My Favorite Headache (4:44)
The Present Tense (3:25)
Window To The World (3:01)
Working at Perfekt (4:59)
Runaway Train (4:31)
The Angels' Share (4:34)
Moving To Bohemia (4:25)
Home On The Strange (3:47)
Slipping (5:05)
Still (4:29)
Grace To Grace (4:57)
Vinyl Edition Instrumental Bonus Tracks
My Favorite Headache (4:47)
Home on the Strange (3:48)
Geddy Lee | Basses, voices, piano, guitar, programming, percussion, whining
Ben Mink | Electric and acoustic guitars, violins and violas, programming, wheezing
Matt Cameron | Drums
Jeremy Taggart appears courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (Canada) Inc.
John Friesen - Cellos on "Working at Perfekt"
Ed Wilson - Additional programming
Chris Stringer - Additional percussion
Waylon Wall - Steel guitar on "Window"
Pappy Rosen - Backward vocals on "Slipping"
Duke - Dog
Lyrics - Geddy Lee, Music - Geddy Lee and Ben Mink
String Arrangements - Ben Mink and Geddy Lee
Recorded during the spring and summer of 2000
Produced by Geddy Lee, Ben Mink and David Leonard
Mixed and engineered by David Leonard
Matt Cameron's drums recorded by Adam Kasper
Additional recording by Dennis Tougas, B. Mink, G. Lee.
Studio X / Seattle, Assistant Engineer - Sam Hofstedt
The Factory Studios - Vancouver, Assistant Engineer - Sheldon Zaharko (he sleeps with a chainsaw) / Runner - Jason Van Ewyk
Reaction Studios - Toronto, Assistant Engineers - Chris Stringer, Tom Heron, Jeff Elliot / Runner - Kirk McNally
Mixed at Metalworks - Mississauga, Ontario, Assistant Engineers - Joel Kazmi, Ian Bodzasi
Mastered by Howie Wienberg, edited by Roger Lian at Masterdisk, NYC.
Hard Disk Recording and Computer Programming Assistance - Daniel Seguin, Ed Wilson
Pre-Production Assistant - Carl Petzelt
For their Technical Contributions:
Saved by Technology, Toronto | Marc Charpentier, Roger Salvesen, Vancouver | Russel Nash, George Leger, Los Angeles
Coll Audio Toronto | Morrie Eaman, Rene Spooner, Vancouver | Russ Ryan, Toronto
Reely Unique Rentals, Vancouver | Joel Singer, Audio Technica USA
Management - Ray Danniels for SRO Management Inc., Toronto
Design - Steve Mykolyn and Fuel Design Inc., Toronto
Photography - Michael Graf, Andrew MacNaughtan
THANKS AND I MEAN THANKS:
To Nancy, Julian and Kyla
For their encouragement, patience and patience!!
To Ben and David for so many hours (you bad boys you)!
Ben would like to thank in no small way - Ingrid, Izzy and Lucie
For their time and positive energy:
Val Azzoli, Ray Danniels, Pegi Cecconi, Liam Birt, Anna LeCoche, Randy Rolfe, Sheila Posner, Shelley Nott, Cynthia Barry, Karen Jones, Warren Seyffert, Jill Berliner
For their generosity of spirit:
Matt and April, Adam and J.J, Amy, Cailey and Parker Bruce Leonard, Greg Keplinger, Jeremy Taggart, Ed Wilson, Jason Sniderman, Robbie Higgins, Daniel R. for "supra", JL, Martin Laba, The good people at Studio X, Ormond Jobim and the equally good people of Reaction Studios, Alex Andronache at Metalworks and of course (my soul brothers) Lerxst and Pratt!
© 2000 Atlantic Records © 2000 Anthem Entertainment
Notes
- Atlantic/Anthem, November 14, 2000
- Highest Billboard Chart Position: 52 (debut); Top Internet Album Sales Chart: 7 (first week)
- The US edition is spelled "My Favorite Headache", while the Canadian and UK editions are spelled "My Favourite Headache".
- At the time of its release, owners of the compact disk were able to access a one hour long video via the Internet of the making of the album by placing the disk in their CD-ROM drive and visiting https://www.atlantic-records.com/geddy_lee. The abbreviated twelve minute "Electronic Pres Kit" is available here.
- Promo singles featuring generic Atlantic Records artwork were released for the album versions of "My Favorite Headache," "Home On The Strange," and "Grace To Grace."
- Reissued as a 2,500 copy limited edition vinyl on November 29, 2019 for Record Store Day with two bonus tracks, instrumental versions of both the title track and "Home on the Strange".
- "Gone" and "I Am...You Are", two outtakes from the My Favorite Headache sessions, were released as The Lost Demos single, December 5, 2023.
