“It’s a Shame About Ray”: The Lemonheads and Evan Dando’s Sad Anthem About a Forgotten Kid

In 1989, The Lemonheads and Evan Dando rode a wave of bands plucked by major labels from the indie rock underground. Thanks to college radio airplay, the Boston group signed with Atlantic Records and released Lovey in 1990. But perhaps just a year ahead of its time, album sales stalled.

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So, Evan Dando moved to Sydney and began writing songs with Australian musician Tom Morgan. The pair wrote the title track to The Lemonheads’ fifth album, It’s A Shame About Ray. It catapulted Dando into stardom. And all of it happened by near accident.

About Ray

In Sydney, Dando read a newspaper article about a troubled kid named Ray who dropped out of school. A line in the article gave Dando an idea for a new song: “It’s a shame about Ray.” It became Dando’s first collaboration with Morgan. 

The article gave Ray brief fame. But the kid in the song vanishes in obscurity beneath a neglected gravestone. Ray (or Dando) learns to keep his feelings to himself after being punished for letting them be known. He’s already disappeared even while he’s alive.  

“If I make it through today
I’ll know tomorrow not to leave my feelings out on display
I’ll put the cobwebs back in place
I’ve never been too good with names, but I remember faces.”

The Accidental Success of “Mrs. Robinson”

For the 25^th anniversary of the 1967 film The Graduate, The Lemonheads recorded a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” and it became a surprise hit. So, Atlantic Records reissued It’s A Shame About Ray with “Mrs. Robinson” tacked on as a bonus track. Soon, Evan Dando’s face graced the cover of magazines.

But it always felt like he wasn’t trying. His slacker anthems and very public love of drugs remained at odds with the ambition required to become a pinup star. Songs like “My Drug Buddy”, “Rudderless”, and “Rockin’ Stroll” suggest an aloofness in Dando’s pop grunge.

Moreover, Dando regretted his biggest hit. He told American Songwriter: “I hate that song. I hate Paul Simon.”

Yet, in lean years following the demise of his band’s popularity, the royalty checks from “Mrs. Robinson” have kept him afloat.

“It’s like every time I’m about to hit the skids, some eighty grand check comes in from Nowheresville,” he told The New York Times in 2019.

And Dando knows he’s fortunate. With Keith Richards-like durability, he endured years of prolonged drug use.

“I have some crazy luck and all my friends will tell you that,” he said.

He had luck, and he also had a pop sensibility. You can hear it in his modern rock hit about Ray. But the paparazzi couldn’t get enough of Dando’s high-profile partying with Johnny Depp, Keith Richards, and Oasis. It often overshadowed his music.

Depp appears in the music video for “It’s A Shame About Ray”. He’s visible in grainy black-and-white footage while Dando smiles and performs in color.

Sad Pop

Evan Dando’s bio doesn’t scream punk rock pedigree. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was a model. But good looks and wealth weren’t assets in an era of bands who loathed success.

Meanwhile, rock bands in the UK reacted to American grunge with Britpop. Noel Gallagher wrote the Oasis hit “Live Forever” as an answer to “I Hate Myself And Want To Die” by Nirvana. And Dando seemed more in tune with Britpop’s escapist psychedelia than Seattle’s doom and gloom. When he became a rock star, it looked like he was having fun.

But sadness lurked beneath the good times. And you might wonder if there’s a piece of Dando in Ray, the boy everyone wanted to forget.

Gen X bands prioritized authenticity. However, it seemed like angst and despair were the only forms of authenticity considered. Dando smiled. He looked good and he hung out with celebrities like Kate Moss. The Village Voice once called his songs “bubblegrunge.” But was he really the anti-Kurt Cobain?

Despite the backlash, Dando survived and his songs have aged well. “It’s A Shame About Ray” documents an abandoned teen, and it’s sad to think of anyone being forgotten. But if you’ve written off The Lemonheads or Evan Dando, well, that’s a shame, too.

Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns