•
Rating: In 1993, in the wake of the success of the cover of “Mrs. Robinson”, which had represented the ideal link between the flower era of the late '60s and the restlessness of the infamous “X generation” so talked about at the dawn of the last decade, Evan Dando’s Lemonheads were the most famous American rock band in the world, blessed with sales even in England, hostile to flannel shirts and the many Kurt Cobain clones that popped up like mushrooms in the last spasms of Nirvana's unfortunate saga. Yet, to diminish the career of this band nurtured in the flourishing tradition of Boston's college rock scene to a mere hit slyly winking at a trendy revival is absolutely limiting and decidedly inaccurate, because it would mean turning one's back on an artistic journey that started at the end of the '80s with a handful of records mostly composed in Dando's room (former angry teenager, aspiring disillusioned and elusive poet, happily indulging in drug use), impulsive, tense, deliberately anti-commercial and deeply influenced by the cult hardcore groups at the time (Husker Du and Fugazi primarily) which nevertheless laid the foundation for what would become the very personal mood folk rock style of a record like “It’s A Shame About Ray” from 1992.
The Lemonheads, represented in “Come On Feel” essentially by Evan Dando alone and his partner Juliana Hatfield (an essential figure of American indie rock and a leading name in the entire riot girls movement with the Black Babies) reached the definitive acclaim of critics and the public without even changing much their way of composing and playing, but opening up to a more melodic and emotional style: the songs that make up this album (which even features unlikely contributions from artists as distant as Rick James and Belinda Carlisle) are typical cases where you can easily talk about “pop gems” without further violating an overused term. “Into Your Arms” (the Lemonheads' biggest hit excluding “Mrs. Robinson”), “It’s About Time”, and “Rest Assured” are three guitar pop masterpieces of innocent roughness, where the harmonies, indebted to the best Byrds and Big Star, hide the same anguished and intensely poignant mood that was proposed, in a boring and heavy way, by the grunge groups in vogue in those years. Evan Dando is the other side of Kurt Cobain: both expressed the melancholic and nervous side of adolescence with their songs, but with absolutely different compositional methods. In The Lemonheads' music, falsely sunny, happily apathetic, aggressively sweet, lies the melancholy of a thousand gloomy afternoons, of rare spring days, of winters spent at home with some friends smoking some weed, talking about some girl who is not interested and filling oneself with questions and doubts about one's present and future. The epic country of “Big Gay Heart” is almost a conceptual manifesto outlining the personality of an Evan Dando probably more than ever perfectly mastering his artistic language, able to constructively regulate a creative schizophrenia which ultimately leads him to transition, while always appearing absolutely consistent, from a “Style” tinged with punk noise rock anger to the cerebral folk of “Favorite T”, passing through the lopsided and dreamy pop of “Being Around” and the guitar rock of “Dawn Can’t Decide” to what is, along with “Confetti” and “Into Your Arms”, the melodic pinnacle of his musical adventure, the wonderful “Down About It”, a pop song soaked in frustrated nostalgia which might even suggest a cleaned-up version of the teenage outbursts of Husker Du's “Zen Arcade” if it weren’t for a chilling acoustic version (available in a special edition of the “Best Of” released a few years ago) that gives new light to the original piece, thanks also to the extraordinary performance of Juliana Hatfield, a confused and enchanting siren who surely represents one of the strengths of this album still far from an actual “rediscovery” by the new generations.
In any case, the Lemonheads certainly remain a chapter to be affectionately remembered by anyone who felt even marginally part of that “X generation” to which Evan Dando was attributed (wrongly, it could be argued, but that's how the story went) and I recommend this “forgotten” '90s album to spend a pleasant winter identifying with the bittersweet words and harmonies of a songwriter to whom many will, sooner or later, pay homage.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Great Big NO (02:51)
Lover don't turn your head.
Just let me walk away.
I thought I might have to say,
you're asking the wrong guy.
She wonders how.
Thinks she knows now.
She'll be right.
They always go bye the bye.
The great big no. Great big no.
Great big no. Great big no.
Is nothing okay with you.
Is nothing okay with me.
Is anything happening to have to go to sea.
