The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

The Pleased box set did really well, but IMHO if you have All for Nothing/Nothing for All and the 2008 Rhino reissue of the album (and while I'm at it the Trouble Boys book), you probably don't need the box set, not unless you really need to listen to rough mixes and alternates.

Intrigued at “Johnny’s Gonna Die/All by Myself”

Dud

pic.twitter.com/SEBD4Gj09n

— SNL Hosts Introducing the Musical Guest (@snlhostsintro) October 1, 2021

I am listening to Hootenanny for the first time in many years (15?) and I remembered something funny about being a kid Replacements fan. I would read these articles about them and their drunken antics and never really get it. My first album of theirs was DTAS and then I bought ASD when it came out. They seemed very adult, civilized. Exploring their back catalogue was my #1 priority at the time, and this is the album where I started to finally understand what those booze stories meant in terms of their music. There are some really stupid songs on this album, and the good ones are REALLY good.

OTM

The stupid throwaway stuff doesn't drag it down or stop its momentum either. There is no "Baby Song" equivalent. The title song is pretty much the worst one, putting first gets it out of the way and serves as a warm-up- kind of a stroke of genius of sequencing- and then we're off to the races.

lol yes to Baby Song, yes to title song being easily the worst one and if you can make it past the door of this place, you will have a good time.

Probably said this upthread at least one time, but a friend of mine once claimed that they peaked early with the first album and slowly got worse with every recording after that. He has since changed his mind or most likely forgot saying this but I remain convinced, mostly. The argument can be made that any one of the records with Bob could be considered the best. Hootenanny still has the band room sound and plently of Bob-tastic gonzo magic along with Paul's more varied songwriting so I am quite happy to think of it as the best on plenty of days.

Haha I will never understand the hate for "The Baby Song." It's goofy! It's funny! Maybe I listened to A Quick One and The Who Sell Out too much or something, because "The Baby Song" just sounded like another "Cobwebs and Strange" or "Heinz Baked Beans" to me.

"Flexible Flyer" would be a 10/10 no matter what, but the fact that it comes after "Baby Song" makes it an 11/10, which makes "Baby Song" good.

And come on, "Baby Song" is 47 seconds long. "How to Skin a Cat" is almost two minutes, and it's followed by "Whatcha Drinkin'".

All true and I thought that same thing about the sequencing that leads from Mr Whirly to Within Your Reach. The bounce from low quality to high quality song is part of the fun I guess.

"Treatment Bound" probably the second worst song on this. But then there is stuff like "You Lose" which I forget even exists but totally enjoy listening to.

I think the key to "Mr Whirly" is all the nods to the Beatles, which is the band acknowledging more than just the usual FM butt-rock (in self-destructive slapdash fashion). And then to follow such a piss-take with "Within Your Reach" ...

"color me impressed" <3

the sequencing that leads from Mr Whirly to Within Your Reach

you had to flip the album over to get one to the other, for whatever that's worth. also i love "mr. whirly."

"treatment bound" is fantastic ("too bored to thrash" one of their many manifestos). "you lose" is hella good (and a kind of rosetta stone for westerberg's melodic sensibilities).

if someone says something negative about "run it" or "lovelines," i'm going to cry.

"willpower" is the one misstep hootenanny for my money.

on misstep *on* hootenanny

i came back here to praise "willpower" -- i really liked that song more than i thought i did. i think it's genuinely bleak-sounding and i love the part where he says "my life". the vocal treatment sounds pretty genuinely haunted and it's about lacking willpower, a relatable and relevant to the band concept. i think it's pretty good!

Seconded.

Also, "How to Skin a Cat" is really not that bad. Sort of a bit like "Lovelines" which I, um, love.

It's not bad, just kind of annoying.

I guess Lovelines is annoying too, but it's kind of catchy and silly and it doesn't seem designed to clear the room.

But basically we all seem to agree that Hootenanny is in fact a pretty solid album listening experience.

I do believe so.

For me Lovelines is on that level of very annoying. I didn't like it as a young person and found myself not liking it again today. I would be ok never hearing it again.

Treatment Bound" probably the second worst song on this

Are you out of your fucking mind?

