Revisiting the Classix: The Lemonheads

Evan Dando and the Lemonheads have been back in the news lately, mostly due to the recent reissue of their seminal album It's a Shame About Ray. I, like many others, first heard about this band during the Alternative boom of the early 90s and quickly fell in love with the folk tinged pop songs and dreamy hair of Mr. Dando. By the time they released Come on Feel the Lemonheads in late 1993, I had already soured on the band and moved on to harder stuff like Archers of Loaf and Slant 6. What happened? I was so into Ray. I loved every song from barn burning first track "Rockin Stroll" to their wonderful cover of "Frank Mills" that ends the album. I stayed up late to catch their videos on 120 Minutes. I even fell in love with Smudge, Australia's version of The Lemonheads. But then Come On debuted and I yawned. The first single "Into Your Arms" was a cover, which is never a good sign, and it was pretty boring. I moved on and never looked back.

Until I did. I'm so glad I eventually revisited this record because it truly was love at first listen. I had access to the album for years but for some reason I never had any interest to give it a listen. My dad bought it on cd but I don't remember ever hearing it around the house. I remember him cranking "Everybody Loves Me But You" from Juliana Hatfield's debut album Hey You but I don't have a single memory of Evan Dando's voice rattling the speakers in our house. Years later, I discovered that Hott Mama had a copy of Come On on cassette, still in the shrink wrap. It was a BMG featured selection and automatically shipped to her without her consent. She never sent it back and there it lay, covered in plastic and long forgotten. Shawn put "Rest Assured" on a tape she sent to me and I dug it so much I finally decided to dust off the cassette and give it a chance. It was this tape version that won my heart. I now listen to this album more often that Ray and have more than once called it the most underrated album of the 1990s.

At the time Come On was released, I think I was annoyed by Evan Dando's public image and his slow descent into bloated rock star self destruction. Now I find it fascinating and it's this drug addled weirdness that makes the album so twisted and beautiful. There are certainly some typical Lemonheads pop gems, like "Dawn Can't Decide" and "The Great Big No" but most everything else is just slightly off, or completely off the rails as is the case with "Style." This odd tune is the centerpiece and thesis of the album, paving the way for the future crack smoking and following drug sickness that Evan fell into during the tour in support of Come On. Here's the opening lines of the song:

Don't wanna get stoned

Don't wanna get stoned

But I don't wanna not get stoned

I don't wanna not get stoned

Pure poetry! It goes on like this until he delivers my favorite verse:

Wanna knock things down

I'm not gonna knock things down

But I don't wanna not get stoned

So I'm not gonna not knock things down

What is that, a double negative? Brilliant! "Style" is song 7 on the album and is followed just four songs later by "Rick James Style" which is the same exact song only slowed down a bit and featuring the inimitable vocal styling of, you guessed it, Rick James. If you weren't already worried for the state of Evan Dando's soul, this song will change your mind. Yet somehow, it's not the death knell for the album. Instead, he follows it up with a brief little country rock number called "Being Around" which is so peppy and silly you can't help but fall in love.

All in all this is a very flawed album with some questionable judgment calls but for me it's the flaws which give it such a distinct personality and make me love it wholeheartedly. Song 3 is "It's About Time," a song written for Juliana Hatfield detailing how she finally lost her virginity to good friend and bandmate Evan Dando. And she sings backup on it! Who does that? Future Lemonheads albums are all half decent and half boring and terrible. Nothing he has done since has matched the perfect marriage of songwriting greatness and absurdity found on Come On Feel the Lemonheads. It doesn't matter that they decided to end the album with the bizarre piano doodle "The Jello Fund" because it is more than balanced out by wonders like "Big Gay Heart," "You Can't Take it With You" and the greatest Lemonheads song of all time, "I'll Do it Anyway." If you too passed on this album long ago, give it another chance and enjoy Evan Dando's collapse along with me. It's a glorious descent.