Today’s sad news regarding the death of Rush drum legend Neil Peart has got me off my butt to fire up the old keyboard and do a quick “Shameless Plug” post on this iconic chestnut from the band’s greatest (IMO) platter Moving Pictures.  I don’t claim to be the biggest Rush fan-  no, I’ll leave that to a number of drummer buddies (and my drummer brother) as well as some college cronies that I borrowed tapes from to explore the band’s canon.  But man, MAJOR respect where it is due…  Rush has written a number of classic tunes but maybe first and foremost, the band ranks very high where musicianship is concerned.  And as far as drummers in the rock world go, you’d be hard pressed to find any better than Neil Peart.

In the Shameless Plug series I try to steer clear of popular tunes unless the song has made a clear mark on my psyche or was a key turning point in my own personal music evolution.  “Tom Sawyer” comes more from the latter, emerging at a time where music was starting to become an even bigger part of my life and that of my brother and our inner circle of friends.  Moving Pictures was pretty much played nonstop on the local AOR station (what you’d now call “Classic Rock”), everything from “Red Barchetta” to “Limelight” to “Tom Sawyer” to maybe “YYZ” and “Vital Signs” if you were lucky, and as continually budding music fans who had just picked up the guitar or drums the album definitely made an indelible mark on our collective conscious.  Rush was kinda like a step up from what we’d been listening to and learning to play in our garage bands in good ol’ Mom and Dad’s basement and “Tom Sawyer” was suddenly THE song that would separate the serious musicians from the weaker ones.  And all the drummers I knew wanted to play that classic drum break (I’m talking about YOU Gary Wright, Woody Wilson, and yes, Steve Remley) while all the non-drummers highly encouraged them to do so…  all we could do was furiously air drum along while standing back in amazement as our friends pounded away relentlessly, trying to catch some of that Peart magic.

Not only was Neil Peart an outstanding drummer but he was also an often thoughtful and exceptional lyricist too.  I’ll be honest though- I’ve never been one that pays too much attention to lyrics; rather, I’m more keen on how the human voice weaves in and out of the music and maybe how a word fits into the structure of the song (like “pompatus of love” from Steve Miller’s “The Joker).  “Tom Sawyer” is no different-  every time I listen to the song I’ll hear the lyric but I won’t pay attention to how it fits within the song nor do I really care what the song is about.  Geddy Lee could be blabbing on about anything and I wouldn’t care as long as the music is cool (although I still don’t quite understand the “catch the spit” line…  huh?).

Listening to this song again for this post just brings back so many memories of those high school garage band days-  I’ve heard this song so many times over the years that I’ve still got those air drum fills down pat and can even nail some of Geddy’s parts as well…  air bass mind you 🙂  Oh, to take a time machine back to those humid summer nights in Gary or Woody’s basement and listening in awe to “Tom Sawyer” and wondering if we could ever pull it off.  Some of us almost got there, some of us gave up…  but for a good few years there we didn’t care and just enjoyed playing, content with getting somewhere even if that was only in our own minds.  Thank you Neil Peart for playing a big part in the soundtrack of my life-  may you rest in peace!