Well, happy 50th b’day Evan Dando! So to help celebrate it, here’s my all-time fave The Lemonheads track for my Sunday post. It’s pretty perfect song/band for a Sunday, hey? I’ve got the video clip above which is the title track from the 1992 album, the kind-off solo acoustic version too and include the lyrics below so you can sing along even if you don’t the song that well.
This thingy here, you know the blog you’re reading now is somewhat and was made to catalog and write about all my fave music which does seem a bit endless. Have it all online somewhere, you know? So I can’t say I’m the biggest Dando and The Lemonheads fan ever but the way things are going here every single 90’s artist/band will feature sooner or later. So it was Kurt’s one a few weeks ago and here’s now someone who still around to actually celebrate this landmark, you know living and breathing! I never saw Nirvana live because the one Aussie tour was canned after Nevermind hit number one in the USA and they all when home but the date that record knock Michael Jackson’s Dangerous of the top shot they were booked to play Perth or well, Freo actually.
Anyway I’m getting side track again, Evan and The Lemonheads seem to tour Australia non-stop in the 90’s and for a while I think even moved and live here. You couldn’t miss them, if you didn’t see Aussie The Lemonhead gigs/tours in the 90’s, I don’t know where you was or even here then. It was just impossible and I seen a least a two or three times and I did seen Evan rocked up at some Aussie band at the time and just to watch them, if it was now everyone would be selfie and shit with him but then was saying hi and he would tell you how much he loved this band, I’m pretty sure it was Screamfeeder gig that happen but just like the main photo everyone had drinkings in your hands. It’s amazing I remember anything from the 90’s really. This thingy/blog has become a bit of me reminiscing about that time, I notice today Pitchfork has done there Sunday review on gangster rapper DMX giving him 9.0 but I wrote about him a week or two ago too but because I need to write more about rap anyway it’s the least viewed post lately and I think I’m getting side tracked again.
Evan Dando co-wrote this track or collaborated with Tom Morgan, who was the lead singer for the Australian band Smudge. Written in Australia too and in an interview with Melody Maker he said:
“It comes from this guy in Melbourne, Australia, who calls everyone Ray. So I started to think that Ray could be a name for everybody, so ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ could be about anybody. It’s a pretty grey and indefinite kinda thing, but then it’s very specific. It’s a little puzzler for me, too. I’m not sure if the person singing the song is Ray himself, or someone who knew him. It’s hard to know.”
It’s A Shame About Ray lyrics
I’ve never been too good with names.
The cellar door was open, I could never stay away.
I know it’s prob’ly not my place.
It’s either or, I’m hoping for a simple way to say.
It’s a shame about Ray.
In the stone, under the dust,
His name is still engraved.
Some things need to go away.
It’s a shame about Ray.
If I make it through today,
I’ll know tomorrow not to put my feelings out on display.
I’ll put the cobwebs back in place.
I’ve never been to good with names,
But I remember faces.
So just above it’s Evan in the photo with Johnny Depp. I picked this image because off course he starred in the video clip for the song.
Now I’ve got to ask what’s everyone’s else’s favorite The Lemonheads songs?
a1000mistakes 