Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee in concert with Rush. Milan, Italy (September 21, 2004).

Geddy Lee OC (born Gary Lee Weinrib, July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician who is the vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the progressive rock group Rush. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Lee grew up as the son of Polish parents who were both survivors of Nazi concentration camps Dachau and Bergen-Belsen. Lee's stage name (and later legal name) "Geddy" was inspired by the heavily-accented pronunciation of his given first name "Gary" by his grandmother.In 2004, Canadian Jewish News would feature Lee's reflections upon his mother's experiences and his own Jewish heritage. [1]

An award-winning musician, Lee's style, technique, and virtuosity 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, Cliff Burton of Metallica, and countless others. Lee's high pitched vocal style, while less influential, is nonetheless distinctive; one Rolling Stone critic opined a negative review in the Rolling Stone Album Guide that Geddy Lee's voice was a cross between Robert Plant's and Donald Duck's voices. Reference to the latter in the brief review upset many die-hard fans of Rush and Lee.

Lee's first solo effort, My Favorite Headache, was released in 2000. In addition to his composing, arranging, and performing duties for Rush, Lee has produced albums for various other bands, including Rocket Science, and recorded a short rendition of "O Canada" with bandmate Alex Lifeson included on the South Park soundtrack. Geddy Lee is also heard singing the minor hit "Take Off" on the McKenzie Brothers (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) 1981 comedy album The Great White North: Bob and Doug McKenzie, as well as appearing in the 1985 charity song "Tears Are Not Enough" by Canadian supergroup Northern Lights.

Geddy is also a devoted baseball fan, and performed "O Canada" at the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and took batting practice with the then-California Angels (circa 1992).

Along with his colleagues Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart, Lee was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio were the first rock musicians so honoured.

Instruments

Geddy Lee has varied his equipment lineup several times during his career. Gigging around Toronto, Geddy used a Fender Precision Bass. From the Rush album and onward, Lee favored Rickenbacker basses (particularly the 4001 model, which he used extensively in studio and live shows during most of the 70's and early 80's up through the Signals album and tour), and the Fender Jazz Bass which is heard extensively on Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. For recording Grace Under Pressure Geddy switched to a headless Steinberger bass, which he would use for the Grace Under Pressure Tour. After this, he began using British Wal basses, which he would use to record (and tour) Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, Presto and Roll The Bones. He switched back to Jazz Basses for the recording of Counterparts, and has been using it, both in the studio and live, since then. In 2002, Fender released the Geddy Lee Jazz Bass, a Jazz Bass based on his original mid-seventies model, that Geddy bought in a pawn shop. In addition to a few cost-saving changes, the instrument features vintage-style pickups and a BadAss II bridge.

Geddy's amps, in the early days, were the usual arena-ready Sunn and/or Ampeg models. By the late seventies, his backline had evolved into the 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 rig 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 a lot of gain on the preamp. This is what made the quintessential "Geddy Lee sound" from 1977 to 1982. Even through his changing stable of basses, this amplifier setup remained constant through 1991. For the Roll the Bones tour, Geddy switched to Gallien-Krueger amps, and later to Trace-Elliot amps. He still uses a Trace-Elliot, however it is not on the onstage backline, but rather underneath the stage, for low-frequency emphasis, so he can feel the bass, along with hearing the notes, through his ear monitors. On recent tours, to "balance out the stage", Geddy has filled the empty space where his backline amps used to sit with industrial size Maytag coin operated dryers. The dryers are filled with Rush tour shirts. Coins are inserted throughout the show either by costumed crew members, "surprise" guests or by audience members who are selected at random. For the band's R30 tour, one dryer was replaced by a rotating shelf-style sandwich vending machine which was custom-outfitted with an inclosed blue lighting scheme that matched guitarist Alex Lifeson's stage-left Hughes and Kettner zenTera and signature TriAmp MKII amplifiers. This can be seen on the R30 DVD set.

Over the years, Geddy's keyboard rig has featured Oberheim keyboards (Oberheim 8-voice, OB-1, OB-X, OB-Xa), PPG keyboards (Wave 2.2 and 2.3) Roland keyboards (Jupiter 8, D-50, CompuRhythm), Moog keyboards (Mini-Moog, Taurus bass pedals that are also used as a control surface for other keyboards), and Yamaha keyboards (DX-7 and KX76 MIDI controllers). Also, he made use of sequencers (the ones included in the Oberheim keyboards and the Roland Compurhythm) that supplied many memorable keyboard melodies, i.e.; "The Spirit of Radio' (Permanent Waves), "The Camera Eye' and 'Vital Signs' (Moving Pictures), 'The Weapon' and 'New World Man' (Signals), 'Red Sector A' (Grace Under Pressure), 'Grand Designs' (Power Windows), and 'Scars' (Presto - the entire bass line was a sequenced bass sample).Since the latter part of the eighties, Geddy's keyboard setup also includes a large rack of samplers which are used to recreate sounds, vocal harmonies, and events from Rush's studio recordings.

Awards

* Bass Hall of Fame - Guitar Player Magazine
* 6 time winner: "Best Rock Bass" - Guitar Player Magazine
* 1993 - "Best Rock Bass Player" Bass Player readers' poll
* 1994 - Juno Hall of Fame
* 1996 - Officer of the Order of Canada, along with fellow bandmates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart