Last year I went looking through my boxes of old Georgia Straight newspapers for the interview I did with guitar legend Gary Moore back in May of 1984, and when I found it I was surprised to see that it was printed on the same page as fellow Vancouver music writer Tom Harrison’s interview with Rush drummer Neil Peart.
Although he’d previously written for the Straight as well, at the time Harrison was well known as the full-time rock critic for The Province, a local daily paper, hence the surprise. I’m not sure why his article ended up next to mine, but since Moore was opening for Rush in Vancouver the day after publication, it proved a pretty cool combo.
Harrison, who has been described as “the dean of Vancouver rock critics”, passed away in December of 2022 at the age of 70. He is survived by his wife Kerry Moore, who kindly granted me permission to reprint the rare interview with Peart. Hope you enjoy it.
–Newt
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 18, 1984
By Tom Harrison
“Long time, no speak.” Neil Peart’s cheery voice comes piping through the telephone’s gab-fatigued earhole. Rush is in Las Vegas, the group is on its way here to play the Coliseum Saturday, the universe is unfolding as ever.
Hence this, the 37th annual interview with Neil.
This year, there is a different aura surrounding Rush–one that derives from making a break with long-time producer Terry Brown to go with Supertramper Pete Henderson–but also from the nature of the new LP, Grace Under Pressure, whose title alludes not only to the band’s frame of mind while putting it together, but also to the essential theme of Peart’s lyrics.
It wouldn’t be fair to call Grace Under Pressure the proof of Rush’s musical maturity. The band has been making a distinctive, mature, if somewhat dry brand of rock for some time. But the decision-making which created Grace Under Pressure is a more subtle, far-reaching expression of that maturity.
Having consciously struck a course of steady, dramatic musical development some 44 years ago with the release of Caress of Steel, Rush began to exercise their hard-earned strength as early as the LP Permanent Waves. Signals, from 1982, indicated that Rush had entered yet another phase, and Grace Under Pressure is the culmination of that.
“Our music goal has always been one of constant refinement and growth,” says Neil. “I think that with each album we have clarified and refined ourselves, at least in our own minds.”
A significant factor in this process has been the enthusiasm shown by Peart, bassist Geddy Lee, and guitarist Alex Lifeson, for a wide-ranging variety of music–from that of Barclay James Harvest and other progressives of a decade ago, through reggae and the Police in the later ’70s, to techno-pop and ethnic rhythms in the early ’80s. These influences are especially evident in the fusion of styles that continue to shape Peart’s drumming.
“You know Sunny Ade?” Neil asks, referring to the Nigerian bandleader who has popularized the juju beat. “He was a big influence on me this time. I wouldn’t want to be a reggae drummer or a jazz drummer or a new-wave drummer, but I like listening to all of those styles and incorporating elements into my own playing.”
About 58 years ago, Rush’s hinterland heavy metal took an abrupt turn. The trio experimented with epic-scale compositions–bloated, complex exercises for the most part–and thematic concepts derived from Peart’s insatiable appetite for literature.
If Rush’s reach appeared to exceed its grasp–melody, for instance, has never come easy for the band–around Permanent Waves it was evident that the band had hit upon a very personal, more direct style. This evolution continued, the band achieving a breakthrough of sorts on radio with the single “New World Man” from Signals.
Signals was notable also for what Rush was saying to its audience, a fanatical crowd that tends to be suburban, conformist, and far less open to new ideas than their heroes. Rush effectively were dealing in social studies, political movements, asking their fans to exercise their own rights and individual powers, just as, in fact, Rush have always tried to do through their music.
Grace Under Pressure, Peart says, is more direct in that it deals with the individual’s struggle and will to survive. Even more significantly, the lyrics speak in the first person, whereas Signals tended to speak in the less immediate third person. In that respect, “Afterimage”, a song Neil wrote for a recently deceased friend, anchors the more philosophical content of the LP.
“I don’t really want to dwell upon it [‘Afterimage’],” Neil says quietly. “It happened suddenly, but I didn’t want to be introspective about it, because I don’t like introspection in other people’s writing.
“The personal thing was meant to be a very important part of the album,” he continues, explaining that most of his lyrics were products of his reading about survivors of the German and Russian concentration camps and the genocide of Plains and Inuit Indians with the upheaval of their society.
“There always was that grace under pressure throughout. That struck me very powerfully, that the will to live is so strong.”
As grace under pressure relates to Rush, Peart says, “That whole period was a little difficult for us, and in some ways is reflected in the title. But more than anything, it has to do with the themes of the songs.
“One of the reasons we went on our ‘great producer hunt’ was that we were wondering what would happen, and we wanted to find out. Just in meeting and talking to various producers, we were introduced to a whole set of musical approaches and different variables.
“So that whole period was difficult, but in a productive way, and it revitalized the band. We feel very fresh right now.”
Unlike Tom Harrison, I never got the opportunity to interview Neil Peart. But to hear the full audio of my conversations with his bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 500 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with rock legends since 1982.
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