Post here when your My Effin Life book arrives and what you think after reading!

[Rush Didact]

2 hours ago, Relayer2112 said:

I enjoyed them quite a bit and flew through each of them.  Again, a little disappointed in the details about the music creation process in the Popoff books and was hoping that Geddy's book would fill in the gaps, but it does not.

 

I would guess that many memories of the writing/recording of their earlier albums are simply lost to time.  Not sure if Terry Brown has any books about his time with Rush or not. 

 

I've always enjoyed reading Neil's tour program notes in which he described the atmosphere of their recording sessions, especially those at Le Studio.  I don't know if any of Neil's books provide any more detail.

 

As far as I know, contemporary interviews and tour books are the only places Neil ever discussed the recording of studio albums.  He rarely mentions them in his books and wasn't given to reminiscing later on...

[BigMontanaSKY]

You need to remember that Geddy and Alex really struggled more than Neil did.

 

I will leave it at that.

 

We all wrestle with personal demons. Geddy's book is essentially about his personal feelings and trauma. 

 

The charm of the music of Rush is it celebrates life itself and being good to people.

[Rush Didact]

10 minutes ago, BigMontanaSKY said:

You need to remember that Geddy and Alex really struggled more than Neil did.

 

I will leave it at that.

 

Please don't. How so?

[BigMontanaSKY]

Neil had more social connections in youth. 

 

For legal reasons I cannot say more.

 

In a way, he saved my life. 

 

We should try every day to save lives through love.

 

He had a valiant heart. He loved so much. He was a lonely man. 

Edited January 1 by BigMontanaSKY

[Rush Didact]

42 minutes ago, BigMontanaSKY said:

Neil had more social connections in youth. 

 

For legal reasons I cannot say more.

 

Strangely enough I found out not too long ago that I am related to Neil's family.

 

If you hear bad things about Neil, remember that everyone has personal demons. 

 

In a way, he saved my life. 

 

We should try every day to save lives through love.

 

He had a valiant heart. He loved so much. He was a lonely man. Sincerely, a woman much like Alisa Rosenbaum.

 

Now I am thoroughly confused...

[BigMontanaSKY]

Let's just say the world runs in small circles.

 

My business partner and I met each other due to a misdeed done by a relative of Neil's......... I took all the knowledge I gained from the experience and used it to finish my life's work, which is starting businesses in communities that need warmth and comfort.

 

Love your neighbors and love the ones who need it the most.

 

L'chaim!!!!!!

Edited December 23, 2023 by BigMontanaSKY

[Relayer2112]

17 hours ago, Rush Didact said:

 

As far as I know, contemporary interviews and tour books are the only places Neil ever discussed the recording of studio albums.  He rarely mentions them in his books and wasn't given to reminiscing later on...

I guess that makes sense...there probably isn't any of us who want to rehash our work lives for 30+ years.  That's probably why there isn't a whole lot of detail about it.  Clearly they struggled at times in the studio and the songs we hear are not the result of divine intervention, but of painstaking trial and error, not to mention the long hours.  I wouldn't want to revisit that either.

[Rush Didact]

24 minutes ago, Relayer2112 said:

I guess that makes sense...there probably isn't any of us who want to rehash our work lives for 30+ years.  That's probably why there isn't a whole lot of detail about it.  Clearly they struggled at times in the studio and the songs we hear are not the result of divine intervention, but of painstaking trial and error, not to mention the long hours.  I wouldn't want to revisit that either.

 

Some people do, and some people don't.  If I had someone who wanted to listen to me ramble about my job in the Arctic, I'd happily spend hours talking their ear off about every tiny little detail of it.  I loved what I did up there and found the work fascinating, even if there were parts of it that could get tedious.  I've had other jobs that I'd rather just forget, of course, but I'm just generally a person who loves revisiting the past.

[chemistry1973]

21 hours ago, Relayer2112 said:

I enjoyed them quite a bit and flew through each of them.  Again, a little disappointed in the details about the music creation process in the Popoff books and was hoping that Geddy's book would fill in the gaps, but it does not.

 

I would guess that many memories of the writing/recording of their earlier albums are simply lost to time.  Not sure if Terry Brown has any books about his time with Rush or not. 

 

I've always enjoyed reading Neil's tour program notes in which he described the atmosphere of their recording sessions, especially those at Le Studio.  I don't know if any of Neil's books provide any more detail.

Interesting. I found the Popoff books extremely detailed regarding the band’s processes in the studio. I’d call those books pretty definitive if you wanted to learn more about Rush’s creative approaches.

 

I used to think Popoff was a dopey hanger-on. But those three Rush books are excellent. 
 

