Rush's Geddy Lee Reveals How La Villa Strangiato' Was Written & Recorded-Book Tour Pt 2

Fan Q and A with Rush's bassist, singer Geddy Lee promoting his new book Lee's My Effin’ Life, released on 14th November (HarperCollins).
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[@Ed9870]

Geddy continues to rate amongst my favorite rock stars. The book is fabulous. His back story is amazing, and as we can see here, he's a warm funny kind man who is also monstrously talented.

[@MyVideos-fm7ug]

I like how Geddy is dressed down for these as if he had to wash and dry “something” real fast like someone procrastinating their laundry all week and had nothing to wear. It’s so relatable and it presents him as one who doesn’t take himself “too seriously”. None of that Presto / Roll The Bones heavy wool maestro suit business! And how in the HELL did he and Alex stand wearing those suits in those days underneath the lights where Al that heat generates? They seemed so constricting, too

[@wrinkleneckbass]

I was lucky enough to see them in concert 29 times, including the last 3 shows.

[@geraldhartley]

Incredible. La Villa is a Masterpiece. Hope he can convince Alex to get out there and tour again!

[@Cleme21]

Read the book too fast after waiting so long. A very good read. All the things you've heard or read before is confirmed or/and elaborated on. Got sad in the end . BTW this man really experienced death in his life. Strong soul. Thanks Geddy for the joyful noise. Been a fan since 74.

[@carmgitto]

"It was one take " because they're awesome musicians.

[@JC-ez9yx]

They are the most likeable musicians ever...

[@flapjackson6077]

Rush was an incomparable group. Neil Peart gave Rush the final ingredients to put them on top. Alex and Geddy found their musical soulmate with Neil. Those early extended songs will always be part of the collection of great songs in the modern era. By-Tor and the Snow dog, followed by The Necromancer and Fountain of Lamneth were just Neil getting his sea legs. From there 2112, Xanadu, Cygnus X1; book 1, then book 2, and La Villa Strangiato! What a progression musical development! Incredible!

[@garylagstrom3864]

From a Gary to Geddy your one of the most talented musician of all time! No one touches your talent on bass, keyboards, and singing! You are the definition of Unique and RUSH is not RUSH without your playing and vocals! To quote the movie: I LOVE YOU MAN! Alex and Neil as well!! This is my essay to people who may not know RUSH or who Neil was professionally and his contributions to the art of drumming and lyrical writing! Enjoy! RUSH is THE PERFECT EXAMPLE of the fluidity of MASTERING TIME SIGNATURES! I play drums and there are a few things that you need to know about Neil Peart’s ( pronounced PEER-T) character: First he writes the lyrics so he knows in advance what TYPE of song it’s meant to be ie ballad, driver, etc. Second he COMPOSES on the drums… like a carpenter who looks at a set of blueprints before building the object. Neil lays out a SKETCH in his mind of the VOICES of the drumset and builds the song from there. He is also a great LISTENER knowing when NOT to step over Geddy’s singing or Alex’s solos! Finally, he had perfect timing and fluidity of time changes. He said himself that it’s not about COUNTING the time signatures as much as fluid motion to change the tempo without counting: in other words it should FLOW! He hates repeating the same drum patterns in the same song meaning if he plays a fill one way the first time around he will play it differently the second time around. IE. Rolls down the toms the first time around and triplets or quads (all four limbs) the second time around. In short there will NEVER be another like him on planet earth 🌍 🌏 🌎! REST IN PEACE PROFESSOR! With heart felt admiration and sincerity! Gary

[@SuperJohnnyO]

If you squint you can see on the Hemispheres track listing, under "La Villa Strangiato" and "An Exercise in Self-Indulgence" it says "It's a real motherf*cker".

[@rickmontgomery3037]

Wow great information on that one! If that's the live "promo" video I've seen over the years of that song, which certainly looked like it was filmed in 1978, it's cool to know that was done at Massey Hall....He mentions another tune having been filmed at that time also, which may have been The Trees, although I've seen a live promo vid for Circumstances also that looked like it was done around that time as well.

[@fed1up]

I think all 3 Trees, Circumstances, La Villa) were filmed then. I seem to remember they're wearing the same clothes in all 3 clips

[@rickmontgomery3037]

Yep thanks that would definitely confirm it then! 👍@@fed1up

[@MyVideos-fm7ug]

What I want to know even MORE is how he came up with that brief jazz bass break / solo where it’s just him and Neil for 2 measures… something like that, and HOW to play it I’ve watch video of Tim Sterace playing it, in which he nails it perfectly. It’s just that it moves so fast it’s really difficult to follow what he’s doing At the same time, I get this feeling that it might actually be simpler than what it sounds like. It almost appears as if he’s playing what would later become the basis for YYZ… that “D’-gg-idy-DAHH” which is 4 notes And it looks and sounds like he’s playing that 4 note pattern in succession, one after the other I don’t know…. that would have especially been a cool thing to see had Geddy brought a bass with him and showed how that’s played. I think if I could mail that riff, a lot of other things will soon fall into place as far as my own playing goes

