The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

Saul Westerfield, a great guitarist.

i like unsatisfied, ans machine, alex chltn, skyway and especially if only u were lonely just fine fine fine but they were not not not the replacements' best moments. they were some good paul late-night drunken sad moments. i liked my placemats drunken happy and being an actual band. i'm in trouble, run it, favorite thing and IOU blow all those songs out of the lake. for starters.

I think "I Will Dare" is my quintessential 'Mats tune. Literate and cheeky lyrics with such a lack of faith in their own abilities that a hired gun is brought in on guitar. Too self-effacing to see their own majesty or even believe it's possible. He can't even take the lead in his own lyrics - If you will dare, I will dare.

srsly imo their best BAND moment is easily unsatisfied, best westerfield moment is answering machine

my wife heard me listening to unsatisfied yesterday and said "wow, that's good! what is that song?"

"Favorite Thing" will always be my favorite Mats song.

favorite thing or iou or i won't are prob my ~faves~

"left of the dial" is missing from the list of best songs imo

everybody's seen that full set from 81 on youtube, right? soooo fuckin good, quality ridic amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_W4csFiQx8

yeah that's like one of the greatest thing on all of youtube. and that song in particular is like MY JAM every once in a while (i.e. whenever i've been fucked up jobless)

also now i think of those youtubes every time i'm at the 7th st.

Wow, thanks Hoos!

53 views ?

They've been up on the TwinTone site for years and years. I wish they'd just put it out for suckers like me to buy.

That is amazing footage. What's doubly cool is how timeless they sound. It's almost 30 years old and sounds like it could have come out last week.

wowwwwwwwwwwwww just seeing this now for the first time, thanking u!

is there a youtube playlist for this??

nahh you just gotta follow dude's trail but he has the whole set on his channel on yt

http://www.youtube.com/user/chriss999

Another guy named SquirrelBait also posted them and somebody said they were on the Twin Tone website.

Thanks.

Friend posted this on FB tonight. (Was there really a Replacements/3 o'Clock/R.E.M. triple bill? 11th-grade me would have died.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWwJNm7q2cs&feature=player_embedded

something about 1986 d-bags prancing about brings out the modulation and chorus that's all over the guitar.

^^ More compelling evidence of why "Bastards of Young" was such a great video.

(Was there really a Replacements/3 o'Clock/R.E.M. triple bill? 11th-grade me would have died.)

Yeah, and here's a review of the show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_vRF_prXJs

(So many great clips on their yt channel -- one live one of scratch acid from 1985)

I found a remaindered copy of their Rhino best-of for $2.50 this afternoon. I think I have most everything on there--possibly even everything--but obviously I couldn't pass it up. I love compilations where you get different labels co-operating. Anyway, my only quibbles with the choices would be the omission of "Johnny's Gonna Die," "Go," and "Hayday." Looks like they got everything else that I love. Maybe "Favorite Thing" should be on there too.

they only had one decent song ("Within Your Reach"), and that relied on a drum machine!

o_O @ 9 years ago

Maybe "Favorite Thing" should be on there too

yeah, that one's great

Check out 41 across in Monday's NY Times crossword

Not sure I can access that...I'm going to guess "Stinson," "Hootenanny," or "unkempt."

That quote from nine years ago is pretty funny--I know the Replacements are always the first band I think of when I think of drum machines. Also found this from Chuck six years ago: "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." If someone can goad Chuck to get on here and start arguing with me about the Replacements, it'll be just like one of those Whiney-Deej things, but for old people, and with better manners.

would goad

they only had one decent song ("Within Your Reach"), and that relied on a drum machine!

o_O @ 9 years ago

DTP (Dan Perry) and his goth new wave tastes are not to be trusted!

hey btw i have everything let it be & after, should i get 'sorry ma' & 'hootenany' & 'suck' or just one or a few of those or

Liz Phair (!) said that anyone who's heard "Let It Be" has ended up LIVING the album for about a year afterward.

boom

I don't have their final album, but, for me, everything else is worth owning to one degree or another--there are great songs on every one of them, even Don't Tell a Soul. They vary in overall quality, of course. Of the three you mention, I'd go with Hootenany. I've been listening to this compilation for the past hour and just loving it. I did think of a couple more songs I wish were on there: "Left of the Dial" and "Rock 'n' Roll Ghost." I think they probably deserve a double-album compilation, although a double wouldn't be as consistently great as this one is.