Now ALEX needs to write a book.

[Rhyta]

6 hours ago, Rush Didact said:

 

Some people do, and some people don't.  If I had someone who wanted to listen to me ramble about my job in the Arctic, I'd happily spend hours talking their ear off about every tiny little detail of it.  I loved what I did up there and found the work fascinating, even if there were parts of it that could get tedious.  I've had other jobs that I'd rather just forget, of course, but I'm just generally a person who loves revisiting the past.

Geddy did write 1,200 pages so we didn't get everything in the book because editors pared it down.  Perhaps he will share more of it at a later time.  I am happy he has done what he has.

[Relayer2112]

21 hours ago, chemistry1973 said:

Interesting. I found the Popoff books extremely detailed regarding the band’s processes in the studio. I’d call those books pretty definitive if you wanted to learn more about Rush’s creative approaches.

 

I used to think Popoff was a dopey hanger-on. But those three Rush books are excellent. 
 

Now ALEX needs to write a book.

They do have more detail than Geddy's book, which is why I was disappointed.  The detail those books provide is more about technical details such as the production and engineering.  I know that those tasks are extremely important to the end product.  I'm just more interested in the inspiration behind the bass line or riff or drum pattern that was the seed.

 

I think the only thing I get out of Geddy's book regarding this is that he and Alex evidently wrote a lot of their earlier songs on acoustic guitars and that "Making Memories" was written in the back of a station wagon.  How Geddy remembers that, but can't remember that they had played "Jacob's Ladder" in concert prior to R40, I'll never know.  

[Rush Didact]

18 minutes ago, Relayer2112 said:

They do have more detail than Geddy's book, which is why I was disappointed.  The detail those books provide is more about technical details such as the production and engineering.  I know that those tasks are extremely important to the end product.  I'm just more interested in the inspiration behind the bass line or riff or drum pattern that was the seed.

 

I think the only thing I get out of Geddy's book regarding this is that he and Alex evidently wrote a lot of their earlier songs on acoustic guitars and that "Making Memories" was written in the back of a station wagon.  How Geddy remembers that, but can't remember that they had played "Jacob's Ladder" in concert prior to R40, I'll never know.  

 

I think it can probably be explained by the fact that the guys in the band have a very different relationship to their music than fans do.  Once the excitement of the early years wore off (which I imagine was more or less gone by the time they got to recording AFTK or Hemispheres) it was probably just a job to them.  A fun job and a satisfying one, but just a job.  Once a tour was over, it wasn't worth thinking about.  I doubt Ged has spent any time at all thinking about what songs they played on old tours, except when planning a new tour, or when he sat down to write his book.

[snowdog2112]

6 hours ago, Rush Didact said:

 

I think it can probably be explained by the fact that the guys in the band have a very different relationship to their music than fans do.  Once the excitement of the early years wore off (which I imagine was more or less gone by the time they got to recording AFTK or Hemispheres) it was probably just a job to them.  A fun job and a satisfying one, but just a job.  Once a tour was over, it wasn't worth thinking about.  I doubt Ged has spent any time at all thinking about what songs they played on old tours, except when planning a new tour, or when he sat down to write his book.

Exactly. And that shouldn’t be surprising, I’ve heard countless artists not even remember which songs on are which albums and such. Most of them haven’t heard their own songs since they recorded them unless they’re live staples. Casual fans seem to have this expectation that you could randomly bump into Geddy and Alex on the street and hand them instruments and say “Play Different Strings for me” and they could do it on the spot. Most artists live in the moment, the fans know more about what they played on various tours and such than they do. I’ll bet Geddy hasn’t listened to ESL since it was mastered and I seriously doubt he knows what songs are on it. And again, this isn’t a criticism, that’s the case with almost all bands.

[JARG]

Maybe Geddy needs to write another book: My Effin Job where he can go into greater detail about recording sessions and whatnot.

[goose]

11 hours ago, Relayer2112 said:

They do have more detail than Geddy's book, which is why I was disappointed.  The detail those books provide is more about technical details such as the production and engineering.  I know that those tasks are extremely important to the end product.  I'm just more interested in the inspiration behind the bass line or riff or drum pattern that was the seed.

 

I think the only thing I get out of Geddy's book regarding this is that he and Alex evidently wrote a lot of their earlier songs on acoustic guitars and that "Making Memories" was written in the back of a station wagon.  How Geddy remembers that, but can't remember that they had played "Jacob's Ladder" in concert prior to R40, I'll never know.  

Because he probably DID remember.  I wouldn't confuse humorous stage banter with the truth.

