Artist of the Week 8/9/2010 The Replacements
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:29 pm
I’ve posted many times about how I got lost in a jam band hell for several years and strayed from my musical roots. I was looking for something in that music, something I felt in the eighties, continued with into the early nineties but lost about the time I closed my record stores. I still listened to good music, but the hunger was gone and, aside for a few bands, there was very little magic in the jam scene. Fast forward to 2003 a friend’s daughter asked me to judge a high school battle of the bands. A local radio station covered the event and interviewed those of us serving as judges. When asked my favorite band I replied, without hesitation, The Replacements. Friends who hadn’t known me long were surprised I didn’t say The Grateful Dead or possibly Widespread Panic but no, it was unquestionably The Replacements. I went home that night and put on Let it Be for the first time in a while and remembered who I was. Jam band hell was over. Less than a year later I discovered DBT and started on a brand new musical journey and found that elusive magic in dozens of bands that were new to me much like I had twenty years before.
In 1983 I was in college in central Illinois and going home to the Chicago area and playing gigs with my band on weekends. I was already a huge fan of rock & roll, live shows and had a huge record collection, but hadn’t heard much of the newly emerging independent record scene. I fell into a group of like minded artistic types at school who were taking care of that for me though, introducing me to new bands at a dizzying rate. By the time I heard the ‘Mats I had already been exposed to R.E.M., Husker Du, Black Flag, X and others. It seemed I heard something new nearly every night. One Friday night my buddy Marty and I had plans to head out to the bars when he showed up with an album that he said I had to listen to first so we fired up a pipe, opened a beer and put it on. The first couple of tunes sounded like fairly generic punk fare but then came Color Me Impressed:
Everybody at your party
They don't look depressed
Everybody dressin' funny
Color me impressed
Stayin' out late tonight
Won't be gettin' any sleep
Givin' out their word
Cuz that's all that they won't keep
Put the party on the mirror
Oh shit, pass the bill to Chris
Intoxicated lover ending our french kiss
Can you stand me on my feet?
(Everybody) (many x)
Everybody at your party
They don't look depressed
And everybody's dressin' funny
Color me impressed
Color me impressed
Now we were talking! This was new, fresh and after attending my share of mindless parties thrown by mindless folks I felt the singer was reading my mind. “What the fuck was that?” I asked Marty. “That” he replied “Is The Replacements and the album is Hootenanny. They’re from Minneapolis. The singer is Paul Westerberg. You’re welcome.”
Needless to say my mind was blown. I went out the next day and bought Hootenanny, The Replacements Stink and their debut, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out the Trash. I could tell immediately there was an evolution going on in their music as they really started as a fairly generic hardcore band but were clearly becoming something else. The band was pure fury and rage with Chris Mars banging the drums like his life depended on it, Tommy Stinson laying down basic but thick bass lines and guitarist Bob Stinson was flailing away on his six string. The heart of the band, however, was clearly Paul Westerberg. I was pretty sure he had a masterpiece or two in him. About a year later, on October 2 1984 the first of these, Let it Be, was released.
Let it Be was a monster right from the start. Never mind the balls it took for a barely heard of indie band to name a record that. Sure there were some punk songs but the focus was now squarely on the songwriting as shown in Androgynous, Sixteen Blue, Answering Machine and the record’s anthemic master stroke, Unsatisfied. That song in particular spoke to the angst so many of us felt back then. It hit that spot in me that didn’t quite belong in Ronald Reagan’s America. It was a call to those that didn’t quite belong. It was an anthem for a generation, it said what many of us felt and it did it with a kick ass guitar line.
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me that I'm satisfied
Was you satisfied?
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me that I'm satisfied
Hey, are you satisfied?
And it goes so slowly on
Everything I've ever wanted
Tell me what's wrong
Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfied
Were you satisfied?
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me I'm satisfied
And now are you satisfied?
Everything goes
Well, anything goes all of the time
Everything you dream of
Is right in front of you
And everything is a lie (or) And liberty is a lie
Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfed
Look me in the eye
Unsatisfied
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so dissatisfied
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so unsatisfied
Well, I'm-a
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so dissatis,dissattis...
I'm so
(here's Paul doing it in 1991)
Needless to say I was hooked but good. My friends and I drove to college towns around the Midwest hoping to catch this magic. Now this was the hard part. The magic wasn’t always there. The ‘Mats were a drunken angry lot and often seemed just as angry at their fans as they were at the world. At one show they played in their boxers and refused to play anything but hardcore versions of Black Sabbath tunes. It was funny, but it was shit. But then there were the other nights. The nights where it all came through on stage, the nights where the magic happened. We all felt that this was it, the band that was going to rule the world. They influenced me so much that I actually got kicked out of my own band when my bandmates didn’t quite get where I was coming from and couldn’t figure out my new, Westerberg influenced, songs.