He wonders why. The indigo guy,
He'll be right.
They always go bye the bye.
The great big no. Great big no.
Great big no. Great big no.
Everyone knows everything
Everyone knows everything
Nobody, nobody has got no one to go to.
Great big no.
Great big no.
Great big no.
Great big no.
Whoah (Lover don't turn your head.)
Lover don't turn your head.
No. (Lover don't turn your head.)
Is nothing okay with you?
02 Into Your Arms (02:44)
For the D, alternate between x00232 and x00032 )
D G Em
I know a place where I can go when I'm alone
G Em G Em
into your arms whoa into your arms
D D6
I can go
G Em
I know a place that's safe and warm from the crowd
G Em G Em
into your arms whoa into your arms
----
"Into Your Arms"
From: Yamin Jie (jace@spin.net.au)
-0----0--------3-------------2-----------------------
-2--2----2-----0----0----3---3-----------------------
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---------------3-------------------------------------
And If I should fall ...
-0----0------3-----------0-----------0----0------0----0--------
-2--2---2----0----0---3--0----0------2--2---2----2--2---2------
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-2--------0--0--------0--2--------2--2----------------------2--
-0--------0--2-----------2-----------0-------------------------
-------------3-----------0-------------------------------------
I know I won't be alone.
SOLO 1:
E-------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------
G-7-9-11---9-11-12---19---18-16-16-14---11-9-11-9-
D---0-0----0-0--0----0----0--0--0--0--------------
A-------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------
G-------------------9-11-9-11-12-14-14-
D--12-11-------9-12--------------------
A--------12-12-------------------------
E--------------------------------------
SOLO 2:
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---------------------P------------
-7-9-11-12---19----19-16----------
-0-0-0--0----0-----------14/16----
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03 It's About Time (02:41)
Bite my tongue
and I won't say a word against anyone
but I don't wanna get my fingers wet
unless it's an accident
fell out on the street
now I'm watching my shoes and I grit my teeth
but I don't have to look that way
if I had half a say
It's about time
It's about time
lick my lips
and I won't hear the end of this
On your knees a reassurance
buy some time and come back for it
before long
before it's gone
patience is like bread I say
I ran out of that yesterday
it's about time
it's about time
enough about us
let's talk about me
if not about you
It's not about sunshine
It's about time
It's about time
touch my leg
It's smooth but there stubble there
I'll fall back and let'em go
only when I know you know
I don't know
make me sure
Have your people contact mine
and keep your lawyer on the line
it's about time (x4)
05 Paid to Smile (02:59)
Could you see your way clear
and arrange your eyes away from mine
Sorry I'm here
but you get paid get paid to lie
You get paid to smile
Would you really say hello
and let me carry my own guitar
and please don't hold the door
I can work the handle on any car
It's really not that hard
smile, paid to smile
smile, paid to smile
oooh
the cigarette girl took off her tray
and dropped her dress in a shiny pile
pulled her pants up on her way
when gets home she'll laugh a while
she gets paid to smile
smile
smile
smile
smile
smile
smile
08 Rest Assured (02:32)
***Capo on the 2nd fret****
Intro
D2 A5 G5 Em (repeat)
Verse
D2 A5 G5 Em
One of the reasons I came all this way
D2 A5 G5 Em
Two opposite seasons i had to hear you say
Pre-Chorus
Em F#m G
You were gonna hang around a while
Em F#m G A
I notice my old postcard in a pile
One, two, three, four
Verse
Pepper, salt, sugar, and tarragon, we're hanging by the pool,
mortar bricks and aluminum
step one, figure two
Pre-Chorus
I know its prob'ly not my place,
Watch the water drain a differnt way
One two
One two three
Chorus
D A G Em
If I could you know i'd try to
D A G Em
Rest Assured i've half a mind to
D A G Em
Rest assured i've half a mind to
D A G Em
If I could you know i'd try to
solo:
D G,
D G,
Em F#m G x3
A
Verse
Pop it to lock it, Come on lets map it out
It's not what you do with me its what you do without
Pop it to lock it, Come on lets map it out
Chorus
If I could you know I'd try to
Rest Assured I've half a mind to
Ask the other half it i might
Rest Assured
G, Em7
09 Dawn Can't Decide (02:18)
Dawn can't decide
if there should be more of the porch,
she's sick of being inside.
