Evan Dando. Spokesperson for the tail-end of a certain segment of the slacker generation. Or something like that?
I like those rare moments in life when a memory or item from your past sort of ... reoccurs, or reenters your little universe again, and has you come to understanding that moment with greater appreciation, and at times, a new-found love. Without any thought or determination of reaching some sort of new "conclusion," and either suddenly, or over a small period of time. It just reintroduces itself.
As I get older, I think my idea of what childhood is has shifted a bit. In my 20s and 30s, it was the age range during the 1980s that felt the most formative. Still are, probably. But now in my late 40s, I find my nostalgia shifting to the 90s, a time of high school and college. When I look back at it, especially in this day & age of such unnecessary and terrible division, I tend to look at it as a relatively carefree time in history in comparison. Sure, there were awful problems in the country and in the world, but thinking on it now I feel grateful to have enjoyed that stage of life during that time in history. I'm viewing that time period now with very nostalgic and rose-tinted glasses, absolutely, but most observers would likely look back and say yes, things were relatively good, peaceful and prosperous. I've still never heard the full album, also called It's A Shame About Ray, but once hearing the title song again recently, the memories of what an important song this was for me, unbeknownst to me at the time, came flooding back. I've never heralded The Lemonheads and/or Evan Dando like so many did back in that decade - maybe I would've too if I actually heard the album. But I'm more than content that my own personal trajectory with this band was different. For me it's that song, and that song only. A song so good I can't risk their other music tainting what one tune did so brilliantly.
My intro to it, released in the summer of '92, was on MTV's 120 Minutes, I assume at some point in '93 as that's when the music of the era really started to click with me. In '91, Nirvana changed everything. In '92 I started to get familiar with music even MORE alternative than your bullshit corporate alternative (ha). Then in '93 it all started coming together as to what "spoke to me" - and even though I didn't know anything by the Lemonheads except 'It's A Shame About Ray,' it was in my head constantly for a couple years - those final years of high school. And then at some point, I guess I just stopped thinking about it. Maybe a life event, or a life change did it, removing it from my rotation and moving me onto the next thing, especially as I failed to pick up the album for a more lasting impact; apparently I figured it would ALWAYS be in my head. Truth is, I'd hear it again from time to time, here and there, but it was on a recent re-listen, again by circumstance, where it really struck a chord again. Transporting me to that yearning feeling for a better time and place, I suppose. Like ALL of us do. And because it did that for me, and brought a positive light in, could I then see what a truly great tune it was, and what an important part of my late teens it was.
'It's A Shame About Ray' feels like the ideal anthem for the 90s era of the slacker generation. I should be clear here as well that I'm not speaking on the lyrics. I rarely do. I'm more attune to the sounds and feeling of the song. The melodies it emotes. Obviously it's the nostalgia and familiarity ... and time traveling of sorts, that is playing a huge part in this for me. I fully acknowledge. But when listening to the song objectively, in the way his warm, bright and lazy voice effortlessly glides over those ... slacker melodies? The sound of it brings me to those important, transformative times, with the memories having turned into films in my head, because frankly they're only just as strong as say the last Friday the 13th film I watched. Which is ALWAYS in a state of "recently," I should add. Recalling memories can be quite cinematic, the possibilities they bring because you can't recall them all with 100% precision. It's a beautiful thing, the open possibilities. Something about 'It's A Shame About Ray' brought me to that place then, and again now.
That feeling, that memory and SENSATION of hearing it on 120 Minutes at 1am on a school night during senior year, staying with you into the next day full of classes you need to get through. It's the song I hear when Donnie Darko is riding through the perfectly tree-lined streets of his 80s suburbia. The rush of kissing a girlfriend far too late at night in the summer breezeway. Working with friends and fellow weirdos until midnight at the local video store. A friend, of whatever variety, outside waiting. Nothing in your way at that hour. You're ready, but directionless. And ok with it. This was the 90s, after all. It was all going to work out just fine. Turmoil is so 80s, man. 'It's A Shame About Ray' - whatever it's about - it was our anthem from my perspective of the time. It's how I saw our "film," our experience together on our little sliver of Earth. And the hope. The hope. It was there. Albeit lazy. That was us. And we couldn't be bothered by it.
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