Remembering Neil

The package arrived a few days before the end of 2007. I refused to open it until after the first of the year.

It was tempting. It had not been a good year. My mother had died in November and my wife had moved out on Labor Day. With no gig and an aging circle of friends who didn’t want to go out and risk being on either end of a DUI, I was going to be spending New Years’ Eve by myself. It would have been easy to open the package and it probably wouldn’t have mattered if I had. But I didn’t; 2008 was going to be a fresh start and the contents of the package were the first thing to look forward to.

For most people, “Neil” means Diamond or Young. For me, it means Neil Ellwood Peart, Order of Canada, drummer and lyricist for Rush, author of “Roadshow”, the book inside the package.

Recovering from the death of a parent, a divorce and what at the time was a disappointing music career was a long journey, but the first step along the way was reading Peart’s “Roadshow” and celebrating the music he and his bandmates made through the years. It wasn’t long before I was back on the dating scene and when I was chatting online with a woman who seemed interested in me, the inevitable subject of musical tastes came up. I listed my favorites – Steely Dan, the Beatles, Earth Wind & Fire, Pink Floyd and, just to let her know that she had a true nerd on her hands, Rush.

As it turned out, she was one of the six women in the world who are fans. (A drummer friend’s wife once said that the only reason she went with him to Rush concerts was because that was the only place where the line for the womens’ restroom was shorter.) She told me her favorite was “The Trees” – much as I love the synth riff in “Tom Sawyer” if she had dropped that one on me, I would have known she was a casual fan at best. Another favorite: “Free Will” – “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice,” she is still fond of saying.

The woman who is now my wife has many other great qualities besides her appreciation of Rush. Had she not been a fan, it would not have been a deal breaker; conversely her interest in Rush can’t solely account for almost 8 years of marriage and almost 12 years of being together – but the incorrigible music geek in me likes to think that that’s how it all started.

I wouldn’t count myself as a hardcore Rush fan – I never saw them live and most of what I listen to is “Signals” and earlier. But to me, Neil was a two-fold hero: musician and writer. His trilogy of “Ghost Rider”, his deeply moving account of his motorcycle journey following his family tragedies, “Traveling Music”, an engaging mix of autobiography and celebration of the music he loves and “Roadshow”, his behind-the-scenes description of touring life are all among my all-time favorite books. To borrow Bill James’ quote about Rickey Henderson, if you split him in half, you’d have two hall of famers.

Neil, I know you are happy to be reunited with Jackie and Selena. But we sure will miss you down here.