Wow!!! Talk about a from the heart interviewer and interviewee, both did a superb job!!!!! It's so refreshing to hear this story coming from such a phenomenal frontman!!! Swietna rozmowa/dyskusja!!!
A great and different interview indeed, mainly thanks to the intelligence, genuine interest and sincere attitude of the interviewer. Great job! And Geddy's always great!
Wow, this is the interview to end all interviews! If you want to know what it takes to make a rock band shine ever so brightly, & for so many years, with such intensity, you need only listen to Geddy's story as told here. From absolute desolation to hardship, from hardship, to struggle, from struggle to attainment, from attainment to enrichment...from enrichment to God knows where! And the story continues,stay tuned...
Geddy Lee and Chuck Schuldiner are my two favorite Jewish Musicians and they make me happy to be Jewish. I loved this interview and the last 5-7 minute or so were very touching. Thank you Geddy for being such a wonderful person and a great musician and bless your sweet ole mother.
Finally...a great interview! I can't stand when younger interviewers ask Geddy dumb founded questions like, "how do you compare this album to others"! or..."why did you make this album?"
I never knew that Geddy Lee was so intelligent, well-spoken and expressive. One would think the intellectual one was Peart... He seems so genuinely pleasant! Sharp as a whip with a humorous streak. Makes me proud of my Jewish (well, East Russian) background and the horrors of the camps where our Polish relatives were brutally mistreated. (OK, I'll get off my soap-box now...). Darn, no Nevada or California tours this year? I'd rather see RUSH for my wedding than have a stuffy garden part
I've always wondered why Geddy doesn't speak any Polish, considering both his parents were from Poland. It's hard to imagine his parents just stopped speaking Polish, and started speaking English to each other when moving to Canada. I could never imagine switching to speaking a different language with my family and friends (and I do speak three languages). I can only conclude that his parents spoke English to each other, otherwise he certainly would have picked up a significant amount of Polish. If I were to move to a different country and raise children there, I would make it a point in teaching them my native language, be it for no other reason than pride for my heritage.
Andytom its a very interesting point you make and ive often wondered if geddy spoke any polish. i myself am american born, but only 3rd generation american as my great grandparents(both sets, whom i never met) were from poland and the ukraine respectively. its a very interesting dynamic because i heard alot of polish growing up from my grandparents, but i didn't pick any of it up as my family spoke polish when they wanted to hide something from me and sometimes i feel like i wasnt taught or kept away on purpose. so in that sense, maybe thats how he grew up as well.
+Andytom Geddy's parents were Polish Jews. Maybe they spoke both polish and yiddish/hebrew? Yiddish/hebrew may have been related closer to their heritage and religion than polish language. I think that they could spoke polish with Poles and yiddish/hebrew among Jewish community.
Most Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors spoke both Polish and Yiddish fluently. But there was no way to go home for most of them; their houses were often given to non-Jews by the Nazis, who then wanted to stay there; and there were other problems. So maybe the attachment to the Polish language suffered because of that, especially since when survivors had to move from Poland, English and Yiddish were more useful with the other Jewish people they met in their new homes.
Hebrew was not a spoken language for European Holocaust survivors. At that time, only a handful of people in Palestine were beginning to speak it, the proto-Israelis. But it is pretty certain that the Weinribs spoke Yiddish.
You can have too much pride in your heritage. Polish pride, German pride, English pride, it's all a bunch of crap. In Canada we take pride in NOT taking pride.
+ Jim Jansen Geddy has never publicly endorsed libertarianism(U.S. Libertarianism that is) and neither has Alex. I know Neil has but he has grown out of the naive phase in his life. He and the boys don't believe in that Ayn Rand garbage!!
