Talk:Signals (album)

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The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · refresh) Article verges on higher class, but is missing some of the technical personnel listed at AMG

This is what you said about the drumming in the song, "Subdivisions":

One of the band's staple tunes, "Subdivisions" is also a classic and challenging play-along for first-year drummers.

O.K. Does this mean it's a "beginning drummer's" little trainer. Have you even listened to the drumming in this song? Do you know anyone that can even come close. Maybe a second year student. A third year student?

Can anyone in music even come close to the drumming in this song? What a unbelievably stupid remark! Neil Peart (pronounced "peert") is the greatest drummer that ever lived, and this song is a display of his incredible talent. To think that there are drummers out there that after a lifetime of practice can even come close to the excellence in Peart's accomplishment in this song, is a joke.

Do another group. You don't know enough to talk about Rush.

[edit] Reply to 24.2.9.10

Yes, as a matter of fact, I have listened to "Subdivisions". Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple hundred times. And yes, I do happen to know someone who did come close. Me. I learned to play the vast majority of the song in my first year of drumming, when I was 12 years old, with a teacher's help. Aside from a few fills (the "challenging" parts), the song is really not all that difficult to play (7/4, 4/4 (most of it) and 6/4. woo). No, I did not nail it completely in that first year (again, that's what the word "challenging" is there for), but I did learn quite a bit from trying. 16 years later, I still play along with the song occasionally (note-for-note now) because it's still fun to play.

Can anyone in music even come close to the drumming in this song? What a unbelievably stupid remark!

Uh huh. There quite a number of drummers that go far beyond the complexity and finesse evident in drum playing in this song. Not to take anything away from Peart; he's an excellent drummer and this song in particular is one of my favorites. But the playing he does with Rush definitely does not represent the zenith of what is possible in the art of kit drumming. Try checking out Terry Bozzio or Akira Jimbo sometime.

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Terry_Bozzio.html
http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Akira_Jimbo.html

Neil Peart (pronounced "peert") is the greatest drummer that ever lived, and this song is a display of his incredible talent. To think that there are drummers out there that after a lifetime of practice can even come close to the excellence in Peart's accomplishment in this song, is a joke.

Well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. My own opinion on the matter is that anyone who cannot fathom themselves playing drums at the same level evident in a Rush song is someone who should probably either try harder to stop sabotaging themselves or just set down the sticks. Some of it is challenging stuff. But none of it is by any means impossible to play, even for beginners.

Do another group. You don't know enough to talk about Rush.

Uh huh. Grow up.

I'm not a drummer, but I clicked to check the talk page especially to check if there was any controversy on the "first-year" comment, and indeed there was. Different musicians have different learning curves. I think it's consensual that the drumming in Subdivisions is worth of notice, but the "first-year" remark is too subjective. I disagree with the previous poster that Neil Peart is the "greatest that ever lived" and I agree with your remark about taking on challenging songs (both comments off-topic, by the way), but I'll agree with the original poster in that we shouldn't grade the difficulty of songs here -- that is critiqueing, not an objective fact (which is what we strive for in Wikipedia). -- LodeRunner 23:51, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Countdown

""Countdown" is example of lyricist Neil Peart's descriptions, derived from literary influences: "venting vapours like the breath of a sleeping white dragon...", as he recounts the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981."

Not to mention "Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife". Truly the zenith of Peart's lyrical ability.

(I love Signals, but it's hard to avoid ragging on Countdown...)

[edit] Instrumentals

"Signals was the end of Rush's extended instrumentals (until 2007's Snakes And Arrows, which had "The Main Monkey Business", a 6-minute long instrumental)."

I'm going to go ahead and remove this entirely, as it is not true. Their next extended instrumental piece was "Where's My Thing?" from Roll the Bones in 1991, which is far less significant than the 26 year gap the article suggests. 74.120.192.135 03:48, 23 September 2007 (UTC)