The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

Singer-songwriters of Paul's personality type are a dime a dozen. They just generally don't get famous outside of your town.

(Extraordinary talent included in this analysis.)

Is it worth comparing him to another such fellow who was better able to rein in his self-destructive side and cash in on his pretensions?

I'm talking to you Napoleon Dynamite.

( insert comma appropriately)

Thank you for talking to me Napoleon Dynamite

lol

I disagree that every town has a Paul Westerberg. They may all have a Replacements, or ragged bar band, but he has this uncanny ability to stumble onto some really great lyrics and heartfelt music. He has a number of songs that caught me on first listen and stuck with me for life, which is more than I can say for 95% of the bands/singer-songwriters I hear. Now, if you told me every city had, say, a Shawn Colvin, sure. But Paul Westerberg? More uncommon, unless you're talking about the dozens of singers in his wake that owe him something.

Has any other band been as plagued by press about how they should have been big? It seemed like every article about them from Tim onward had this "Why aren't they as popular as REM?" angle. Not sure if the writers picked this up from Westerburg, or if having writers constantly assuring him that the band had hit potential pushed him toward that ambition.

Well, sort of like Husker Du, they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Certainly the success of Soul Asylum and Goo Goo Dolls - and both were *really* successful - proved that. Bad timing, like the bit in the book where the guy dismisses Tim as too rough around the edges to get played on the radio, and then years later dismissed All Shook Down for being too slick to get played on the radio.

I didn't say that your town's Paul Westerberg was gigging, or gigging anymore!

you come from a town called malice

Stop hypothesizing
For the things they've never done

Bob Stinson to me, unlike Paul, was a PURE lead player...rather than a rhythm guitarist playing some professional sounding but uninspired leads

I'm thinking of that utterly demented lead before the break in "We're Comin' Out"... I don't think Westerberg could ever come up with something like that

― Master of Treacle, Monday, March 21, 2016 10:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is OTM. Paul may have practiced a lot, but Bob was far more obsessive as a player. He'd spend hours trying to pick up Steve Howe's parts from Yes records, and while the Howe influence is generally hard to detect (apart from the "Strawberry Fields" intro to "Mr. Whirly," straight out of Howe's rendition with Tomorrow), it was one of the things that kept Bob's playing unpredictable in ways Westerberg would never have attempted.

And I don't really buy the story that Bob couldn't solo on "I Will Dare" because "Those aren't my chords!" I mean, the guy learned all of Tales from Topographic Oceans; no way would he have been uncomfortable outside of standard chord changes.

Or, conversely, I don't really buy that the guy learned all of "Tales from Topographic Oceans."

Soul Asylum and Goo Goo Dolls

in addition to these guys i think the gin blossoms kinda lived out the idea of a "successful" replacements

Yeah my first thought when I heard "Hey Jealousy" was that someone owed Westerberg a royalty check. Otoh, Westerberg's still alive, so..

hmm. the Goo Goo Blossoms, with their penchant for mush sung by hoarse vocals, were a lot closer to the Mats than Gin Blooms.

(that was intentional)

thanks God, never "successful"

http://alanpaul.net/2014/09/a-pretty-damn-good-interview-with-paul-westerbeg/

GW: Do you hear your influence in other bands often?
WESTERBERG: Not often enough. I hear my influence in a whole lot of people who profess to never have heard us, which bothers me a little. It’s fine when people acknowledge where they got it. You’re welcome to anything—borrow, lift, steal it all, as long as you admit it, because I’ve always been honest about where I took things, whether it be Eric Carmen or Hüsker Dü.
GW: The Goo Goo Dolls have always sounded a lot like the Replacements and they had a hit with “Name,” which sounds like one of your outtakes.
WESTERBERG: What can I say? For seven years John Reznick had to talk about me. Now I have to talk about him. The Goo Goo Dolls obviously fall into the category of a band that listened a lot to the Replacements, learned from us and took from us, but have made no bones about it. So they have my blessing.
GW: Have you heard Wilco or Son Volt?
WESTERBERG: Ugh. No comment. I’m always mystified when I hear my own voice on the radio. I never know who it is and it’s really weird when I realize, “Oh my God, this is me.” Well, I’ve thought I heard myself a few times when it’s been them, and that makes me very uncomfortable. They’ll swear up and down that I’m full of shit and they never listened to us. I guess we listened to the same people growing up then.

the gin blossoms were like an 80's green on red/plimsouls type band who grunged it up a bit for the nineties.

