It's A Shame About Ray

Evan said in an interview that Ray represents both the human race, and an imaginary friend that's disappeared.

He looked kind of high in said interview.

good song. it IS a shame about ray

Well, I was reading the Stephen King short story "The Body"(later made into the River Phoenix movie "Stand by Me), when I had an epiphany. Maybe, just maybe this name "Ray" was chosen by Evan Dando because he read this short story. In the story a group of kids go looking for the dead body of a kid their age, that they don't know, named Ray Brower.

My take is:

It's about the double meaning - it is a shame that Ray died, but also that he never took the time to know him and/or understand Ray's circumstances.

"Not too good with names" - is a response when you should know the person being discussed

"The cellar door was open" - would refer to refer to the depth of the subject matter and/or depth of his thoughts

"I'll know tomorrow not to put my feelings on display" - fact it may not be manly or masculine to be sensitive to this man's tragedy

"Putting the cobwebs back into place" - is returning to life as it was before. Not being overly concerned with such matters

I remember reading that the name of this song came from an article in a Sydney newspaper about this child named Ray who had something traumatic happen to him, and was also partly inspired by a club owner who called everyone Ray. The guy who co-wrote the lyrics with Dando is an Aussie indie pop muso named Tom Morgan, so he probably would have provided his knowledge of this story to this song and help Dando to turn it into the gem this song turned out to be. And doesn't that guitar break just ooze Nirvana.

The lyrics and music video make me think of something that hasn’t been posted here. Ray lived in a rural community where LGBT people were not common. Ray cross dressed and was very possibly trans. Being alone and misunderstood he eventually succumbed to loneliness or lack of acceptance and passed away if that’s the nicest way to put it. The lyrics saying never good with names makes me think Ray had another name and the video of a woman wearing a dress alone makes me think this could have been Ray.

Well I think Ray is definetly dead, and this guy was one of his friends. I'll take it further and say that Ray probably committed suicide. The second stanza seems to talk about not displaying his feelings. Ray suffered some sort of pain by putting himself out there. Maybe heartbreak, or maybe he was picked on a lot... anyway, the singer saw what happened to Ray, and is trying not to let the same thing happen to him.

I think Ray is dead but I don't think they were friends. I think he knew of him and what happened to him and was able to feel empathy/sympathy.

im pretty sure its "it SEEMS I'm hopin for a simple way to say" and im bloody positive its this.. "in the stone under THE DUST his name is still engraved" under the desk? didnt it seem odd as to why someone would have an engraved stone under their desk.. com'on.

Ray is some guy that he doesn't really know well but felt attached to and he was really saddened by his passing or maybe even how he passed. He was looking at some things that either belonged to Ray or had something to do with him. He knows he shouldn't have looked at them but he did and felt really sad about his passing. He also knows that nobody should know his feelings about Ray and should probably keep it to himself. Even though he felt bad for Ray, and since all things come to an end, he had to go.