The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

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

Right. Almost said "Where's Tommy?"

where having a party

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

?

Some sort of reference to Paul W’s sister and “Waitress In The Sky,” I think

You bastard.

What’s the matter, buddy?

... of young.

It's "Wait on the sons of no one..."

― dc, Monday, March 7, 2016 9:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can live without this joke, but it'll die within your reach.

We might just wait on someone, you never know

I can't hardly wait on anyone.

I seem to recall that Westerberg was the son of a salesman, and maybe he considered this an indignity, maybe Dad was Willy Loman, but that means Paul/Biff or other Loman was,in American 70s terms, more or less middle class---not primed since birth to be a janitor, or join the army, or die?. at least not the first two choices---did he steal that from a Graham Parker interview? So, he lambasted his sister for settling, for being a waitress in the sky (for 40 years? Didn't know you could do that), for getting settled in her ways---rather than doing whatever he's been doing since long ago giving up on the more radio-aimed Replacements (it's not like they were too wild and pure to try it: they tried to sell out/"sell out": whatever you think of that, it didn't work commercially) and then letting his solo career-of-sorts fade away.

Why is is surprising that a flight attendant who joined up when she was 20 can retire at 60? Have you been on a plane lately? It seems like the average age of a flight attendant is like fifty.

I also don't think it's fair to say PW let his solo career fade away, necessarily. I'm sure he'd be very happy to be back on top, but, err, he happens to make the least fashionable music in the world right now.

xp He’s not lambasting his sister. This is the crap she heard from passengers.

Sorry. Oh, Dad was Harold ('Hal') Robert Westerberg (1918-2003), an employee of Cadillac-General Motors. The horror! Primed from birth or not, In the late 1970s Westerberg was working as a janitor for U.S. Senator David Durenberger,[4] and one day while walking home from work, he heard a band practicing Yes's "Roundabout" in a basement. He talked his way into the band by convincing the singer that the other band members — Bob Stinson, Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson — were going to fire him. The singer quit, and Westerberg joined the group.[5] The band was originally called The Impediments, and they played their first gig in the basement of a church, playing to members of a nearby halfway house who did not appreciate their drunken shenanigans.[6] They soon changed their name to The Replacements after several venues declined to advertise the band under their original name.[7] Sorry, didn't mean to quote all that.
Forgot about this: n late 2015, Westerberg announced that he had formed a new band called The I Don't Cares with musician Juliana Hatfield.[20] Their debut album, Wild Stab, was released in January 2016.[21] How was it? Tnanks Wiki!

And here's this, from 2017: https://drywoodgarage.com/

The I Don't Cares album was great, like low-stakes / lo-fi solo Westerberg circa Grandpa Boy

Would love to hear the unfucked around with Don't Tell a Soul some day.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, February 3, 2013 2:32 PM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Here ya go:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/replacements-new-box-set-dead-mans-pop-861046/

Wow