The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

I kinda can't listen to this band anymore because (like Nirvana) it just makes me sad.

the book didn't really ruin the music for me, actually, though it did add a less fun element to the whole thing. and the book is really great, well-written, comprehensive, a lot of amazing stories etc. one of the better rock bios in recent years for sure.

I haven't even read the book! feel like what I already know is bad enough

the book is so great, one of the best new rock books i've read in the past five or so years. but i'm not a huge replacements fan so it couldn't ruin anything for me.

And unlike many reporters Mehr can write.

oh I'll get around to it eventually

It’s well written but super depressing.

The book did not, in any way, ruin my favourite music by them. I thought less of them as people--more so for the way they behaved after Bob Stinson was gone--but the music is the music, and that never changes.

(I mean, not that I especially had any strong feelings about them as people before reading the book. Music is almost always more interesting to me than the people who made the music. Very occasionally, like with Bob Dylan in 1965, I'm immensely interested in both.)

I don't know anything about their personas so all this talk of them being vile human beings is actually kind of intriguing. I'll have to give Let It Be another shot.

Has anyone read Lemon Jail?

(I love DTAS and PTTM btw)

https://www.amazon.com/Lemon-Jail-Replacements-Bill-Sullivan/dp/1517901693/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537471702&sr=8-1&keywords=lemon+jail

It's a quick read and, in my opinion, the most successful book to capture the essence of our destructive, drunken outcast brigade in all its successes and foibles. Bill’s ever-present comic sense, woven throughout the book, paints authentically the circus world that it was. I laughed aloud many times!"—Chris Mars

A dig at Mehr's book, perhaps?

Quick read? The thing is over 500 pages.

oh never mind

Agreed, re: the book, and opportunities sabotaged. Went from "I wishwishwish the Replacements would reform and put out another album" to "maybe they've had their day and I'm okay with that".

i read that book and felt aghast -- like i couldn't BELIEVE all the chances they had and all the opportunities they were given and they chose to sabotage and burn $100 bills and trash buses and act like colossal babies. if this sort of petulant and destructive behavior is being covered by the umbrella of "low self esteem" i wonder what they would have done if they had normal self esteem?!

in the back of my mind are the people who were not given opportunities because the opportunities kept going to and being subsequently squandered by petulant money-burning attitude monsters

That is otmfm.

I posted this above, but ffs, Westerberg would trash and mock radio interviewers on the air, and then turn around and -- without the slightest hint of self-awareness -- whine about how they're not getting airplay.

punk rock, complete with the price

Westerberg would trash and mock radio interviewers on the air, and then turn around and -- without the slightest hint of self-awareness -- whine about how they're not getting airplay.

this reminds me of somebody, just can't put my finger on it hmmm

they really did pioneer the "it's not cool to try" attitude that a lot of the big indie/alternative bands had and that ultimately poisoned the minds of a lot of the people of my generation (including me)

I dunno about "pioneer" - certainly they were a rallying point for that kind of thinking for that generation, but there's lots of precedents

otm
it's a toxic attitude
it's not cool to burn money and trash stuff, that is what is not cool

I remember the scene in the Mehr book about the veteran tour bus driver (I forget who, it's been years since I read this) being really sad and pitiful. Here's this guy who's probably seen his share of idiotic rock and roll excess, and he's just kinda going "come on guys, you're going too far here."

I guess no one has read the book I linked to upthread. I may take the plunge, and if I do you can expect a full report

In the book all the guys (save maybe Tommy) more or less act like they are living on borrowed time. Why behave, why succeed, when you've been primed since birth to be a janitor, or join the army, or die? But in the end, it seems everyone but Bob came out the other side more or less intact.

The most amazing aspect of the book imo is the low bar of "failure" in that era. They would be playing to thousands, and sell hundreds of thousands of records, but that just wasn't enough by the standards of the day to make much of a mark.

Today they would be, like, Spoon or somebody?

Spoon or New Pornographers or whoever have no problem licensing material to corporate America. Westerberg would have signed a contract, after which he would've unzipped his pants and pissed on it in front of the corporate guy.

did they really sell hundreds of thousands of copies of any of their albums?

PTMM and DTAS sold in the low six-figure range, yeah.

didn't realize that! thanks.

The Mehr book has a queasy interview with Benmont Tench commenting on the Replacements' stint opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; he couldn't understand why they tried so hard to suck.

"One more chance to do it all wrong" -- prophecy, man

Thread inspired me to play "Tim," and as "Here Comes a Regular" came on I popped over to the Go-Betweens thread ... and realized "Here Comes a Regular" really sounds like a song Grant would have written.

"One more chance to do it all wrong" -- prophecy, man

"label wants a hit / and we don't give a shit"

it's not like they were hiding their intentions from anybody!

Why behave, why succeed, when you've been primed since birth to be a janitor, or join the army, or die? But in the end, it seems everyone but Bob came out the other side more or less intact.
This story does not make sense to me at all -- why behave? why succeed? Because you don't want to be a janitor, join the army, or die! This story they kept telling themselves seems like a cop out.

And came out the other side of what? Of being given a whole lot of opportunities to succeed in the legendarily difficult-to-navigate music business? This logic does not float.

1) I am not them, but sometimes those conditioned to think they're failures need more than opportunities.

2) Paul, Chris and Tommy are all alive and successful, despite their history.

their history of being in a comparatively well-respected and even marginally successful rock band -- that's great! i would expect them to be ok.

off topic, my favorite cheesy westerberg song is "runaway wind"

When Westerberg played 'Can't Hardly Wait' on SNL with the house band's horn section, there's this great moment at the end where he has this huge smile, and looks happy.

introduced by noted fan Charlton Heston

Finishing with the ever-popular snot handshake after Heston flubbed his name.

Heston hosted SNL? Jeezus

No, Moses.

lol, touché

Yeah, I'm liking Let It Be way more than the last time I tried listening to it 10+ years ago. I'm finally getting those Exile on Main St. vibes (odd I didn't hear them back then).

https://blog.thecurrent.org/2019/05/paul-westerbergs-sister-julie-waitress-in-the-sky-inspiration-retires-after-four-decades-as-flight-attendant/

"Now, as we’ve learned from one of Julie’s coworkers" ahhh the Current always so coy

"Hi We're the Replacements"

― Is It Any Wonder I'm Not the (President Keyes), Tuesday, June 9, 2015 9:34 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Um, I think the song is "Hi Wait On The Replacements".

Where?

https://youtu.be/WdaXTSseXHc