HalfwayToGone

I hope you get to have a quick photo or selfie if you’re paying a premium, but it might depend how many people they let attend. If it’s hundreds, you might get cattle-herded thru like at other signings where they actively discourage any photo with geddy to prevent it from turning into an 8-hour nightmare.

My experience back in the 90s was also surreal, especially when my buddy got so excited that he gestured with his drink and the little straw popped out. It was like super slo-mo as it flipped end over end and ever so gently bounced off the toe of Geddy’s freshly shined shoe. It seemed like took 5 seconds, but it was probably less than one. In all seriousness those two photos are beautiful, Rod!

Doesn't sound like a lot of fun. I'll probably pass on that Barnes and Noble should it occur. That’s how the Ace Frehley one was. I forget how many blocks away from the door I was when I got on line. The Tony Iommi one I ended up getting there way early since I went right from the Ace Frehley signing to the other store in Tribecca, so I have no idea how big that line got. I was pretty close to the start of the line and waiting in the same room where the table was set up. Anyway, as much as Laura is confident, I’m wondering if the NJ stop will be the only NYC area one since it’s a manageable set-up for the author. They can set a limited total number of books and guarantee the person isn’t stuck there until they have a nervous breakdown or get carpal tunnel syndrome. Not sure if anyplace in Manhattan is already set up for a limited pre-sale type of event or how quickly one could slap it together. Bookends has been at it for years.

Cleveland Jan. 19th event just announced including a book signing. Q&A with Geddy and Alex. Maybe there won’t be a Manhattan thing after all.

He was on Q104.3 the other day, and there is a link to the interview on RIAB. If he wants to avoid guys going on ebay and pre-selling personalized signed books, he’d announce it the same day it happens, but I have no clue if he only will do events the way the first two were done, or the B&N “just show up, buy a book, and get in the back of the 5000 person line blocks away.”

Guess I’ll be on the lookout for a Thurs eve or Friday appearance at a B&N in manhattan.

Here’s the link to the actual “Glee” on my bass book.... https://www.instagram.com/p/Br5DM_Kg5_g/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I got to meet Geddy Lee for Christmas. The book is just gravy.

I spent all last week recovering from the flu I had started having the day before the signing, so I had plenty of time to read. I find that kind of stuff fascinating. If I were rich, I’d have a bunch of vintage instruments. As it stands, the best I’ve managed to accumulate is a 1967 Gretsch student snare drum, an ‘87 Ludwig Coliseum snare, a 3 piece clear blue mid 70s Ludwig vistalite kit, a DW 3 piece kit (used on Monster Magnet’s Superjudge tour), a Gibson art custom & historic ‘57 LP custom reissue from around 2000 I think, and a super rare Dean guitar that was a gift. I traded away a 1971 Gibson SB bass (blonde)—the cheapy version of the EB3–in exchange for the Gretsch snare (at the time a totally even swap value-wise). At one point I had a monsterous custom Ludwig kit from around 1987 that my Coliseum snare came with—sold the rest of that kit. I also had a beautiful Gibson ‘57 goldtop reissue from a little earlier than the custom—same art custom and historic type of reissue, but it was stolen (still heartbroken over that one). Edit—Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I still hung onto my mid 80s yamaha bronze piccolo snare and a decent pork pie snare drum that is a higher end “black beauty” knock off.

I don’t tear up about it, but I did get very weepy at the actual show for a half minute or so.

He made reference to his “shameless promotional tour” in one interview, so I’m assuming more events will happen.

I managed to put off posting my photos from the NJ book signing thing for three days and then realized a few minutes later that it was “Rush day.”

It’s perfect for gear fetishists—he gets into some of the real minituiae and covers a fairly amazing spread of brands I’d never heard of in addition to the usual suspects. Occasionally, though he just throws a few photos and not much history, like with Steinberger—he doesn’t get into any of that company’s history or into any real detail about the instrument even, except that he was at the point of having so many synths and pedals and mics that every time he’d turn, his headstock would smack into a mic, so he gave the Steiberger a try and then got tired of it after a couple of years. Clearly that was only included because it was one of his tour basses, and he does a rundown of pretty much every bass he used in Rush near the end of the book. The interviews are often cool reads. I posted in another thread about the Bill Wyman interview—he really was not shy about letting Geddy have it a couple of times over how much rougher Bill had it as a kid/early on. Geddy did a great job of getting their personalities captured without it consuming the whole book. That said there were a couple where I was left wishing he had more room for another page or two.

