The bassist Geddy Lee thought was out of everybody’s league: “There’s no one like him”
Any bass player who respects the craft of the instrument can stand to take a few cues from Geddy Lee. Unlike other bassists who hold down the low end and never branch out past the root notes, Lee turned the instrument into a leading sonic force in Rush, often playing lines that would be better suited for a lead guitar. Even though Lee could be considered a living legend amongst bassists today, he did single out one bass player who could give him a run for his money.
Then again, Lee stumbled upon playing bass almost by accident. First starting out playing guitar, Lee eventually got to play with school friend Alex Lifeson after they needed someone to fill in on bass for a show, leading to him adopting the instrument as his own for the next few years.
While Lee started by getting songs by The Rolling Stones under his belt, he was more enamoured with what the adventurous side of the instrument had to offer. When talking about his influences, Lee would often cite fellow music legends like The Who’s John Entwistle and Cream’s Jack Bruce for shaping his sound, both of which approached the bass like a lead instrument.
By the time the band started listening to acts like Yes and Genesis, Lee began to restructure his approach again. By bringing complex time signatures into the mix, Lee would reinvent the progressive rock genre without even realising it, working with Lifeson and Neil Peart to create massive sonic expanses over long runtimes.
That’s not to say that Lee stopped being influenced by what was around him. Once the band had settled into their groove as a legacy act in the 1990s, other bands like Primus were starting to reshape what the bass could do, with Les Claypool hammering away at his bass strings in a way that left the rest of his bandmates in the dust.
Although the bass was seeing a resurgence in the new decade, Lee thought Claypool was one of the few artists he felt challenged by. As opposed to Lee’s precision behind the four-string, Claypool would practically turn the bass into a sonic force all its own, playing massive chords throughout Primus songs and tapping on the fretboard a la Eddie Van Halen.
When discussing Claypool’s technique, Lee was knocked out by what he heard, telling Rolling Stone, “It wasn’t until we toured together that I really got to know his playing and saw how creative and adventurous a player he was…There’s no one like him. He actually influenced me as a player to try to push the boundaries of my rhythmic abilities. I would say that tour I did with Primus was transformational for me”.
While Lee already had his unique sound by the 1990s, the following Rush albums saw him employing different techniques from Claypool, including the rapid-fire bass chords on the song ‘Caravan’ from the band’s final album, Clockwork Angels. Rush may have been the founding fathers of all things prog, but the arrival of Claypool on the scene reminded Lee that it’s never too late to learn something new.
Geddy Lee likes a lot of bassists
But Les Claypool is by far not the only four-string maestro that Lee is a fan of. Over the years he has shed light on numerous low-end monsters, whom he believes has had a huge effect on the music world. Chris Squire, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle and Flea have all been toasted by Lee. But his favourites all have one thing in common: melody.
“One common denominator for me was always the ability to play melodically, and to enhance the song on a subterranean level,” he told Rolling Stone. “So I’ve always gravitated towards bass players that not only locked in with the rhythm section and helped moved the song, but also added some other level of musical interest that may not be as obvious. Usually, that comes out on secondary, tertiary and repeated listenings.”
It means other, more melodic bassists, like Paul McCartney and James Jamerson, have also been noted among his most beloved. But, no matter what, Lee will remain a true champion of the bass guitar.
