Totally Underwhelmed

[toneknob]

I once went through Rush live albums to work out where Geddy's voice went from being ok to starting to show signs of wobbling.

I can't remember what the answer was now, but it sounds like as good as an excuse as any to listen to those live albums again.

 

[Dazed]

1 hour ago, gjones said:

Technically challenging, mostly due to the stops, starts and changes in time signatures but, although I like a bit of Rock, not my cup of tea.

 

I like Geddy Lee though - he seems like a nice fella.

Have you listened to any Cardiacs? If you like stops, starts and odd time signatures you should try them.
Oh and Thumpermonkey too. 

[toneknob]

8 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

For the type of music he plays, he's the final End of Level Boss.

 

I'd say "for bass playing in general", but anyway. This is funny.

 

Bonus points: he can also shove the mic out of his face using his nose. I have actually seen this happen.

 

[Woodinblack]

11 minutes ago, toneknob said:

I once went through Rush live albums to work out where Geddy's voice went from being ok to starting to show signs of wobbling.

I can't remember what the answer was now, but it sounds like as good as an excuse as any to listen to those live albums again.

 

Easier than that - go through youtube recordings of spirit of radio. 1984, free and easy, 2004 mostly ok, straining on the high bits, 2007 obviously proving a bit of a strain, 2011 really having difficulty, 2014 he has obviously gone to a singing coach to learn a different technique for singing,so he gets the notes but it sounds weird back of the throat stuff and doesn't sound like him.

[Woodinblack]

15 minutes ago, toneknob said:

Bonus points: he can also shove the mic out of his face using his nose. I have actually seen this happen.

 

To be fair, I can do that bit and he is far better equipped than me to do it!

[White Cloud]

Love them or loath them Geddy's vocals are a significant part of Rush's USP. 

 

After all they had a level of success which is unimaginable.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Barring maybe Genesis, Kiss and Frank Zappa, I’ve probably pushed more of my disposable income in Rush’s direction over the years than any other artist. I have all the Super Deluxe editions and they are things of audio and visual beauty as far as I’m concerned.

 

A lot of the posts in this thread hint towards disliking vocals, but that’s not what the OP has an issue with…. @sammybee said he was ‘totally underwhelmed by what I heard in the bass department’. His vocal maybe ‘marmite’ but surely not his bass playing.

 

I’d urge anyone to have a listen to some of Troy Hughes’ bass covers to get a better feel of what Geddy is capable of. Here’s a sampler….

 

 

As @NancyJohnson said, Caress of Steel is also probably the album I listen to the least, but it’s still listenable for me. I note some listened to Rush up to Hold Your Fire for instance. Presto wasn’t as good, but Counterparts (which followed it) is an excellent listen. Again, Test For Echo (which followed that) was a bit of a dip, the final three albums are right up there in my book.

Edited August 2, 2023 by hiram.k.hackenbacker

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

As @NancyJohnson said, Caress of Steel is also probably the album I listen to the least, but it’s still listenable for me. I note some listened to Rush up to Hold Your Fire for instance. Presto wasn’t as good, but Counterparts (which followed it) is an excellent listen. Again, Test For Echo (which followed that) wasn’t a bit of a dip, the final three albums are right up there in my book.

 

ok, I shall go and listen to counterparts then!

[Barking Spiders]

Got no time for their 20th century albums thanks to the vocals and poncey lyrics but then I heard this tune and thought, why couldn't they've have done stuff like this before?

 

Less oblique word salads and ..gasp...GL singing perfectly ok! No need for all that witchy caterwauling. Basswise I usually prefer some swing in the playing as you get with funk but as far as rock bassists go IMO his style is better than most in the genre esp Steve Harris. To my ears his galloping style with that clanky tone is like nails scraping down a blackboard.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Barking Spiders

[cetera]

I love classic mid 70's - early 80's Rush, particularly A Farewell To Kings album and the live 'Exit Stage Left'. The music, arrangements and production had so much space in them.
The later 80's stuff left me cold, too clinical and sterile with too much keys...

Seen them 4 times live and they were always superb. I love watching & listening to Geddy, he's an amazing player but I have no desire to play like him. Same can be said of Jaco, Mark King and many others who I can appreciate but don't appeal to me stylistically...

[toneknob]

36 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

ok, I shall go and listen to counterparts then!

 

It's great - Probably the last decent album they did, for my ears anyway.

 

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Presto wasn’t as good, but Counterparts (which followed it) is an excellent listen.

Presto is one of my favourites (I know it is reviled by some fans) and you missed out Roll The Bones (another reviled album that I like). 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

35 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Presto is one of my favourites (I know it is reviled by some fans) and you missed out Roll The Bones (another reviled album that I like). 

Ah yes, Roll The Bones is a great album. I certainly don't dislike Presto, after all, it has The Pass on it, which is one of my faves.

Test For Echo is the weakest post Moving Pictures album for me.

[Paolo85]

I wonder if people who don't like his voice also don't like Led Zeppelin's rock'n roll, DP's Child In Time and so on or it's just the Geddy Lee variant

[Barking Spiders]

12 minutes ago, Paolo85 said:

I wonder if people who don't like his voice also don't like Led Zeppelin's rock'n roll, DP's Child In Time and so on or it's just the Geddy Lee variant

 Can't stand Plant's vocals on the rawk/blues stuff. Not too bad on the more folky tunes. As for DP, it's Glenn Hughes' contribution I can't stomach. In fact his vocals in any band he's been in are the worst sort of histrionic. Then there's are cod operatic style of Rob Halford, RJ Dio and Bruce Dickinson...ay caramba!😣😱. And as for Brian Johnson's godawful racket in AC/DC!  Geddy Lee's voice doesn't seem so bad now. 