Wyman did do his interview at Sticky Fingers, and he gave Geddy a pretty hard time—“you were richer than I was if your mom had a f***ing company.” (Then rattles off a story about having to scavenge a bombed area of town for dandelion leaves to eat.)

Better is relative. I still have fluctuating temps and generally feel cruddy—just not as bad as yesterday before taking 660mg of naproxen. Already called out sick for tomorrow. I parked behind starbucks a block away—no meter and I didn’t get a ticket or anything.

All I wanted to do was thank him (again.) He seemed genuinely appreciative when I did. I might even do it again if circumstances permit. Right on! He may do NYC—ya nevah know... My only regret is that I didn’t have enough time to share that the guitar tech who showed Geddy and Alex all of Steve Howe’s guitars during RRHOF rehearsals and let them fondle them is a dear friend and former bandmate of mine. Lucky bastard worked with Yes, Adrian Belew, Eddie Jobson/UK reunion, Greg Lake (!!!!!!!!), and has gotten to know fairly well just about every prog rock hero we worshipped together in high school. He even chilled with Alan Holdsworth back in the day and got to fiddle with his synthaxe.

Yeah, I saw his car pull up and was like “look! There’s the man!” And when he emerged from the caddy I let out a “whoo hoo!” I love how all the books are signed “Glee” by the way—I’m sure he was trying to save his wrist/hamd by not including his full first name, but given the whole UFO story of how they nicknamed him Glee I just thought of that right away. Full disclosure, though, I’m sure both photos I posted were just before my son (who walked up alone before I then followed up) gave Geddy his sketch, so that smile was ever-present while I was downstairs. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to have someone shoot a photo of me at the table, so I am nowhere to be found in the ones I posted. Oh, and I’m considerably further through the book, having a day off and being too sick to do much other than rest and read. I’m well into the Rickenbackers and still planning to power through. Obviously, collecting stuff is something I relate to heavily in this (I have a lot of rock memorabilia piled up and a comic book collection as well as a bunch of 1966 Batman TV series stuff of all sorts and a bunch of vintage toys), and being a serious musician for over 30 years, hanging out with gear fanatics of all sorts, this stuff is not all unfamiliar territory...

Here’s the link to my instagram post—you can only see the back of my son’s head in the first shot, but you can also see how “all smiles” Geddy was at this point. https://www.instagram.com/p/BrkEyEAF9Ji/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1pbwaomx7b980

Hey, sorry I missed you yesterday! I tried to get there right at 3, but traffic and then parking delayed us a little bit, and we probably got on line around 3:30. We were about halfway down the second “row” of people. My 7 year-old son gave Geddy a cute little pencil drawing he made of Rush in the parking lot, and Geddy thanked him very sweetly before I stepped up and thanked him and told him we had met 25 years ago/my best friend almost spilled his drink on Geddy’s shoe. He just had a huge grin the whole time and was like, “oh, really?” How I managed to get through that wait outside in the freezing cold without getting pnuemonia is beyond me. The meds really saved the day for me. By the time the line started to move, my son was starting to freak out about how cold he was, and I felt like the worst dad on the planet, but once we got indoors it was all good. I actually feel a bit better this morning but I’m still having some mild sweats and chills. I read up to the Fender Jazz bass section so far. Gear nerds will surely love this book!

Yeah, he has some kind of laryngitis or a really bad cold. I spoke with him for about 3 seconds yesterday and he also thanked my son for a cute little drawing of Rush my son gave him, and his voice was terribly hoarse and quiet. That said, he had a great big smile on his face and seemed to be enjoying it as best one can enjoy signing a million things.

OK—just edited my above post. My son is coming along after all.

So of course I am now fighting a terrible cold since yesterday, and stayed home from work today. I’m going to tough it out with some naproxen, but I don’t want to get anyone sick so I’ll probably stay low key and not go crazy trying to look for people. My son just got sent home early from school, though, so I can try to get there at 3.

I managed to get a really bad cold too starting yesterday. I just took a pair of alleve tablets so I’m not miserable later, but I’m going to opt out of any meet ups and try to keep my hands to myself so I don’t get anyone sick. Perfect timing.

Who said it was the holy grail? We just want to say hello to the guy.

I would assume he does if he still owns them. I think he talks about all the basses he used to get his signature sound and why as part of the aim of the book, and how his appreciation of all the other tonal possibilities out there opened up once he started playing all sorts of other basses he hadn’t bothered with previously, because they lacked that sharp attack and twang that Chris Squire and Jack Cassady had (Greg Lake also comes to mind, especially during that whole stint with Asia).