[@82706527]

My theory as to them nailing it on the first take @the video shoot would be that the ambiance of a proper stage, w/lighting, smoke machine, etc., probably snapped their brains into “on-tour/show-playing” mode. We all know how it is when you’ve been doing the same job for a long time, and how when you don your suit or uniform and punch in, you snap into “work mode” no matter what’s happening and proceed to just execute whatever your gig is. And when it comes to gigs, SHIT…us RUSHHEADS all know how hard they toured, especially during this period. And on the previous AFTK tour they’d now added a couple more longer pieces/suites to the rep/set lists… The only thing I can think of that would push back against this theory is that it doesn’t seem that they brought in people to function as a live audience, same as the similar AFTK videos-no audience shots as I recall (correct me if I’m wrong). A lot of bands did this for “live” videos by the turn of the 80s/beyond, as we know, and sometimes bands would even bring small audiences into the actual studio to play for in order to get themselves into the proper performance mindset, to get a more “live” vibe for the recording as they rolled tape…hey sometimes they’d end up getting recorded, too, but I digress. Anyway, maybe Neil nailed the first take because his Slingerlands were on his drum riser and started sweating like a pig under the cans as he’d gotten used to at that time, etc.,…stage stimuli….

[@mikebowers7719]

That’s so cool Geddy,love hearing how artists put music and lyrics together.Use to listen to Kim Mitchell do it on Q107 when he had a time slot on the afternoon show.👍👍👍🇨🇦🇨🇦👍👍

[@shovelheadroad]

If you've never seen Rush live...my sympathies. You missed out.

[@menom7]

LA-VILLA-STRANGIATO (to me anyway) CONTINUES to be THE ONE and ONLY SONG,that is PURE "PERFECTION" in it's "timing",it's "rhythm",it's "Flow",it's AMAZINGNESS....in that this song is ONLY but 3 MEN PLAYING THIS!!! Since the very FIRST TIME I listened to this song,it's REMAINED my ONE and ALL TIME Favorite from them!!! As I'm one of the VERY FEW,that could sit and listen to this song EACH DAY for YEARS and NEVER EVER GET TIRED OF IT!!! ~Peace~ : >)

[@alanp4021]

This was in Montréal 2023-11-21!

[@morganneher8643]

Good question Sir 👍

[@HissBoo]

A Canadian Rock Star...all dressed up. Nice.

[@OphidianBreeze]

I went to 16 shows! from 1975 - 2015

[@Vigilant_Guardian]

soon folks soon... the time is now again, the way out is the way in..

[@cygnustsp]

That's one of my favorite Rush songs

[@MyVideos-fm7ug]

“The way out is the way in…” Knowing that we all come from our mothers in the manner that we do, making it essentially “the way in”… is Neil saying that the way out of this world is to crawl up our mother’s…snatch? So that’s what they meant in the movie Redneck Zombies when “Paw” told his son, “Ellie May”…. “Now, YOU quit your SASSIN’, boy!!! I pulled you outta your MOTHER and I’ll SHOVE YOU RIGHT BACK IN!!!” 😂

[@marleyorange]

I saw Classic Albums LIve try and do this song. Pretty good but they said uncle

[@cmonster67]

I like La Villa more than I like YYZ. There, I said it....

[@naerush2112]

“”What was it so hard in ENGLAND”? WALES, surely?

[@wecanrebuildhim]

Geddy had stated that 'Villa' was recorded in one take,.....but it took 40 TAKES to get it right.

[@DRUmBEaTTS]

Neil wrote a three part article about the recording of Moving Pictures in Modern Drummer magazine in the early 80’s. In that series of articles he stated that “villa” was recorded and edited “from a few different takes” just like Geddy said here. It is in Part 1 of the article if you want to google “The Making Of Moving Pictures Part 1” Modern Drummer Magazine.

[@wecanrebuildhim]

@DRUmBEaTTS My source came from the 'RUSH autobiography-Visions' book that was released in January of 1997. I still have it.

[@DRUmBEaTTS]

@@wecanrebuildhim Neil’s memory of the events was probably better in 1982 when he wrote the article than in 1997 when the autobiography came out. Here is the last sentence of the paragraph in the article that HE wrote on the subject. “We were determined to get the whole thing perfect, but in the end I just couldn’t do it, and we ended up putting it together from a few different takes.” The article appears in the Dec. 1982 issue of Modern Drummer magazine.

[@DRUmBEaTTS]

@@wecanrebuildhim I also still have the Visions BIOGRAPHY which was written by Bill Banasiewicz (not Neil) and released in 1988, a year after the release of Hold Your Fire. The quote you are referring to is from Geddy and appears at the bottom of page 38 (“it’s recorded in one take.”) and top of page 39 (“But it took 40 takes to get it right!”) in the Visions biography.

[@wecanrebuildhim]

@DRUmBEaTTS ...as long as someone confirmed that quote was made,... regardless of which one of them said....then I rest my case.

[@larryboody6737]

It's too band that 95% of Rush's memorable material was recorded before 1982

[@NominalTopic]

Audio makes it unwatchable.