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The great Geddy Lee makes mistakes??

Watch the clip of Rush playing YYZ in Argentina. The one where the crowd is singing along - to an instrumental. It's incredible. But Geddy goofs a little on one of the fills. You can see he grins with a kind of "muffed that one a little" expression. Whatevs. That's what's so cool about live music - the live part.
 
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The other songs were tight, for the most part, but i heard YYZ and he went out of tune for a few measures. Playing with a different drummer, who is awesome, but put his own spin on it, and who knows the back story. Did they play it together at all, did OH have time to work on it, etc etc...who knows.

Yeah. Like I said. No judgement. Just a reminder to myself that everyone messes up sometimes, even your heroes. So don't beat yourself up when you do it.
 
Friends, we've all done it. We've all dropped a few clunkers on stage. We've all hit that really wrong note and felt really bad about it. But have you ever seen Geddy Lee do it? I give you: Lee and Lifeson and Omar Hakim doing YYZ at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert.

As I listened I perceived that there was some pretty loose timing going on in some bits. But, hey. Who knows how long its been since they've played this song - and probably never with Hakim. Speaking of which, how well does he know the song? So I'm prepared to cut some slack. It's rock n roll not the Mona Lisa. And let's not lose the plot, here. This is all to commemorate their fallen comrade, Taylor Hawkins.

But I had to rewind one section to make sure I didn't imagine it. Your hero and mine, Geddy Lee, plays a bunch of wrong notes. Like, for a few measures. Astonishing. This man is retirement age and has never had another job other than playing that instrument. Not only that, but he's legendary Geddy effing Lee!

I think we can learn a couple of things, here. First, professionalism. At no point does he appear flustered in any way. He continues on after the screw up and carries on like a boss. That's pro. Second, everyone makes mistakes. Even Geddy. So next time it happens to me, I'll be sure to remind myself: you're not better than Geddy, so yeah you're gonna make mistakes. Move on. And I hope you will do something similar next time you goof something up.



I think you the most part if you start together and on the right note, you don’t miss your chord changes, and end together on the right note, the audience is fairly forgiving of what happens in between. That said, you have too many clams, your bandmates may not be so forgiving…
 
Supposedly, there's only one who never seemed to make mistakes live. A drummer, Jonathan Moffett, known as "Sugarfoot." I think he started with the Jackson 5, stayed with Michael, but also played with many other top selling artists. He is amazing to listen to. Not as dramatic as some drummers, but highly technical and machine like in whatever he does.

As here, he's now in his 60s and mostly retired. But, you still get the idea.

 
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Friends, we've all done it. We've all dropped a few clunkers on stage. We've all hit that really wrong note and felt really bad about it. But have you ever seen Geddy Lee do it? I give you: Lee and Lifeson and Omar Hakim doing YYZ at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert.

As I listened I perceived that there was some pretty loose timing going on in some bits. But, hey. Who knows how long its been since they've played this song - and probably never with Hakim. Speaking of which, how well does he know the song? So I'm prepared to cut some slack. It's rock n roll not the Mona Lisa. And let's not lose the plot, here. This is all to commemorate their fallen comrade, Taylor Hawkins.

But I had to rewind one section to make sure I didn't imagine it. Your hero and mine, Geddy Lee, plays a bunch of wrong notes. Like, for a few measures. Astonishing. This man is retirement age and has never had another job other than playing that instrument. Not only that, but he's legendary Geddy effing Lee!

I think we can learn a couple of things, here. First, professionalism. At no point does he appear flustered in any way. He continues on after the screw up and carries on like a boss. That's pro. Second, everyone makes mistakes. Even Geddy. So next time it happens to me, I'll be sure to remind myself: you're not better than Geddy, so yeah you're gonna make mistakes. Move on. And I hope you will do something similar next time you goof something up.


And once again, after a musical mistake, there were no deaths or even injuries caused by it.

Like hand-made leather clothing, minor imperfections are the mark of authenticity.
 
And once again, after a musical mistake, there were no deaths or even injuries caused by it.

Like hand-made leather clothing, minor imperfections are the mark of authenticity.

Its live art and no art is 100% perfect. I'm a art collector and if you know what your looking for no art is perfect no matter how prestigious the artist, how coveted the piece is and no matter how much a piece is hailed as a masterpiece and used as a example as the most recognized piece of a style or form of art. They all have flaws and imperfections, its just how close up are you looking, if you know what your looking for, have a good eye for detail and symmetry and how tough and nit picky you are being. Are you taking in the piece and experiencing it or are you trying to judge it on a technical level.

If your doing it right especially with a example of art being performed live its about the experience.
 
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Its live art and no art is 100% perfect. I'm a art collector and if you know what your looking for no art is perfect no matter how prestigious the artist, how coveted the piece is and no matter how much a piece is hailed as a masterpiece and used as a example as the most recognized piece of a style or form of art. They all have flaws and imperfections, its just how close up are you looking, if you know what your looking for, have a good eye for detail and symmetry and how tough and nit picky you are being. Are you taking in the piece and experiencing it or are you trying to judge it on a technical level.

If your doing it right especially with a example of art being performed live its about the experience.
I agree 100%. Art is about emotion and evoking emotions, it was never about perfection.

You want perfection? Program your music into a sequencer and let it rip - perfect every time.
 
I agree 100%. Art is about emotion and evoking emotions, it was never about perfection.

You want perfection? Program your music into a sequencer and let it rip - perfect every time.

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I try hard not to trash talk other musicians, especially local ones that I see live around town. It's bad karma, so I rarely do it. But I will say that there are some things that are eminently more forgivable than others. One of the easiest things to forgive is a wrong note or two. What's harder to forgive is bad taste. This can apply to all kinds of things in live music, but the easiest example is a bad cover song. Either the song selected itself is questionable taste, or, even more common, the band doesn't pull it off stylistically. I once saw a band here in town do Alanis Morissett's You Oughta Know, only they did it without an ounce of funk in it. It was like the the bass player had never heard the song and learned it by tabs. Un. Listenable. It wasn't just a style change. I mean, doing a different arrangement with the trappings and instrumentation of a different genre would be one thing. But this was either pure laziness or a complete lack of understanding of what made the song great in the first place.

Give me a few wrong notes over that every day of the week.
 
I heard another "mix" from another phone recording from stage right and further toward the back. I thought the guitar sounded better and the bass wasn't as prominent. From that vantage point I probably wouldn't have thought it was too bad. Omar Hakim seems to have done his homework! That has to be an unusual song even with his considerable chops. Can't wing it.
 
Geddy and Al will always get a pass given their body of work. When you have played with 1 drummer over 40 years it’s hard to jump in with a new drummer without some rehearsals. If you think about it this may have been the 5-6 time they have played without the Professor so I can understand everyone not being in sync.
 
Watch the clip of Rush playing YYZ in Argentina. The one where the crowd is singing along - to an instrumental. It's incredible. But Geddy goofs a little on one of the fills. You can see he grins with a kind of "muffed that one a little" expression. Whatevs. That's what's so cool about live music - the live part.

Are you not thinking of Rush in Rio? Geddy said that the energy of the crowd was impressive there because they were really up for it, dancing and singing along during YYZ. We'll, they tried singing along (just listen and hear what I mean, a bit like getting the audience to clap along they always trainwreck and the band has keep time themselves).
 
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