The 1971 anthem Geddy Lee called “one of the greatest bass songs ever”
While he’s almost certainly considered as one of the greatest bassists in the world of prog rock, Geddy Lee has a reasonable claim to make for being one of the most technically impressive bass players full stop.
To be able to play lines as intricate as the ones he came up with for Rush is one thing, but to be able to simultaneously belt out complex vocal lines while playing his instrument is another thing altogether. Because of how rhythmic bass guitar tends to be, and how much movement of the fingers there is at the same time, it’s very rare that a bassist is required to match what the vocal melody is doing, and therefore for him to be able to produce two contrasting elements at once is truly indicative of his brilliance.
However, as much as his ability on the bass and behind the mic is impressive, he himself has always placed himself second to another giant of the prog world at his instrument, and despite the fact that his closest competitor and inspiration wasn’t a lead vocalist, what he did to create the most thunderous prog basslines is perhaps as influential to the genre as anything anyone else ever contributed.
For over four decades, Chris Squire was the bassist and longest-serving member of Yes until his passing in 2015, and his melodic yet ferocious bass playing style was vital to the band establishing their sound. While certainly progressive and intricate, what his basslines always did was add an aggression and punchiness to the band’s work that so many others have attempted to emulate.
Lee finds himself firmly in the camp of people who were heavily influenced by Squire’s playing, and when he and Rush bandmate Alex Lifeson were asked to induct Yes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, he took the opportunity to wax lyrical about his bass playing idol and some of his finest contributions to the world of progressive rock.
When approached by Rolling Stone after the ceremony, he stated that he was immediately obsessed with the band after he heard them for the first time. “As I said during my speech, I was turned on to them through their second album Time and a Word,” he explained. “I’ve been a huge fan ever since, just an over-the-top fan of them for years.”
However, simply getting to deliver a speech about how much he adores Yes wasn’t the absolute highlight of the evening for Lee, and when he was asked to get up on stage and fill in the role of Squire on bass by his widow, he simply couldn’t turn down the offer.
“Seeing as I was going to be here anyway, why not?” he said of the invitation, before proclaiming that the song that was chosen to be performed, ‘Roundabout’, which is taken from their outstanding fourth album, Fragile, comes to mind for him as “one of the great bass songs ever written, in the history of recorded music.”
After the wistful introduction by guitarist Steve Howe, the first notable thing about ‘Roundabout’ is how Squire’s bass comes rumbling in with the utmost power, and continues to propel the song for eight minutes with its intricate and constantly changing patterns. It’s immediately obvious as to why someone like Lee would adore a song like ‘Roundabout’, and while some of Squire’s other basslines from this period of the band also come to mind as being superb examples of his unmatched talent, this is perhaps the pinnacle of his brilliance.
