A couple of monster deaths for early in the year: Neil Peart and Buck Henry!

[thewayne]

Neil Peart was the drummer for Rush, the Canadian trio who tore up rock. Neal was a drumming god who could beat two different tempos with his hands and feet! Quite an incredible person.

Neil had been fighting brain cancer for the last three years. Rush had their final tour in 2015, he died on the 7th.

Peart had a tragic family life. In 1997 after the conclusion of the Test for Echo tour, his then only daughter was killed in a single vehicle car accident. Ten months later, his wife died of cancer, he says it was brought on by a broken heart. He retired from Rush, toured North America on a motorcycle, and eventually returned to the band. And now, Heaven's band has one hell of a new drummer.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-peart-rush-obituary-936221/


Buck Henry was an amazing comic writer. With Mel Brooks, he was the co-creator of Get Smart. He often appeared in John Belushi's Samurai sketches and was a regular early host for Saturday Night Live. He wrote The Graduate. He appeared in The Graduate, Catch-22, Grumpy Old Men, Eating Raul, The Man Who Fell To Earth. Co-directed Heaven Can Wait (got an Oscar nom for it), wrote the scripts for Catch-22 and The Owl & The Pussycat.

Stunningly amazing talent. Died of a heart attack at the age of 89 on Wednesday.

He was on Letterman once and the exchange went something like this:

Dave: Do you have any hobbies or pets?
Buck: I have hobbies.
Dave: Any pets.
Buck: No pets.
Dave: Why no pets?
Buck: Because of my hobbies.

I'm going to try to remember that one....

https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/buck-henry-the-graduate-screenwriter-dead-obituary-935341/

Comments

[bladespark]

I adore Rush. That's very sad. So many of my favorite musicians are already gone, and I suspect it won't be long before they all are, given so much of my favorite music is from the 70s. Though I think of Rush as an 80s band, but I know they're much older than that, just the hits I like best of theirs are very 80s. Today's Tom Sawyer is amazing.

[thewayne]

45 years Rush was together!  That's an amazing run for any band, I can't think of any band from the '70s that's still together with their original peeps.  Of course, being a trio helps. Yeah, so many bands have lost so many members.  Emerson, Lake & Palmer: 2/3rds gone.  I guess we still have Crosby Stills & Nash.  Half of the Beatles and the Who.  I know a few of the Stones are gone, though Keith and Mick are intact though no one knows how.  Even if most of Led Zep are still around and their music is still fantastic, Plant destroyed his voice and can no longer sing their tunes.  Supertramp is intact, Pink Floyd is not.  Styx has lost about half or more, hard to say where Fleetwood Mac is with their shifting lineup: the original band is largely gone but their '70s and onward lineup is seemingly alive.

But the one that impresses me is Queen.  Freddie dies, Deacon retires, and it looks all over: then they find Adam Lambert and suddenly May and Taylor are back on the road again.  I almost went to see them in Phoenix but didn't, and I really rue that decision.

[silveradept]

Ah, no. Get Smart was a solid show and it's sad to know that one of the people behind it isn't here any more.

[thewayne]

Well, let's face it: we won't have Mel around for much longer, either! We watched a good half an hour of old Saturday Night Lives with Buck on over the weekend, that was nice seeing the crew from the late '70s/early '80s.  Buck Henry was undeniably a true genius.