the Rush songs I have watched... so far :)
ruclips.net/p/PLqspKksRqaUVia4e736aSQdeyr_KIN-hI
* I realized afterward that the links I had been sent were studio and live (isolated).
So yes I assumed the glock part was a studio overdub. Live yes, you can do that. Wouldn't be normal to lay that down in a studio setting at the same time as a drum track.
Killer isolation for a live concert though. WOW!
Have a great day everyone!
Watching Neil play Mystic Rhythms flawlessly at the Compaq Center in ‘92 blew me away. I didn’t get to see the video so I had no idea it was just him and not sequencers. Now that I’ve heard this isolated track, I have to go relearn The Spirit Of Radio. Ta.
Every time you say “click” or “ overdub” when discussing Neil’s playing a Rush fan immediately dies from outrage while another Rush fan silently sheds a tear. Please end this needless suffering.
The glockenspiel is not an overdub, he plays that live on his electronic pad.
He played it on the electric pad on later tours but I think he actually did play it on a glockenspiel live in their earlier tours.
Early on, he had a real glockenspiel as part of his kit. Later on, he added the MalletKat to replace it, which allowed him to not only play glockenspiel parts, but to trigger other percussion and "keyboard" sounds in a much simpler, more compact format. Great piece of technology if you can afford one.
Thanks for the info!
I was lucky enough to see them live four times between 1988-2004, sadly didn’t get to any shows after that. One of the best live acts of all time.
EVERYTHING, every chime, ding, crack, ping and all the booms you hear is Neil Peart.
Now go click on the correct video and you'll definitely hear why I say that on this recording is someone else. You can tell he's playing a different set. The overall sound his give is a much more rich and maybe somber tone. Plus Neil being the composer of his outlines is much smoother in the transitions
Subdivisions? You know what we are going to say.
Doesn't know Rush
Also Mentions Subdivisions...
Do it
@@twistdhood2
😂 After one of Andrew’s early Rush reactions, he posted one called Subdivisions.
I got so excited until I started watching and it was a drum lesson. It was a nice drum lessons, but not what I was expecting.
😊
Yes ....favorite Rush song and the one I most connect with
Sub-di-visions. There is a video of Neil playing completely isolated drums from this song. And back in the day it was a big leap in Neil's evolution as a drummer. After Moving Pictures and throughout the 80's Neil showed a remarkable progress in his compositional style. He was aiming to excellence all the time. Nowadays in Rock drumming some things are taken from granted, but back in the day, Neil was almost breaking ground.
@@enriquemora9272 It seems like they experimented a lot in their compositions. And music and a wider audience eventually caught up with them.
He used to have (around the time Permanent Waves was recorded) a touring (and studio) kit that included a glockenspiel, along with tubular bells, chimes, wood blocks, etc. A lot of that was replaced with midi controllers, to make room for more drums, cymbals, etc. I don’t know if it was overdubs on the album, but I’ve seen him play that part live several times, while holding down the quarter notes on the bass drum. He was a phenomenon, more than just a drummer. Seeing them live was always amazing.
Excellent Mark!
Yep. He may not have played it live in the studio, but I've seen him play it live on stage in person many times. First it was a glockenspiel, then he moved on to electronic versions, starting with (I believe) a MalletKat in the late 80s.
Ditto. He played that part. It pissed me off when he started using the midi thing in lieu of the actual glockenspiel (and especially the chimes - there was something very special about him turning, standing, and playing the chimes with the mallet). Still, he was playing it!
In a couple of interviews on The Drum Channel, Neil has noted how his role as lyricist gave him a unique advantage - to be able to build drum parts knowing where there are opportunities to accent lyrics with pauses, time changes and fills.
100% Roger!
Neil's ghost note game is comparatively recent: he only really started emphasizing them after working with Freddie Gruber (basically he felt he was in a total rut in the early nineties, so he got a recommendation from (if I remember correctly) Steve Smith of Journey that he should work with Gruber, who was an old-time confidant of Gene Krupa among other jazz drumming greats). For a year he basically relearned how to drum (this after already having been winning "drummer of the year" awards for the best part of 20 years!) from scratch: doing rudiments on a practice pad, more or less completely reimagining the architecture of the kit, and even changing to traditional grip after decades of nearly exclusive matched grip. For the tours since then, the older songs have had their drum parts somewhat reimagined with a looser but still feeling the pulse feel.
