The Professor

- How fast are you really?
- Got a coin? A quarter or something? Hold it up against the wall for me.

Neil picks up his drum sticks and places the tips on the inch-wide face of the coin, just about on top of George Washington´s left cheek. What the reporter sees next - or should I say, fails to see - is a blur. With outrageously quick and surrealistically precise hands, Neil Peart drum rolls the coin against the white wall, and it does not fall. His speed is such that the coin behaves as if glued to the vertical surface, defying gravity itself.

That is the legend of Neil Peart, drummer for canadian trio "Rush". Whether it´s true or not, I have yet to confirm. But I wouldn´t doubt it.

I am sitting here watching and listening to the DVD "Rush in Rio" and, were it not for the drool on my chest, I would not have noticed my wide open mouth. Homer Simpson drools to donuts, I drool to Neil Peart´s drums.

If you have never heard Rush, I can understand. They have the reputation for playing rather "heavily", to put it lightly. It is not music for all ears. But hey, no rock group lives as long as Rush has (31 years since Neil Peart joined the band) and becomes so successful across the planet by just making large quantities of head-splitting noise. Geddy Lee (vocals, bass, synthesizer), Alex Lifeson (guitars) and Peart are all virtuosos, and their music sounds accordingly. With regards to Neil specifically, what I can tell you, first of all, is that his speed is downright scary - and this includes the speed of his hands as well as how agile he is in moving from one drum to another. Secondly, the guy seems to have four brains, one for each limb! His left leg might be doing something different from his right, which in turn is doing nothing related to his left hand, which is completely off synchronization with his right hand - and he somehow makes it all come together perfectly. And finally, his creativity and his capacity to vary between measures of a single song are just phenomenal. So... If in fact you have never heard Rush, if you have never been hypnotized by Neil Peart´s transcendental drumming, my deepest condolences. Let me be the one to tell how things work here:

You may be imagining some long-haired, shirtless, tongue-waiving, face-distorting, leather-wearing, substance-abusing skin and bones of a drummer... Well, it simply is not the case. First of all, the man is now 53 years old. Fifty-three. He wears a regular t-shirt and his already traditional african-style percussionist cap on his head to cover his balding head. And when it comes to his face, that is what impresses me the most. He´s not making ridiculous faces, he´s not sticking out his tongue, he´s not flailing a mane of hair around. He is dead serious and completely concentrated on the colossal quantity of percussion instruments which surround him in 360 degrees. Quite simply, the man means business.

As I write, I watch his almost 10-minute solo. What am I doing? Besides "air drumming" all over the place (until some 3 minutes ago, I thought I could play drums), I'm cracking up in laughter. Yes, laughter! I find it comical that somebody could become so supernaturally good!

So go ahead and ask me. "Is Neil Peart the greatest rock drummer ever?"

Let me put it this way: It´s God in heaven and Neil on the drumset.