[snowdog2112]

14 hours ago, goose said:

Because he probably DID remember.  I wouldn't confuse humorous stage banter with the truth.

The Jacob's Ladder thing wasn't intended as a joke, he has acknowledged that he had to be reminded that they had played it previously. And that doesn't surprise me at all. Again, they don't catalog these things the same way that the fans do. Heck, in the Rio documentary Alex says they hadn't played By-Tor since probably 1978 or so even though it was played for a few tours after that and is in the ESL video. But there's no way he would know that unless someone told him. This isn't a Rush thing, ALL bands are like this. 

[ytserush]

On 12/21/2023 at 4:16 PM, Rhyta said:

Geddy did write 1,200 pages so we didn't get everything in the book because editors pared it down.  Perhaps he will share more of it at a later time.  I am happy he has done what he has.

That's the version that I want to read.

[Todem]

On 12/22/2023 at 8:11 AM, Relayer2112 said:

They do have more detail than Geddy's book, which is why I was disappointed.  The detail those books provide is more about technical details such as the production and engineering.  I know that those tasks are extremely important to the end product.  I'm just more interested in the inspiration behind the bass line or riff or drum pattern that was the seed.

 

I think the only thing I get out of Geddy's book regarding this is that he and Alex evidently wrote a lot of their earlier songs on acoustic guitars and that "Making Memories" was written in the back of a station wagon.  How Geddy remembers that, but can't remember that they had played "Jacob's Ladder" in concert prior to R40, I'll never know.  

Being a fellow musician myself.....Geddy and Alex have clearly explained their process many times.

 

They jam together......they record their jams, they get the lyrics from Neil, they then start going through all their jam sessions pulling great riffs and piecing together phrases and parts, and eventually come up with their songs. They have written many many songs prior to Power Windows in sound checks on tour. After Grace Under Pressure they really started to pre-produce their stuff and do elaborate demos. Success affords you that luxury. 

 

As far as the seed? Whatever was going on around them in the rock world at that time was their inspiration......and they would then put their own spin on it and of course Rush had their own sound. But you can hear all their influences thru every phase of the band. Most rock bands wear their influences on their sleeves.

 

It’s really not complicated as far as their song writing process. 

 

As far as the book......I thought everything up thru Hold Your Fire was outstanding. I loved hearing about his childhood, his parents, his early days before Rush and then the early days of Rush. It was great. Really insightful into his personality and his role within the band. Once we get into the Rupert Hine records and the second go around with Peter Collins.....we have heard all of this a lot in the internet era. Also Vapor Trail and beyond is welp documented in interviews etc.

 

The real mysteries of Rush was the pre internet days. And that was the meat and potatoes of Geddy’s story for my taste. 

 

But overall it was a damn great read......and the audible book made it even better. He did a great job reading the book......it flew by for me. 

 

As far as the Woe is Me stuff......it did not rub me wrong at all. Everyone goes thru terrible loss in their lives.....some are able to deal with it better than others. They “earned” their way to deal with it. I mean these guys starved for their art and “made it"

 

Does that make them less human? Does that make them have less trauma from the loss of loved ones? God no. 

 

How dare anyone be judgmental of people who suffer the loss of loved ones and have the ability to travel across the world to work out their problems (Neil Ghost Rider) because.....man they f***ing earned it. Success was not handed to them. 

 

I don’t get that working man BS attitude towards people with wealth somehow suffer less when they have dramatic events in their lives. Thats bullshit. 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Todem

[Weatherman]

On 12/21/2023 at 5:16 PM, Rhyta said:

Geddy did write 1,200 pages so we didn't get everything in the book because editors pared it down.  Perhaps he will share more of it at a later time.  I am happy he has done what he has.

I'm looking forward to 10,000 words on French wine in the unabridged version. 

[Weatherman]

3 hours ago, Todem said:

As far as the book......I thought everything up thru Hold Your Fire was outstanding. I loved hearing about his childhood, his parents, his early days before Rush and then the early days of Rush. It was great. Really insightful into his personality and his role within the band. Once we get into the Rupert Line and second go around with Peter Collins.....we have heard all of this a lot in the internet era. 

 

The real mysteries of Rush was the pre internet days. And that was the meat and potatoes of Geddy’s story for my taste. 

 

But overall it was a damn great read......and the audible book made it even better. He did a great job reading the book......it flew by for me. 

 

 

Agreed, with two additions:

1) I got the sense that he wasn't telling us everything about what went wrong in his marriage, or how he saved it. 

2) Big takeaway for me was that Ged is much, much more forceful a personality than many people assume. Inside the band, I would say he was first among equals. 

