“My Effin’ Life”: https://shorturl.at/etLW5

I don’t think I want to be a rock star anymore.

This is not the typical rock autobiography. Yes, Geddy does delve into cocaine, but he’s married to his childhood sweetheart and if you’re looking for tales of debauchery, this is not the place.

Then again, Geddy is Canadian. Most Americans have never been north of the border. But if they go, they’ll find out it’s the same, but different. Canadians tend to be very verbal, and the country is like a giant high school, everybody knows everybody and if you think you’re better than everybody else, you’re going to be torn right down.

In other words, Geddy is a regular person, just like you and me. Which is both amazing and refreshing in a world where our musical heroes live a fantasy life on private jets, yachts and private islands and in general live a much better life than you, because they’re special.

Geddy is special. Because he’s the son of Holocaust survivors.

In a world where too many deny their Jewishness, Geddy, i.e. Gary, does not. He owns it, and continues to own it. Which is refreshing in a world where too many try to pass.

That’s a feature you won’t find in the typical rock book, Geddy’s roots. He goes back to the old country, to the concentration camp, with his mother. It’s very vivid and very memorable. Geddy may give elements of growing up short shrift, but not his heritage, it made him who he is. And when his father dies long before his time, Geddy spends a year mourning according to Jewish law.

This is not your average rock star.

So, once his dad is gone (Geddy believes he died from the strenuous work and poor food in the camps), his mother doesn’t have quite the power over him that was exercised previously by the parental team. In other words, Geddy is on his own. And ultimately he drops out of high school, to play music, to make it.

But he doesn’t make it right away. It takes long enough that the average person would give up. Actually, Neil Peart had. He went to London, gave it a good run, and then came back to the Great White North to get into his father’s business. If Rush hadn’t needed a new drummer, you never would have heard of Peart, considered one of the best behind the kit ever.

As for Alex Lifeson… Like Geddy, that’s not the guitarist’s real last name. It’s the English meaning of his Serbian moniker. That’s another thing about Canada, it’s a melting pot of immigrants. They say more languages are spoken in Toronto than anywhere else on the planet. I’ve never verified this, but my experiences in T.O. seem to indicate this.

So it’s the story of boomers who experienced the Beatles, and then Cream… I went out with a Gen-X lawyer who said it’s the same as it’s ever been. That if you don’t get it, you’re too old, that today’s youngsters are just as passionate about music as their forebears. That’s hogwash. Unless you were there, you’ve got no idea of the impact of the Beatles. Guys grew their hair, they picked up guitars, the music was EVERYTHING!

So the goal is to play original music, and then you hit the road.

Geddy gives a lot of credit to his manager Ray Danniels. Then again, he disses Ray later in the book, for cutting financial corners (not screwing the band, just saving money) and not booking them in exotic places like Brazil earlier. Geddy is stunned at the passion of the fans in South America. Who knew? But music travels everywhere.

So ultimately Cliff Burnstein gives a thumbs-up and the band gets signed to Mercury and…

This is when it starts to get repetitive. The band plays night after night, but since they’re openers, not that long. And then they get into a station wagon and drive hours to the next gig.

Turns out Neil Peart is a reader, and he gets Geddy hooked on books. And when they finally graduate to a bus, they watch the same movies over and over and over, quoting lines to each other.

In other words, it sounds incredibly BORING!

There are so many hours to kill. And they end up with nicknames for each other and inside jokes, it’s positively adolescent, but they’re grown men on a grind.

Yes, every year is the same. Make an album, tour incessantly, make another album, it goes on for more than a decade exactly like this. As for the rest of life…

Well, Geddy’s girlfriend now wife starts a fashion business and those in the industry have no idea she’s even married to Geddy. And when it gets really bad, they go to counseling, but Geddy says first and foremost he likes to work, and his wife is a saint, she did the child-rearing, kept the household alive and intact. And if work called, Geddy went. Work came first.

Then again, this is something that amateurs, wannabes, don’t understand. That it’s nearly impossible to make it, and if you want to you have to work around the clock, sacrificing so much. A lot of which most people refuse to give up.

Now as the years wear on and success grows, there are buses, and occasionally private jets, but it never really sounds luxurious. It sounds like work, and a few creature comforts to make the work just a bit more comfortable.

As for the work…

Every album is covered. The most interesting part of making the albums is choosing a producer. The band wants the feedback, which you don’t get if you produce yourself. They want enthusiasm, direction, and…

Geddy’s fully aware that Rush is not a traditional, mainstream act. The band expects no radio airplay, when that was everything, and for a long time gets none. They’re building the band on the road, like I said above, night after night. And the bigger they get, the less respect they receive. And Geddy is not magnanimous, he says: “Fact is, to this day I have a long f*cking memory for people who treat me badly.” Like Billy Preston, who parties with them all night and then never seems to remember that they’ve met. Then again, Robert Plant goes out of his way to be nice.

