All language subtitles for Geddy.Lee.Asks.Are.Bass.Players.Human.Too.S01E01.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH_eng

- That was the lowest Geddy Lee
voice I've ever heard.

- I'm full of surprises,
my friend.

- I've never heard you
sing that low.

- Full of surprises.

I'm Geddy Lee.

Bass player in the band Rush
for almost five decades.

But also, a bird photographer,
a wine collector,

baseball aficionado,
you know, a nerd!

Which got me wondering whether
my fellow bass folk

are more than just
the shadowy figures

we see skulking
around the stage.

I wanna know,

"Are Bass Players Human Too?"

Sonoma County, California.

Wine country.
My kinda place.

I once spent a few days here
crushing grapes

with my Rush bandmate
and guitarist, Alex Lifeson.

This time, I'm headed for
Rancho Relaxo,

home and playground of
my friend, Les Claypool,

and his family.

Les, of course, is
a fellow bass player

and founding frontman of
the band Primus.

I'm putting my life
in your hands, Les.

- As you should.
Here we go.

Les and I
have been pals

since Primus toured with Rush
in the early 90s.

He's an absolute demon
on the bass,

with a totally unique vibe.

When I first saw Primus,

it was clear they were not
your average rock band.

We're like the cold sore.

That just creeps up on you,
right before the prom.

* Jerry was a race car driver

Singing in
a countrified drawl,

Les's mashup of funky grooves
with proggy overtones

created a bass style that
almost defies description.

* Ah

This was mad,
marvellous music.

Exciting and strange

and their mosh pits
were legendary.

* Go *

From his solo work to
his many band collaborations,

Les is a bass player oozing
with awesomeness.

He's earned a cult-like status
among fans,

including yours truly.

On a recent tour, Primus
performed a rather
ambitious album,

Rush's "A Farewell to Kings."

* You can be the captain

Trust me. That stuff
ain't easy to play.

Nice one, boys.

* Closer to the heart **

Seemed like
the perfect moment for us

to reconnect in Les's world

and dig into what
makes him who he is.

Starting with a joyride
around his property.

So, this is how you relax
after a long tour?

- Well, it's Rancho Relaxo.

After a tour, you come home

and you have this sense of
what the hell do I do now?

And so, I bought this old
excavator, which you'll see,

and I cleared all these fire
trails, and opened up
all this area,

'cause we're in California,
where everything just catches
on fire if you look at it.

- You're not a man to sit
idly by, I can see that.

- There's a camera guy.
Don't look at him.

Don't look!

We're gonna run right at him.
- All right.

Put a little spook
in this guy.

- And there's the excavator.
- There's the excavator.

When we pull off
the trail, I remind myself,

when you hang with Les,
always expect the unexpected.

I am a nice, urban, Jewish boy.

Where do I come to
this kind of machinery?

- Well, this is... this is where
you expand your horizons.

As we move through life...
- All right.

- ...we open new doors,
so it keeps us interested

in being on the planet.
- Okay.

- So, this was, you know,
my granddad's hat.

- Okay. I'm honoured.
- So...

It's a Stetson.
Very expensive.
- Well, you know,

you are my hat mentor.
I've never been

much of a hat guy.

- See, look at that.
- Look at that.

- You're all... that's it,
you're a champion, now.

And uh, we'll put this on

so you don't get poison oak.

You step into it.
- Step into it.

Is that what they call
"good TV?"

- Climb on up there.

People talk about Porsches,

Ferraris during midlife crisis
and whatnot.

- Yeah.
- This is the ultimate
penis extension right here.

- I'm trying to show the world

that a bass player
can do many things.

I... this, I didn't expect,
I have to admit.

- I come from a long line
of auto mechanics.

My dad was a mechanic,
my grandpa was a mechanic,

all my uncles were mechanics.

I just like cool machinery.

I just, I don't know
what it is, I like it.

So, we're gonna consolidate
some burn piles.

We got a burn pile back there.
We can move it over here.

- Okay.

Whoa.

Open the bucket,
push it out to the right.

There you go.

Look at that guy!
Hey, hey!

There you go!

My life as
a bass player has been

leading up to this moment.

