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The first two songs that Geddy Lee learned how to play on guitar
Besides being the Rush frontman and keyboardist, Geddy Lee is mostly remembered as an incredible bass player. However, he only learned how to play the instrument after playing the guitar first. He first had an acoustic guitar with palm trees on as he recalled in an interview with Classic Rock magazine in 2018. During the same conversation he revealed which were the first two songs he learned how to play.
The first two songs that Geddy Lee learned how to play on guitar
“It was an acoustic guitar with palm trees on. I was very young, and I talked my mother into letting me buy it from my neighbour. The first song I learnt how to play on it was ‘For Your Love’ by The Yardbirds. And then I figured out ‘Pretty Woman’ — great guitar part.”
But I wanted to be in a band. The band of morons that I was hanging out with at the time, the bass player’s mum wouldn’t let him hang out with us, so we lost him and they all voted me in.”
“I begged my mum to loan me thirty dollars so I could get this thirty-five dollar bass at the local store. It was a Canora model, Japanese made, sort of a cheap copy of a Fender bass; I guess the die was cast,” Geddy Lee said.
The Yardbirds “For Your Love”
“For Your Love” was a single released in 1965 by The Yardbirds, becoming their first Top 10 hit in the United States and United Kingdom.
Eric Clapton was still the band’s lead guitarist in this track, which also had Keith Relf (Vocals), Paul Samwell-Smith (Guitar) and Jim McCarty (Drums). Graham Gouldman, the 10cc bassist and vocalist was the one who wrote the track.
Roy Orbison “Oh, Pretty Woman”
Released as a single by Roy Orbison in 1964, “Oh, Pretty Woman” became his biggest hit and one of the most influential songs of all time. It spent three weeks at number on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The track was covered by several artists in the following years but the most known version is certainly by Van Halen, released on their 1982 album “Diver Down”.