So as a bass player, I was amazed by those ghost notes. I saw him play this live and realized he's not using a double-kick pedal for that part. He just uses one foot. That might not be a big deal to drummers, but it floored me that he was able to do it so cleanly and fast.
position of your foot allows the petal to kind of use the hammer to swing 2 times, its precision to its finest just got to hit the right part of the petal. it allows for faster paced beats
RIP, Neil Elwood Peart. Gone, but never forgotten.
I didn’t realize how solid that groove was. Love it! Andrew
It's good stuff Rob!
First of all thanks for all of your videos. Love your channel! As a Rush fan of 30+ years it always makes me happy to see folks discover this amazing band. Neil is why I play drums. Your analysis of this song is great. I love the comment about his playing feeling organic, his parts changing with the music. Neil worked hard to not repeat patterns over and over in their songs. It's one of the things I most appreciated about the way he composed his parts. The small details are amazing. Keep up the good work Andrew!
Thank you!
In one of the concert DVDs (perhaps Rio), there is an interview with their monitor engineer. He almost functions as a fourth member. The monitors were programmed to switch feeds from moment to moment based upon the requirements of the song. It sounded in description as a very intricate dance intended to avoid train wrecks.
Love the Rush stuff
His playing is so tasty. Always the perfect fill and grove for every song. So clean! His toms seem to be tuned lower than in the old days, here. I love listening to his isolated lines.
The ghost notes in this song remind me of those in La Villa Strangiato.
Love to see ya play
Neil's quickness and agility allowed Alex and Geddy to really explore and expand they're sound and song writing, which opened up a unique sound live. You are absolutely correct when you mentioned the fact that we did wonder how they were going to pull it off live, no doubt, BUT THEY DID, EVERY TIME!
Being very fortunate, I witnessed 16 0f my 24 live shows between 1975 and 1982, and after every album I purchased, there was A NEED to experience it live, at all costs, as I mentioned before, they had an extra gear they could lach onto, and display it live CONSISTENTLY! Bytor and the snow dog (studio version) Andy, PLEASE! First album with Neil, one the first songs they wrote together, EYE OPENER in 1975! Thank you so much for the reactions Andy, it's very much appreciated
Thanks Paul!!
@@AndrewRooneyDrums I second that remark! And the song request too!! Be well!
Out of all, and there is a lot, Rush songs, The Sprit of Radio is perhaps my favourite isolation drums.
Very good reaction to it. Thank you 😊
Cool, thanks Terri!
No, bells are not overdubs, but they are electronic in this live version. Originally it was probably a glockenspiel.
He definitely played that live.
Thank you!
That is him playing the bells it's on a xylophone.
I've been a Rush fan since the "Presto" era, but Neil's playing never ceases to amaze and confound me. The way he wrote and played his parts is absolutely stunning. He had the composition sense of a classical musician in a rock setting. Truly a spectacular drummer.
You keep mentioning "Subdivisions". Rush has a song called "Subdivisions". You gotta react to it. It's such a relatable song, especially for a former teenage introverted music geek like myself. 😁
Excellent Bradley. I'll check it out man!
@@AndrewRooneyDrums moreover subdivisions is one of the finest examples of intricate yet subtle drumming that is musical, contributing to the atmosphere of the song. Neil changes the drumming to modulate the song
He's playing single stroke "huertas", mixed with sixteenth notes in the opening drum fills. He utilizes the huerta a LOT in his playing. Also, he's playing the xylophone. You'll notice one bar at the beginning and end of those sections where he's not playing anything with his hands. That is when he'd swap his sticks for mallets to play the xylophone and then swap them back at the end of the section. As technology progressed, he replaced the xylophone with a MalletKat, and was able to play the MalletKat with his sticks.
So, having watched the Anatomy of a Drum Solo video set *(Highly Recommended to any drum enthusiast), there are times when he is double sticking rhythms and other times he's single sticking, regardless of the note.
I personally think his when writing for his songs, he is making conscious choices about what patterns and what sticking his drum work play will be such that he arrives at the other end in a manner to be deliberate. Think of it very much of the same thing pianists go through figuring out what fingers to use on runs to manage crossovers and end up where you don't tangle yourself up and can reach the next notes.
