My Effin' Life

There's really no such thing as a casual Rush fan. If you're a Rush fan, you know that Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio aren't their best songs. If you're a Rush fan, you know all about how those three guys are consummate musicians and songwriters. You know they have a wicked, strange sense of humor, but at heart, they remain polite Canadian boys from a small Toronto suburb.

The one thing you don't know as a Rush fan is much of their personal lives. Those three guys (especially drummer Neil Peart) always knew how to draw a line in the sand between “work” and “home.” Their private lives remained largely private. Neil wrote a few books about traveling the world by bicycle and motorcycle before his untimely passing, but they were really travelogues, insights about his experiences on the road and not so much backstage stories or tales of the three Stooges traipsing the countryside in their ongoing musical cavalcade. So, for Geddy to sit down and pen a monumental 500+ page journey that starts with his parents surviving concentration camps in WWII and arriving at where he is now, a semi-retired 70-year-old musician, father, and grandfather, is an applause-worthy feat. In MY EFFIN' LIFE, the esteemed master of the bass shows that he ain't just a musician by penning a funny, thoughtful, sometimes irreverent, and wonderfully heartfelt journey through his life and the music Rush brought to the world.

I have long been a rabid Rush fan, amassing all the records, watching the live concerts, buying bootlegs of concerts, etc...–you name it, I'm that guy. I have always said that my life could be largely encompassed by two bands: Rush and Marillion. To get his insights into the band's history, particularly the writing and recording processes of all their records has been something special. In my mind, this is the equivalent of Beatles fans getting that extended film from Peter Jackson last year.

Because Rush has always been a fairly low-drama band that was more concerned with the music than with rockstar lifestyles, there aren't a lot of explosive reveals in this book, but ol' Ged doesn't shy away from the difficult topics. Firing their original drummer, John Rutsey (and Rutsey's eventual passing when he was only 55) is one of those tough parts. The drug use and alcohol issues in the band, while they never really got in the way of the music, were a prevalent part of the book. And the most interesting and telling parts are when Ged details how his marriage struggled because the life of a touring musician is just not the most conducive career for marriage or raising a family.

Still, the overriding theme that comes out of this book is the loyalty and friendship of the main triumvirate, but also their long-time road crew, many of whom began the same journey with them in the beginning and remained in their traveling circus until the final show. That speaks to the brotherhood of the music that they all believed in and were willing to sacrifice for. It's a big reason that Rush endured, and why people gravitate to their music. They did not compromise artistically. They remained true to their vision and each other.

MY EFFIN' LIFE is easily the best book I've read this year. It's easily one of the better music autobiographies I've read. It's not going to change anyone's life. It does serve as a beautiful companion piece to a fifty-year career in the music industry.

Thanks for the music, boys. It was a helluva ride.