The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

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Their stuff hasn't aged well compared to some other bands.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 25 August 2005 00:14 (eighteen years ago) link

everything til Tim i really like. i don't get the love for that album, it's really bland to my ears.

― latebloomer's rectal mocha latte (latebloomer), Thursday, 25 August 2005 00:38 (eighteen years ago) link

i wonder if Tim could be in need of a major remix/overhaul. because i agree with most of the posts above saying that the production can be pretty strange and off-putting. but the Tim version of can't hardly wait on that 90s Sire comp sounds fantastic. maybe the mix is fixable? great songs, for the most part...

― tylerw, Thursday, 25 August 2005 02:45 (eighteen years ago) link

"You're mine, if you want toooooo . . . "

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 25 August 2005 08:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Pretty good through Tim.
Useless after that. Someday maybe somebody will explain to me why "I Will Dare" (which isn't even very catchy!) is considered a great song. But it definitely hasn't happened yet.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 12:28 (eighteen years ago) link

And sorry, Sterl, but this: "If you don't love the 'mats, you never loved rock and roll. " is just plain silly. They were a pretty decent pop-punk band, then a pretty decent powerpop band, then not. But there were scores of better rock and roll bands in the '80s.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 12:30 (eighteen years ago) link

(Actually, I haven't played Tim for years, though -- don't' even still own a copy; have the first records on CD now though -- so maybe J.D. is right about it up above. I definitely liked it at the time {put it in my top ten, even}, but even Let It Be when I put it on a couple months ago was a lot more lackluster and less energetic than I remembered. So it's possible they were wilting even by then, or possibly even by Hootenany. I'm inclined now to think that Sorry Ma may have actually been their best album, back when people were hyperbolically comparing them to Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers and stuff.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 12:41 (eighteen years ago) link

the first FOUR records on CD, I meant.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 12:42 (eighteen years ago) link

xhuxk, i wrote that like five years ago. i still think i love the mats, but i haven't actually listened to them in some time now.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 25 August 2005 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm inclined now to think that Sorry Ma may have actually been their best album

which is why i nominated them on the "bands that have declined with each and every album" thread, or whatever that thread was.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 25 August 2005 15:35 (eighteen years ago) link

I probably said this before (upthread, possibly) but the re-issues of the first albums sound like shit. We can only hope that this fall's revisions are much improved.

Sorry Ma isn't that great, even in the context of when it came out. A handful of very good songs, but Hootenanny's handful of good songs are actually great.

Pleased To Meet Me is great, it's the apex of Paul's career as far as consistency in writing goes (though I'll never think that the horns on "Can't Hardly Wait" sound good.)

BTW--who knows the release date on the expanded reissues?

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 25 August 2005 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I still adore "Within Your Reach"; to date that's the only Replacements song that I "get".

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

fuck school is about how they don't really like school that much.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:17 (eighteen years ago) link

"Johnny's Gonna Die" is a message to Johnny Thunders that his way of life was killing him.

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks guys!

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Your welcome, Dan. Oh, and one more thing: "Customer" is about checking out the checkout girl.

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:34 (eighteen years ago) link

And you're welcome to enjoy my typos as well.

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Anyone want to parse "God Damn Job"?

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Sure. It's the opposite of a "Grebt Job."

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:38 (eighteen years ago) link

The album "All Shook Down" is about how Paul Westerberg couldn't write good songs anymore.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:39 (eighteen years ago) link

"BENT OUT OF SHAPE", MATT. "BENT OUT OF SHAPE."

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:46 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, there's a few good 'uns on that but man i listened to that a year ago and was shocked at how bad it was....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah, that album's amazingly weak, but it has a few good tunes on it. Personally I like "Someone Take the Wheel". "Sadly Beautiful" (aside from the horrible title) is also actually quite pretty.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 25 August 2005 17:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks to that album, I can't get off an airplane without humming "One Wink at a Time".

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 25 August 2005 18:18 (eighteen years ago) link

"tommy gets his tonsils out" APPEARS to be about tommy getting his tonsils out. but it isn't really. it's really about the state of health care in the u.s. circa 1984.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 25 August 2005 18:53 (eighteen years ago) link

"seen yr video," on the other hand, IS about the fact that they've seen yr video. furthermore, they are not impressed.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 25 August 2005 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Did Gary actually HAVE a boner or was it merely conceptual?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 25 August 2005 18:56 (eighteen years ago) link

it works on multiple levels

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link

You would say that you pervert.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:01 (eighteen years ago) link

DP for the brane. (The Kiss cover was Reverse Anal Cowgirl for the brane.)