His composition on all of his songs has a narrative and progression, rather than the wash/rinse/repeat of lesser drummers. The addition of the electronic equipment just expanded his repertoires of available sounds that he at his disposal to further expand the overall soundscape. I remember hearing all the flack that was generated when the electronic equipment entered his kit, there were some that quipped that he was a traitor to tradition. Their 40 career proved otherwise. Honor Neil by celebrating him.
I was about to switch off and go to bed when you posted this - so looks like I'll be staying up a little longer :)
I’ve been really enjoying the videos about Rush, I never really saw reactions to Neil before. As a “guitarist” I thought I knew a bit about percussion and rhythm, but you have shown me I actually know very little. It’s pretty amazing to hear the intricacies and creativity he had when you break it down in your videos. Great job!
Great reaction as usual Andrew. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it Enrique!
Every thing you hear on the record was reproduced by the three of them, and only the three of them, in concert. Neal was very compositionally oriented and had to play it perfectly each time, as did Alex and Geddy. Rehearsed to the point of over-rehearsed, they were amazingly impressive live.
Neil was the drummer that inspired me to want to play the drums. I did not realize the ghost notes Neil was playing on this song until i heard this isolated version. Now i cant play this song without them, It is critical to the groove and feel of the song. All the high concert tom work and the majority of his 32nd fills are all singles, thats what gives them that driving power, and crispness. When you play doubles, sometimes that "Crispness and power" can get lost. Best example of tom fills with doubles by Neil is on the Overture of Hemispheres and also the finale fills on " Losing it" from Signals that are in a 5/8 time signature. I love your channel Andy. For a very accomplished drummer, you are incredibly humble. I love that about you my KIWI friend! I hope to meet you someday and jam. Cheers mate!
Seen these guys live and they are talented , Neil was a monster and had a drum set that was three kits with a xylophone to make the bell sounds you heard and a huge gong. Great video 🤘
He was the single stroke master!
Saw Rush live in 2001 for the first time. I think I bought my first Rush album in 80/81, so 20 years prior, Previously, I thought they were nerdy cool. Then I realized how good they were.
Awesome Brian
This is a live recording from 1980. Back then, Neil had orchestra bells tucked under his concert times just left of the hi-hat. In later years he substituted a MalletKAT. But, same thing.
Thanks for the info!
Hello from Moosomin ,Saskatchewan, Canada Great videos you put out.
Neil was a perfectionist...Always wanted to go about and beyond. I actually have a Rush Neil Peart transcription book of his drum parts note for note and book of bass guitar transcription
I love love love Neil peart
I wouldn't have needed the title to recognize this song from that drum intro.
In the mid-70s up to about 1980 I was able to see them live four times. One time I had purposely bought backstage up high tickets so I could watch him play drums. I'm not a drummer or a guitarist, but I really enjoyed their music and that concert was great.
Thanks for these Rush reactions. I have been a Rush fan from the early 80's back in my university days. I saw the live in the early nineties but always preferred the 70/80s stuff. Although I did not stop listening to them I ended up only going back to what I have loved and missing out on the later stuff as family life dominated. These videos you have made have rekindled my passion for them and I have started going through the back catalogue from Permanent Waves. What your videos have reminded me and I don't think I fully appreciated is the craft these 3 showed. It was so effortless you forget how technically gifted they all are. While I can't see them live anymore I can appreciate the full back catalogue. For you, you get the joy of listening to all this for the first time, very lucky indeed.
Peart is playing orchestra bells in the chorus--on an electronic pad in live performances of later years.
I believe all the 32nd notes are singles. He had mentioned in an interview that early in their career it was explained to him that certain stockings don’t translate to big PA’s very well. I believe this was mentioned on his “Taking Center Stage” video. The bells, in this performance, played on his MALI-Kat
Wow. Nice info Steve. Yes power singles translate great in big venues
Typo correction, sticking, not stockings😂
Ain't no overdub. It's amazing to see...
Great analysis, love it!
Legend has it that the modern click track was recorded to Neil on The Spirit of Radio
A lot of his rolls of that nature are a combo of singles and doubles. he's really good at combining both
They didn’t use click tracks much, but as some of music became more keyboard oriented, they used early sequencers. If you look at shows like Grace Under Pressure, you’ll sometimes see he uses headphones so he could hear them so he’d be in time. Then came along in ear monitors with customizable mixes which made it so much easier.
