The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

1 degree of kevin bacon

Just found my old copy of "Shit Hits the Fans" while I was packing up to move the other day. Promptly sold it on Discogs for $60.00!

"Can't Hardly Wait" came on the radio the other day, and I guess it had just been long enough since I heard it for me to actually notice the lyrics. At his best he was a great minimalist, cramming so much into so few words.

Someone's got a stamp that I can borrow
I promise not to blow the address again

I think what's weird about that photo is that most of his face is askance, but the mouth is facing us head on.

Interesting, that CBGB '84 show is the same month I first saw em at Irving Plaza, they weren't falling-down drunk then. Will hafta check out July 27, 1987, The Ritz, mighta been there...

I think what's weird about that photo is that most of his face is askance, but the mouth is facing us head on.

― Poliopolice

the same thing's going on with the PW photo.

This one looks a bit more natural, but still, the years of sobriety have taken their toll.

http://www.punknews.org/images/bands/paulwesterberg-1349363560.jpg

I dunno why but I feel like 'fessing up: I only really started listening to The Replacements a couple of years ago. In high school I only knew the 2 Westerberg songs off the Singles soundtrack, which I loved and still quite like even though they're well twee

But now being fully immersed in everything from Hootenanny through PTMM, I do kinda wish I had a rewind button so I could have had the 'Mats in high school. That would have been something. But I enjoy having them now too, since I still feel a lot of those same ~feels~ now, but understand them a little better too so they don't quite rule me as much

Am envious of ppl who grew up with them tbh

actually I like Sorry Ma too, it's fun and messy

I do kinda wish I had a rewind button so I could have had the 'Mats in high school.

I started to write something about this, but then I remembered I already did:

Hearing "Sixteen Blue" when you actually were 16 = classic.
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, August 24, 2005 6:43 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I will add that even just the guitars on that song alone should be inducted into some adolescent longing hall of fame.

absolutely

I got into them when I was about 15. But I doubt it's the same as someone who was 15 in 1984.

yeah these dudes were major with me when I was in HS (heard PTMM first then worked backwards)

revisit them occasionally but not a lot. when I do I'm usually struck by what a clever lyricist Paul was.

OTM
OTM

Playing makeup, wearing guitar ...

...they were good, then lotsa ppl were like these lyrics are great and we wound up with "my heart could use some glasses" :-/

It's corny but I'll still stand behind Runaway Wind for being legit poignant -- it makes him sound like the sweetest man ever.

This is definitely nostalgia talking though -- by the time his first solo record came out I was 18 and considered myself a grizzled Mats old timer and that song helped me not feel depressed and grizzled. But I do think it's sweet and waaaaay better lyrically than Someone I Once Knew or similar.

that PW pic looks like one of conan o'brien's robert smigel interviews

I too wish I had discovered the 'Mats in HS. As well as a whole mess of other bands.

I think these days my favorite post-band Paul song is "World Class Fad."

Mine too.

I first heard of Westerberg and the Mats from a Musician article written by Cameron Crowe before the release of Singles in which he recounts the experience of wooing the musicians to contribute songs.

A year later "World Class Fad" was all over my college radio station.

In spring '95 I bought PTMM and Tim at my college bookstore on tape. None of the descriptions matched what I heard.

The Replacements worked perfectly for me as a big part of my soundtrack to '84 and '85, when I was just out of university and fairly directionless. I'm intrigued by the thought of having them around when I was in high school...don't think they would have replaced Neil Young at the top of the pile, but I can see similarities there in terms of old-before-your-time.

My folks figured it out and vocalized it best to me when I was playing Let It Be & Tim endlessly in HS - "oh they're like your generation's Stones" ...

Discovered them at 17, forgot about them til I was between girlfriends at 22 and Paul suddenly seemed to ~get~ me, man. My next band was a Mats ripoff we called The B Team.

Uh, guys?

https://twitter.com/RiotFest/status/344998590952906753

Riot Fest
‏@RiotFest
We are honored, excited and all together amazed to announce that THE REPLACEMENTS are headlining all 3 #RIOTFEST http://ow.ly/lYUVo

I mean Twitter's been going insane for the last few hours and over here's been all "Ah, remember when, if only."

What a bunch of bullshit.

If Chris doesn't play with them it's fuckin bullshit

So it's Paul and Tommy and...? Mars doesn't play anymore, and Dunlap is presumably not able to.

Like I said.

Ya got me.

Don't worry, it's the version with Axl Rose in it.
LOL

I mean, it's nice and everything, but it's hard for me to envision it coming across as any more exciting than Westerberg solo with an old bandmate in tow.

unlikely that Chris would play so yeah, idk who besides Paul and Tommy

Steve Foley's dead. Slim's in no condition for this. Mars won't be there. So you've got Paul and Tommy. Who they gonna get, the other two Posies?

Pitchfork's given a general 'rest of lineup to be confirmed later' note so I nominate Tarfumes and VG to be the backing band.

Also what they're not saying is that it's just going to be a faithful full-album-set of The Shit Hits the Fan.

:D

I play an excellent triangle

Right on!

I love The 'Mats but that ain't them.

I gotta say, Foley was the shit. I was disappointed that Mars left before I saw them in '91, but Foley sounded amazing.

And I'm reluctant to say "that's not the Replacements!" As someone who's seen 10 post-Kenney Jones Who shows (and two of those post-Entwistle), I'm really not in a position to judge.

It's not The Replacements without Chris

I fuckin discovered these guys in high school and they were long broken up by then and I've dreamed of seeing them but not this way. Fuckin bullshit.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, oh-oh-e-oh-oh-oh,
I'll beat Paul up, show him what I've got

Can't read my,
Can't read my
No he can't read my waterface

And I'm reluctant to say "that's not the Replacements!" As someone who's seen 10 post-Kenney Jones Who shows (and two of those post-Entwistle), I'm really not in a position to judge.

I remember some weird tour thereabouts 1994 or so where Roger Daltrey Sings the Music of Pete Townshend (with Pete Townshend on guitar.)

And now they're calling that The Who.

I understand this is a little different than "A Different Jam" or whatever that was supposed to be without Paul Weller. The main guy is still around. But c'mon. Would rather just see a Westerberg show because you might get a chance at "Seein' Her" as the encore.

I have major mixed feelings about this announcement.

I was excited for about 30 seconds before I realized this makes them the Slayer of indie rock.