In Their Own Words
"In all honesty, we started writing in hopes of creating some sort of production company together, where we could write songs for other people...But then a feeling of possessiveness started to take over. We both thought, 'I really like this song, and if I give it to somebody else to do, they're going to change it. And that would just be such a drag!' So then we said, 'OK; it looks like we want to make a record.'" - Geddy Lee, Montreal Gazette, November 30, 2000
"[Ben Mink] came to Toronto for a couple of days in my home studio, and, with Neil's cataclysm still at the forefront of my mind, the first song we wrote was 'Gone,' a ballad about loss. We spent hours arranging and recording parts for it, but in the end I decided it was too emotionally raw. I wasn't comfortable releasing it for the public, and it remains in the vault as an extremely well recorded 'demo.' I recently discovered a second song that we left off that album, called 'IMUR,' also a highly polished demo. I can't for the life of me think why we didn't use it. Must have run out of time when we were in Seattle."- Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life
"I have been doing a lot of writing over the last couple of years with various people. I have got quite an accumulation of material together. We [Lee and Mink] have been friends for many, many years. We have always talked about writing together. We started this a couple of years ago, a series of writing sessions in Vancouver and Toronto. We have gathered some material together that is ... interesting. The problem for me is I love writing, I love making music. But I am not really driven by the kind of ambition to feature myself on a solo album. I would love to see this material I have been working on see the light of day. Inevitably (releasing a solo album) will be the direction I may have to take to get it exposed." - JAM! Showbiz, January 18, 2000.
"Ben's dad was telling him a story about something that happened to his mother, and he said, in his Polish accent, 'and right away, she gets the favorite headache.' Once I stopped laughing, I realized what a great phrase that is, and I became determined to use it. It represents my sort of reluctant relationship with making music: I love it passionately, but it drives me crazy, because once I get into a project I'm completely consumed by it." - Geddy Lee, Bass Player Magazine, January 2001
"With Ben, it was a collaboration from the word go. He was for me the perfect sounding board. 'Window on the World,' for example, stemmed from a ridiculous conversation we were having about online pornography (I think magazines liked Wired were speculating at the time about things like teledildonics) and people surfing cyberspace and finding a window onto some sexual paradise."- Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life
"'Slipping,' ... I wrote mostly on piano. While I love to rock, and rock hard, there's a quieter part of me that aspires to simply write basic, beautiful melodies. I've never figured out how to satisfy both sides of me in equal measure, and more often than not the gentler side has taken a back seat, but this one is as vulnerable as I've ever allowed myself to be. It's so personal that I could never have done it with my band. It's a good example of why you have to occasionally venture out-to see what you might reveal about yourself. In a way, it's about my life with Nancy. (I couldn't have said so at the time, but now that I've written about my married life in this book, I can out myself.) It's an apology for my failings as a human being in love, for every failure to understand, every failure to be considerate enough, every failure to act when I should have and for the pain my self-absorption caused. Not that she noticed! In fact, nobody in my family made so much as a peep about the record."- Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life
"As far as the album cover goes, it's a very abstract representation of the title. It kind of represents the yin and yang of that phrase. Half in heaven, half in hell. The character on the cover finds himself torn between these two worlds. It's a little abstract but a lot of fun...the slinky is part of what we call a Gordian knot which is a knot that is almost impossible to untie. It's kind of representative of that phrase." - Geddy Lee, "Rockline", November 29, 2000
"Following more than a quarter-century of success with Rush - including 22 albums, all certified RIAA gold-or-better, with cumulative worldwide sales of over 35 million - My Favorite Headache finds Lee joined in the studio by guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Ben Mink and drummer Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden). The album's 11 diverse new Lee compositions were co-written with Mink (best known for his collaborations with k.d. lang [webmaster note: better known to Rush fans for Mink's electric violin on Signal's 'Losing It', also as a member of 'FM' who toured with Rush in the early 80's]). This landmark recording sees Lee taking on a number of instruments - along with his bass and vocal duties - including piano, guitar, percussion, and various programming elements. Recorded in Seattle, Vancouver, and Toronto, the album was produced by Lee, Mink, and renowned studio whiz David Leonard (Santana, Barenaked Ladies, Prince), and also features drummer Jeremy Taggart (Our Lady Peace) on one track." - Atlantic Records/Geddy Lee Newsletter, September 19, 2000.
"This packaging is technically referred to as a 'Digipack' and record companies generally do not like to use them claiming that they cost more to produce. Which may well be the case based on the fact that their production is geared up to use the plastic 'Jewel Box' and as a result any other type of request is considered a special order. So, if an artist insists on using the 'digipack' type of cover they will make that artist pick up the extra cost. They also claim that 'MARKET RESEARCH TELLS US THAT FANS REALLY PREFER JEWEL BOXES AND VIEW THEM AS BETTER VALUE FOR MONEY'. As for myself I much prefer the 'digipack' type of packaging for the following reasons, more environmentally friendly, they feel better in your hands (like an album cover!..I'm old fashioned I guess!), they look much better in terms of graphic display, and they don't shatter the instant you open them like the dreaded Jewel Box!! Although they may have a tendency to fray a bit over time. For those artists that believe that artwork is important in ways beyond the practical, unique packaging usually becomes a bit of a battle with most of the larger record companies. Even for very successful artists." - Geddy Lee, The Geddy Lee Interactive Website, January 11, 2001
"I really like [Matt Cameron] from Soundgarden. I like his playing a lot...he has a lot of room to shine and I enjoy his playing immensely." - Neil Peart, Powerkick, The Rock Drummer's Quarterly, Summer 1992
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This is a collection of transcripts of magazine and newspaper articles and other media related to this release or coinciding with the time frame surrounding it. This is an ongoing work in progress; feel free to email any suggested additions.