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Ned Raggett & The Conceptual Boners

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:04 (eighteen years ago) link

"Giving it to you abstractly"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Research suggests that "Little Mascara" has only been mentioned once on this thread, which is not nearly enough.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link

i think replacements fans have always been troubled by the mixed message of that one, since tommy tended to wear a lot of mascara, never just a little.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Tommy's prettiness was underexploited.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link

(Tommy signed my vinyl copy of Let It Be by drawing a big circle around the picture of Bob on the bag and writing "50 lb. slime" under it)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:12 (eighteen years ago) link

(picture of Bob on the back, that is)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:13 (eighteen years ago) link

i might have told this story before, but apparently todd trainer (shellac/rifle sport) and flour (RS) beat the crap out of tommy behind the CC club.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:17 (eighteen years ago) link

beating up tommy would be easy. Those guys should have punched Albini while they were at it.

I remember the first time I was in the CC and how I'd heard the juke was so kickass and how it was this legendary joint and but I was only there because I was silly drunk and it was 1989 and I was still pretending that the Replacements mattered. Totally a let down, just like OarFolk. They say never meet your heroes because you'll only be disappointed.

The thing about the Mats is that their legend is way better than the reality, which is kinda like above--it's better to experience them when you're young/loaded, and then just not listen to them 15 years (or fuck, 20) after the fact because you will realize that your heroes were not that good. As in, every other band currently in my rearview mirror. They only sound good when I drop all my pretensions and enjoy the salve of nostalgia.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link

just like OarFolk

Ah, this store. Which I only know about through MST3K of course.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:38 (eighteen years ago) link

"it's better to experience them when you're young/loaded, and then just not listen to them 15 years (or fuck, 20) after the fact because you will realize that your heroes were not that good. As in, every other band currently in my rearview mirror. They only sound good when I drop all my pretensions and enjoy the salve of nostalgia. "

eh, that may be true for you, but not for me. When I go back to those records I'm still pretty taken with the songwriting and weirdo guitar playing. and the lyrics are sharp, funny, and economical - I don't invest the stuff with the same emotional intensity I did as a teenager, but it isn't just nostalgia that makes me appreciate a completely perfect tune like "If Only You Were Lonely".

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:42 (eighteen years ago) link

You know, it occurs to me that Dan Perry hates a band that has a song called "Gary's Got a Boner." This does not seem right to me.

― J (Jay), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:48 (eighteen years ago) link

just because they are not as good as I'd remembered them to be doesn't mean that I love them less or think that they are not the best band, like, evah.

IOYWL is so completely awesome. I was listening to it JUST LAST NIGHT.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 25 August 2005 19:56 (eighteen years ago) link

oarfolk is called treehouse now.

i like the cc club, but it's weird now that there's no smoking in mpls...smells funny.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:00 (eighteen years ago) link

That's just the fresh air.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link

actually, it's more like:

Smoking room at a decrepit Motel 6+deep fryer+bathroom cleaner=yum!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 25 August 2005 20:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Ha, rockism.

From my First Avenue oral history:

Peter Jesperson, Replacements manager: We did a show in the Entry and I remember I tried to put something on the flier that said "rock 'n' roll" and [Paul] Westerberg got pissed at me and said, "We ain't no rock 'n' roll band." I was like, What do you mean you're not a rock 'n' roll band? Of course you are. I finally convinced him to let me use "low-class rock." That was acceptable.

― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 25 August 2005 22:01 (eighteen years ago) link

You know, it occurs to me that Dan Perry hates a band that has a song called "Gary's Got a Boner." This does not seem right to me.

I don't want to be TOO predicktable!

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Thursday, 25 August 2005 22:04 (eighteen years ago) link

I really, really hated the Replacements when every fuckin critic in the country was sucking their dicks all day. Especially the sort of "if you don't get it, you don't love ROCK AND ROLL, MAAAN" bullshit - at the time I was like, fuck you, the Birthday Party can out-rock the Replacements without breaking a fuckin sweat. The only thing was the "Bastards of Young" chorus - something about it really stuck with me. Six or seven months ago I bought the All For Nothing comp and I have to say that I was wrong about the Replacements. Some of my objections still hold - the production style is pointlessly grandiose for my tastes; sounds like somebody tryin' to make a STATEMENT, fuck that - but the songs, esepcially the really clever chord progressions vs the melodies which could be sung a lot better but at the same time discovering that there's a really pretty melody underneath the rasp gets to be a fun habit: they're pretty damned good. Really enjoying this band I used to completely loathe.

― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Saturday, 27 August 2005 16:06 (eighteen years ago) link

especially the way Westerberg is always teasing you by threatening to have his progression land on the tonic but not getting there - (see "All Shook Down" for a really obvious example) - really wistful effect that has, quite unusual for openly ROCK progressions - Bacharach-like to my ears

but I do think there's so much 80's rock politics caught up in talking about the Replacements that it's hard to hear them with clean ears

― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Saturday, 27 August 2005 16:12 (eighteen years ago) link

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