Geddy with Yes at Rock ‘n Roll HOF

Geddy is so holy that he can sell his own relics while he is alive.
Geddy Lee - Reverb bass strings bracelet – the guitarwrist

 

You would think a video like this would put to rest the notion that you have to play with a pick on a ric to get that song right, or indeed the notion that you have to ape whatever was originally done to get any song right. But nope, that is an argument that will never, ever die.

 

I'm surprised he didn't use his Ric.
I just watched this last week...and the speeches. I had heard about Rick Wakeman's speech. Since I can relate, it made me laff. I think I'll mention it to my urologist next week.

 

Ged says he tried several basses for this,including his Rickenbacker, and the Bass he used was the best sounding one for the job.

 

It just takes an extraordinary bassist methinks.
Listen to some of Troy Hughes Yes covers on youtube. Machine Messiah fingerstyle!!??

 

The fact that they use the same strings helps them a lot to sound similar, IMHO. It's not enough to play on a Rickenbacker to sound like Chris Squire, if it's equipped with ultra flexible flatwound strings.

 

A note on the recorded version:


"Squire played his bass guitar parts with an overdub that was one octave higher using Howe's Gibson ES-150 electric guitar miked acoustically and mixed with his bass track."

 

relevant discussion:

Geddy Lee performing "Roundabout" with Yes

 

Some members of Yes were very angry at Wakeman's speech, thinking it was disrespectful to Squire. That's as maybe; I still laughed.

I've also read that since it was the two factions of Yes performing together, rehearsals were somewhat strained.

 

Geddy is a monster player, and it sounds like..... Geddy playing Roundabout with his fingers. Nothing wrong with that, but it sounds nothing like Squire either. It isn't possible to get a truly pick like sound out of your fingers, just a different set of physical realities at work, unless you play only with your fingernails, and really difficult to get that tone out out of anything but a Ric. Make no mistake, I'm a huge Geddy fan, but if you want to hear somebody nailing Squire's tone, it's this guy, not Geddy:


Or this guy:

 

Isn't this kind of thing all of our dream?....,,,

 

Or these guys :

 

It's all in the hands: Years ago in Texas, I had a friend who was an absolute monster at slap-style. He'd heard 'Roundabout', figured that tone was in his neighborhood, and one day he came in the store and started wailing a letter perfect (no funk edge to it, but totally authentic) reading of it, all thumbs and slap.

My mind was blown, and it taught me quite a lesson.

 

Should tour with Yes...how cool would that be? Wouldnt have to sing, well maybe some backups, and just play bass.

 

Pay-cut!

 

That warmed my heart. Thank you Doc.

 

Yowsa! pretty cool.

 

Billy Sherwood did a good job of capturing what Squire did with Yes too.