Geddy Lee on the two greatest guitar solos ever recorded: “They were a huge, huge influence on us”
If you want to hear exciting, innovative music that has continued to push the boundaries of sound, you needn’t look any further than Rush. Throughout their career, they have proven that they can make hit albums that explore various styles. Be it chart-friendly three-minute hits or elongated prog rock ballads, Rush can do it all.
When you see a band with such originality, it’s hard to imagine that they once aspired to be like other musical outfits, but Geddy Lee has always been forthcoming with who his biggest inspirations are. One of the first bands he ever saw that made him want to make music was Cream; in fact, many of Rush’s earliest shows mainly consisted of Cream covers.
“Cream sort of changed my life,” said Lee, “They blew my mind and I remember they were coming to Toronto. I couldn’t get any of my friends interested to go see them; they were playing at Massey Hall, and I went down and bought a ticket, and I went by myself […] I just had to see them, they were such an important band to me.”
It wasn’t just Cream who inspired Lee, though. In fact, when it comes to talking about his favourite guitar solos, Eric Clapton doesn’t even get a mention. While many rock bands made excellent guitar music at the time, one of Lee’s all-time favourites was Led Zeppelin.
“I remember when the first album dropped, and we waited at our local Sam The Record Man store in Willowdale, grabbed the record, ran to my house, put it on and sat on my bed freaking out,” said Lee, “They were a huge, huge influence on us. We wanted to be them instantly. But their stuff was hard to play.”
Lee isn’t wrong. Led Zeppelin posed a major problem for a lot of wannabe rockstars at the time, as everybody wanted to play music like them, but very few people were actually able to. It wasn’t just the guitar playing by Jimmy Page but also Robert Plant’s vocals, John Bonham’s percussion, and John Paul Jones’s bass playing, which were all forces to be reckoned with.
Lee was such a big fan of Zeppelin that he bestowed Jimmy Page with one of the greatest honours in rock music, saying he was responsible for the best guitar solo of all time. He also called Pink Floyd into the mix, admitting it was impossible to choose between two particular songs.
“On one hand you’ve got ‘Stairway To Heaven’,” he said, “That and [Pink Floyd’s] ‘Comfortably Numb vie for the greatest guitar solo ever recorded.” They are excellent pieces of music, deeply atmospheric, and neither are there for the sake of it; they both elevate the song to become something else altogether. It’s easy to see why the Rush frontman would feel so close to those two solos.
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