Great musicians who can sing and play an instrument at the same time.

McCartney always amazed me with his ability to sing and play intricate bass lines at the same time.
Geddy Lee.
A Farewell to Kings is a clinic....
When playing simultaneously, Geddy uses a Moog Taurus pedal set, where he can play with his feet while playing the bass. He usually sits on a stool to make that happen. According to Geddy, he preprograms the sounds on the Moog synthesizer, so he can use the pedals to play a pre-programmed sound, while sometimes he straightforward plays. So, sometimes he triggers some sounds, as did Neil with his drum kit.

Geddy’s bass lines are complex enough to be hard to play and sing at the same time. Now, singing, playing complex bass and triggering the Moog is very, very, very hard. The way Geddy does it was explained by himself:

He practices, practices and practices so the bass lines are almost automatic and he doesn’t need to think of them. He memorized the whole thing before going to stage.
 
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I saw the Grace Under Pressure tour in Nashville in '84. Amazing show.
Always a good show. The only complaint if any was that Alex
wasn't 'keeping up with the times' so to speak on guitar, relying on effects
and forcing Neil and Alex to fill the empty spaces. He still had the old chops but they played
far less of the older songs as Geddy's vocals changed and he had to lay off the high trilly stuff.

In the meantime you have Eddie Van Halen and all these new metal shredders
like Randy Rhoads, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani coming out - Alex sort of stopped progressing.( you could see it in Neil's occasional 'less-than -friendly' glances to the right )
I even thought they should have hired a lead guitarist at one point because, being into heavy metal myself, Rush music got boring to be honest. But as I get older going back listening again gives some of their stuff a new light.
 
McCartney always amazed me with his ability to sing and play intricate bass lines at the same time.
Geddy Lee.
A Farewell to Kings is a clinic....
When playing simultaneously, Geddy uses a Moog Taurus pedal set, where he can play with his feet while playing the bass. He usually sits on a stool to make that happen. According to Geddy, he preprograms the sounds on the Moog synthesizer, so he can use the pedals to play a pre-programmed sound, while sometimes he straightforward plays. So, sometimes he triggers some sounds, as did Neil with his drum kit.

Geddy’s bass lines are complex enough to be hard to play and sing at the same time. Now, singing, playing complex bass and triggering the Moog is very, very, very hard. The way Geddy does it was explained by himself:

He practices, practices and practices so the bass lines are almost automatic and he doesn’t need to think of them. He memorized the whole thing before going to stage.

I used to play bass and sing when I was young. I didn't do either of those things anywhere near as well as Lee or McCartney, of course; my abilities weren't even in the same universe. :p
 
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