The Lemonheads, "It's a Shame About Ray" (Track of the Week)

I've had the 1990s on my brain as of late. This is partially because I am reading Chuck Klosterman's book about the era, but mostly because I am finally able to listen to music of that era again without being emotionally overwhelmed. It's the decade where I truly came of age, going from 14 to 24, from child to adult. Every song contains a memory, which can make for unbearable listening. The thing is, I was a complete schmuck from the age of 14 to 24, and I don't like to be reminded of it. The traumas of the past six years have been so intense that those memories don't sting so much anymore. One silver lining of the river of shit we are currently wading through.

The Lemonheads were one of the minor bands of the 90s alt-rock explosion, one that did not get their full due because they were established before grunge and did not just ape the Seattle sound. I've been revisiting them, especially "It's a Shame About Ray." The album cover made me think it was a song about someone being run over by a car, but the song itself is more ambiguous than that. It certainly seems to be about a dead acquaintance (rather than a friend.) This is someone you might know but not intensely grieve over the way one does with close friends and family. Those of us still living and breathing can be a little callous in these situations, only capable of sighing and saying "that's a shame" before moving on with our fleeting lives. This is the arrogance of us the living, so disinclined to contemplate our mortality or for whom the bell truly tolls.

For that reason this has become one of my favorite songs to listen to when I brood about COVID. Two thousand people a day still die in a pandemic so many are anxious to declare "over." There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to stop the onslaught. New days bring new stories, like someone I know losing his cousin to the virus last week. Our society seems to have learned nothing from this experience. It's a shame.