All in the wrist

It goes without saying that Geddy Lee is one of the most accomplished bass players in the history of Rock music and has left a lasting mark on the industry that will continue long after he has left this world. His amazing dexterity and playing style have been marveled at for decades and his influence can be heard and felt in the generations following him.
His has always been a style that was formed from using a more melodic approach to composition and a much busier technique out of necessity. As a three piece rock combo, it was incumbent upon him to fill the missing gaps in the sonic structure of their music. Not having a dedicated rhythm guitarist to carry the melodic weight of the middle while Alex Lifeson played his virtuoso guitar leads, Geddy's style not only filled the missing space but created a new paradigm for bass players everywhere.
After they broke on the music scene it became clear that he was not a bass player who would simply hold the bottom end in place with the customary thump of playing root notes only as was so common in the rock music of the late seventies. There were notable exceptions of course in the music of Yes, The Who, and a few others but Rush began blazing a trail into an area of music that heretofore had not been explored. Yes, they were progressive rock but they had a much harder edge than most of their counterparts in the genre.
Instead of just relying on Alex to provide the melodic structure their music needed, Geddy picked up the baton and carried bass playing to a place that no one had even heard before. He was combining the roles of bass player and rhythm guitarist in one instrument with often times staggeringly brilliant results.
He was mind boggling to listen to as he shredded the bass in a way that defied understanding.  He was fierce and fearless on bass and in the early days the most common comment anyone had about him was, "How the hell does he DO that?"
It's not really that he was doing things no one had done before, he was doing it so much faster that you simply couldn't keep up with how amazing he truly was.
Over the course of their first three albums, his own personal style evolved in such a way as to be a thing of wonder but with the release of 2112 he cemented his technique as one of complete mastery on the instrument with his melodic approach and aggressive playing. You could actually sing along to the melodies he would create on bass in a way that was unheard of for rock bassists.
He had the fastest hands that had eve been heard on AOR radio and as with anything truly unique and new in the music business, he was dismissed at first as just another flash in the pan with more speed than taste.
He would go on to prove his critics wrong with album after album of music and bass playing that would confound the critics and leave them speechless and stewing in their own bitter juices.
His technique was more than just speed though. He was deadly accurate on the fretboard with hands that seemed to be made of solid steel but with the gentlest of touches at times.
While his right hand technique has been examined and talked about for decades, it's his left hand technique that I write about today.
His right hand was so amazingly strong and dexterous as was his left but that right hand could do things that most guitar players couldn't do with either hand.
The bass is not an easy instrument to play by any stretch of the imagination for many reasons but the most of which is the amount of strength it takes to smoothly fret those notes on strings that can feel as thick as anchor cables at times.. Geddy could hammer on and pull off notes with his left hand so cleanly that at times you were never sure if he was even using his right hand.
For me, that was the real mystery. How could anyone who played bass have a left hand that strong?
Hammers and pulls, as they are more commonly known, are usually the domain of guitarists and a technique that one must master to become adept at guitar but here was a bass player who could do it better than anyone on the planet.
In my own training as a guitarist I learned to be precise with hammers and pulls and make them as distinct as picked notes but that was on guitar strings that aren't really all that thick in comparison to bass strings.
Geddy's real magic for me was in his left hand technique and as the years went by I learned to marvel at how good it was. I began to work hard to get my own left hand technique as smooth and as strong as his in hopes it would help me to become a better guitarist.
Yes, his right hand is a thing of wonder for how fast and precise it is but that left hand baffled me for years. I have a bass at home that I use for writing and recording and I can say from practical application that it is not an instrument you pick up unless you are prepared to suffer pain and humiliation during the learning process.
Geddy set a new standard that I have not heard except in fleeting instances in the likes of Flea from RHCP and Les Claypool from Primus and while those two personify what Geddy started in his quest to make bass a focus of rock music, they have evolved their own styles that differ greatly from what Geddy accomplished.

Never Enough

When Rush announced that they would tour again in 2015 I was beyond excited to see them again. This was due partly for having been unable to see their Clockwork Angels tour and because I had already seen them 12 times previously. They are my favorite band after all and their stage shows were always something to behold not just for the visual elements but for the precision and technical excellence they have always displayed live.

Before the tour that would ultimately be their last had even begun I had heard the rumors that it might be their last. I was of two minds about the rumors that had been circulating about the impending closing of the curtain on a band that had defined both my youth and my chosen profession as a professional musician. They were more than just a band to me. They were the inspiration for my manic love of music and they were also the soundtrack to my life. I had gained a great deal of personal meaning for my own life through their music and lyrics. They were a part of me every bit as real as my arms and legs and they had shaped much of the reality I had come to know through the years.

Knowing the end was nigh cemented my absolute desire to see them one last time. I would not be denied this last chance to worship a band that had come to mean so much to me.

It is no secret that Rush fans are arguably the most devoted and rabid fans of any rock band and it was with that same sense of rabid devotion that I steeled myself for the final tour.

It was the end. The end of forty plus years of music that inspired and frightened me for its complexity but always left me wanting more.

The tour came and went and as always I was awed and flabbergasted by the level of musicianship they could still muster after all these years. I was in a kind of ecstasy during “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Xanadu”, both personal favorites for me and to see the double necks come out was like seeing some holy relic on display for the faithful. It was the pure, unadulterated joy I had felt during each concert I’d been to previously. It was perhaps a bit more poignant and bittersweet but I pushed back the knowledge of their coming dissolution as a band. There would be no new albums or tours. It would be the closing of one of the most important chapters of my life and while at first I accepted it as a natural conclusion to a career marked with failures, successes and more change than any other band I had ever been a fan of before, inwardly I felt immense sadness at the end of their run.

They had been making music of such incredible technical expertise but fused with  such heart and a command of the human condition.

The simple truth was that age had finally come calling for them as it must come to us all. Neil was no longer able to bounce back from the physical rigors of touring and was often left lame and in extreme pain because of his muscular and athletic approach to drumming. Alex had been suffering from arthritis for years and Geddy’s voice was beginning to slip in that hitting those high notes was no longer possible in many cases.

About a year after that last tour it finally hit me that it was over. It was over. The curtain had been drawn on a band that had been the measuring stick by which I would measure every other band. Not for their abilities as musicians mind you but in how their music touched and inspired me. No other band had ever even come close to being that important to me.

The child in me raged at the sheer infairness of it all. How could this happen? I felt that emotion for many months and it always left me slightly bitter for my wanting.

As I examined it more closely, I began to understand and appreciate how much they had given not only me but millions upon millions of fans everywhere.

The rational adult in me came to see that the real gift of my love of their music would never die. It would be with me always. Like so many of my fellow Rush fans, I too kept a secret wish in my heart that I might hear from them again. I began to let that wish go slowly at first but with time, I was able to let it go completely. Their lasting impact on the music business would be felt for decades to come and they would still find new fans who had not yet discovered their music. They would continue despite being absent from making new music. So much of their music is truly timeless and defies the dated sound of some older bands.

I have let it go. They have given so much of themselves and endured hardships that most of us will never know or understand. As fans, we have asked so much of them and they have always delivered on our requests and demands. It is selfish to continue to make our demands on them in the face of the staggering legacy they have left us. It is enough. They have rewritten the book on prog rock and spawned so much music from new bands as well as tribute bands who do their best to keep the music alive.

It is finally enough. Rest well gentlemen and I thank you from the bottom of my grateful heart for all that you have done and all that you have given me and millions like me. I understand the folly and selfishness of my desire to have them continue beyond the point they could or even should.