“Range Life” by Pavement

"Range Life" is the lazy, countrified back porch of Pavement's 1994 album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and the third single pulled from it. Stephen Malkmus wrote every word and note, Bryce Goggin mixed it and sits in on piano, and it ambles like it has nowhere to be. Record Collector's Jake Kennedy heard it as about as plainspoken as Pavement ever got.

An early 1993 demo lacked the verse that caused all the trouble; when Malkmus sprang it at the New York sessions, Spiral Stairs recalled, the band nearly lost their lunch laughing. The verse seemed to take a jab at the Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots. Billy Corgan objected in magazine interviews, Malkmus said he had been misread and meant no insult, and Pavement were dropped from the 1994 Lollapalooza bill after the headlining Pumpkins threatened to pull out; they played the festival the following year.

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