Terry 's Reviews > My Effin' Life

They say Rush is an acquired taste and I can’t say that I disagree. Like a fine single malt whiskey, however, once you have acquired the taste and come to appreciate the nuances and subtleties they express any effort involved proves to be well worth it. I guess Rush as a band is analogous to writers people call “writer’s writers”, the implication being that they may be a bit too rarefied in their artistic endeavours to ever win popular acclaim, but that ‘those who know’ (i. e. those with taste) know how great they are. Have I alienated non-fans of Rush enough yet? Perhaps, but all I can say is that you don’t have to like them…but if you do, you’re ‘right’.

I’ve been a fan of the band for more than thirty years, since a friend introduced me to them in high school, and have seen them in concert at least 5 or 6 times (for which I feel fortunate given how incredible they were live), but I’m still a small fry when you compare that to the fans from when they first formed in the seventies and who’ve seen them literally hundreds of times. Still, I consider myself an old Rush grognard and Geddy, Neil, and Alex are probably my favourite musicians and perhaps among the most talented that have ever graced a stage. Hyperbole? I doubt you could convince me of it.

Being a Canadian I can’t help but indulge in our parochial and somewhat sad habit of pointing out that Rush are ‘hometown boys’ (as though the mere fact we share a national background means I had anything to do with their prowess or that their fame in any way reflects on me). Regardless of how silly it is, please let me just wave my Canadian flag a bit and pretend that our shared heritage means something. I guess I’d like to think that their talent, professionalism, and dogged commitment to staying true to themselves had something to do with where they came from, but even if it didn’t, I’m proud to say they’re true Canadian icons.

Geddy’s memoir charts the course of his life in the world’s greatest band, without discounting the role his early youth, and especially his place as the child of holocaust survivors, played in taking him from awkward nerd from the wrong side of town to one third of the greatest power trio in rock. (Find a better one, I dare you!) Geddy doesn’t shy away from revealing aspects of his personal life, especially from his youth before he was a professional musician and in regards to the strains his professional life put on his marriage and family commitments, but the lion’s share of the book concentrates on Geddy’s remembered experiences on tour and during the creation of their albums…a situation definitely in accordance with the wishes of his fans.

I’d obviously recommend this to any fan of Rush who wants to get an inside look at the professional, and personal, side of one of its founding members, but I won’t bother recounting what you can read for yourself. I just want leave you with a few quotes here that stood out to me as exemplifying some of what I admire so much about Rush as a whole and demonstrate to me what they are all about:

“I have said this before, and so has Neil, but it bears repeating: if we learned one thing from all of this, [the success of 2112 contrary to record company pressure to produce ‘popular’ hit singles] it was that a young artist’s greatest asset is the word “no”. It’s an immensely valuable word. There will always be pressure to sell your dreams short, and there will always be people who want you to be something you’re not, but none of those things can happen without your permission.”(224)

“We were still very much of a mind that we wouldn’t put anything on a record that we couldn’t reproduce live. A classic example is “Closer to the Heart”, in which Alex plays the first verse on his acoustic and then takes a break while Neil gently hammers out a melody on orchestra bells and I accompany him on bass pedals. It’s pretty and adds a moment of suspense, but the main reason we composed it that way was to give Alex time to switch to his electric guitar and play the next verse with full-on power chords.”(271)