Classic Albums #7: Lemonheads 'it's a shame about Ray'
 

It's a Shame about Ray is an album by The Lemonheads. It was released on June 2, 1992 (see 1992 in music). Tom Morgan of Australian band Smudge helped author the album, and Juliana Hatfield played bass.
After its initial release, the album was re-issued with a cover of "Mrs. Robinson", originally by Simon & Garfunkel, which was released as a single. The song had been recorded after the other tracks, with a different bass player. Pressure from the record label also caused the title of the song "My Drug Buddy" to be reduced to the less-provocative "Buddy" when the album was reissued.
"Alison's Starting to Happen" refers to Alison Galloway, the drummer for Smudge.
The album also includes a cover of the song "Frank Mills" from the musical Hair.
The band performed the album in its entirety at London's Shepherds Bush Empire on September 14 and 15, 2005, as part of All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back series of concerts. The cover of "Mrs. Robinson," a song that Dando grew tired of after its popularity, was missing from the setlist.
"Confetti" and the title track were also released as singles in the UK.


Track listing

(All songs by Evan Dando unless otherwise stated.)
1)"Rockin Stroll"
2)"Confetti"
3)"It's A Shame About Ray" (Words by Dando/Tom Morgan, music by Dando)
4)"Rudderless"
5)"My Drug Buddy"
6)"The Turnpike Down"
7)"Bit Part" (Words by Dando/Morgan, music by Dando)
8)"Alison's Starting To Happen"
9)"Hannah & Gabi"
10)"Kitchen" (Nic Dalton)
11)"Ceiling Fan In My Spoon"
12)"Frank Mills" (James Rado, Jerome Ragni, Arthr MacDermot)
13)"Mrs. Robinson" (Paul Simon)

The song "Mrs. Robinson" did not appear on original versions of the album.

ALL HAIL KING EVAN

:o awesome album!

This one slipped by me in 1992. I remember always wanting to pick it up but never got around to it. I'll have to watch for it.

you will love it gmku, it is pop and guitars and rock, beautiful songs.

i took one out of the library once, it was great but i forgot to burn it :p

i bought it in 2001 based completely on the font cover! and just loved it to death, i have seen them/him 3 times now. and i have all their/his albums.

Thanks, Screamingskull. Sounds like my cup of tea.

you can't really call them the lemonheads though, it's really just the beautiful and talented Evan Dando, he writes everything.

here is evan dando, human turd in the toilet of popular music.
'sall I'm gonna say on this thread.

It's a shame, if Evan Dando was ugly you guys would probably give the lemonheads a second chance, But because he is handsome, but straight away assume their music is shit.

what it has to be older that 15 years to be considered a classic?

Personally, I advocate a 20 year waiting period.
Even then, this would still be pretty weak music to me.
And I never thought Dando was really all that handsome, even. Never got why he was considered such a heartthrob.

i don't agree with one word you just said.

I'm also in favour of a 20 year period. Mainly because I don't like a lot of early-90s music.

Hang on... I don't like a lot of things, ignore me.

well i also made a Todd Rundgren Something/Anything thread for the classic's list, but people didn't like that either.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=14265

that albums 35 years old.

Not so.
I like Japan, for god's sake, and a bigger bunch of made-up prettyboys is hard to think of.

As for Rundgren, I don't dig that stuff personally, but I'll go ahead and agree to a couple of his albums being classics because of the techniques they employed and Todd's unique and identifiable approach to recording.

fuck the lemonheads. my distaste for them has nothing to do with evan and everything to do with the sound of soft indie-wuss-rocking GRATES on my ears. the lemonheads are everything the butthole surfers and sonic youth and dinosaur and big black DESTROYED with their abrasive ROCK!

yeah sure, they really destroyed it huh?

This is the first and only album I bought and heard of the Lemondheads (for £5) I only picked it up cuz Thurston sings Lemonheads in Screaming Skull.

It's got some inoffensive airy strummy nothing pop songs on. I guess it's ok if you're falling asleep, but classic album #7? :O