Well, something like that.
Neil is known for his impeccable orchestrations on drums
When talking about ghost notes or similar things where the volume has them blending in or being lost among other things.... keep in mind this particular recording is from a live concert, and the microphone setup may not have been as precise as in a studio. They set up the mics and run through sound checks, but there's some variance amongst the shows. FYI, it wasn't until much much later in his career that Neil used improvisation in the songs. For most of his career, he was very compositional, and never wanted to repeat the same things during songs. That's why it sound so organic and not cut-and-paste. He'd listen to a song, figure out not only which beats and rhythms would work, but which melodies and effects could bring out the song the best, and compose his percussion. Towards the last few albums, he'd be more improvisation. He'd take the recordings of Alex and Geddy and play it several times, improvising, then go back and figure out what he liked best and mix and match pieces to get what he liked and have it feel a bit more spontaneous (since each piece was originally spontaneous). Also, the producer would stand in front of him and direct him like a composer. You'll hear differences in his style as time progresses, as you should. You should give "Vapor Trail" from "Vapor Trails Remixed" a listen. It's got wonderful drumming.
Thanks for the great comments there Robert!
One of my favourite live drums tracks ever this is!!! Almost prefer this drum track than the studio version
Wow just wow
Cool isn't it!
I've seen him play the glockenspiel part 17 times live, first time on a real glockenspiel.
Another great review Andrew and maybe not quite a fan yet but I feel the respect....it will come
He alternates the hirtas. Sometimes they are 2 32nd notes followed by 16the and sometimes they are 3 16th note triplets followed by regular 16th notes. I could write easier than verbally describing it
Yup I understand you fully Paul
They are all singles. Per Joe on Taking Center stage transcription
Excellent. Thank you Paulie!
All love. All Neil
Try Neil Peart & The Buddy Rich Big Band 1994 "Cotton Tail" Drum Solo
the ghost notes are strong, Gavin does that for the volume, he said that is about the loud sound of the band
Right on!
Bravado is one of neil's best song on drums
Digital Man live drum cam next please
The steady four on the bass in the chorus part is incredibly precise. I'm not a percussionist, I was a trumpet guy for many, many years, but I've been around long enough to know that maintaining a steady, consistent four beat like that seems easy on the surface, but a lot of players are not very attentive, so it gets uneven/sloppy. Neil could NEVER be accused of being inattentive.
Great video 😎👏👏👏🇨🇦👍🏻🥂
Thanks Robert! 👍
Tremendous!
Love it!
1:37 No, this is not Subdivisions, it's Spirit of Radio :)
And the Glock that you here is not an overdub. He plays it on and electric glock to his left. Everything is live. He used to have a acoustic one years ago but now with technology he can assign all percussive instruments to that electronic unit called a CAT I believe
@Andrew You thought THIS was “complex drumming” eh? Well.... SOMEBODY’s gotta break it to ya’ so, it might as well be me, that this was by FAR a good example of one of Neil’s simplest, most basic drumming routines in his enormous repertoire. Neil
Is a thrill-seeker’s drummer. (I’m a closet- thriller and can’t get enough either!! lol)
Good.Luck in your Peart/RUSH discoveries👋
The
I saw in an interview with a concert sound engineer who said that Rush was one of the few bands he worked with that never used a click track. And as far as the way that Neil composed his drums, he would more often than not play the the choruses, verses, and fills differently each time within the same song, not like a lot of the predictable, canned music that you hear too often.
Fantastic!
I'm pretty sure there is a triggered synth part in this song that Neil has to be in perfect synch with when it comes in or it results in a bit of a train wreck, so there is extra pressure in this song to be spot on. Neil mentions that in the Taking Center Stage DVD. I do think there is one exception to the no click track rule (just like one exception to no overdubs). In Red Sector A there is something (don't know if it's a click or what exactly) Neil has to play in synch with. I recall Neil mentioning it somewhere, but I don't know where. In one of those live 80s videos, I know Neil switches from in ear monitors to headphones for that song which seems to offer some visual evidence of this.
