Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee OC is a Canadian musician best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined Rush in September 1968 at the request of his childhood friend, Alex Lifeson in order to replace frontman Jeff Jones.

An award-winning musician, Lee's style, technique, and skill on the bass guitar have proven very influential in the rock and heavy metal genres, inspiring such players as Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, John Myung of Dream Theater, Les Claypool of Primus, and Cliff Burton of Metallica.

In addition to his composing, arranging, and performing duties for Rush, Lee has produced albums for various other bands, including Rocket Science. Geddy Lee's first solo effort, My Favourite Headache, was released in 2000.

Along with his Rush bandmates—Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart—Lee was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to be so honored, as a group.

On May 1, 2007, Rush released Snakes & Arrows, their eighteenth full-length studio album. Rush has recently completed the 2007 Snakes & Arrows concert tour of North America and Europe, which began in Charlotte, NC on June 13, 2007. On December 13th, Rush announced they will extend the Snakes & Arrows concert tour into 2008.

Early life

Geddy Lee was born Gary Lee Weinrib on July 29, 1953 in Willowdale, Toronto. Lee's stage name, Geddy, was inspired by his mother's heavily-accented pronunciation of his given first name, Gary. Lee's parents were Jewish refugees from Poland who had been survivors of Nazi concentration camps Dachau and Bergen-Belsen during World War II. In 2004, Canadian Jewish News featured Lee's reflections on his mother's experiences as a refugee, and of his own Jewish heritage.

Lee married Nancy Young in 1976. They have a son named Julian and a daughter named Kyla Avril. Lee also attended primary school with the well-known comedian Dave Thomas, of SCTV fame.

Body of work

The bulk of Lee's work in music has been with Rush. (See Rush Discography)

Lee's work outside of his involvement with the band includes the following:

• My Favourite Headache, Lee's first solo album, was released in 2000.

• In 1982, Lee was the featured guest for the hit song Take Off and its included comedic commentary, with Bob and Doug McKenzie (played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, respectively) for the McKenzie Brothers' comedy album Great White North.

• On the 1985 album We Are the World, by humanitarian consortium USA for Africa, Lee recorded guest vocals for the song "Tears Are Not Enough".

• At the open of the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Lee sang the Canadian National Anthem in front of a full crowd at Camden Yards. A video of the performance is available at this link on YouTube.

• Lee, with Lifeson, recorded a hard rock version of "O Canada" on the accompanying soundtrack CD for the Trey Parker and Matt Stone film South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (1999).

• Lee appeared in Broken Social Scene's video for the song "Fire-Eyed Boy" from their 2005 self-titled album.

• In 2006, Lee joined Lifeson's supergroup Big Dirty Band, to provide songs accompanying Trailer Park Boys: The Movie.

Equipment used

Lee has varied his equipment list continually throughout his career:

Bass guitars

For his first local gigs in the early 1970s and Rush's debut album, Lee used a Fender Precision Bass. From Fly By Night onward, Lee favored Rickenbacker basses, particularly the 4001 model, and a Fender Jazz Bass which is heard on Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures and Signals. In 1981, Lee began using the compact, headless Steinberger bass, which he used occasionally on the supporting tour for Signals and for many tracks on their follow-up, Grace Under Pressure. From 1985 to 1992, Lee used British Wal basses. He switched back to Fender Jazz Basses for the recording of Counterparts in 1993, and has been using them virtually exclusively since then. He used a Fender Jaco Pastorius fretless replica bass for the song "Malignant Narcissism" on 2007's Snakes & Arrows, and a Fender Custom Shop Jazz with an Alder Body and a Flamed Maple top in Transparent Red (as can be seen in the photo on this page) for songs in an alternate tuning during the last several tours. In 1998, Fender released the Geddy Lee Jazz Bass. This "signature" model is a recreation of Lee's favorite bass, a mid-seventies model Fender Jazz that he bought in a pawn shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. On all of his basses, Lee uses Rotosound Swing Bass 66 Stainless Steel round-wound strings. Lee once again used his Rickenbacker 4001 for the performance of "A Passage To Bangkok" on the 2007 Snakes & Arrows Tour.

