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Very Best Years

I recall an instance when a fellow co-worker at Best Buy vented to me about a customer asking for a song that he a) didn't remember any of the lyrics b) didn't remember if it was a guy or a girl singing it c) didn't remember where he heard it, and d) could only hum a few bars in a non-melodic way. Well, I must admit I've had that frustration of knowing a song merely by a guitar or piano line or just a drum fill. Still, asking someone for something specific while only telling the vaguest of traits doesn't go very far. And that's not just with music.

In a particular case of my own, ever since I saw this video on Beavis and Butt-head, I wondered who sang it. The only things I remembered were the heavy accents on every beat of the verse, in addition to a distinct climbing guitar riff (doubled with the vocal) leading into the chorus. All I remembered from the video was the band playing in what looked like a garden, and they were being filmed on a 360 dolly track. That's all I remembered.

Well, once again blogger friend Jeff Giles (former owner of jefitoblog and currently of Popdose) came to the rescue and didn't even know it. A recent posting of the long-out-of-print-and-highly-sought-after sole album by the Grays led me to realize it was their video for "Very Best Years." I must say, things were double-sweet that this video was from the Grays.

Before I ever heard it, I heard about how the Grays' Ro Sham Bo was one of the greatest long-lost power pop records from the Nineties. If anything, the reason why was because Jellyfish's Jason Falkner and Jon Brion (yes, the Jon Brion) were in the band. That alone had to be great, right? For me, it was a record that I wanted to track down in some form. Having somebody like Jeff post stuff from the Nineties that is more for the Big Takeover crowd than the Stereogum crowd is a reason why I reason Popdose everyday.

Now, let's see if I can track down that after-school special I saw in health class senior year where a band that looked a little like Dishwalla played at a party gone wrong.

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