As instructed by my older brother's friend, I slipped the cassette into the player. That one chord that started off "Tom Sawyer" would change my taste in music, particularly drumming, forever. Who was this guy? I had never heard anyone play like that. Such force, such precision, such creativity. Of course, it was Neil Peart, and I was awoken.
At that moment, and as I heard the rest of Moving Pictures, my passion for Kiss went down the tubes really fast. Mind you, to this day I still remember how much I loved Kiss, and whenever they're on TV with their makeup, I just have to watch. They put out some great music in the 70's and early 80's, especially live, but when Rush came into my life, my musical taste immediately became more, I don't know, educated? Yes, that's it! You see, you don't just listen to Rush - you learn from them. They became my teachers, my tutors, on how to rock and still be fairly decent human beings. Their focus was on the music, always. I loved that about them. Of course, my interest mostly lay on the drums, and Neil Peart was a great teacher (actually, to this day he still is, i.e., Anatomy of a Drum Solo).
Now my focus was on learning how Neil played. As a young lad, I became somewhat narrow-minded, not really in a bad way, but it was just that I was very content to absorb everything Neil Peart did, disregarding other drummers for the most part. It was a phase where I thought he was the best drummer in the world, when I thought there was such a thing.
The other issue for me was that there was no chance I was ever going to be allowed a drum set from my parents. 'Too loud', 'couldn't be bothered', 'don't understand that music', etc. So I was confined to air drumming, and figuring out how Neil was playing that ride pattern on "YYZ" (I thought he was using two hands, till I saw the Exit... Stage Left video and saw he was using just one! Huge revelation for me). I have to admit, though, for the many years that went by without a kit, air drumming was instrumental (hm, methinks that was a pun!) in my learning how to play the drums. As subsequent Rush albums came out, I got "better" at learning the nuances of Neil's drumming. The early days of MTV played its fair share of Rush videos, so I got some visual "training" as well as developing my musical ear.
During this time, I did like a few other drummers a lot, but to me they were just not in Mr. Peart's league. I really liked Steve Smith, Alex Van Halen, Steward Copeland, and when I got into Yes, Alan White and Bill Bruford. All of these drummers are great. There was no lack of 'training', so to speak.
Occasionally I got a taste of playing real drums. A schoolmate of mine was in a band and had a really nice drum kit in his house. His favorite drummer was Alex Van Halen, although he liked Neil Peart as well. I visited one time and asked if I could play his kit a little, and I played a little bit of "YYZ" while singing the guitar part. He was impressed! That was the first time I became aware of the bounce of the heads, the feel of the kit, something obviously you can't develop in the air. I filed that in the back of my mind for future reference. Another good friend of mine, who was a huge Yes and Rush fan (he was the one who got me into Yes) acquired a very crappy drum set (better than what I had, which was NOTHING). He was a pretty good guitar player, and we jammed a little to "Tom Sawyer", which was for me a blast. When else was I going to play?
Yet a little more time went on, and I found myself living in Arizona for a little over a year (very strange, yes). But one day I'm sitting around the house and my father and brother pull in the driveway, they open the van door, and they start unloading a drum set! My brother had convinced our Dad to buy me a kit. Mind you, it was pretty beat up, the snare head was severely taped, but I didn't care! To this day I don't remember what brand anything was. Actually, as I'm writing this, I really never bothered to ask how that came about! I'll have to as my brother sometime.
My father of course laid some ground rules as to when I could play, so I had to be careful. I played when I could, never after dark, mostly on weekends, that kind of thing. But I was ecstatic. I had many years of air drumming in my head, so I played songs like "Tom Sawyer" (of course), The Kinks' "Destroyer", and others. Of course, this bliss would be too good to last.
I found out one day that a really cute Cuban girl and her family were coming over to visit. So when they did, I just had to show off a little bit and play what I knew. I'll never really know (or I don't remember) if she was impressed, but I know someone who wasn't - my Dad! It was after dark, and I played without regard. I guess that was the last straw for him, and I was ordered the drum kit be decommissioned. A very sad day in the young Paradiddler's life! Oh well, back to learning by eye and ear!
From this point, and for many years, I would be drumless. Oh I would watch what I could of the drummers I liked, and I actually got to see some great drumming live (Steve Smith, Neil Peart, Alex Van Halen, Alan White, and all their opening acts). Other things came up that were more pressing, like getting married, having kids, and other obligations. These are not excuses! If I really wanted to, I could get a kit, or get together with people that had drums (which I did on occasion). But I had other priorities, so drums took a backseat to everything else. But I did a lot of air drumming, that's for sure.
However, after so many years, I got tired of air drumming. I figured that if I wasn't going to ever get a kit, I might as well be a spectator, enjoying great drumming from afar. At this point I was fine with this - I surmised that it was meant to be this way.
However, something happened later on that changed everything, something that rekindled the flame of interest in the instrument that I loved so much. What was that event? Stay tuned for the next installment, and the conclusion, of The Paradiddler - Origins.
Part 1 | Part 3
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