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

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?

oof i bet that was fuckin terrible

but yeah agree rattle - i've always liked how tim sounds! very evocative and murky to me

miley, joan jett and laura jane grace. totally fun.

eh she irritates the shit out of me so i can't call it, JJ and LJG would be cool

Joan Jett did her own cover years ago. It's pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFu727az3o

eh she irritates the shit out of me so i can't call it, JJ and LJG would be cool

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), T

her covers are solid to excellen

i really can't stand her like at all but I'll defer to ilx 10 years ago

<ducks> who can forget Crash Test Dummies cover?

https://images2.imgbox.com/5c/7e/yCrcIRDf_o.png

#9
Favorite Thing
from Let It Be (1984)
Score: 629
Votes: 29 (1)
Youtube: audio track

“Androgynous” is one of maybe 3 songs I would sing to my kids when they were babies trying to put them to sleep.

"Favorite Thing" is so great and I can't even exactly figure out why. There's not much to it but it's pretty much my favorite rocker of theirs (my favorite thing). My #3.

So I have to tell this story about "Here Comes a Regular," even tho I can't vouch for it. I choose to believe it. It was told to me by a casual college acquaintance at a party, somehow the Replacements came up and we were a couple of beers in and bonded heavily over how much we loved them. He told me he had seen them on the Tim tour, at a college (maybe Ithaca), and the show was great but he was bummed they didn't play "Here Comes a Regular." (Which I'm not sure they ever worked into their live set?) He was a teenager and huge Mats fan and had had luck at some other shows hanging around the stagedoor, so he wandered down an alley right after the concert and found a door open and slipped in and came into a backstage area to find Westerberg sitting at an old upright piano that was stashed back there, drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette and noodling around presumably waiting for others. Westerberg looks up and sees this kid and says, "What are you doing here?"

The kids stammers a bit about how much he loves the band etc., and Westerberg grunts. Then the kid says, "I was really hoping you'd play 'Here Comes a Regular." Westerberg grunts again. The kid, not having been chased off yet, says, "Would you play it?" Westerberg, possibly amused at the audacity, says, "What'll you pay me?" The kid, who doesn't have much on him, says, "I can give you a dollar." Westerberg laughs and holds out his hand. The kid gives him a dollar and he starts the song and gets a verse or two in when a security guy wanders in and immediately sees that this kid shouldn't be there and escorts him out while Westerberg is still playing.

"Favorite Thing" my #1. I consider "Can't Hardly Wait" their masterpiece (lol), but of course the 'Mats are not about masterpieces! To me, it's all here: sloppiness and speed, hookiness and tenderness and joy. A song that spoke to me as a teenager and now speaks to the teenager inside.

XP: LOL, fabulous ending to that story.

"favorite thing" was an easy top ten for me, tommy's finest moment.

love that story, mothra. it would be a good treatment for a "here comes a regular" video!

Think big
think big
once in a while

favorite thing is great! my #11

https://images2.imgbox.com/23/e0/VBHFy5yJ_o.jpg

#8
Color Me Impressed
from Hootenanny (1983)
Score: 701
Votes: 32 (2)
Youtube: audio track

Ballot match bingo! Also my number #8. I guess that means I have to drink a beer now. Them’s the rules, no argument from me haha

Two entries in a row where I had to resist the temptation to insert a 'u' into the first word.

Love this shambles of a track.

my #12 ... love this one a lot, i find myself humming it around the house lately

The first time I heard Hootenanny (bought cheap on a whim) I was kinda bewildered until "CMI". "Well that one was good, at least" etc. :)

anyone seen the doc about mats’ fandom by the same name from a few years ago? its really good imo, still streaming on prime i think

color me impressed is sooo good

I forgot to include this one - should have been in my top 20, but I hardly ever feel like listening to Hootenanny.

“Androgynous” I had at #14, the Golden Age of Replacements fandom.

“Favorite Thing” at #4
“Color Me Impressed” at #9
So close!

I’ve got seven chances to beat you, rattle.

https://images2.imgbox.com/0b/f9/tyVwEqkm_o.png

#7
Answering Machine
from Let It Be (1984)
Score: 708
Votes: 31 (2)
Youtube: audio track