Range Life (song)
"Range Life" is a song by American indie rock band Pavement, the third single from their 1994 album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
Music and lyrics
Music critic Jake Kennedy of Record Collector described the song as "," and said it was "lyrically as direct as the band ever got."The song attracted attention with controversial lyrics that seemed to mock alternative rock superstars the Smashing Pumpkins and the Stone Temple Pilots; Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan expressed his displeasure in magazine interviews, while songwriter Stephen Malkmus maintained that his words had been misinterpreted and no insult was intended. Regardless, Pavement, which was due to tour for Lollapalooza in 1994, got kicked out when the Smashing Pumpkins, the headlining act, threatened to cancel their dates if Pavement performed. Pavement would eventually play Lollapalooza the next year. An early 1993 demo of the song did not feature the controversial verse; guitarist Spiral Stairs recalled in 2004 that when Malkmus first revealed these new lyrics to his bandmates at the New York City recording sessions for Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, "we almost lost our lunch from laughing so much."