The 21 songs that made Rush’s Geddy Lee fall in love with bass guitar
When dreaming of being in a rock band, few young kids instantly gravitate toward the bass guitar. While it has more than a rightful place among the group, the bass guitar doesn’t have the pomp and swagger of a lead guitar, now the power of the drums or the showstopping swashbuckler of holding a microphone. But there are still some bass heroes to look for, and if you’re a true muso, it’s challenging to think of the bass guitar without an image of Rush’s Geddy Lee flooding into your mind.
Due largely to his work with the Canadian prog rockers, Lee is a name intrinsically linked to the instrument, and he’s one of the essential superstar bassists. While there aren’t many of them around, many songs can inspire the next generation of bassists to pick up the instrument, and Lee once selected a collection of songs that made him gravitate toward it.
Often, the four-string is wrongly viewed by some as the more simplistic piece of musical apparatus within the construct of a band, and Lee proved with Rush just how much could be done with the instrument and how integral it can be.
Lee is eulogised in a manner that’s usually only reserved for lead guitarists and their instruments. A reason for that is unlike any band before them, and the group put his melodic basslines front and centre. Additionally, Rush was a dynamic-sounding group because all three members pulled their weight equally, making Rush the biggest cult band globally.
Despite his vocalist status, Rush never became the Geddy Lee show, a set-up that was compelling and refreshing in equal measure. Thousands flocked to see a Rush show and witness the magic that happened when they joined forces.
Tragically, Rush are no more after they revealed they simply couldn’t go on without Neil Peart at the helm of the regime on drums following his death. While their body of work is a reminder of their collective greatness, the focus here is on the stellar mastery of Lee and those who inspired him to greatness.
Thankfully, in 2019, he sat down with Amazon Music to reveal the songs that “consciously or subconsciously” have been an influence on his career, and it’s an eye-popping playlist that works as a reminder to anyone looking to pick up the bass guitar that classic tracks exist out there for the instrument.
“I chose these songs because I’m such a ‘bass-centric dude’, and that’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last few years,” Lee said about his choices. “Is the role of bass in popular music and what I tried to do with my book (The Beautiful Book of Bass) was provide an alternate history of popular music through the point of view of the bass player. From the murky bottom end to the twangy top end.”
Adding: “John Entwistle, Chris Squire, they were playing the kind of music I wanted to play, so they were a direct influence on the kind of player I wanted to become. But there are others that were subconscious influences, and I think we all have those when we listen to various music.”
Lee concluded: “So I mean, there is a couple of Beatles songs on here and people remember The Beatles for their tune fullness and for the great vocals. But also Paul McCartney was quite an influential bass player and if you listen to ‘Come Together’, that’s a bold bass part in that song. If you listened to ‘Taxman’, that’s heavy metal before there was heavy metal.”
The bass god’s list is eclectic, as you’d expect, and not exclusive to one genre. While Lee loves classic bands like The Beatles, The Who and Led Zeppelin, he also finds room on his playlist for more surprising acts such as Radiohead, fellow prog-rockers Pink Floyd, some jazz-inspired brilliance from Weather Report and the wild Spencer Davis Group. It makes for a truly inspiring list of songs for those who love the bass guitar.
The songs that influenced Rush bassist Geddy Lee:
- The Rolling Stones – ‘2120 South Michigan Avenue (Long Version)’
- The Who – ‘My Generation’
- Marvin Gaye – ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’
- The Beatles – ‘Taxman’
- Cream – ‘Crossroads’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘What It Is and It Never Should Be’
- Jefferson Airplane – ‘The Other Side of This Life’
- Yes – ‘No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed’
- Bill Bruford – ‘Joe Frazier’
- Weather Report – ‘Teen Town’
- Primus – ‘Jerry Was a Race Car Driver’
- Spencer Davis Group – ‘Gimme Some Lovin”
- Radiohead – ‘Paranoid Android’
- The Who – ‘The Real Me’
- Yes – ‘Heart Of The Sunrise’
- Jethro Tull – ‘Bouree’
- Lou Reed – ‘Walk On The Wild Side’
- Red Hot Chilli Peppers – ‘Give It Away’
- The Beatles – ‘Come Together’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘The Lemon Song’
- Pink Floyd – ‘Money’