@@_DriveTime I believe i heard he also used a click on "The Weapon" from Signals.
Always bang on live
Marathon or digital man live drum cam....trust me!
Any live version of "Marathon" is a win for me, especially the full version from the "A Show of Hands" tour (there's an edited "single" version of that one, it sucks, skip it for the full version).
Thanks Pasquale!
Marathon is such an underrated track! Great tune
Generally speaking, I think Neil preferred single stroke rolls on his fills. Unless he was playing on two (or more) different drums and needed to get a certain pattern from the sticking (See: Scars), he pretty much stuck to the singles. Laboriously, I might add.
I remember some interview I saw with him where he was talking about how he would hit so hard, and [paraphrasing here] he'd play singles, because he didn't want the faster fills to sound muddy. Everything it's own hit with it's own crisp note kind of thought. I think.
I don't think anything was a RULE with Neil. So I'm sure someone might jump in here and point out 47 different times he didn't play singles, but in general, that's what I observed and have heard.
Yup that makes total sense Brendan
Neil Peart is really good with "Subdivisions"... just listen to "Subdivisions"!
Theeeeee best.
Glockenspiel are played live. They set to the left of his setup
Amazing!
HEY ANDREW. DONT KNOW IF YOU KNOW THIS BOUT NEIL. BUT THAT BELL / RIDE PATTERN YOU HEAR HIM PLAY IN THIS SONG.. THAT IS A CLASSIC SIGNATURE NEIL PEART RIDE PATTERN. YOU WILL HEAR HIM PLAY IT IN OTHER SONGS 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
My other favorite drummer is Carter Beauford, I am pretty sure I spelled it right, his playing has so many, accents, I don’t know the right term. The beat has all these accents squeezed in that just amaze the listener. Check him out!
You should def. check out Jimmy Pino's "cowards deathbed" drums play through!!!
Thanks Dylan!
unlike other drummers, peart 'went for it' on the albums, not just live on stage.
Back in the day Rush fans were called Rush nerds because they were so technical.
🤣👌
Yeah, no overdubs...he plays those bells on a pad (tympani?) live. Been a fan for 40+ years...and a guitar player. I STILL can’t get the guitar intro to this song...spent 20 years trying. Lol!
The intro is gnarly!
neil peart in rio please.awesome
I've done one or 2 from that gig!
It's called a midi Katt orchestra bells
Thanks Paulie!
Recommendations: Rush - Freewill, Led Zeppelin- Achilles Last Stand :)
I've done Achilles Walter!
And will certainly get to Freewill!
🤔 Me: 🤷🏿♀️ No Subdivisions yet? 🐰
Rush Family: 🙄 We're waiting too...
Me: 🤦🏿♀️ I know, be patient. It's coming 🐰
7:00 As far as I know Rush didn't start using click tracks until 3 albums after this with Grace Under Pressure.
Thanks for the info
I’m not a drummer. It sounds like magic to me.
I know all of nothing about playing the drums, but I do play (attempt to) play acoustic guitar for about 20 years. I've never paid attention to time signatures because I've never taken a class in my life, but I've worn out many a tape learning a Led Zepplin, Doors, Dave Matthews, Animals, whomever song. I've always just gone with the feel of the song. That and when you play by yourself it's sooooo boring to play the same thing over and over again. So you just make stuff up. Slower, faster, whatever. But I never knew that there was a time signature thing. lol
I think you would really enjoy reacting to Freewill.
I'm sure I'll get there Shaune!
Haha. You said Subdivisions.
I did!
I'm sure I'll get to that Rush track too! hehe
Do you plan on doing anything from their late 80s / early 90s years? Power Windows, Hold Your Fire and Presto are my favorite albums of theirs.
Honestly. I plan on doing the damn lot!
Power Windows is a very underrated album
rush-lock and key
Thank you!
First time listening to isolated drum tracks. You noticed the first time there was a lag or dropped beat in his playing and called it out, but there were several odd moments like that in the second half. Maybe you weren't sure if it was you or Neil, but I'm sure you've gone back over it and found out the truth. Neil was indeed, human. Mistake? Not really sure, but I hope the amount of Rush subscribers here doesn't keep you from addressing these in a positive way. One cannot be metronomic every single time. Enjoyed this! Thanks!