As a fan of a couple of Replacements albums, I was also struck by the demurrals when I joined ILM seven years ago -- I assumed "everyone" liked them. I've evolved enough that I understand those demurrals now. These days I'm apt to question myself whenever I reach for the the-sloppiness-is-part-of-the-charm line of defense, for any band.

The Phair quote is excellent. I spent a certain percentage of 1984 stumbling home drunk and throwing on "I Will Dare." It's miraculous that my copy's still in excellent shape--record collectors make for the most fastidious drunks.

I've never thought the Replacements needed the sloppiness-is-part-of-the-charm defense. I mean, I guess that's there a little bit of that in why I love "I Will Dare," but one thing that makes this compilation so great for me is that it leaves out the "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out"/"Gary's Got a Boner" side of the band--I didn't like that stuff at the time, and have even less use for it today.

"I guess that there's a little bit..." (Sloppiness is part of my charm.)

"Left of the Dial" is on there--sorry, I must have briefly lost consciousness. This compilation gets better by the second.

I must have briefly lost consciousness.

you've been listening to let it be, haven't u

I feel like DTAS is sorely underrated. It's not a great Mats record, outside of "I Won't," but it's a damn fine late 80s pop/rock record!

I'm a huge fan of everything starting with "Let It Be" but I made a little comp of my favorite stuff from the thrashy early stuff:

From "Sorry Ma":
1. Takin' A Ride
2. Customer
3. Otto
4. I Bought A Headache
5. Johnny's Gonna Die
6. Shiftless When Idle
7. More Cigarettes
8. Don't Ask Why
9. Raised In The City

From "Stink":
10. Fuck School
11. God Damn Job
12. Dope Smokin' Moron
13. Go

From "Hootenanny":
14. Color Me Impressed
15. Within Your Reach
16. Treatment Bound

Since I made this I bought the expanded "Hootenanny" reissue and have warmed up to it much more, but those 3 tracks above are far and away the stand-outs for me.

hey btw i have everything let it be & after, should i get 'sorry ma' & 'hootenany' & 'suck' or just one or a few of those or

― HOOS the master??

Nice mix, GMB. You've gotta find room for "Kids Don't Follow" and "Hayday," though--they're non-negotiable.

Sorry Ma -- hit parade. "shiftless when idle" among my personal theme songs.

All shook down -- didn't love love it when it came out but I was 15, so... Now I get it. Very adult, but muy poignant.

Hayday has that great ants-in- pants thing they do so well. Love that song.

'shiftless when idle' speaks on so many levels to me

As a defender of lots of marooned big production failures from the eighties, I have nothing good to say about Don't Tell Me a Soul besides loving "I'll Be You" and "I Won't": its terribleness has an air of desperation.

I don't remember the album well, but I'll stand up for "I'll Be You" and "Rock 'n' Roll Ghost." I just double-checked the latter to see how it held up, and to me it still sounds great. As a clock-running-down, getting-too-old-for-this song, it reminds me of Lennon's "I'm So Tired" or the Ramones' "Pet Sematary."

I'll defend DTAS because "achin to be" however corny spoke to my 14 year old brain supermega bigtime. My affection may be pure nostalgia but that album was my best friend. I remember listening to side b and hearing the yooooooooow of anywhere is better than here and really -- who doesn't identify with that at 14?? I'll defend it on personal grounds. Shortly after I found/ bought sorry ma, then all shook down came out, and it was a little confusing but I was in love. Nothing mattered.

Nice. Westerberg was such an interesting combination of the 14-year-old kid and this cranky older guy. He was at his best when he split the difference; when he veered too far towards 14 ("Gary's Got a Boner") or cranky old guy (there's some of that on his solo records--along with some good stuff), he wasn't as good. Unless the "Gary's Got a Boner" side of the Replacements was in fact Bob Stinson, in which case another ingenious theory down the drain.