The things you can do with a drumkit. TOMMY LEE's, among many other things, can spin him end over end, head over heels, while he solos. KEITH MOON's could spontaneously explode a little or, sometimes, a lot. NEIL PEART's had almost comically long rows of tom-toms, meticulously tuned, on which, as we learn in this guide to his legendary instrument, "I can play the JEOPARDY theme, perfectly." Peart, who died last week from brain cancer, was the patron saint of uncool rock and rollers—a quiet, spotlight-shunning, bookish (but also worldly), musician's musician who brought a rigorous, classical-like discipline to a job famous for attracting free spirits and loose cannons. As one-third of Rush, he wrote and played parts that were famously intricate and difficult to play—they could be hard just to count—yet blended into the group's songs so elegantly you could fool yourself into believing they were the only parts any drummer could have played in Rush. (A listen to the one album the band recorded before he joined will quickly disabuse you of that notion.) He was a grandmaster—he influenced generations of hard-rock and metal drummers who followed—who hated grand gestures. He famously preferred reading books to drinking and carousing before gigs, and was more likely to ride his motorcycle alone to the next destination than party on the tour bus afterward. He was also Rush's chief lyricist. Needless to say, Tommy Lee and Keith Moon were not that in their respective bands. Rush's songs reflected Peart's reading interests, from AYN RAND (whose controversial philosophy he eventually rejected, saying he had become a "bleeding-heart libertarian") to sci-fi to steampunk and beyond. They also reflected his travels, on that motorcycle and elsewhere. His lyrics, like his own philosophy, changed along the way, becoming more generous, more open—anthems for outsiders and misfits who had grown up and discovered, perhaps, that nothing is cooler, more rock and roll, than being uncool. RIP. MusicSET: "Neil Peart Was Prog Rock's Philosopher King"... The first piece in that set, and the best piece I read about Peart this weekend, is HANK SHTEAMER's musically astute essay for ROLLING STONE on "How Neil Peart's Perfectionism Set Him Free." Shteamer starts by spending five paragraphs overthinking (spoiler: but not really) Peart's bonkers drum part for Rush's "SUBDIVISIONS," and goes on to give a master class in what Peart was doing behind those drums all those years, how it was different from what his peers were doing, and how he found freedom through nearly obsessive control... NICK ANDOPOLIS was particularly obsessed with Peart... Best album (by a man), best song (by a man) and best new artist (who is a man): Meet the 2020 BRIT AWARDS nominees... The Venetian ice cream maker with 26,000 records, or about one for each of Neil Peart's tom-toms... QUEEN & ADAM LAMBERT, ALICE COOPER and OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN are among the artists playing an all-day Australian bushfire relief concert next month in Sydney... COURTNEY BARNETT chips in for her native Australia, too... JAY-Z, financial adviser... RIP also HARRY KUPFER.