And then come the disasters.

If you’re a Rush fan, you know them. If you’re not, I won’t mention them because I don’t want to kill the element of surprise.

Yes, you can read and enjoy “My Effin’ Life” even if you’re not a Rush fan, even if you’ve never heard a Rush song. Read the Acknowledgements and you’ll find out that Geddy had help, but the book reads like Geddy wrote it.

As for Geddy… I was constantly trying to put him in a slot. On one hand, he was like a kid I went to high school with. But in other ways, he’s a musician, which is its own breed, which most people who want to be stars never realize. It’s not exactly that Geddy has airs, then again, he goes on about how bossy he can be, how he micromanages things. He oversees mixing and mastering and the albums are finished because they have to be released so the band can go on the road, otherwise he’d tinker with them forever.

And all this goes on for decades, but then the bodies of Neil and Alex start to wear out. You may think you want to play forever, but there’s attrition and aging and Neil says he wants to retire.

Geddy still hasn’t metabolized this, never mind Peart’s passing. It was the three of them, playing off each other, how can it be Rush with only two?

Which of course is fascinating when the Stones are on the road with only two. And other bands ply the boards with only one original member. It’s hard to give up. That roar, that adulation you get back from the crowd, you can’t get it anywhere else.

So Geddy now goes on walking tours with his wife. And plays with his grandkid. But he’s still hankering to play music. But not exactly sure how to move forward, now that the tragedies and pandemic are in the rearview mirror.

Now if you’re a dedicated rock fan, you know Rush. You heard “Tom Sawyer” on the radio, more. This is not foreign territory. Rush was a hit act before, during and after the MTV era. They have a place in the firmament. And probably, unless you’re a hard core fan, “My Effin’ Life” is just another book you’re not going to read.

I only picked it up because of the good reviews. And in truth, it’s long. I don’t mean that it’s hard to read, it’s just that you’re going along, deeply involved, and then at some point you realize it’s the same cycle over and over again and then…

Well, then the changes begin.

But before that…

I’m glad that Rush dedicated themselves and made this music. But if you think you want to be in a rock and roll band, you should read this. At Berklee and Belmont too. Because the flash, the partying, the money, is only a tiny bit of the overall picture. Rush has to create this music out of thin air. They don’t go to the publisher for songs, they don’t employ co-writers, they build it fragment by fragment. And although the band tends to agree, there are moments of dissension, like when Alex protests about the inclusion of keyboards.

And Geddy talks about having to learn all this music and play it all on stage. It’s one thing to make the record, but to perform it live?

Eventually Rush is so successful that they can do An Evening With… In other words, play for hours with no opening act. And this is extremely satisfying. But it’s still only three hours out of the day. The other twenty one you’re coming down from the show, you’re traveling, you’re killing time until the next gig. Meanwhile, your kid is growing up without you, your marriage is strained. You’re part of a self-contained unit, it’s not like you’re putting down roots in your hometown, joining clubs and cementing relationships. In truth, it’s an endless circus wherein promoters and other musicians become your buddies, and if this is your chosen line of work, kudos.

But we’ve become inured to the flash. We think it’s all fun and games.

Not that Geddy is complaining, it’s just that reading along I said to myself that this is not how I would have chosen to live my life.

Then again, I am not a musician.

Geddy Lee is. This is his story, complete. No punches are pulled, he’s not trying to impress you, he’s just telling you how it all went down. How he was bitten by the bug and had to follow the music, the rest of life be damned.

Honestly, I rarely read these rock books. It’s hagiography, they leave the good stuff out. But I found “My Effin’ Life” satisfying. I’d still like to know more about the money, how much was made, how much was spent and where it is now. Geddy does say the band sold its publishing. Then again, that was back in 2014, I wonder if they’re kicking themselves that they didn’t hold out a little longer for the Merck money.

Then again, Geddy can always make more music. What else is he going to do?

Tune in Saturday April 6th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Porn used to be a controlled business. Because of distribution. I.e. you could make a movie, but could you get it into a theatre? Probably not. Furthermore, it wasn’t so cheap to make a movie, you couldn’t be like Soderbergh and shoot it on your nonexistent iPhone.

And then came home video, first videocassettes and then DVDs. Suddenly, the barrier to entry was lower. Sure, you still had to shoot the movie, but maybe you did it on one of those newfangled video cameras instead of film, saving tons of money. And distribution was still a hurdle, but it was not a controlled environment with only a handful of theatres in even major markets. You could rent and buy videocassettes and then DVDs at your local video shop.

Needless to say, the market was saturated with new porn videos. And what did the usual suspect providers say…THEY WENT BERSERK! They couldn’t make as much money because of these interlopers. Star salaries went down. Companies went out of business and new corporations grew.

And then came the internet. Where porn is free. You only have to Google it.

But that might not be the experience you’re looking for. One to many is so last century, today everybody wants one to one. They want a connection, they want to feel special, that they’re a party of one and have a unique relationship with the talent.

Yes, porn providers are talent, just like Kim Kardashian is talent. They may not know how to play an instrument, but they certainly know how to market their wares.

And then came OnlyFans.

Never forget, the entire payment situation has changed. Today’s younger generations, even as old as millennials, believe in transparency, whereas boomers and their forebears love an opaque payment system. Good luck figuring out what your royalties were in the old days of physical media. There was manufacturing, shipping, returns, free goods… Furthermore, the company and the royalty participant oftentimes had a different belief what the royalty rate was.

Kind of like in the days before Live Nation. In the old days of the concert business, you were paid in cash, you were never going to take a check, because you didn’t trust the promoter. And, it wasn’t always easy to get the money you deserved. Talk to any road dog of the past. They’ve all got a story of a promoter with a gun enforcing his position.

Now old people think the old paradigm still exists. That Spotify, et al, are screwing with their money, ripping them off. But this is patently untrue. These are public companies with records, digital leaves a trail, they pay what they say they do. Might not be as much as you want or think you deserve, but they live up to the contract.

And so does OnlyFans.

OnlyFans provides the infrastructure and gives creators eighty cents on the dollar. Yes, this is a better deal than the Apple App Store, never mind YouTube. It’s transparent. You don’t feel ripped-off. If you can get people to consume your content…

Now the traditional porn stars have been squeezed out, or their returns have been minimized, because of the competition. There used to be a limited number of physical appearances and fetishes you could choose from, now there’s a cornucopia. If you can think of it, there’s someone providing it.

So your next door neighbor is a porn star.

All you have to do is go on Instagram. Or TikTok. Or X. Or even better, Reddit. If you see someone flaunting their figure, look for the Linktree. That’s where you’ll find their OnlyFans handle.

You don’t expect them to give it away for free do you?

Well, in some cases they do, but it’s just a come on, to get you in the door.

So, on Reddit… There’s a group for every physical desire extant. Search the communities. I don’t want to know what your fetish is, just know that it’s represented on Reddit.

So your next door neighbor and seemingly millions like her all have communities on Reddit devoted to themselves, but they also cross-post to other communities. Some they qualify for, some they don’t. The goal is to intrigue the viewer so they’ll check out their OnlyFans. And pay.

So these women at home, church-going (oftentimes they advertise this), married, with families… They’re selling their bodies online.

Now let’s be clear, only a limited number can be successful. But there’s an endless supply of women trolling for cash. Unless they hit, they drop out after a couple of months. But some hit. And those that do and sustain can often make millions. Makes playing music for a living look like chump change.

So what makes these women porn stars? NOTHING! Just an internal desire to participate. There’s no judge, no gatekeeper saying you’re not attractive enough, or don’t have a good enough personality, or don’t create content that is erotically titillating to most people.

Everybody is cottage industry. The big porn companies mean about as much as the major music labels, even less. Because they’re selling for everyone, and it turns out that people prefer the niches. And they don’t care if you like who they do, they’re satiated, they have their favorites.

But it’s not only porn and it’s not only music, it’s every walk of life today. The barrier to entry is so low that the hoi polloi have decided to play. And the Boomers and Gen-X’ers who control media, who think they write the through line in society, who believe they’re tastemakers and are in control, are not. Which is why almost everybody in the media missed Trump in 2016, but he’s not the only thing they’ve missed.

Once again, it’s distribution. At the turn of the century the belief was that all these acts that were overlooked by the labels would emerge and succeed. This didn’t happen. But now it has. Because you can create on the cheap and distribute for a de minimis price and market for free. Do you think Mr. Beast buys Facebook ads? That’s for the old school. The key is to be so hot that people are drawn to you.

First you have to build a fire, and that’s more difficult than ever, and most people don’t want to make the effort. Believe me, your next door neighbor on OnlyFans just doesn’t open an account and wait for money to come in. She puts her punim and body everywhere she can think of. She casts a wide net. And it’s all from the bottom up. Which is what old media can’t understand. That people would rather get their news, their tips, all their information from alternative sources created by self-styled experts who are creating cottage industries.