He played those fills as singles as far as I can tell, and the Glock is most definitely not an overdub. I can’t think of any drum overdubs in Rush’s music; I doubt Neil would have ever gone for that
FYI, I commented above that I know of one. The cowbell in Witch Hunt. They originally never intended to play it live. Once Neil was able to trigger it electronically with his left foot that allowed them to play it live. He talks about that in Taking Center Stage DVD.
@@_DriveTime Ahhh yes, I forgot about witch hunt!
This is light years ahead of Led Zepplin
Very different vibe yes!
No, it's orchestrated music. Zeppelin is improvisation over a structure.
Red Barchetta studio version
Yes
"It's gotta be an overdub right?" Not when Neil Peart does it
I think playing complex drum parts in a band would be harder than playing any of the other instruments. And I play guitar and keyboards.
No click (he generally hated click as mentioned by me elsewhere, used it rarely for only a few songs ever), and no overdub on the "bells/glock/marimba/whatever" sounds, he has (had, prior to the midiKat controller combining functions digitally) all the instruments around him in the kit, including tubular bells, glock, chimes all over, bell trees, temple blocks, whatever you hear, prior to around 84, was physical instruments played in the performances.
Oops, sorry, Mark Milner said almost literally the same thing below my post, LOL, guess I should have scrolled down a little, sorry. Legendary to watch live in concert, my best seat ever was stage left, 2nd row of seats (literally just a few feet from the stage left equipment stacks, and an incredibly perfect view of the stage being about 8ft off the floor. That was Presto tour, with the giant (15-20ft tall) white rabbits that came out of the hats stage left and right, and at one point several stagehands came out from behind them, and "rocked the rabbits" with the song (long ago, but if I recall I think it was Superconductor when they did that particular rocking rabbit move, LOL)... always a fun show.
The Clockwork Angels was amazing, the light rigs moving dynamically with the music, including sets of lights all over in rows that "flapped their wings" slowly in time as if angels were flying over the stage, was "wow"... (and the lighting during a rain sequence, truly looked like rain slashing in unison with the rear projection as the little sparks of light caught the arena fog). Definitely the most moving staging I've ever seen, although the lighting on the "A Show of Hands" version of La Villa Strangiato was very well done as well.
One other tour (don't remember which, maybe Test for Echo) they had all the lights lights in rings from overhead, drop "down" in layers during Temples of Syrinx, basically making a "Temple" effect on the performance.
Some of these things are so subtle, and sometimes position-dependent, that I think they are missed from certain locations in the arenas, but just amazing the details that they put into performances besides their own amazing musical performances.
This sounds like a live track. Some of the drumming is slightly different than the studio version. Also, the faint guitar and vocals are slightly different than the studio version. Anyone agree?
Chimes you hear are not overdubs,….it’s ALL Neil. He he had xylophone at side of kit. He changed to digital set up in later albums
6:56 the tempo reset, I'd guess, is from two different performances spliced together. The version here, I'm pretty sure, is the version off the live album Exit... Stage Left. And I know there were several different locations recorded there. It might be that they preferred the back half of the song from Location B and the first half from Location A or whatever.
This just being my opinion here: Exit... Stage Left is one of my least favorite live albums because of this. I know it's in the sacred golden era of Rush, but it was basically treated as close to a studio album as possible, with the audience mixed out, and fades into and out of the tracks. It didn't feel live.
Neil would really play the glockenspiel live. But it's highly likely that it is overdubbed in this version because they thought the original live audio wasn't perfect enough. And that kind of thing bothers me. Just give me the live performance, warts and all.
They ditched this style of live recording as time went on, until you get to Rush in Rio, where it was so raw the Boomers' precious ears couldn't handle an enthusiastic Brazillian crowd.
My favorite Rush era was after Neil took lessons from jazz drummer Freddie Gruber. 1993 - onwards. Which makes me something of a pariah on Rush forums lol
Wow. Fantastic comments. Thanks for the info!
Until I played in a band with a drummer who was a huge Rush head (and good enough to pull off a lot ofNeil's stuff, I never appreciated how damned funky Peart's drumming was at times.
Drummers use metronomes to keep perfect time.....metronomes use Neil Peart
HAHA Jim!
Not a chance, he's playing the xylophone also. It may be a digital xylophone, but he is playing it!!