Luckily, It’s A Shame About Ray was released in June 1992 and not earlier. 1991 was Thurston Moore’s proclaimed “year that punk broke,” and Nirvana and Pearl Jam reigned supreme over the new punk rock dubbed “grunge.” He was loud and the singers in a bad mood. Not Evan Dando. He came six months later and loved life, if only for a short time. Optimism, camping holidays, drugs too, but not to fight demons, but because he was fine. And he loved Americana. The previous album, “Lovey”, already included a tribute to his idol Gram Parsons with “Brass Buttons”. What Dando ignored: Parsons went to the Joshua Tree Desert, overdosed and died upon returning to the hotel.
The record contains only classics
The Lemonheads’ fifth album contains twelve songs and lasts 29:48 minutes, a length somewhere between James Brown’s “Live At The Apollo” and “Surfer Rosa” by the Pixies. You have to be able to afford this self-confidence. could dando. The record contains only classics. Top verses, top bridges, top refrains, top guitar solos, and song endings that somehow came too early, but somehow also hit the spot.
The work can also be heard from back to front and stays just as good. Songs about the girlfriend as a crack courier (“My Drug Buddy”), the bakery as a flirt zone (“Kitchen”), a trip to the countryside (“The Turnpike Down”), a song from the musical “Hair” (“Frank Mills” ) and with “Hannah & Gabi” a song whose beauty is revealed by the title alone. Only once, in “Bit Part”, does Dando let himself be yelled at for treating another human like air. The angry voice likely belongs to then-Lemonheads bassist Juliana Hatfield.
Dando couldn’t let go of alternative rock and doubled almost every acoustic guitar with an electric guitar
Dando couldn’t let go of alternative rock and doubled almost every acoustic guitar with an electric guitar. The cover added to the second edition by Simon & Garfunkel, “Mrs. Robinson”. People loved the hit song, but he didn’t like doing it live. It is also included on this deluxe edition, as are some demo versions and outtakes. The 1993 follow-up, “Come On Feel The Lemonheads,” would be just as gorgeous as “Ray” if it contained only ten of the 15 songs. Grunge went, and the influence of dandos pop-folk couldn’t be overstated.
Soul Asylum lacked class, but they also made pop-folk and found even greater success. Dando went on tour with them. After that, all doors were open to long-haired singers with sad eyes. The Crash Test Dummies, the Rüdiger Hoffmanns of rock music, released “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”. After “’74-’75” by the Connells, people were almost angry with Dando, although he could not do anything for such imitators – and as a crack addict he gradually lost the strength to write songs.
Evan Dando had no objections to his Druggy Posterboy role, nor to his subsequent role as a fallen angel. But 1993 left its mark. To date, he has only released three more studio albums with his own compositions, in addition to two cover albums. A comeback album was called “Baby I’m Bored”. On the Cameo web platform, he offers personalized greetings from his garage for $176. At 55, Dando still looks as beautiful as he did at 25, so maybe that’s why there’s still hope that he’s got at least one good album left. On a concert tour he plays “It’s A Shame About Ray” in its entirety. Because it only takes half an hour. Short – and of course perfect – albums are good for that, too.
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Evan Dando :: Baby I’m Bored
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