* I get up at seven, yeah

* And I go to work at nine

* I got no time for livin'

Go!

- Beauty.

New gig for me.

Hey, hey!

- What do we got here?

- That's called dirt.

* They call me the working man *

* They call me
the working man **

Voilà.

- Well, that's a bit sloppy.
I need to clean that up,
obviously.

- That's kind of
a Canadian pile.

I'm gonna just lower the bucket
real quick, so that's...

* They call me
the working man **

See, when I was
14 years old,

if I could've imagined the day

when I'd be helping Geddy Lee
off with his coveralls,

I would've shit myself.

From heavy machinery
to heavy chops,

we retreat to the bass player's
natural habitat,

the studio, where Les
makes musical magic.

Are you rolling?
Yeah.

- Okay.

So, I need to ask you...

I'm gonna ask...

- I'm adding a little drama
to your question.

Thank you for that.

I wanna know, I want you
to tell me, why bass?

- You know, it's funny because

when I was a kid, I wanted to
play some form of instrument.

And uh, there was a talent show
at the junior high

and there was these two guys
playing guitar

through these tiny,
little Fender Champs.

And it's all...

And I just remember
looking at it and going,

"That's the instrument,
the electric instrument

I do not wanna play 'cause
it sounds absolutely horrible."

Flash forward to high school,

all these bands needed
bass players

'cause nobody wanted
to play bass.

Everybody wanted
to be Eddie Van Halen.

Nobody wanted to play bass.

And I was like,
"Well, I'll play bass."

I was instantly in a band.
I didn't even know
how to play it.

And I'd play along with
Rush, "All the World's a Stage."

But I didn't know...

I couldn't hear the notes.

So, I would just be playing
rhythmically

along with you guys,

not knowing if I was even
in the right place.

- Oh.
- But that was a big part
of how I got started.

My first concert was Rush
Hemispheres at the Cow Palace.

Bought a bootleg t-shirt,
which I didn't even know,

but Alex pointed that out
to me many years later

when I wore it
to one of your shows.

Drank three warm Lowenbraus
and threw up in the parking lot.

And it was one of the greatest
nights of my life.

- A typical result
after a Rush show.

It was amazing!
It was before a Rush show.

That night changed my life.

- Wow. That's heavy.

So, what makes Mr.
Claypool's playing style unique?

Call it rock, call it funk,
just don't call it slap bass.

- I sort of have this thing
about slap bass.

People say, "Oh,
slap bass, slap bass!"

Well, nobody ever called it
"slap bass"

until guys like Flea and me
came along, and then,

they said, "Oh, slap bass.
That's slap bass."

It's not slap bass.

'Cause I have a friend
that plays slap bass,

and it's on an upright,
and you slap it and you pop it.

And it's totally different.
I can't do it.

But when I was coming up,
it was Larry Graham

and the thumping
and the plucking.

He had this whole thing about

the thumping and the plucking,
you know.

You know?
- Yeah, yeah.

- More percussive.
- That's what I've always found

compelling about your playing is
that you...

you have the riffs.

You have the speed to play
all these riffs,

but you have a sense of rhythm,

and you combine the two,
and that's really unusual.

When I saw you guys
for the first time,

opening for us, I found it
really fascinating.

And in fact, it influenced me.

It made me wanna play funkier

because I'm not
a slap player, at all.

If anything, I play...

I play, like, a flamenco-style
of bass and...

I pop the bass.

But I don't slap-a da bass.

- But when all is said and done,
you know,

groove is a feel,
it's not a technique.

- That's right. That's really
important. You're right.

Yes, two old-timers,
just going down the road.

Looking at the sights.

Not far down the road

is the home of
Maloney Stringed Instruments,

where I meet luthiers
Dan Maloney and Maegen Wells,

who design and build Les'
signature pachyderm basses.

Knocky-knock.

- Hello.
- Aloha!
- Oh, hey, guys!

- How did you come
to know these people?

Um, you made some guitars
in high school, I remember.

- Yeah.
- Dan was always kinda known as

the guy that would make
these amazing instruments.

When I decided to build
the perfect, ultimate bass,

Dan was the guy I talked to.

