Original subtitles

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

(Geddy laughs)

- I'm full of surprises, my friend.

- I've never heard you sing that low.

- Full of surprises.

(theme song)

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?"

(serene acoustic music)

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.

(screeching bird) 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.

(rock music)

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

- As you should. Here we go.

(Geddy): 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.

(* Jerry Was a Race Car Driver * by Primus)

When I first saw Primus,

it was clear they were not your average rock band.

(Les): We're like the cold sore. (interviewer laughs)

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

* Jerry was a race car driver

(Geddy): Singing in a countrified drawl,

Les's mashup of funky grooves with proggy overtones

created a bass style that almost defies description.

* Ah

(Geddy): 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.

(bass guitar roaring)

(live version of * Closer to the Heart by Rush)

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

Rush's "A Farewell to Kings."

* You can be the captain

(Geddy): Trust me. That stuff ain't easy to play.

Nice one, boys.

* Closer to the heart ** (crowd cheering)

(upbeat bluegrass music)

(Geddy): 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! (laughs)

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

- Put a little spook in this guy. (horn toots)

(Geddy laughs)

(Geddy): And there's the excavator. (Les): There's the excavator.

(Geddy): 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.

(laughing)

And uh, we'll put this on

so you don't get poison oak.

You step into it. - Step into it.

(country music)

Is that what they call "good TV?"

(both laughing)

- Climb on up there.

People talk about Porsches,

Ferraris during midlife crisis and whatnot.

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

(laughing)

- 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.

(engine rumbling)

(* Working Man by Rush)

(horn toots) (Les): Whoa.

(laughs)

Open the bucket, push it out to the right.

There you go.

Look at that guy! Hey, hey!

There you go!

(Geddy): 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'

(Les laughing)

(Les): Go!

- Beauty.

New gig for me.

(Les): Hey, hey!

- What do we got here?

- That's called dirt.

* They call me the working man *

* They call me the working man **

(Les): Voilà.

(clapping)

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

- That's kind of a Canadian pile.

(laughing)

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

(* Working Man by Rush resumes)

* They call me the working man **

(Geddy): 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.

(laughs)

(rhythmic bluegrass music)

(Geddy): From heavy machinery to heavy chops,

we retreat to the bass player's natural habitat,

the studio, where Les makes musical magic.

(bass guitar playing)

Are you rolling? (man): Yeah.

- Okay.

So, I need to ask you...

I'm gonna ask... (synthesizer sings)

(laughs)

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

(chuckles) - 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... (high-pitched vocalizing)

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.

(Les): It was amazing! It was before a Rush show.

That night changed my life.

- Wow. That's heavy.

(* Shake Hands with Beef by Primus)

(Geddy): 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.

(bass plucks)

You know? - Yeah, yeah.

(bass plucks)

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

compelling about your playing is that you...

you have the riffs. (bass sings)

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...

(bass pops)

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.

(bass plucks)

(laid-back country music)

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.

(Les): Knocky-knock. (knocking on door)

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

- How did you come to know these people?

(Dan and Maegen chuckling) - Um, you made some guitars in high school, I remember.

(Dan): 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...

(Geddy): Right. (Les): ...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.

(Les): 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. (Les): There it is!

(Geddy): Wow, look at that. Great.

(**)

(Les): Maegen... (chuckles)

...talks to the wood.

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

(Les): Yeah! - I listen!

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

and go, "Hey, guys!"

(laughs) And start talking to slabs of redwood.

- Yeah. It's true.

(saw whirring)

This is an example of the wood communicating with me.

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

(Les): 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.

(dramatic music)

- 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...

(chuckles) We be nerds.

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

(laughing)

(laid-back bluegrass music)

(Geddy): After nerding out over bass design,

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

Let's go catch fish! (Les): 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!

(Geddy): 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.

(Les): 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. (laughs)

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

(reel clicking)

All right.

It's a tuna!

(Geddy laughs) 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. (fish splashes)

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.

(laughs)

Jesus. - Oh, my God.

(birds chirping)

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.

(Geddy laughs)

Now, the real fun begins.

(Geddy): Back in 2012, Les launched Claypool Cellars,

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

- Hey, hey!

(horn toots)

So, welcome to Pachyderm Station.

- Mighty pleased to be here.

(uplifting country music)

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?

(laughs) - 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. (Atilla): Hi, fellas, how we doing?

(Geddy): 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.

(Atilla): 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.

(laughing)

(Geddy): 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.

(sorrowful piano music)

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.

(clears throat) - 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.

(laughs)

- 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... (Geddy laughs)

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.

Subtitling: difuze