The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

(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.

Not as they were, but Sugar has some success before breaking up, and that's essentially polished HD. Same thing with Goo Goos and Soul Asylum and the Replacements. Never said Land Speed Record or Sorry Ma were going top 40, but there is demonstrable evidence the bands were on the right track, just too early/poorly timed.

and just not pretty enough frankly to have been hit it big

http://s4.evcdn.com/images/edpborder500/I0-001/003/442/319-9.jpeg_/donald-fagen-19.jpeg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f3/be/f5/f3bef585f132f92c840e1f9c05bc5500.jpg
Hey, it takes two.

Agree 100% with Jazzbo. It took me a few years to accept the truth of that. That the Husker Du of Flip Your Wig might have been one of those 100 bands of '93-95 to luck into a minor hit ("Pets," "Pepper," etc.), sure. But, as they were, even towards the end, they could never have broken through on the scale that Nirvana did.

"badly produced" as am impediment to success... didn't everyone after the fact say Nevermind was badly produced, including Cobain? Not that I can even TELL wtf that means anymore.

But yeah, HD were not just-missed-it hitmakers.

the production of NM and that mix in particular are its innovations.

Nirvana broke through because they sounded like Boston.

In 1976, I remember that "More Than a Feeling" broke through because it sounded like nirvana.

Speaking of Nevermind, can someone please explain what this strange PW quote from the Replacements book actually means (other than Paul Westerberg is a giant dick) :

"Nirvana sounds to me like Boston with a hair up its ass."

Was that a misquote? Was Paul Westerberg referring to a hare? Because as it reads that makes absolutely zero sense.

"Nirvana sounds to me like Boston with a hair up its ass." = Nirvana is pop-friendly AOR (note also that the riff from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the riff from "More Than A Feeling") with just enough snotty attitude to seem "punk" and underground.

Everyone knows that the Smashing Pumpkins were Boston, come on. Nirvana was like Husker Du covering Boston.

Smashing Pumpkins were Styx.

Rage Against the Machine were England Dan and John Ford Coley. (I could go on for eight hours but I'll stop there.)

Was that a misquote? Was Paul Westerberg referring to a hare? Because as it reads that makes absolutely zero sense.

There's disagreement over whether the phrase is "wild hair" or "wild hare," though "hair" seems to be the much more common usage. In any case the top man's translation is more or less how I'd read that PW quote too.

Nirvana is pop-friendly AOR (note also that the riff from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the riff from "More Than A Feeling")

Sometimes I wonder if people that claim that "More Than a Feeling" has the same riff as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" are a little tone-deaf—the rhythm of the guitar riff is hear-identical, but the Boston has a major key G-C-Em-D progression whereas the Nirvana goes F-Bb-Ab-Db, which is a bit more sour. (I never need to hear either song again, mind you.)

It's not like you expect a suddenly appealing side of any of them from the book, but I was quite unprepared for how hateful they all turned out to be. Bob, you understand why that happened. Chris seems to get fed up of it all. But Paul and Tommy behave like complete wankers from early on till late on.

Yep, just finished the book, and I almost wish I hadn't read it. I don't expect rock stars to be angels, and I knew that the Replacements had a big hand in sabotaging their own career, but I didn't really understand the degree to which they did so, nor the general awfulness they displayed to seemingly everyone around them. My life certainly wouldn't withstand the level of scrutiny that Mehr brings to bear on Westerberg and the rest of them, but it's a pretty depressing story nonetheless.

As some label person or someone says in the book, though, when you can write songs like "Sadly Beautiful" or "Unsatisfied," a lot is forgiven.

Has any other band been as plagued by press about how they should have been big?

Green perhaps?

Moby Grape?