Stewart Copeland once joked that he is always minding his own business until an excitable fan approaches him and proclaims, ‘You’re my second favorite drummer of all time‘. According to him, Neil Peart is always the first. Fans of Copeland are not alone in this regard. Dave Grohl described Peart as a different “species of drummer”. Lars Ulrich claimed he was not “qualified” to play Rush fills.
However, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Peart’s musicianship was that he wasn’t just ‘the drummer’. He also wrote songs that highlighted his kit rather than keeping it in the background. This gave the Canadian bookworm perhaps the best vantage point to assess the full scope of drumming and those who maximized its potential. Thus, when Peart names the greatest, you’ve got to believe him.
For the revered Rush icon, one fellow drummer stood out from the crowd. Three years before his tragic death, Peart named jazz legend Buddy Rich the greatest drummer of all time. The modest musician not only spoke for himself. He also cited one of his fellow heroes. Peart quoted Gene Krupa, whom he described as “perhaps the only other candidate” for the title of best drummer ever. He said that Rich was “the greatest drummer ever to have drawn breath“.
Krupa even went so far as to put his peer in a league of his own, saying, “There are all the great drummers in the world—and then there’s Buddy“. This great appraisal of Rich’s work is widely regarded. He was a natural sticksmith who was raised in a show business family and started hitting a kit when he wasn’t even two years old. It adds a great deal of nurture to the mix, too. But beyond that, Peart thought he was the complete drumming package.
“It’s not just Buddy’s natural musicality, soloist’s instinct, and the ears of a dancer,” he said in an interview with Music Radar. “He had those, all right, but chief among his gifts was those hands”. Peart went on to clarify: “It’s not ‘fan talk’, because I never really was a Buddy Rich ‘fan’.” Nonetheless, he believed that researching him was a necessary step if he was to pursue drumming as a career. He stated that he had “done more research than most people on Buddy and his musical life.”
Peart was even invited to imitate him for tribute shows over the years. It allowed him to inhabit Rich’s mind and hands, which he found incomprehensible. “Buddy was truly the master of everything,” he said. There was a sense of intent about every stroke that seemed like a painter rattling off a masterpiece in real time.
Peart went on to say: “Yes, there are plenty of people who can swing and rock those sticks, no question. But here we have a blend of a great gift, a life devoted unstintingly to its perfection, and audiences to appreciate it along the way.”
So, Keith Richards may have criticized John Bonham for being too thunderous. But Ginger Baker detracts from his esteem by being too difficult in every way. And the humble Copeland falls short simply because he is not Peart, Rich triumphs due to a lack of any real weakness.