- And what frustrated you about
the bass you were using

that made you want
to have your own?

- Wasn't so much a frustration.

I wanted something that was
specifically tailored...

- Right.
- ...for me.

Something that had a little
more aggressive tone.

We've just been honing
this thing now, for years.

Is that the original drawing,
right there?

- This is the original drawing.

So, it's actually been
11 years yesterday.

- Really?
- When we uh, came to your boat,

over there in Sausalito.

And you handed me this
and you go,

"Yeah, this is the...
this is it, right here,"

on this piece of cardboard.
There it is!

Wow, look at that.
Great.

Maegen...

...talks to the wood.

- I don't talk to the wood.
The wood talks to me.

- Yeah!
- I listen!

- But I've actually seen you
crawl into a crawl space

and go, "Hey, guys!"

And start talking to
slabs of redwood.

- Yeah. It's true.

This is an example of
the wood communicating with me.

When I'm carving it, you can
hear it change in pitch.

When you're digging
into something like this,

since you're doing it by hand,
do you, you know,

get a little fchwing,
a divot,

as they would say
on the golf course.

- Oh, sure, that means that

the grain doesn't wanna be cut
in that direction.

So then, I'll come at it
from the other way

and I'll be,
"Okay, I'm sorry."

- As long as you apologize.
- Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!

- As long as you apologize.

- You don't know
what's on the inside.

I mean, that's another part of
the beauty and uh, horror.

- The beauty and the horror.
- Yeah!

- Of guitar making.

- That's what our lives
are like, every day.

- I guess it's that search for

the perfect combination of tone
and comfortability on stage.

You know, I've played
so many different basses,

especially with Fenders,
because uh, one of the things

I set out to do when I started
collecting was have

one from every year,
so that I could play them

back to back to back
to back to back,

and notice how they had
evolved or devolved.

Anyway, that's a bit nerdy,
but...

We be nerds.

- There was no nerds that
listened to Rush and Primus.

After nerding out
over bass design,

Les decides it's time for us
to hit the pond.

Let's go catch fish!
You gotta watch out

'cause sometimes,
there's snakes under the boat.

- Oh, great.

Les is a fisherman's fisherman.

Spending as much time as he can
on his own seagoing vessel,

or escaping to his well-stocked
private pond,

where he lives the life aquatic.

- Hell yeah, boy!

This wasn't
the first time we gone fishing.

As a matter of fact,
angling was something

we did together when Primus
and Rush toured back in the 90s.

We'd only known you,
like, three days or something
at that point, right?

I was like, "Hey, anybody
wanna go fishing?"

And you're all, "I'll go!"
- Our guys loved your band.

And then, we got into
this pre-show jamming thing,

which was really fun
and different for us.

And we never had that
relationship with other bands.

- Well, I do remember watching
Alex play guitar backstage once,

using a tortilla chip as a pick.

- Ooh, I got something.
- You got him?

All right.

It's a tuna!

Look at that!

- Oh, little baby.
- It's a monster! Look at that!

Look at that thing!
- Oh, I'm so sorry.

Daddy, will you take it off
the hook for me?

Fly! Be free.

There he goes.
- Swim away, little fish.

The fishing, it's kind
of meditational, really.

- Yes. - When I'm fishing,

I don't think about
anything but fishing.

Oh, there we go.

Oh, damn it!
That was a big old bass.

- See, when I'm birdwatching,
through the woods,

I'm looking for birds
and I've got my lenses with me

and I'm trying to focus,
I don't care about

anything else in the world.

Nothing.

Ooh, I got something.
- Got him?

Look at that guy!
Ooh, you got him!

- Not you again!

- It's the same one.

Jesus.
- Oh, my God.

My tour of Les Claypool's
offstage life rolls on

through the vineyards of
Sonoma Valley.

To indulge in a passion
we both have in common,

it's wine o'clock.

So now, we're going to
the tasting room, right?

- The Station, we call it.
- What will we taste today?

- We will have wine and wieners.

Now, the real fun begins.

Back in 2012,
Les launched Claypool Cellars,

turning his personal thirst into
a world-class winemaking gig.

- Hey, hey!

