I learnt to play guitar by listening to Lemonheads albums and playing along. I played the It’s A Shame About Ray album on repeat for many months, frequently pausing and replaying tracks, trying to catch what chord or note came next – it must have been incredibly annoying for my family, but generally they just let me get on with it.
Four or so years ago, I stumbled upon a Lemonheads fan-site that had put together 2 fan-made tribute albums: Squealing Fans In My Tune volumes 1 and 2 (named after the Lemonheads song Ceiling Fan In My Spoon) – featuring covers by fans from across the Lemonheads catalogue. Following that, the fan-site started organising the Squealing Fans Covers Project, with the aim of covering every song on every Lemonheads album (2 new Lemonheads albums have actually been released since the project started, the latest ironically being a covers album). One album has so far been covered and released in its entirety (It’s A Shame About Ray), whilst the rest of the project splutters along slowly.
**UPDATE** The covers project is now complete (or as complete as it’s going to get) – click here for details **END OF UPDATE**
I have submitted 4 tracks so far – I Am A Rabbit, Plaster Caster, Dawn Can’t Decide and Being Around. The first two of these are themselves songs the Lemonheads covered – I Am A Rabbit was originally by a New Zealand punk band called Proud Scum, and Plaster Caster was by makeup-metal mega-band Kiss.
**UPDATE** I ended up submitting 6 songs to the project – in addition to the four above, I recorded versions of Hate Your Friends and Favourite T **END OF UPDATE**
You won’t be able to hear these tracks until the project is finished – who knows when that will be – but I thought I’d share a couple of abandoned versions I recorded of Dawn Can’t Decide. The original Lemonheads version appeared as a demo on a b-side, and was not sung by frontman Evan Dando, but by Australian bass player Nic Dalton. The song then appeared on the album Come On Feel The Lemonheads, sung by Dando. You can hear those songs below:
The originals:
Lemonheads (b-side from My Drug Buddy single)
The Lemonheads (from the album Come On Feel The Lemonheads)
It took me ages to get a version of this song I was happy with. In the version I finally submitted, I changed the song title, ever so slightly, to Da(w)n Can’t Decide, and included the line “Dan can’t decide on the style of music to use to record Dawn Can’t Decide”. Which was very true. I recorded a rock version; a lighter, poppier version, and a countryesque version – and I wasn’t really happy with any of them. I am very happy with the final version, and as soon as it is made available, I will point you in its direction. Until then, here are 2 of my early demos:
Dawn Can’t Decide (E. Dando/N. Dalton):
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
Curtis C called,
Left a message in Japanese
Dawn took the call
Reviewed the newest Taang! release
Joe shoulda 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
Because a
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
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
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