I hate ILoveMusic, it's got too many POLLS - Artist Poll #104 - THE REPLACEMENTS - RESULTS

That final section *is* ridiculously affecting innit. Unfortunately I like "16B" some 43.8% more than I realised I did even a few weeks ago, such that I think I contributed an inadequate number of points.

"Kiss Me On the Bus" is too low for the most romantic song ever written about mass transit

Didn't Paul often famously change the lyrics to "kiss me on the butt" when they played it live?

"say anything" pretty much cemented "within your reach" as one of the replacements' signature songs, no? i thought it would place higher here!

Speaking of Petty, the interviews w/Benmont Tench in Trouble Boys fascinated me.

https://images2.imgbox.com/0e/a4/RGCZ7KQ7_o.jpg

#13
Here Comes a Regular
from Tim (1985)
Score: 540
Votes: 28 (2)
Youtube: audio track

Didn't Paul often famously change the lyrics to "kiss me on the butt" when they played it live?

I've long imagined that the song started as that, but I have no evidence for it.

Oh man, "Regular." Pretty much a perfect song.

The echo works -- a tip of the hat to Third/Sister Lovers?

I had "Here Comes A Regular" at #30 because it was a closer, get it?

Always connect this one to ‘The Last’ - the final song on their final album.

Here Comes a Regular is so sad and downtrodden. "I used to live at home, now I stay at the house."

"even if you're in the arms of someone's baby now / i'll take a great big whiskey too ya anyway" is so cheesy and weird ("take"?) and perfect. i always assumed paul's entire solo career would be this and i think i'm still disappointed that it wasn't. the guitar sound is a little much for me; i long for dry. the song is fantastic.

Good post.

Lol I think this song was responsible for me swearing off alcohol when I was 17

how long did you stick with it?

TOOOOO LOW

my #1

everything about this song is so perfect & sad & excellent & ughhhhhhh <3

https://images2.imgbox.com/a9/20/8L4Z3YyL_o.jpg

#12
Skyway
from Pleased to Meet Me (1987)
Score: 549
Votes: 28 (0)
Youtube: audio track

i like how the whole song has that quiet lonely confessional feel, like even the chorus doesnt build much over the lyrics

ah! i love skyway too! in my top 10

The "Skyway" linking the Lifehouse to the Boathouse was ranked #19 on our ballot.

It's perfect though. Could have been way higher.

xxxpost 6 years

Absentmindedly running through various ‘Mats songs in my head and what do you know: “Gary’s Got A Boner” meshes perfectly with “One Good Dose of Thunder”. Due to the same tempo and basic rhythm I suppose, but also maybe same key? Regardless, that’s just a tip I guess for any DJ’s lurking out there looking for trax that lead into the other easily.

"skyway" is just so goddamn lovely and evocative and sad and may be the closest he/they ever came to alex chilton/big star. the phrase "my stupid hat and gloves" has been seared into my brain for 30-plus years.

Yes, there’s a “September Gurls” quality to it.

I think I have 5 of my top 10 left. Guessing 'I Will Dare' is the safe #1?

Maybe. I don't like that one so much, despite my recent screenname.

re: Here Comes a Regular - here's the interior of the CC Club where it all takes place, expect it looks like you imagined

https://heavytable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ccClub_2.jpg

https://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/2841917/1584x3000/scale;jpeg_quality=60;progressive.jpg

https://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/2841912/1584x1054/crop;jpeg_quality=60.jpg

"Skyway" is maybe the cloest thing to "Thirteen" he ever wrote, vibewise, although maybe somebody else already said something similar about another song.

Ha, that's not quite what I would have imagined it looked like, not even the half-timber exterior.

Or is the proper term faux-timber?

https://images2.imgbox.com/63/10/cAHpXN7m_o.jpg

#11
Hold My Life
from Tim (1985)
Score: 598
Votes: 27 (0)
Youtube: original promo video

everything about "hold my life" -- the excitement of those opening chords, the fact that not a single lyric (besides "well well well") is even remotely intelligible until he gets around to "time for decision to be made," the heroic change into the big anthemic chorus, the casual acknowledgment at the end of that chorus that he's probably gonna lose it -- makes it soooooo good as the first track on this particular band's first major label album. so well played.

It got stranded in the Lifemoat, but I still like it fine.

ah shoot, missed a few cause i was busy working.

"sixteen blue" was my #2, one of those songs where paul's frayed vocals cut straight to the bone--the fact that he can't reach the notes he's striving for just adds to the goosebumpiness of it all. chord changes are really interesting, and as much attention that the ending guitar solo gets, the little lyrical bit in the middle hits right, too. but of course, that ending guitar solo deserves all the attention it gets.

"here comes a regular," i voted for. i think it was the first replacements song i ever heard, and while i appreciated it, i didn't quite get the fuss until i heard the rest of the album, then let it be. the piano break near the 2/3rds mark is the piano equivalent of the "sixteen blue" guitar solo.

"skyway," i debated not voting for. it's a little hokey, isn't it? but i always get drawn in by that beautiful melody.

i understand and appreciate "skyway" as a mats version of those big star ballads, but those big star ballads run circles around "skyway," imo

What ffc said re "Hold My Life" basically. I was 'singing' it to myself while doing other things just now. Wordless singing, but I was totes feeling it.

Ahem (clears throat)..."Sixteen Blue" WAY TOOOO LOOOOOOOOOW

I don't know that there's much I would change on the sequencing for Let It Be/Tim/PTMM. Skyway works so well because of where it falls, the Gordon Lightfoot at the end of a night you are still piecing together.

This thread making me want to finally read Seymour Stein’s book.

Last three were all in my top ten - love FCC's thoughts on Hold My Life.

https://images2.imgbox.com/3c/5a/pv1sbiMB_o.png

#10
Androgynous
from Let It Be (1984)
Score: 600
Votes: 30 (1)
Youtube: audio track

xxposts to ums
bar looks different than i pictured. much nicer!
i was picturing old galley-style dive bar, linoleum floor, just one long bar & a handful of tables along the wall

tbh it was a lot shittier back in the day those pix make it look nicer

Androgynous would be a sort of amazing if someone wrote it now, never mind in 1984. Peak Westerberg empathy. And the underwater-sounding piano on it is unexpected and perfect.

Hold My Life was my #2 and was the first Mats song I ever loved. Heard it on college radio and bought Tim. I related to it as a teen, but unlike Sixteen Blue I still pretty much relate to it.

yeah it's pretty amazing how well androgynous holds up

the underwater-sounding piano on it is unexpected and perfect.

otm

same hair, revolution. same build, evolution. tomorrow, who's gonna fuss?

Tim as a whole suggests to me an early Rock’n’Roll era ballroom. Like something between Robert Frank’s “Bar, Las Vegas” and that Cuban ballroom in The Godfather where Al Pacino kisses Fredo. Bad drum sound and all I wouldn’t change the mix a bit because the romantic imagery that it carries with it is meaningful to me.

There was a Miley Cyrus cover a few years back, right?