So, welcome to
Pachyderm Station.

- Mighty pleased to be here.

With a glass of Purple Pachyderm
Pinot noir in my hand,

we head to the patio,

where Les has something big
he wants to show me.

- So uh, Geddy, did you know
I had a 20-foot wiener?

You know, I've been curious
to see your wiener.

- I sensed that for many years.

- How many wiener jokes
can we get in,

in the next 10 minutes?
- Oh, you'd be amazed.

This is Atilla.
Hi, fellas, how we doing?

- Hello, Atilla.
- He's manning the wiener,

which is a sentence you probably
don't hear very often.

I've been saying for years
that someday,

I'm gonna retire and open
a gourmet hotdog stand.

- Wow.
- This is not a big
money venture.

- It's a labour of love.
- It's a clubhouse for

us and all our friends.
I mean, they're like
our closest friends.

- I love it.
- You know, it's amazing.

- Well, now I'm suffering
from wiener envy.

- Well, there you go.
- I have to say.

I'm torn between Cage's Caveman
and the Colonel's Choice.

- So, we'll do...
we'll do one of each.

Got it.

- Hmm.

I approve.

The bun is exceptional.

- Yes. One of
our original ones was

Korean barbecue sauce, kimchi.
- Very modern.

- And it tasted amazing.

And everybody loved it.
- This is good.

- But you come into
the tasting room,

'cause were storing
all this kimchi,

and it smelled like farts.
- Oh, not good.

- It was horrible!

You know, kimchi on its own...

- Is a little stinky.
- And I thought it was just me
at first, 'cause I've got...

I don't know how you are,
I got the schnoz,
I can smell anything,

smell stuff.
- You got a schnoz?

- I can smell--
- Dude.

This ain't a fucking ornament.

- We're here to sell wine,

not wieners.
The wieners...

- The kimchi is stinking up
my wine.
- Yeah.

Nobody wants to buy wine
that smells like farts.

Finally, we enter
the inner sanctum of
Pachyderm Station.

It's the perfect last stop
on our journey of all things
Claypool.

- Aloha!

- Looks fantastic!

The décor mirrors that quirky
Claypool personality.

But one thing caught me
totally off guard.

- That's been up there
since Neil passed.

- Isn't that beautiful.

What a touching tribute
to my pal, the late Neil Peart,

my bandmate for over 40 years.

He would love that.

Thank you.
- Yeah.

Of course. Thank you, guys.
Shit.
- That's...

That's making me cry, dude.

Thankfully, it's tasting time.

Joining us to sample Les'
yummy Pinot

is the label's winemaker
extraordinaire, Ross Cobb.

- So, let's do
the '17 Rice-Spivak.

Which, in the two days
I've been here,

has become my favourite.

- The way we describe
the wines here,

we could describe them
by elevation,

proximity to the ocean, soil.

- How many Skittles
we threw in the vat.

- Yeah, Skittles.
Which colour.

- Well, let me ask you this,

you like crafting this wine,

would you compare it
to crafting music?

- Oh, there are
so many parallels.

I make wine with Ross Cobb,

it's like a producer of
a record, you know.

It's like,
if Brian Eno produces it,

it's gonna have a certain
element that is his something.

- Well, like a Les Claypool
bass part.

Or like, one of my bass parts.

I describe wines to my friends,

naturally, just out of habit,

as bottom end, top end,
mid-range.

You know, there is
a correlation.

We set out to prove to people

that bass players are
also human.

But what I've learned is that
Les is superhuman, uh,

because of all the things
he takes on

and all the things
he does so well.

- There's a fine line between
superhuman and alien.

Um...

I mean, look, you gotta find
those things that

keep you wanting to get up
in the morning and go,

"Okay, I'm gonna get outta
the bed and do my thing."

Finding those things that
excite you, you know.

That's what keeps you
on the planet,

and it's a wonderful thing.

That's what life's all about.
- Amen.

I'll drink to that.
Cheerio, cheerio.

Well, human, superhuman
or alien,

I'm just glad my pal Les
is on the planet.

The passion he brings
to everything he does

should be inspiration to us all,

whether you play bass or not.

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