Tag Archives: shady

#1180: Pavement – Shady Lane

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Ah, the second song I ever heard by Pavement. I can sort of remember hearing it for the first time. I may have been flicking through the channels as I was wont to do in the day, found myself going back to MTV2, and when the channel popped up on the screen, there was the video for ‘Shady Lane’ playing. The chyron came up near the song’s end showing the band and song name, “PAVEMENT”, “SHADY LANE”, just like that, and I immediately recognised them as the people that did that ‘Cut Your Hair’ song, which I also saw on MTV2 sometime before and immediately took a shine towards. So now I knew two Pavement songs, and both of them sounded pretty cool.

A couple more times I saw that video on the same channel, and after those instances it was a guaranteed ‘liked’ song in my head. Seeing the video didn’t answer the question as to who the lead singer in the band was. No one visibly lip-syncs in the ‘Cut Your Hair’ video, and Stephen Malkmus’s head is missing in the shot where the band’s performing in ‘Shady Lane’. So I was still puzzled on that front. ‘Stereo’ fixed that, but that’s a story for another day. I got an iPod Nano from an “uncle” of mine when I was 12, “uncle” as in “male family friend”, and ‘Shady Lane’ was an instant add on there. Been a mainstay in any music library of mine ever since.

‘Shady Lane’ is the second song on Pavement’s Brighten the Corners album from 1997. Also released as the second single from it too, hence the video. That album is very much about turning 30 years of age, a point I’ve said before in another post for a song from that album, and the pressures that come along with it. ‘Shady Lane’ handles the topic of getting into a steady relationship, settling down and having the kids, the pets, the white picket fences. That’s the ‘shady lane’ in question. Malkmus wants that going for him, he straight up says so. And he brings it round to us all, saying that everybody wants one. And needs one too. But of course, Malkmus doesn’t spell those things out, writing about them in the quasi-cryptic but earnest manner that only he can. There are some brilliant lyrics in this tune. Possesses a fine riff. There’s a fake-out ending halfway through. It’s a great singalong. I much prefer the album version to the single edit, which was sped up a bit and has a higher pitch as a result, but I edited it so it ends before the ‘J vs. S’ instrumental. Always thought it took the momentum out of things.

#1100: Eminem – The Real Slim Shady

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If you were to start going through this series from the very first post and up to here, you’d think that the only hip-hop artists I listen to on the regular are Eminem and Kanye West. Not that there’s anything wrong with this. They’re both two of the best to ever do it in the genre. But, you know… I’d like to think I have a varied taste now. I wasn’t able to write the posts in time, is all. I started this blog when I was 17, and at that age, in my eyes, Eminem and Kanye were the best ever and no one could beat them. Times have passed, and their flaws – musically speaking – have become apparent to see as the years roll on. But their classic songs are still classics, including this one right here, which everyone knows and is still one of Eminem’s most popular tracks almost 25 years after its release.

‘The Real Slim Shady’ was the first single to be released from Eminem’s second major-label album, The Marshall Mathers LP. It had only been just over a year since the rapper blessed everyone’s screens with ‘My Name Is’, introducing the world to Slim Shady and the persona’s wild, wild antics. Now Em was back, laughing at the chaos left in his wake and making his mark again as a labelled misogynist and advocate of domestic violence (taken from Wikipedia, I’m sorry), being the White man succeeding in a Black man’s game and ultimately poking fun at the imitators who had made themselves present in the aftermath of his success. It’s a mixture of silliness and seriousness as Eminem criticises vapid boy/girl pop groups, journalists and critics and the general public. He also cusses out Will Smith in one of the funniest diss lines to be put to paper.

I was five when all of this was happening, so I didn’t really grasp Eminem’s magnitude at the time. To me, he would just pop up with his new singles every time a new album was coming around. I wanna say I do remember watching that VMA performance of the song where he got hundreds of lookalikes to stand menacingly as he rapped through the track. ‘The Real Slim Shady’ doesn’t have that much a personal connection with me, but it’s always just been there existing almost as long as I’ve been around, and it’s damn good. Does it sound a bit dated? Sure. I mean, those cultural references in the lyrics aren’t anything but stuck in the late ’90s/2000 dead-on. But once Eminem gets to rapping, I never get that feeling to skip it.