Geddy Lee: My Favorite Headache

     IN THE YEAR 2000...IN THE YEAR 2000...Geddy Lee will record a solo album and it will sound like a really good Rush album. And he did. I guess that's funnier when Andy Richter does it:)

     Under normal circumstances, Geddy Lee would probably never have considered doing a solo album. He had been in Rush for 25 years and his only departure was singing on Bob and Doug McKenzie's hit single "Take Off" (10 bucks is 10 bucks, eh). However, when Rush drummer Neil Peart lost his daughter and wife in 1997, the band took a hiatus which ended up lasting five years. After taking a few years off, he decided to fill the Rush vacuum with his first and only solo album, My Favorite Headache. He was joined by his friend, Ben Mink, on guitars and violins and Pearl Jam's Matt Cameron on drums. Mink had played violins on "Losing It" from Rush's Signals album.
     Rush had been floundering in the grunge/alternative friendly 90's with albums like Counterparts and Test For Echo ("Dog Years" anyone?). The only time I ever went to a midnight release of anything was October 19, 1993 for Counterparts. However, the midnight release was actually for Pearl Jam's VS. album and there were only two of us there for the Rush album. It's kind of funny that Cameron played on My Favorite Headache seven years later (a dog year). Anyhow, when Geddy's solo album came out, I thought it was better than anything the band had done in awhile and wondered if Rush would ever record together again. Thankfully they came back revitalize in 2002 with Vapor Trails.
     The great thing about being Geddy Lee is you are afforded considerable creative freedom. Very few artists would be offered a record deal with virtually no expectations of sales or a tour. This allowed him to explore his own voice and recording techniques. Anyone expecting an album of Geddy showing off on the bass would be in for a surprise. Since he wasn't going to play the album live, he laid down solid bass lines and then layered them with another track of bass chords. The resulting sound was melodic and powerful without being self-indulgent. My Favorite Headache marked the first time since Rush's debut album that Geddy was responsible for lyrics. Some of Neil's lyric writing seemed to have rubbed off, though. Geddy graduated from "Hey baby, it's a quarter to eight, I feel I'm in the mood." to using words like "Nihilistic" and "imbued". In Rush, he had to make Neil's lyrics fit with the music that he and Alex composed. On this album, he could write lyrics designed to work exactly with his music. The results are standout tracks like "My Favorite Headache", "The Present Tense", "Working At Perfect", "Runaway Train" and "Still". If my kids end up liking Rush, I highly recommend they listen to My Favorite Headache. It's not Permanent Waves, but it's really good. Peace.