clearly in debt to westy too though

One mystery revealed/ruined by the book, imo - not necessarily in a bad way - is how many of Paul's lyrics were about the band or the response to the band members or otherwise mundane band things and in-jokes. I felt the same way when I started learning about Smiths lyrics, about how so many of them are about the band's fame, or the response to the band, or a response to fans or critics.

ie why i gen don't read musician bios

although now i would just forget all the details in 3 months

gotta make room for all those jerry lewis anecdotes eh

lol i'm sorry

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

From that Steve Hoffman forum (where Mehr made an appearance):

At the book event in St. Paul, Mehr indicated that he wants to make this project an ongoing thing -- not only in the form of a revised/expanded paperback edition, but also somehow releasing the archival audio and video material he gained access to in his research.

Bob's lead is hotter than a urinary tract infection. Ha!

That version of 'Can't Hardly Wait' on TSHTF is so amazing.

the gin blossoms were like an 80's green on red/plimsouls type band who grunged it up a bit for the nineties.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Gin Blossoms' first album "Dusted" (released independently in 1989) really does sound like a lost Replacements album (one of the good ones!), and it's always hits the spot for me in the way of energetic, shambolic rock with a gob of melancholy/self-effacement. I think they probably took a lot of cues from the Replacements.

I sorta can bend my ears and hear how Jeff Tweedy can be compared to Westerberg - scratchy Midwestern jangles and whatnot - but how the hell can Westerberg "hear his own voice" on a Son Volt record?

remember when the Replacements covered the Louvin Brothers

me neither

Yeah, not Son Volt, but Wilco circa Being There def. touched on lots of Mats vibes, especially live, and before the group tightened and cleaned up its act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7pY6UPPbVQ

Something else I gleaned from the book was how loud the Mats apparently were. Like turn it up to 11 loud, too loud to mix. Louder than Motorhead, claims one guy in the book who had worked for Motorhead.

I do remember seeing Wilco live back around the time of "Being There", covering "Color Me Impressed", and Tweedy saying "everything we do, we stole from the Replacements".

remember when the Replacements covered the Louvin Brothers

no but i do remember when they covered the carter family. and hank williams.

uncle tupelo's "gun" is basically a replacements song

I do remember seeing Wilco live back around the time of "Being There", covering "Color Me Impressed", and Tweedy saying "everything we do, we stole from the Replacements".

especially the songs about boners and sexy stewardesses, about tonsils and hating music.

Still waiting for a good example of Jay Farrarsterberg.

I just heard "Gun" for the first time. One more chance to get it all wrong indeed.

Sure as hell don't start off like a Replacements song.

The Goo Goo Dolls ("Boy Named Goo" era and earlier) had a lot more Replacements than the Gin Blossoms did. And they were nameehecking the Mats from stage their whole career.

At one point, someone told Paul that the Goos were name checking him as a huge influence and Paul said, "Well, they could show their thanks by covering one of our songs on an album" or something like that.

And I'd argue that a song like "Name" isn't all that far from where PW was in the late 90s, as far as his songwriting goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oabUnaWBMfE
^good song, Westy co-write, and once it hits that chorus ... well, yeah, of course Westerberg co-wrote it.

"Outtasite (Outta Mind)" has definite Pleased To Meet Me vibes imo

I'm not going to argue about Wilco on the internet.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, November 8, 2005 1:23 PM

never saw Mats in a real small place, but yes they were loud+

The big thing I regret about my Westernberg interview last year is that he told me he'd be sending a message to the fans via his T-shirts. I didn't know what he meant, and didn't pick up on it. Then, a month later, the Replacements started playing again and the T-shirts started spelling out the message. D'oh!

look at lewis largent being a dedicated fanboy. this song also rules and triggers deep sadness within me.

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

i wonder what Lewis Largent did when he aged out of that glorified modeling job. Ate a sandwich?

Something else I gleaned from the book was how loud the Mats apparently were. Like turn it up to 11 loud, too loud to mix. Louder than Motorhead, claims one guy in the book who had worked for Motorhead.
Saw them in a small club three times in 1986-87 (the first two with Bob Stinson). They were loud but I don't recall the volume being excessive or anything.

"Well, sort of like Husker Du, they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
I've heard this before, that they could have been as big as Nirvana or something if the timing was better, but I just don't buy it. Loved Husker Du, but they were too abrasive (not to mention badly produced) and just not pretty enough frankly to have been hit it big.