Bass guitar amplification

Lee's amps in the early days were arena-ready Sunn and/or Ampeg models. By the late seventies, his backline had evolved into a unique configuration of Ashly preamps and BGW power amps, which were run in stereo with his 4001 bass. The neck pickup was sent to one amp and set for a clean, bass-heavy tone, while the bridge pickup was sent to the other amp which was set with an exaggerated treble boost, and extra gain in the preamp. This defined Lee's bass sound from 1977 to 1982. Though he would change basses, the amplifier setup remained constant through 1991. For the Roll the Bones tour (1991-1992), Lee switched to Gallien-Krueger amps, and later to Trace Elliots.

Beginning in 2002, Lee dispensed with using a single bass guitar amplifier in favor of a complex chain of amplifiers and DI units which allow the bass guitar to be connected directly to the stage and front-of-house mixers without involving microphones. Lee began using in-ear monitors at this point.

At the beginning of the 2002 Vapor trails tour, Lee revised his previous setup. His bass signal is sent via a Samson wireless unit to an Avalon U5 DI. From there it is split between a Trace Elliot Quadravalve all-tube power amplifier and a SansAmp RBI rackmountable preamp. The speaker-level signal from the Quadravalve is sent to a Palmer PD-05 speaker emulator, which provides adequate load for the tube amplifier and attenuates the signal down to line level. The signals from the U5, Quadraverb/PD-05, and RBI are all sent to the monitor and front-of-house mixers and blends of the signals are changed on a song-by-song basis. Typically the Quadravalve/PD-05 signal makes up the low end while a balance of the U5 and RBI make up the high end, with the RBI providing the "top end" distortion in Lee's sound.

For the 2007 Snakes and Arrows tour, Lee swapped the SansAmp RBI for a new unit by Sansamp, the RPM. During preparation for this tour a feature on bassplayer.tv with his live bass tech, Russ Ryan, was filmed which detailed Lee's live signal path.

Keyboards and synthesizers

Over the years, Lee's keyboards have featured synthesizers from Oberheim (Eight-voice, OB-1, OB-X, OB-Xa), PPG (Wave 2.2 and 2.3), Roland (Jupiter 8, D-50, XV-5080, and most recently a Fantom X7 on the Snakes and Arrows tour), Moog (Minimoog, Taurus bass pedals, Moog Little Phatty), and Yamaha (DX7). Lee used sequencers early in their development and has continued to use similar innovations as they have developed over the years. Lee has also made use of digital samplers. Combined, these electronic devices have supplied many memorable keyboard sounds, such as the "growl" in "Tom Sawyer" and the syncopated melody featured in the chorus of "The Spirit of Radio".

With 1993's Counterparts, Rush reduced most keyboard- and synthesizer-derived sounds in their compositions, and they continued to do so with each successive album. By 2002, the band succeeded in producing an album -- Vapor Trails -- that was completely free of keyboards/synthesizers, and featured only voice, guitar, bass guitar, drums and percussion. The band members have stated in interviews that they were proud that they had produced an album that was rich in sound and used only those basic instruments.

With the release of 2007's Snakes & Arrows, Lee sparingly adds a Mellotron to the instrument line-up. However, it does not mark a return to a "synth" sound for the band. Much like Vapor Trails, the music is primarily recorded with multiple layers of guitars, bass, drums and percussion.

Live performances: special equipment

Recreating unique sounds

Newer advances in synthesizer and sampler technology have allowed Lee to store familiar sounds from his old synthesizers alongside new ones in combination synthesizer/samplers, such as the Roland XV-5080. For live shows in 2002 and 2004, Lee and his keyboard technician used the playback capabilities of the XV-5080 to generate virtually all of Rush's keyboard sounds to date, as well as additional complex sound passages that previously required several machines at once to produce.

