Category: Lemonheads

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#049: Lemonheads – ‘Mrs Robinson’ (Atlantic Records ’92)

Hello friends,

yes. I know: ooh no – Mrs. Robinson … boring … we know it by heart for 30 years now …. pure blasphemy because the original was a masterpiece done by real musicians … etc. etc.

But you know what? I don’t care about any of this! Let me tell you why this is: because it can’t be seriousness, fragility, thoughtfulness all the time, that’s why! Sometimes, just sometimes, all it needs is a good kicking, with not too much to think about, no contemplating whether what you do meets with enough people’s approval or not. And when I first heard Lemonheads’ take on ‘Mrs. Robinson’, it quickly became the epitome of this mindlessness I was trying to describe … at least for 1992.

People always say that a cover version is only good when it doesn’t stick too close to the original. I have never fully understood this, I mean – it depends, doesn’t it? Here the changes are probably not ‘severe’ enough, you could argue. But for me this doesn’t spoil the fun, not the slightest! One thing is for sure: play this when DJing – and it still fills the dancefloor, even after all these years. And no, the young people neither know Simon & Garfunkel, nor do they know ‘The Graduate’ or Dustin Hoffman. They just hear an uplifting tune they can dance to without thinking too much – which is all you need sometimes, as I say.

mp3:  Lemonheads – Mrs Robinson

I appreciate the fact though that some of you might hate the song – apparently even the artists involved were of dissenting opinion: Evan Dando once said that he “hated” the song as well as its author and that its recording was only to promote a 25th anniversary home video release of ‘The Graduate’ (why he recorded it in the first place and had it released if he hated it so much remains a mystery to me, but then again so many things in life do). He noted that Paul Simon greatly disliked the cover, but Art Garfunkel was more favorable toward it.

So there you are – I’m all with Art here …. and hope you are too!

Take good care,

Dirk

Many of you will know that my football team is Raith Rovers.  We’re not the most fashionable or successful of clubs and indeed since 1988 when I first started going along (as a result of my best mate playing the first of what would be more than 300 games in nine years) the Rovers have spent only three seasons in the top flight of Scottish football.  There’s also been cup wins in that period while the 95/96 season unbelievably saw us qualify for European football where, after beating teams from the Faroe Islands and Iceland, we came against the might of Bayern Munich and lost 4-1 over the two legs…but with the memory of talking a 1-0 lead into half time at the game over in the Olympic Stadium in Munich.  Bayern, incidentally, went on to win the UEFA Cup that season with Rovers being the team that got the best aggregate score in any round.

But as any true football or indeed sports fan knows, winning isn’t the be all and end all.  It’s about going along, enjoying a good day out with mates and cheering your team on through thick and thin, and hopefully seeing your team play well and giving you a sense of satisfaction and pleasure.  There’s been loads of such times watching the Rovers all these years but as you can imagine there’s also been some really lousy, frustrating and boring days out too.

The season ended just 48 hours ago.  The team lost a play-off match in their efforts to get back to the top league for the first time since 1997. I wasn’t at the game as I had a long-standing commitment to look after some friends from Ireland who were visiting Glasgow for the very first time – friends who have over the years done so much for me and my family in the wake of my brother’s death some six years ago.  Some things are more important than football (but not many!!)

The fact we were in the play-offs was a huge surprise.  In a ten-team league, we had probably the 8th biggest budget and so were expected to be fighting things at the bottom.  Over 36 games, we put together a more than decent record which saw us rack up 18 wins and 8 draws and finish miles ahead of the teams in 5th place and below.  The significance of that achievement was that it clinched a play-off place and a chance, over up to six games, to go up.  As I said, that dream is over but what it did do was give all of us a chance to dream.  It also provided some amazing memories that will last forever (especially as they can be relived nowadays on YouTube etc).

All this was done by a team that was largely put together over the course of a season by a manager/coach who only joined us this time last year.  Ray McKinnon has done a great job and it’s no surprise that other clubs would be interested in having him at their helm.  It just so happens that the club he grew up supporting, Dundee United, have had a miserable season having been relegated and their chairman sees Ray as the answer to their problems.

The news today is that Raith Rovers, despite wanting to keep our manager who is under contract, have agreed to given Ray permission to speak to Dundee United and indeed have already agreed a suitable compensation package.  It’s only a matter of time before the Rovers are back looking for a new manager…..

It’s a sad feeling but one which one day, given the over-achievement of the past season, was likely to happen at some point or another.  All of which gives me the opportunity to post up a wonderful pop song which, after all, is the supposed point of this blog:-

mp3 : The Lemonheads – It’s A Shame About Ray

Good luck in the new job gaffer.  No doubt you’ll get a decent reception when you bring your team to Stark’s Park for two league games next season.