Not long after Let it Be came out the band was signed by Sire records. The boys were now on a major label. That major label debut came in September 1985 in the form of the simply titled Tim. The album was produced by Tommy Erdyeli aka Tommy Ramone and was, if possible, even better than it’s predecessor. The punk was nearly gone now, but they still rocked hard with Hold My Life, Kiss Me On The Bus and others. It also had a softer side with Swingin’ Party and the albums best track, the sorrowful Here Comes A Regular which I always took to be the ragged sister of the theme to the sitcom Cheers. Where that song talked about a place where everyone knows your name, the Replacements sang about taking your place in back with the loudmouths. Once again not all of us belonged in Reagan’s America. Some of us belonged face down in a bar waiting for last call.
Almost immediately after Tim was released, guitarist Bob Stinson was fired from the band. Stinson’s drug and alcohol use had made him a liability and it was pretty clear as well that he and Paul were no longer on the same page. The resilient ‘Mats didn’t quit though and soon recorded their next album as a three piece with legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson. On June 17, 1987 Pleased to Meet me was released. The evolution continued and without Bob Stinson there were more ballads and pop songs than ever. Dickinson had produced one of Westerberg’s favorite bands with Big Star and it was only natural to pay homage to that with the classic Alex Chilton. The album also contained a bit of stylistic stretching with Nightclub Jitters, the acoustic ballad Skyway and the “should have been a hit“ single, Can‘t Hardly Wait which featured the Memphis Horns. Do lines get much better than:
Jesus rides beside me, he never buys any smokes…
Yeah I don’t think so.
None of us knew it then but Pleased To Meet Me was the last of the great records from the boys. To support the record the band became a four piece again with Slim Dunlop taking over the lead guitar slot. If anything they sounded better live than ever before. Gone were the drunk fests and nakedness but they were still angry and they still didn’t seem to give a damn about the fans. Those of us that got it didn’t care about that though, but it certainly didn’t help them expand the fan base.
The ‘Mats soldiered on and released two more albums, Don’t Tell a Soul and All Shook Down (actually a Westerberg solo record that the label wouldn’t release as such) eventually disbanding at a show I attended on July 4th 1991 in Chicago’s Grant Park with the band handing off their instruments to the roadies one by one until they had all left he stage for the last time. While the last two albums are not throwaways by any stretch, it was really over with Pleased To Meet Me. Hootenanny announced something great was coming and the trilogy that followed proved it. The Replacements were one of those bands, like their beloved Big Star, that influenced a whole new generation of artists. Nirvana’s breakthrough was even named for a ‘Mats tune (Never Mind). Others took the cue as well from the crassly commercial (Goo Goo Dolls) to the underappreciated (Slobberbone) and even our very own Drive-By Truckers.
So today when someone asks me who my favorite band is I’m sure they would expect me to say DBT, but I think Patterson Hood himself might agree, it’s always been the Replacements.
In 1983 I was in college in central Illinois and going home to the Chicago area and playing gigs with my band on weekends. I was already a huge fan of rock & roll, live shows and had a huge record collection, but hadn’t heard much of the newly emerging independent record scene. I fell into a group of like minded artistic types at school who were taking care of that for me though, introducing me to new bands at a dizzying rate. By the time I heard the ‘Mats I had already been exposed to R.E.M., Husker Du, Black Flag, X and others. It seemed I heard something new nearly every night. One Friday night my buddy Marty and I had plans to head out to the bars when he showed up with an album that he said I had to listen to first so we fired up a pipe, opened a beer and put it on. The first couple of tunes sounded like fairly generic punk fare but then came Color Me Impressed:
Everybody at your party
They don't look depressed
Everybody dressin' funny
Color me impressed
Stayin' out late tonight
Won't be gettin' any sleep
Givin' out their word
Cuz that's all that they won't keep
Put the party on the mirror
Oh shit, pass the bill to Chris
Intoxicated lover ending our french kiss
Can you stand me on my feet?
(Everybody) (many x)
Everybody at your party
They don't look depressed
And everybody's dressin' funny
Color me impressed
Color me impressed
Now we were talking! This was new, fresh and after attending my share of mindless parties thrown by mindless folks I felt the singer was reading my mind. “What the fuck was that?” I asked Marty. “That” he replied “Is The Replacements and the album is Hootenanny. They’re from Minneapolis. The singer is Paul Westerberg. You’re welcome.”
Needless to say my mind was blown. I went out the next day and bought Hootenanny, The Replacements Stink and their debut, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out the Trash. I could tell immediately there was an evolution going on in their music as they really started as a fairly generic hardcore band but were clearly becoming something else. The band was pure fury and rage with Chris Mars banging the drums like his life depended on it, Tommy Stinson laying down basic but thick bass lines and guitarist Bob Stinson was flailing away on his six string. The heart of the band, however, was clearly Paul Westerberg. I was pretty sure he had a masterpiece or two in him. About a year later, on October 2 1984 the first of these, Let it Be, was released.