When playing live, Lee and his bandmates strive to recreate their songs as accurately as possible. To help achieve this goal, the band uses digital samplers. Using these samplers, the band members are able to recreate, in real-time, the sounds of non-traditional instruments, accompaniments, vocal harmonies, and other sound "events" that are familiar to those who have heard Rush songs from their albums.

To trigger these sounds in real-time, Lee uses MIDI controllers, placed at the locations on the stage where he has a microphone stand. Lee uses two types of MIDI controllers: one type resembles a traditional synthesizer keyboard on a stand (Yamaha KX76). The second type is a large foot-pedal keyboard, placed on the stage floor (Korg MPK-130, Roland PK-5). Combined, they enable Lee to use his free hands and feet to trigger sounds in electronic equipment that has been placed off-stage. It is with this technology that Lee and his bandmates are able to present their arrangements in a live setting with the level of complexity and fidelity that fans have come to expect, and without the need to resort to the use of backing tracks or employing an additional band member.

Lee's (and his bandmates') use of MIDI controllers to trigger sampled instruments and audio events is visible throughout the R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour concert DVD (2005).

In the Snakes and Arrows tour, Lee is using Roland Fantom X7 and Moog Little Phatty synths.

Unique stage equipment

Geddy Lee live in concert.

As of 2002, Lee no longer uses traditional bass amplifiers on stage, as he chooses to use a venue's "house" speakers. Faced with the dilemma of what to do with the empty space left behind by the lack of large amplifier cabinets, Lee chose to fill the space in a unique way. For the 2002 Vapor Trails tour, Lee lined his side of the stage with three coin-operated Maytag dryers. Other large appliances would appear later in the same space. (Lee had earlier decorated his side of the stage with unusual items. For the 1996-1997 Test for Echo tour, Lee's side sported a fully-stocked old-fashioned household refrigerator.)

For every concert that featured the dryers, Rush's crew would load them with specially-designed Rush-themed T-shirts, different from the shirts on sale to the general public. At the close of each show, Lee and Lifeson would then toss these special T-shirts into the arms of lucky audience members.

For the band's R30 tour, one dryer was replaced with a rotating shelf-style vending machine. It too was fully stocked and operational during shows.

When asked about the purpose of the dryers in interviews, Lee was purposefully vague. The irony and non sequitur of placing such unusual items on a concert stage were Lee's way of expressing his sense of humor. He fed the mystery by responding to one interview question about the dryers, saying he chose to use them for their "warm, dry tone". The dryers can be seen on the Rush in Rio DVD and the R30 DVD. The vending machine can be seen on the R30 DVD.

To add to the humorous effect, Lee's dryers were "miked" (merely for visual effect) by the sound crew, just as they would do with an amplifier.

In interviews dated May 2007, Lee has stated that he is considering entirely new non-musical equipment to further his established comic effect for Rush's Snakes & Arrows tour. The tour commenced June 13, 2007, with a show at the Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheatre in Atlanta, Georgia. The show prominently featured 3 Henhouse brand rotisserie chicken ovens on stage complete with an attendant in a chefs hat and apron to "tend" the chickens during the show. Also, during the first set in the Milwaukee, WI tour stop, a man wearing a cheesehead was seen "tending" the chickens. Such unorthodox stage equipment has been continuously seen thereafter.

Awards

• Bass Hall of Fame - Guitar Player Magazine
• 6 time winner: "Best Rock Bass" - Guitar Player Magazine
• 1993 - "Best Rock Bass Player" Bass Player Magazine readers' poll
• 1994 - With Rush, inducted into the Juno Hall of Fame
• 1996 - Officer of the Order of Canada, along with fellow band mates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart

External links

• A colorful Geddy interview, w/ Nardwuar the Human Serviette
• Geddy Lee Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos