Exhibit A: Geezer Butler's Into the Void (2023), about the Black Sabbath bassist's career up until his retirement.
Exhibit B: Geddy Lee's My Effin' Life (2023), about the Rush bassist's career up until his retirement.
Exhibit C: Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass (2018), which I'm not going to read, but which I did flip through.
As far as the two autobiographies go, they follow similar trajectories. They start with the obligatory "growing up" chapters, and from there progress to early influences, learning how to play, early bands, the formation of their (most famous) band, building up a name for themselves, early domestic tours, fame in America, early international tours, and finally to the various factors which led to the end of their best known musical collaborations.
Geezer's story starts much earlier than Geddy's, in the wilds of Birmingham, England, after the Second World War. He discusses his early life as an Irish immigrant living in England. He reminisces over attendance at various concerts. He talks about the formation of Black Sabbath and their various lineups over the years. There are a couple (?) typos in Geezer's account, but overall it's very readable. While reading it I often felt like an old friend was telling me what he'd been up to for the past several decades.
Lee's book hearkens back to the Holocaust, and his family's experiences in Poland prior to their immigration to Canada. His book is a much deeper dive, involving as it does questions of identity, philosophical speculations, and a much wider discussion of people he crossed paths with during Rush's 40-year career. As you might expect, the closing chapters of Lee's (much longer) book are more somber, relating the last years of drummer Neil Peart's life and his personal tragedies. While I ended Geezer's book wishing I could buy him a beer, Lee's book left me feeling that he'd be fun to talk to, but not as fun to talk to as Geezer.
Some of my opinions on these two books, by the way, might have something to do with my attitude toward each of the two bands they represent. I still listen to and love most of the Sabbath albums, whereas I don't listen to Rush nearly as much as I used to.
Even though Rush was, for what it's worth, the first band I genuinely liked. The first two cassette tapes I ever bought were purchased in the Warrenton, Oregon Fred Meyer, and these two cassette tapes were Rush's first album and Power Windows (back when it was their newest release). Rush was my gateway to the entirety of rock music, and for this reason I will be forever thankful to them. This said, I can only really listen to their first album now. In 2024 I do find a lot of their songs (and especially their lyrics) pretentious, even if I heartily admire all three of them (especially Alex Lifeson) as musicians.
As I get older (I'm 49 now), I suppose I just prefer my rock music free of "big messages." A rock singer trying to impart the meaning of life? No thanks, I'll pass. A rock singer "talking" about banging chicks, doing drugs and SATAN? Yeah sure, why not?
My feelings about Rush in this regard are similar to my feelings about Iron Maiden. I used to like the "depth" both bands offered, but in 2024 I'd rather they just wrote songs about realer, more immediate things. Less philosophizing, and more raw emotion.
This aside, I genuinely enjoyed both books and learned a lot from them. The Big Beautiful Book of Bass, for that matter, is also fun to thumb through, but I'm not enough of a bass player (or collector) to want to read it cover to cover.
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