Another fine guest contribution today, this time courtesy of Jen whose long-time love for The Lemonheads comes through nice’n’clear.  She’s gone for a chronological approach that demonstrates how much the band’s sound changed and evolved in a little over a decade and she’s also included a fair proportion of cover versions, none of which are the song that got them the commercial breakthrough here in the UK:-

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM – THE LEMONHEADS

1. So I Fucked Up…[Laughing All The Way To The Cleaners 7” EP, 1986]

Punk was still new in Northern California in 1986, the year the Lemonheads put out their first record. Both singers here, and that great relief of shrugging off your potential and embracing your god given destiny.

2. Hate Your Friends [Hate Your Friends, 1987]

Seventeen and speeding around the San Francisco suburbs with my friends. No sleep for a week, sitting around the living room staring at each other, these lyrics will speak to you.

3. Ride With Me [Lovey, 1990]

Alone. Driving. Loud.

4. Different Drum [Favorite Spanish Dishes, CD EP, 1991]

This is the record where the Lemonheads became a pop band. Dando kept Ronstadt’s POV, singing about a “boy” instead of changing the lyrics to “girl.” It’s hard to remember how bad-ass that was in 1991.

5. Skulls [Favorite Spanish Dishes, CD EP, 1991]

If you take a violent, funny Misfits song (so any Misfits song) and cover it slow and acoustic, the song becomes an amazing sad classic. It’s a good trick. It works every time, as many bands have discovered since Dando.

6. Alison’s Starting To Happen [It’s A Shame About Ray, 1992]

Is Dando more idiot, or more savant? Is it an act, an accident, a joke on us?

7. Frank Mills [It’s A Shame About Ray, 1992]

From the 1968 “Hair” soundtrack. This song was a gift, for us kids hanging out in the park. No school. No work. Lots of characters.

8. The Great Big No [Come On Feel, 1993]

My favorite of the big pop songs.

9. He’s On The Beach [Big Gay Heart, CD EP, 1994]

Kirsty MacColl song about her friend that disappeared in the early 80’s. She started getting beach postcards from Australia. The Lemonheads crush this tune, sending it galloping through the streets of Boston.

10. Hospital [Car Button Cloth, 1996]

Is he trying? Is he not trying? Is he finger-painting with melted crayons? Who calls an album car button cloth? Dando was a sun-slapped gorgeous boy running through the sprinklers with terminal cancer, singing about the cherry flavor of his medicine. He knows rock and roll is for the ugly. He will destroy his own beauty.

Bonus Track: Pin Yr Heart [The Outdoor Type, CD Single, 1997]

As the curtain falls on his first act, he covers Nikki Sudden. Right?

mp3 : The Lemonheads – So I Fucked Up
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Hate Your Friends
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Ride With Me
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Different Drum
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Skulls
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Alison’s Starting To Happen
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Frank Mills
mp3 : The Lemonheads – The Great Big No
mp3 : The Lemonheads – He’s On The Beach
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Hospital

mp3 : The Lemonheads – Pin Yr Heart

Enjoy.

It took a long time for Lemonheads to become overnight sensations and then they were gone in what seemed like a blink of an eye.

It was back in 1986 when the band formed in Boston, with the principal talent being Evan Dando who was guitarist, co-vocalist and main songwriter. Four albums into their career and they were hardly known outside college radio in the USA, so Dando upped sticks and moved to Australia where he hooked up with two other musicians, wrote some songs and recorded an album and a cover version or two. It was said cover version – Mrs Robinson – that brought them some fame, certainly in Australia and the UK, and all of a sudden in 1992 the media went crazy for the handsome Mr Dando.

The fifth LP, It’s A Shame About Ray, saw the band add ‘The’ before their name and the album took off after its re-release with a new inclusion of the hit cover.  By 1993 the band were spending a fair bit of time in Europe, particularly the UK, and seemed set to really crack things when a new song, Into Your Arms was a Top 20 hit at the end of the tear with the sixth LP Come On Feel The Lemonheads going Top 5. It also helped that Dando had formed froendships with the members of Oasis who could do no wrong at this point in time.

The next single, in early 1994 was seen by all concerned as the one to propel The Lemonheads into the stratosphere:-

mp3 : The Lemonheads – It’s About Time

A tuneful and catchy radio-friendly number that surely would find favour with the record buying public.

Except, it didn’t stalling at a lowly #57.

The summer of 1994 wasn’t kind to Evan Dando as his often referred to drug habit – he’d been upfront enough about it before to mention it interviews and to even write songs about it (including one which appears on this CD single) – really took its toll and led to shows being cancelled and a media backlash. One of the world’s most beautiful people of 1993 was all but forgotten by the end of 1994. And it took him until 1996, a full three years after the last album, to get new material out. But his ship had sailed…

Here’s the other tracks on the CD single of the hoped for big hit:-

mp3 : The Lemonheads – Rick James Acoustic Style
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Down About It (acoustic)
mp3 : The Lemonheads – Big Gay Heart (acoustic)

Enjoy