Neil Peart September 12, 1952 - January 7, 2020 pic.twitter.com/NivX2RhiB8
— Rush (@rushtheband) January 10, 2020
Though Neil Peart passed away Tuesday, we only found out late on Friday afternoon. The long-time Rush drummer passed away at 67 after a 3½ year battle with glioblastoma.
The Neil Peart retirement lasted a little more than 4 years. The Rush retirement has been about 2 years old. The retirement felt like a sad reality. Lots of rock and roll bands retire to then go back and unretire. Even in 2018, you felt like this was real.
Rush fans know Peart joined the group in July 1974. Peart became the band's lyricist, taking the band and their fans in a new and exciting direction.
I had arranged a theoretical Canadian dinner party based on the contribution of words. I included Peart along with Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, and Jacqueline Hennessy. Peart and Cohen have passed on, leaving a legacy of poetry all its own.
Neil Peart was also an author. His non-fiction work focuses on his travel experiences — Peart was an avid motorcycle rider. Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road might have been his most significant work where Peart goes into the death of his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, in a car accident in 1997, and his wife, Jackie, who died of cancer 10 months after the accident.
Peart also worked on fiction novelizations of Rush's 2012 album Clockwork Angels.
The most Canadian thing I did in 2019 outside Canada was on August 21 when Cinema Strangiato 2019: An Annual Exercise In Fan Indulgence was shown in multiple cities in movie theatres. The concert footage went backward chronologically through their song catalogue. There were other fun tidbits in between songs showing off their humour.
The second most Canadian thing was check out the crowd waiting for the book signing for Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book Of Bass.
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If you got a chance to see Rush live in concert, be truly thankful. If you didn't, there are lots of recordings live and studio to enjoy.
If you weren't into Rush, appreciate that Neil Peart was a wordsmith and one of the most talented people at his craft.
Twitter capture: @Rushtheband
photo credit: Rolling Stone magazine
video credit: YouTube/Rush
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