Used to be that you thought you couldn’t play, now EVERYBODY can play and the traditional world can’t cope with it. You’ve got Lucian Grainge not wanting those with few streams getting paid. And Daniel Ek caving to his biggest supplier, or at least the most lucrative one. But Spotify isn’t the only place to play. It’s just another place you’ve got to be, like X, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit… Notice comes before monetization.

And there’s no OnlyFans woman who thinks she deserves attention. She knows she’s a saleswoman. She’s got to find a way to convince the consumer. Unlike in music where people believe since they’ve decided they’re musicians they’re entitled to attention and remuneration. What a laugh.

Sure, OnlyFans is down and dirty. But in the digital world everything is down and dirty. It’s either a one or a zero. A success or not. Get on your high horse at your peril. Either you’re connecting, or you’re not. Either you’re a winner, or a loser.

And the OnlyFans women pivot. If this isn’t working, they try something else. They don’t say the public is at fault.

And, once again, the OnlyFans women superserve their customers. Sure, there’s money in the monthly subscription, but even more in the upsell. You want to talk on the phone? That’s possible, all you have to do is pay. It might be someone in a bathrobe who looks nothing like the picture, someone at a phone bank, but the end hit is good enough that the man is happy, and keeps coming back. You see these OnlyFans women are selling fantasies, dreams. Which is what a musician is selling too, if they are successful. People want to listen and be taken away, to a better life. They want to feel better, and it’s your job to provide this.

But this isn’t the dream you believe in. You’re waiting for someone in Hollywood to anoint you, give you the standard rich and famous contract and expose you to everybody. Yeah, right. That dream is done. You’re on your own, like the OnlyFans girls.

Who don’t go to Congress for guaranteed income. They’re not even organized. And in truth, neither are musicians, it’s everybody for themselves. The truth is the world needs pictures and videos of naked women, but they might not need a picture of YOU! Ditto on music. We need music, but maybe not yours.

But why does everybody feel so entitled in music?

They keep starting news organizations that fail. No one says they’re providing a necessary service and deserve to be profitable. No, the public votes. And if they don’t like you… Most people believe that’s the end. Or they’re delusional.

If there’s a big national porn star who’s emerged on the scene in the past five years, I’m unaware of her. Porn is more profitable than ever, it’s just that the proceeds are going to different people, and the middleman and his surcharge has been squeezed out. The OnlyFans women are going straight to the customers. They’re not looking for print articles or TV spots, they don’t want to convince gatekeepers who don’t get it, they just want to get started and live by their wiles, figuring it out as they go along.

Yes, music is just like porn. And few want to accept it. Spotify, et al, are OnlyFans. The direct connection to the customer is there for the taking, nothing is standing in your way. But how do you convince people to become fans and pay you?

Porn is no longer casual. Making a video in your bedroom for the fun of it? Now it’s serious business, and only the strong survive. As for the rest? They fall by the wayside, there’s no sour grapes. They get tired of the effort or blame the populace for not getting it, just like so many musicians.

Once again, only the strong survive. And being talented is just part of the equation. How do you get into the customer’s brain? How do you get them to whip out their wallet? What is the special something that titillates them?

You’re no better than the porn star or the influencer. You’re all in the same business, which is seeking attention. Sure, you can go to work for the man, who might lay you off willy-nilly, or you can go into business for yourself. But not every small business survives. And the proprietors of small businesses devote all their time and energy to them. Quick, quiz the owner of the bodega, see how many hours they work.

This is the new reality. We read endless stories in the straight press about Beyoncé, but in truth many people will never listen to her music. They don’t care. They have other interests. The belief used to be that major media can convince the public. But that dream is dying. Hell, ESPN is failing. I thought people needed sports? Turns out that’s not true!

If you want to know how to make it in the music business, research OnlyFans. This is what they should be teaching at Berklee. Porn is the bleeding edge of consumerism. Everything starts from the bottom up these days. You’ve got to believe in yourself and make the effort and that still might not be enough.

But it is for some. And those are the ones we need.

Charlie Brusco discovered the Outlaws, got them signed to Arista and steered their successful career. After resuming an earlier stint as a concert promoter, Charlie then worked with Gary Rossington and ultimately reformed Lynyrd Skynyrd and then Charlie did the same with Tommy Shaw and Styx. Today Charlie continues to manage Styx and Dave Mason and more!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/charlie-brusco/id1316200737?i=1000651409573

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/8d0463cd-b115-4982-b47a-8265e397bfe8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-charlie-brusco