I haven’t posted about The Replacements yet, mostly for fear of sounding like a hardcore fan (which I consider myself). But with numerous posts about Julians and Avenged Sevenfolds, I believe I owe myself one indulgence. The Replacements was mostly a vehicle (especially in their later days) for Paul Westerberg, an amazing singer and songwriter that never got the recognition he deserved. He’s not as (cough cough) “hot” as some other musicians are (his nose is kinda big) but that hardly matters, as his voice has all the emotion that matters. Of course, a musician is nothing without their band, and boy is this “backing band” talented. There was Bob Stinson (sadly deceased) the wild, drugged out (actually, all of them were addicts) lead guitarist, Tommy Stinson, (Bob’s younger brother, now part of “New Guns N’ Roses”) who played the bass, and was the only member to stick with Paul until the very end, and Chris Mars, the drummer (ummm yeah, he’s the drummer, and he’s very good too). All together, The Replacements, were in essence, a bunch of rejects. They made fun of everything mainstream, and treated almost everything as a joke (three letters: SNL). They often showed up to gigs drunk and played sloppy covers of popular artists’ hit songs.
Their origins lay in Minneapolis, where the hardcore punk scene was. They first record was Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash (the only record I don’t have, ironically), and Tommy was so young he had to drop out of high school to tour with them! After that came the EP Stink (with the excellent ballad “Go”) and the album Hootenanny, (“Color Me Impressed,” “Take Me Down To The Hospital,” and “Mr. Whirly”) which garnered the band more attention.
If you ask me, or most other Replacement fans (I don’t know any, but still), the Mats (abbreviation) hit their peak with the next three records. Let It Be (named after the Beatles album) is pretty much a soundtrack for the ‘80s, with heartfelt ballads, balls-to-the-wall rock songs, a KISS cover, and a couple of jokes. Some of my favorites include “Favorite Thing” a catchy punk love tune with unintelligible lyrics (even by my standards) that don’t really make sense even when you know what they are. There’s “Sixteen Blue,” a beautiful ballad with lots of great little guitar fills. And of course there’s “Gary’s Got A Boner,” which really needs no explanation (that’s seriously the title of the song). Aside from the great ballads that distinguish the album, this is the one album that demonstrates Bob’s guitar playing the best. And yes, in the picture below, Bob is wearing a skirt.
Tim is simply one of my favorite albums. Ever. Produced by Tommy Erdelyi (a.k.a. Tommy Ramone), the production is a bit tame compared to their earlier records (like Let It Be, which has a awesome raw lo-fi sound) but that hardly matters, since the songwriting by Westerberg is amazing, mostly about people struggling to find their place in a society that doesn’t want them (the first song, the poppy “Hold My Life” has a subtle suicide theme). It was also the last record to feature Bob Stinson, who was kicked out of the band soon after the tour. After he left, the band was never the same. They were less reckless, more tame. But during their time during Tim, they kicked out a bunch of great songs, including “Bastards Of Young,” their most famous tune, a call to arms for unsatisfied teens everywhere (that actually knew of them). There’s “Waitress In The Sky,” the best country song I have ever heard, and “Kiss Me On The Bus,” a lighthearted tune that manages to be sappy without being corny (good sappy, not bad, if that makes sense). The two penultimate songs on the album, “Little Mascara” and “Left Of The Dial” have some of the (in my opinion) best lyrics I’ve ever heard. I mean, they’re both love songs and all, but the song theselves are just great, it’s kind of hard to describe. Other people probably don’t like these songs that much, but this is just me. Seriously, how can you beat
Pretty girl keep growin’ up, playin’ make-up, wearin’ guitar
(Clever wordplay. I like) or
For the moon you keep shootin’
Throw your rope up in the air
For the kids you stay together
You nap ‘em and you slap ‘em in a highchair
So yeah. That’s Tim for ya.
Pleased To Meet Me is really the last real Mats record. After this, it seemed like they attempted to reach mainstream success with Don’t Tell A Soul, which really isn’t good at all (except for “Achin’ To Be”). And All Shook Down is practically a Westerberg solo record (not bad, but not The Replacements). But PTMM is great. The production is very ‘80s, and the songs are kind of more American rock n’ roll without being sellout-ish. “I.O.U.” is probably the best song on it (the album is worth buying for the little guitar fill after Westerberg sings “Please be on your honor”) but it would have been wilder if Bob was still in the band. Everything would have. Aside from “I.O.U.”, there’s “Alex Chilton” with the amazing guitar solo, and “Red Red Wine.”
Remember the SNL thing I mentioned? Well, you’re not going to find the performance on YouTube anywhere (they’ve all been taken out). But they are on Dailymotion. So here are the infamous SNL performances, which the Mats were banned from immediately after the show. Why? They were very drunk and shouted profanities into the mike during and inbetween the songs. It’s been edited out of the videos, but before the solo in “Bastards of Young”, you can see where. They also played “Kiss Me On The Bus, where everybody switched clothes. And unbelievably, they hit every single note correctly. Also, if you look closely at the end of the second video, you can see that The Replacements are visibly shunned by the rest of the cast, and Bob (on the right) making weird hand gestures.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6yi30_what-a-mess_music
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6yi55_that-s-where-we-re-riding_music
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