Let it Be was a monster right from the start. Never mind the balls it took for a barely heard of indie band to name a record that. Sure there were some punk songs but the focus was now squarely on the songwriting as shown in Androgynous, Sixteen Blue, Answering Machine and the record’s anthemic master stroke, Unsatisfied. That song in particular spoke to the angst so many of us felt back then. It hit that spot in me that didn’t quite belong in Ronald Reagan’s America. It was a call to those that didn’t quite belong. It was an anthem for a generation, it said what many of us felt and it did it with a kick ass guitar line.
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me that I'm satisfied
Was you satisfied?
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me that I'm satisfied
Hey, are you satisfied?
And it goes so slowly on
Everything I've ever wanted
Tell me what's wrong
Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfied
Were you satisfied?
Look me in the eye
Then, tell me I'm satisfied
And now are you satisfied?
Everything goes
Well, anything goes all of the time
Everything you dream of
Is right in front of you
And everything is a lie (or) And liberty is a lie
Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfed
Look me in the eye
Unsatisfied
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so dissatisfied
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so unsatisfied
Well, I'm-a
I'm so, I'm so unsatisfied
I'm so dissatis,dissattis...
I'm so
(here's Paul doing it in 1991)
Needless to say I was hooked but good. My friends and I drove to college towns around the Midwest hoping to catch this magic. Now this was the hard part. The magic wasn’t always there. The ‘Mats were a drunken angry lot and often seemed just as angry at their fans as they were at the world. At one show they played in their boxers and refused to play anything but hardcore versions of Black Sabbath tunes. It was funny, but it was shit. But then there were the other nights. The nights where it all came through on stage, the nights where the magic happened. We all felt that this was it, the band that was going to rule the world. They influenced me so much that I actually got kicked out of my own band when my bandmates didn’t quite get where I was coming from and couldn’t figure out my new, Westerberg influenced, songs.
Not long after Let it Be came out the band was signed by Sire records. The boys were now on a major label. That major label debut came in September 1985 in the form of the simply titled Tim. The album was produced by Tommy Erdyeli aka Tommy Ramone and was, if possible, even better than it’s predecessor. The punk was nearly gone now, but they still rocked hard with Hold My Life, Kiss Me On The Bus and others. It also had a softer side with Swingin’ Party and the albums best track, the sorrowful Here Comes A Regular which I always took to be the ragged sister of the theme to the sitcom Cheers. Where that song talked about a place where everyone knows your name, the Replacements sang about taking your place in back with the loudmouths. Once again not all of us belonged in Reagan’s America. Some of us belonged face down in a bar waiting for last call.
Almost immediately after Tim was released, guitarist Bob Stinson was fired from the band. Stinson’s drug and alcohol use had made him a liability and it was pretty clear as well that he and Paul were no longer on the same page. The resilient ‘Mats didn’t quit though and soon recorded their next album as a three piece with legendary Memphis producer Jim Dickinson. On June 17, 1987 Pleased to Meet me was released. The evolution continued and without Bob Stinson there were more ballads and pop songs than ever. Dickinson had produced one of Westerberg’s favorite bands with Big Star and it was only natural to pay homage to that with the classic Alex Chilton. The album also contained a bit of stylistic stretching with Nightclub Jitters, the acoustic ballad Skyway and the “should have been a hit“ single, Can‘t Hardly Wait which featured the Memphis Horns. Do lines get much better than:
Jesus rides beside me, he never buys any smokes…
Yeah I don’t think so.
None of us knew it then but Pleased To Meet Me was the last of the great records from the boys. To support the record the band became a four piece again with Slim Dunlop taking over the lead guitar slot. If anything they sounded better live than ever before. Gone were the drunk fests and nakedness but they were still angry and they still didn’t seem to give a damn about the fans. Those of us that got it didn’t care about that though, but it certainly didn’t help them expand the fan base.
The ‘Mats soldiered on and released two more albums, Don’t Tell a Soul and All Shook Down (actually a Westerberg solo record that the label wouldn’t release as such) eventually disbanding at a show I attended on July 4th 1991 in Chicago’s Grant Park with the band handing off their instruments to the roadies one by one until they had all left he stage for the last time. While the last two albums are not throwaways by any stretch, it was really over with Pleased To Meet Me. Hootenanny announced something great was coming and the trilogy that followed proved it. The Replacements were one of those bands, like their beloved Big Star, that influenced a whole new generation of artists. Nirvana’s breakthrough was even named for a ‘Mats tune (Never Mind). Others took the cue as well from the crassly commercial (Goo Goo Dolls) to the underappreciated (Slobberbone) and even our very own Drive-By Truckers.
So today when someone asks me who my favorite band is I’m sure they would expect me to say DBT, but I think Patterson Hood himself might agree, it’s always been the Replacements.