Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Dollar Bill (1991)
When it comes to the bands of the Seattle scene of the early '90s, the Screaming Trees were always underrated. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains got all the press, Mudhoney had the street cred, but the Trees were definitely under the radar.
Formed in 1987 in Ellensburg, WA, by Mark Lanegan (vocals), brothers Van (bass) and Gary Lee Conner (guitar) and Mark Pickerel (drums), the band initially had a psychedelic rock sound but gradually evolved into a '70s hard rock act. The x-factor was Lanegan, who brought a world-weary vibe to the band's muscular sound. After releasing their debut album on Velvetone Records, the Trees signed to SST for their next three, gradually building up a following. They signed with major label Epic in 1990, releasing Uncle Anesthesia in 1991.
Barrett Martin replaced Pickerel on drums before the recording of 1992's Sweet Oblivion. When the movie Singles came out in the fall of '92, the soundtrack included "Nearly Lost You" by the Trees. The soundtrack was actually released three months in advance of the movie and was a huge hit, thanks to the success of the Seattle scene and the fact that a bunch of those bands (Soundgarden, AIC, Pearl Jam) were on the soundtrack. "Nearly Lost You" was a big rock radio and MTV hit, but the soundtrack got all the sales related to that; when Sweet Oblivion came out in September, it sold 300,000 copies, but didn't become the success that the other Seattle acts enjoyed.
"Nearly Lost You" got all the attention, but there were plenty of other great songs on the album. "Dollar Bill" features Lanegan at his raggedy best.
"Torn like an old dollar bill/Girl let them say what they will/That no one should hurt you/And that's all I seem to do/That no one should desert you/And that's all I seem to do/I got to tell you, goodbye mama/We've taken this too far/Been trying to tell you what's going on/Trying to make it easy on you/Trying to make it better/Make it easier on you/It's all I came to do/It's all I came to do."
This didn't come as a surprise to anyone who followed Lanegan's solo career, which began in 1990 with the release of The Winding Sheet on Sub Pop. The album is known for having guests like Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, but it's Lanegan's gravelly vocals that really stand out. It's stripped-down blues and was an inspiration for Nirvana's Unplugged show.
"Now I'm down in the light/And I must be dreaming it/'Cause I see clearly, I see angels here/Bringing something to me, Mother Mercy/I told a lie, I didn't mean it/Goodbye mama, I've taken this too far/Been gone a while/Been gone a long way, oh yeah."
"Dollar Bill" hit #28 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart and #40 on the Mainstream Rock chart, while getting up to #52 on the U.K. Singles Chart.
I saw the Trees in November 1992 at the late lamented Channel club in Boston, opening a show for Alice in Chains before AIC really blew up. Lanegan stood statue-still on stage, gripping the mic stand while the Conner brothers, who are both large men, jumped and rolled around behind him.
The Trees didn't release another album until 1996's Dust, with delays caused by Lanegan's drug problem and tensions between band members (namely between Lanegan and the Conner brothers). Dust was another solid album, but it didn't match the success of Sweet Oblivion. After touring (with Josh Homme of Kyuss as an extra guitarist), the Trees tried to get back in the studio but was unable to finish an album and split up in 2000. The results of their aborted sessions were released in 2011 as Last Words: The Final Recordings.
Lanegan continued with his solo career, releasing another 11 excellent solo albums and playing key roles in Queens of the Stone Age, the Twilight Singers and the Gutter Twins (the latter two with Greg Dulli). He also collaborated with many artists, including Isobel Campbell, Unkle, Duke Garwood and Slash. He was able to kick his drug habit, which he wrote about in harrowing detail in his autobiography Sing Backwards and Weep. He survived a near-death scare after catching COVID-19 but died in 2022 at the age of 57. No cause of death was released.
Van Conner died in 2023 at age 55. The official cause was pneumonia, but he had fallen into a coma after stomach surgery and then contracted COVID.
The Screaming Trees never really got their due, but dammit, they should have.
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