[Sparky Mark]

21 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

 Can't stand Plant's vocals on the rawk/blues stuff. Not too bad on the more folky tunes. As for DP, it's Glenn Hughes' contribution I can't stomach. In fact his vocals in any band he's been in are the worst sort of histrionic. Then there's are cod operatic style of Rob Halford, RJ Dio and Bruce Dickinson...ay caramba!😣😱. And as for Brian Johnson's godawful racket in AC/DC!  Geddy Lee's voice doesn't seem so bad now. 

Tough crowd! 

[meterman]

1 hour ago, Paolo85 said:

I wonder if people who don't like his voice also don't like Led Zeppelin's rock'n roll, DP's Child In Time and so on or it's just the Geddy Lee variant

Robert Plant’s voice is the main thing getting in the way of me liking Led Zep. Same way that Janis Joplin’s voice is the thing that gets in the way of me liking Janis Joplin. People screeching does my head in.
 

Geddy’s voice is one of two things getting in the way of me liking Rush, the other being their music. Super talented musicians but really not my cup of tea. Add in Geddy’s voice and it’s an instant earplugs situation for me. I have tried with Rush but... nope, no way.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

after all, it has The Pass on it,

Beautiful song, Peart at his lyrical best, the music isn’t bad either  

 

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Test For Echo is the weakest post Moving Pictures album

It’s not great, although I like the title track.

 

I’m hoping for a remix of Clockwork Angels as I don’t like the original one, it’s just too ‘mushy’ (technical term) for me and the music deserves to breathe more.

 

4 minutes ago, meterman said:

Geddy’s voice is one of two things getting in the way of me liking Rush, the other being their music. Super talented musicians but really not my cup of tea. Add in Geddy’s voice and it’s an instant earplugs situation for me. I have tried with Rush but... nope, no way.

I felt that way for ages, but Planet Rock drip fed them to me and I started to like them more and more (always liked Spirit of Radio) until I started buying their albums. Already being a bit of a progger helped. The first few albums (pre Permanent Waves) is GL’s most screechy IMO, he started to calm down more and more and those are the albums I like the most. Sadly, he can’t manage those tunes now, although he tries. Like any band/artist, their work isn’t for everybody and it’s kind of nice that music has these niches (until you get the zealots chiming in). Jaco doesn’t do it for me, despite being a bass demigod, but he does for plenty of others, it’s all fine.

[meterman]

8 minutes ago, ezbass said:

I felt that way for ages, but Planet Rock drip fed them to me and I started to like them more and more (always liked Spirit of Radio) until I started buying their albums. Already being a bit of a progger helped

That’s where my problem is, there’s not a lot of rock that I like, and the rock music I do enjoy tends to be the fairly caveman kind of stuff. Stooges, not Yes for instance. I have tried with LZ and Rush, I’ve bought their albums but then quickly offloaded them. Not LZ or Rush’s problem at all, I’m just a simpleton 😂

[ezbass]

3 minutes ago, meterman said:

That’s where my problem is, there’s not a lot of rock that I like, and the rock music I do enjoy tends to be the fairly caveman kind of stuff. Stooges, not Yes for instance. I have tried with LZ and Rush, I’ve bought their albums but then quickly offloaded them. Not LZ or Rush’s problem at all, I’m just a simpleton 😂

Not at all, just not your bag. If you don’t like Yes or Zep, you’re never going to like Rush. I do like Yes and Zep (although not all of it, not by a long chalk) so I was already predisposed to Rush I guess.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

52 minutes ago, ezbass said:

I’m hoping for a remix of Clockwork Angels as I don’t like the original one, it’s just too ‘mushy’ (technical term) for me and the music deserves to breathe more.

What is your take on the live album with strings?

[Bassassin]

51 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Not at all, just not your bag. If you don’t like Yes or Zep, you’re never going to like Rush. I do like Yes and Zep (although not all of it, not by a long chalk) so I was already predisposed to Rush I guess.

 

That's it in a nutshell. Rush's first six albums are essentially Zep & Yes in a blender, with Geddy's vocals being Plant & Jon Anderson following a teleporter accident.

 

I am a huge Rush fan.

 

 

[ezbass]

42 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

What is your take on the live album with strings?

I haven’t watched it for a while, and can’t remember what I thought. Leave that one with me, I’ll rewatch and listen. The only thing I can recall is that Geddy struggles vocally.

[meterman]

3 hours ago, ezbass said:

3 hours ago, meterman said:

I’m just a simpleton 😂

Not at all, just not your bag. If you don’t like Yes or Zep, you’re never going to like Rush. I do like Yes and Zep (although not all of it, not by a long chalk) so I was already predisposed to Rush I guess.

No, I really am - I had to repeat two years at school so it’s official!

 

Don’t know if it’s weird to love Hendrix but find Cream boring? Or love pre-“Animals” Pink Floyd but not so much Gong? Or like Captain Beefheart but not Zappa, at all? 
 

They’re all phenomenally talented musicians in Yes, Led Zep, Rush, Cream, Zappa, etc, and I have tried to get into them but none of it works for me at all. I kinda wish it did because it might have widened my gigging possibilities over the years. But I can’t get into it. I do love seeing pictures of Neil Peart’s drums for some reason though..?

[FinnDave]

I vaguely remember buying a live Rush album many years ago because so many people were raving about them. Left me stone cold, just a transatlantic version of Yes, another band I found completely with anything that could move or inspire me.

Everything too organised, more like an orchestra than a live rock band.