He read the signs
and now they're making out in Lancaster
just to pass the time. Woo!
Curtis C called.
Left a message in japenese.
Dawn took the call.
Reviewed the newest Taang! release
Joe shudda known that the Long Island Lolita would be the cause.
Feels good to be Jesse on the inside today.
Feels good to be Jesse on the inside today.
(Buttafuoco!)
G minor morning was a D minor dawning.
G minor morning was a D minor dawning.
G minor morning was a D minor dawning.
And you strike, strike the right chord,
right chord, the right chord in me.
Strike the right chord.
Bah bah bah bah.
Bah bah bah bah bah, bah bah, bah bah bah bah bah.
No paperwork.
No paperwork.
bah bah bah bah
bah bah bah bah bah, bah bah, bah.
bah bah bah bah.
Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah.
bah bah bah. Dawn can't decide. Dawn can't decide.
10 I'll Do It Anyway (03:34)
INTRO:
F# B E C#m F# A B
E F# B
Bless my soul maybe I should leave it alone
E F# B
I'm sure it could be safer to stay at home
E
You've made your point
F# G#m
It's pointless and it's all gonna burn
E F# B
I'm in no state to skate but I'm gonna take my turn
E F# B
I know you may never really understand
E F# B
Why go through these motions with my hands
E
It's a gesture at best
F# G#m
But my body's in the right place
E F# B
to fall in your arms now and wait to save face
F# B
I'll do it anyway
E
no matter what they feel
C#m
Ain't got all the facts
F#
but I got a hunch
B
and I know the deal
F# B
I'll do it anyway
E
shine what you might have heard
C#m
There's something at hand
F#
It just ain't planned
B F#
It's still a beautiful world
(solo)
E C#m G#m
E C#m G#m
E C#m G#m
E F# B
(same as above:)
American men you know them
they just gotta be right
When it's left to me
often times I'd rather not fight
They make a big deal out of everything
and they got too many guns
and just to make 'em mad
I'm gonna do it for fun
I'll do it anyway
no matter what they feel
Ain't got all the facts
but I got a hunch
and I know the deal
I'll do it anyway
shine what you might have heard
There's something at hand
It just ain't planned
It's still a beautiful world
I'll do it anyway
no matter what they feel
Ain't got all the facts
but I got a hunch
and I know the deal
I'll do it anyway
over the barren plains
I'm still a girl
and it's just a horse
and I got the reins
12 Being Around (01:48)
If I was in the fridge, would you open the door?
If I was the grass, would you mow your lawn?
If I was your body, would you still wear clothes?
If I was a booger, would you blow your nose?
Would you keep it? Would you eat it?
I'm just tryin to give myself a reason, for being around.
If I was the front porch swing would you let me hang?
If I was the dance floor would you shake your thing?
If I was a rubber check would you let me bounce
Up and down inside your bank account?
Would ya trust me, not to break you?
I'm just tryin really hard to make you,
notice me being around.
If I was a haircut would you wear a hat?
If I was a maid, could I clean your flat?
If I was the carpet would ya wipe your feet,
In time to save me from mud off the street?
If you like me, if you love me,
why don't you get down on your knees
and scrub me?
I'm a little grubby
From being around.
13 Favorite T (02:59)
I thought we had an understanding there that wouldn't leave too soon Figure it over and you'll find out where your green shirt's gone Had to hear about your Danish boyfriend I forced a swoon So I went over to your dresser drawer and now I got it on I got it on your favourite Tee It never looked as good on you as it looks on me I got it on I'll wait and see I used to wear it every day and now it's twice a week Fill in the shadows of a certain corner you used to sit there got me a brand new lamp, plugged it in and now the dark don't fit there Ain't got the time or the inclination to see this through I'm lookin up, climbing out of the station and the sky's too blue Chorus: The sky's too blue The sky's too blue It mightn't suit me quite as well as it used to I got it on Your favourite tee I used to wear it every day...
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