Neil Peart
Canadian-American drummer (1952–2020)
Neil Peart (September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian musician, writer, lyricist, and drummer for the band Rush.
Rush Lyrics
edit- How I prayed just to get away
To carry me anywhere
Sometimes the angels punish us
By answering our prayers
-- Carnies (2012) - ...if the music stops and there's only the sound of the rain
All the hope and glory -- All the sacrifice in vain
(And) If love remains, though everything is lost
We will pay the price, but we will not count the cost
-- Bravado (1991) - Like a steely blade in a silken sheath
We don't see what they're made of
They shout about love, but when push comes to shove
They live for the things they're afraid of
And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...
- The Weapon (Part II of 'Fear') (1982) - Sometimes I freeze...until the light comes
Sometimes I fly...into the night
Sometimes I fight...against the darkness
Sometimes I'm wrong...sometimes I'm right
-- Freeze (Part IV of 'Fear') (2002) - Wave after wave
Will flow with the tide
And bury the world as it does
Tide after tide
Will flow and recede
Leaving life to go on
As it was...
-- Natural Science (1980) - You don't get something for nothing
You can't have freedom for free.
You won't get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dream might be.
-- Something for Nothing (1976)
- There's no bread, let 'em eat cake
There's no end to what they'll take
Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
Wash the salt into the earth
-- Bastille Day (1975) - All the same we take our chances,
Laughed at by time, tricked by circumstances,
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose,
The more that things change, the more they stay the same.
-- Circumstances (1978) - A scorching blast of golden fire as it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound
-- Countdown (1982) - Features distorted in the flickering light
Faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right
Confident their ways are best
-- Witch Hunt (Part III of 'Fear') (1981) - I'm not looking back, but I want to look around me now.
-- Time Stand Still (1987) - Today is different, and tomorrow the same.
It's hard to take the world the way that it came.
Too many rapids keep us sweeping along.
Too many captains keep on steering us wrong.
It's hard to take the heat.
It's hard to lay blame.
To fight the fire, while we're feeding the flames.
-- Second Nature (1987) - Faith is cold as ice.
Why are little ones born only to suffer
for the want of immunity, or a bowl of rice?
Well, who would hold a price on the heads of the innocent children
if there's some immortal power to control the dice?
-- Roll The Bones (1991) - You move me, you move me.
with your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and Winter skies.
You move me, you move me.
Open sea and city lights, busy streets and dizzy heights.
You call me, you call me.
-- The Analog Kid (1982) - The middle aged madonna
calls her neighbor on the phone.
Day by day, the seasons pass
and leave her life alone.
But she'll go walking out that door
on some bright afternoon
to go and paint big cities
from a lonely attic room.
-- Middletown Dreams (1985) - Miracles will have their claimers
More will bow to Rome
He and she are in the house
But there's only me at home.
-- Anagram (For Mongo) (1989) - I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city
-- The Camera Eye (1981) - It takes a little more persistence to get up and go the distance
I'm not giving in
I'm not missing out
I'm not giving up on implausible dreams
-- The Enemy Within (Part I of 'Fear') (1984) - Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
-- Subdivisions (1982) - Cast in this unlikely role
Ill-equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact
-- Limelight (1981) - No hero in your tragedy,
No daring in your escape,
No salutes for your surrender,
Nothing noble in your fate,
Christ, what have you done?
-- The Pass (1989) - The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy
But I worry about you
I know it makes no difference
To what you’re going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you...
-- Distant Early Warning (1984) - Some are born to move the world, to live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be
Sadder still to watch it die, then never to have known it
For you, the blind who once could see
The bell tolls for thee...
-- Losing It (1982) - Anarchist reactionary, running-dog revisionist
Hindu, Muslim, Catholic creation, evolutionist
Rational, romantic, mystic, cynical, idealist
Minimal expressionist, post-modern neo-symbolist
Armchair rocket scientist, graffiti existentialist
Deconstruction primitive performance photo-realist
Be-bop or a one-drop or a hip-hop, lite-pop-metallist
Gold adult contemporary, urban country capitalist
-- You Bet Your Life (1991) - I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate, Are the liberators here?
Do I hope or do I fear?
For my father and my brother, it’s too late but I must help my mother stand up straight.
Are we the last ones left alive?
Are we the only human beings to survive?
-- Red Sector A (1984) - Wheels can take you around.
Wheels can cut you down.
We can go from boom to bust.
From dreams to a bowl of dust.
We can fall from rockets' red glare, down to "Brother can you spare..."
Another war.
Another wasteland.
And another lost generation
-- Between The Wheels (1984) - I set a course just east of Lyra
And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way
On my ship, the 'Rocinante'
Wheeling through the galaxies
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery
-- Cygnus X-1, Book One; The Voyage (1977) - They say there are strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves
-- Witch Hunt (Part III of 'Fear') (1980) - Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw
-- The Trees (1978) - Imagine a man when it all began
The pilot of 'Enola Gay'
Flying out of the shockwave on that August day
All the powers that be, and the course of history
Would be changed forevermore
-- Manhattan Project (1985) - We each pay a fabulous price
For our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision is a dream
With a mission
-- Mission (1987) - An ounce of perception, a pound of obscure
Process information at half speed
Pause, rewind, replay
Warm memory chip
Random sample, hold the one you need
-- Vital Signs (1981) - A planet of playthings
We dance on the strings of powers we cannot perceive
The stars aren't aligned or the gods are maligned
Blame is better to give than receive
-- Freewill (1980) - Life is just a candle, and a dream must give it flame...
-- The Fountain of Lamneth (1975) - Danger plus survival equals fun.
--From A Work in Progress - All the busy little creatures
chasing out their destinies.
Living in their pools
they soon forget about the sea...
-- Natural Science (1980) - A few guys with guns can spoil everything.
-- The Masked Rider (1996) - Everything in moderation, with occasional excess
-- Ghost Rider (2002) - To you, is it movement, or is it action?
Is it contact or just reaction?
And you, revolution, just resistance?
Is it living, or just existence?
-- The Enemy Within (Part I of 'Fear') (1984) - Adventures suck when you're having them.
-- Roadshow (2006) - How can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit
-- Turn The Page (1987) - Life is like an aimless river
The time is now again
-- Ceiling Unlimited (2002) - No one gets to their heaven without a fight
-- Armor and Sword (2007) - Quick to judge -- Quick to anger -- Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice and fear walk hand in hand
-- Witch Hunt (Part III of 'Fear') (1981) - When we are young
Wandering the face of the Earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning that we're only immortal
For a limited time
-- Dreamline (1991) - Unstable condition
A symptom of life
In mental and environmental change
Atmospheric disturbance
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange
-- Vital Signs (1981) - You can surrender
Without a prayer
But never really pray
Pray without surrender
You can fight
Without ever winning
But never ever win
Without a fight
-- Resist (1996)
Other
edit- Genius is the fire that lights itself. -Commenting on Buddy Rich.
- The secret to life is, you get up in the morning, and you go to work - from the book Travelling Music
- I can't play to that! - on Rock Band[1]
- Among the people whose thinking I like is Ayn Rand, but there are a whole lot of others. It's a kind of disciple mentality that people are applying to me that they think I applied to her and it's all wrong. I'm nobody's disciple and you know 'No god, no government' none of that, so I don't like it applied to me any more than to them.[1]
- I define my approach to each day I am given as, "What is the most excellent thing I can do today?" – from the book "Far and Near: On Days Like These"
