My Effin’ Life – Review
I have been a Rush fan for over forty years. Coincidently, they formed the same year that I was born, although it took me a bit longer to start listening.
As a young teenager, my cousin brought over a copy of Fly By Night on cassette tape and we listened to it for hours and hours one New Years Eve. I was hooked and they helped shape the kind of music I have listened to for the rest of my life.
Rush has a lot to offer, at least to those who do like their music (my wife is not one of them). They have amazing music, thoughtful lyrics, but also a unique dynamic among the band members. They legitimately like being around each other.
It helps that they are Canadian.
I had been looking forward to reading the memoir of their singer/bassist/keyboardist Geddy Lee with wonderful title of My Effin’ Life. If you think that title is bizarre, it actually fits very well with the story he tells.
He had trouble putting this book down. It begins with his family, and his was not just the typical Canadian family living in Toronto. Both his parents were Holocaust survivors, in fact they met at that time and were married at the remnants of a concentration camp.
One of the tings that I appreciated is that Lee gives significant space to sharing his family’s story during the Holocaust. It is an important story to tell and one that would help shape Lee’s future.
In terms of his childhood, there were things I could totally identify with and things that were much different. Lee was an outsider and yet he made some good friends that made a real difference in his life.
As a Rush fan, I was eager to hear the details about the band and how they evolved and what took place as they recorded their albums. I was not disappointed but there was so much more. The stories that Lee shares highlight the human element as much as the musical element.
Being the memoir of a rock star, there is plenty of alcohol and drugs. I appreciated Lee’s honesty, as well as his willingness to share how those things affected him and decisions he made as a result.
There are some extremely funny parts to the book and at times I literally laughed out loud. But there are some very emotional parts as well, stories that really touched my heart. One of the things that stood out was how much death Lee encountered. He lost so many of those that he was closest with.
The one that I anticipated the most was the death of Rush’s drummer, Neil Peart. Peart grew up in the same city that I did. On social media I often see the question of “What celebrity death hit you the hardest?” For me, it is always Neil Peart.
My Effin’ Life is fantastic rock memoir that would interest people even if they were not Rush fans. Lee comes across as a sincerely decent human being who values relationships and celebrates life. The memoir is 500 pages long and I could have read another 500 pages.
I am so thankful that Geddy Lee decided to share his story with us.
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