[Weatherman]

On 12/22/2023 at 4:29 PM, snowdog2112 said:

Exactly. And that shouldn’t be surprising, I’ve heard countless artists not even remember which songs on are which albums and such. Most of them haven’t heard their own songs since they recorded them unless they’re live staples. Casual fans seem to have this expectation that you could randomly bump into Geddy and Alex on the street and hand them instruments and say “Play Different Strings for me” and they could do it on the spot. Most artists live in the moment, the fans know more about what they played on various tours and such than they do. I’ll bet Geddy hasn’t listened to ESL since it was mastered and I seriously doubt he knows what songs are on it. And again, this isn’t a criticism, that’s the case with almost all bands.

I've written over 50 books and countless educational materials. I can't remember what's in 95% of them. 

Just yesterday I was reading through a history exam for work. It took me about ten minutes before I realized that I'd written the exam, over eight years ago. I can only imagine how much more memory degrades across 40 years. 

[snowdog2112]

57 minutes ago, Weatherman said:

I've written over 50 books and countless educational materials. I can't remember what's in 95% of them. 

Just yesterday I was reading through a history exam for work. It took me about ten minutes before I realized that I'd written the exam, over eight years ago. I can only imagine how much more memory degrades across 40 years. 

I get it, I was a very productive realtor and just retired early this year after about 30 years. In the moment I took every client and every transaction incredibly seriously and devoted all my energies to resolving problems and accounting for the specific transaction details in each contract and file. But if a client from 2002 bumped into me tomorrow and just said “Oh hey! How are you? Hey thanks again for putting that protective language in our contract that saved us all kinds of grief, especially the second line in special provisions.”

 

All I could do is say “Uh..  you’re welcome” without having any clue what it says. Having said that, I certainly do have specific memories of many clients and homes and contracts, but I’d hate to think that every day I might bump into a client that would be annoyed or offended if I didn’t remember every step of their transaction from years ago. And it doesn’t mean I cared any less when I worked on it if I didn’t remember it later.
 

So I’m sure that when Geddy bumps into a fan who says “Wow! Geddy Lee! Hey, I’ve always wanted to know what the sixth line of Prime Mover meant and did you write that song before or after Turn the Page?” all he can think at first is “Holy crap, what album is he even asking about and what year was that… wasn’t I still in my thirties???”

 

These guys don’t sit around listening to their own albums or watching their old interviews on YouTube or whatever. And it’s also totally unfair to go up to one of them and say “I saw you guys live in 1982 in Colorado, I was wearing the blue sweater and you made a funny face at me, remember?”

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by snowdog2112

[Bahamas]

On 12/20/2023 at 10:44 AM, Rush Didact said:

 

How are those books?  Particularly the second two?  After listening to the guys on the Something for Nothing podcast interview him, it really put me off buying them.  The guy hates everything from Signals through Test for Echo.  It really made me question how he could write an objective history of the band, given that he has no interest in half their albums.  (And especially because the albums he hates are the ones I love the most.)

All three of those books are great, in my opinion. Almost every page is source material and putting history and events into a good series of books. I expected more "filler" stuff like long winded explanations and writer's opinions, but found them all very thoroughly researched. We all have our favourite albums or decades, say, but I found the writing fairly consistent throughout.

 

Regarding My Effin' Life, I am taking my time as some other readers have said. I do really like the quality of the book and the included photos. The writing style is engaging, asking me questions or offering a chuckle. I really like it.

 

I don't like comparisons between books, personally, because not only are they different authors but the purpose or reasons for writing are not the same. Sorry, I see the tendency to do it but it's not fair to any author.  

[snowdog2112]

38 minutes ago, Bahamas said:

All three of those books are great, in my opinion. Almost every page is source material and putting history and events into a good series of books. I expected more "filler" stuff like long winded explanations and writer's opinions, but found them all very thoroughly researched. We all have our favourite albums or decades, say, but I found the writing fairly consistent throughout.

 

Regarding My Effin' Life, I am taking my time as some other readers have said. I do really like the quality of the book and the included photos. The writing style is engaging, asking me questions or offering a chuckle. I really like it.

 

I don't like comparisons between books, personally, because not only are they different authors but the purpose or reasons for writing are not the same. Sorry, I see the tendency to do it but it's not fair to any author.  

Yeah, those three books are essentially the “deleted scenes” from the Beyond the Lighted Stage documentary in text form. They compile masses of omitted interview material from that project. It’s a huge mistake to make a gut reaction of “I don’t like Popoff so I’m going to ignore those books.” The majority of info and opinions in them is from the band and associates. 

[Rushman14]

Just finished chapter 4. Chapter 3 was a tough read.

 

I'm enjoying it though.