(xp) i do believe so too.

lovelines grew on me over the years. i think of it as a throwaway that completely works. the glorious goofiness of the swing. "oh yeah, oh yeah, kitten!"

agree about the genuine bleakness/hauntednesss of willpower; it's just that musically it's never seemed of a piece with the rest of the album, or even that whole era of the band, to me. it sounds to me like an outtake from an album they wouldn't make for another five or six years.

Yeah that’s probably right.

Also lol the part about Kitten is EASILY my least favorite part of Lovelines. I chalk it up to being female and yet still enjoying this hapless bro band.

ha. i think i've always heard that as "hey here's a chance to turn to turn a line from one of these classified ads into a rock cliché, let's do it," and i've never given it a thought beyond that, but i'm not female and, yeah, i hear you.

I always assumed they kinda swiped the idea from the Circle Jerks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tymn7qY4nL0

I saw them at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago in 1989. They were incendiary. Saw them later the same year opening for Tom Petty, they were almost literally phoning it in. I suppose that's pretty much a good representation of the arc of their career overall.

I almost saw them at the Aragon that year, but didn’t (long story, but I’m still pissed about it). I didn’t see the Petty show at Poplar Creek, but I remember many people calling into a morning radio show the next day talking about this weird band that had opened. The whole segment lasted maybe 20 minutes, and I thought, “Morning shows don’t usually spend 20 minutes on the previous night’s Petty concert, so chalk this one up for the ‘mats.”

That Aragon gig was a hell of a show. It was oversold. I was up on the balcony to the left of the stage. I really worried that the thing was going to collapse.

Pretty fucking great setlist, too.

1 intro
2 Color Me Impressed
3 Talent Show
4 I Don't Know
5 Back to Back
6 Favorite Thing
7 Achin' to Be
8 The Ledge
9 Anywhere's Better Than Here
10 Nightclub Jitters
11 Cruella DeVille
12 Waitress in the Sky
13 Asking Me Lies
14 Within Your Reach
15 I Will Dare
16 I'll Be You
17 Another Girl, Another Planet (The Only Ones cover)
18 Can't Hardly Wait
19 Lovelines
20 Black Diamond (KISS cover)
21 Unsatisfied
22 Darlin' One
23 Bastards of Young
24 Here Comes a Regular
25 Valentine
26 Never Mind
27 Alex Chilton

https://archive.org/details/the-replacements-1989-06-10-chicago-08

Saw them later the same year opening for Tom Petty, they were almost literally phoning it in. I suppose that's pretty much a good representation of the arc of their career overall.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, February 28, 2022 5:13 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

They talk about the Petty tour in Trouble Boys, it was their typical lack of confidence meets toxic arrogance that led them to kind of sandbag the tour. Petty was frustrated because 1) he couldn't conceive of giving less than 100% 2) he really like their songs and wanted them to go over

anyway Tommy and him were walking through some State Fair they were playing and Tommy was being an elitist dickhead and cracking jokes about how lame it was and Petty says "Why are you here then?", Tommy turned the question around on him and Petty says "I'm here because I'm getting paid $200,000 to be here, how about you?"

My most vivid memory of Tommy was him at the Aragon, wearing one of the big beer buckets they were selling on his head.

Thereby foretelling his future stint in Guns N’ Roses.

You're thinking of Buckethead.

🤔

Oh, was that the joke? It's confusing, because Tommy and Buckethead were both in GNR at the same time!

TS: My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" followup vs. Guns 'N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy".. who will win the photo finish??!!!

I was at that Aragon show. Utterly life changing - I got a recording of it off dimeadozen at some point, ‘Shit Shower Shave’ was most of Milwaukee show same tour I believe. My date that night still chat about what a great show it was, whenever we see each other.

"Shit Shower Shave" is such a good boot, and a great counter to claims the band was nothing but a trainwreck live.

This may be a bizarre take but I kind of see a parallel between the Replacements and Blink 182 w/r/t to the silly songs and "antics" on their earlier albums.

I was at that Aragon show. Utterly life changing

No kidding. I was living in Denver at the time--I just happened to be in town for the Blues Fest. My buddy, who lived in Chicago, and I were trying to figure out what to do that night and I was like, "Hey, look at this, the Replacements are playing tonight."

xpost I think Blink-182's shtick always came off as such. The one time I saw them live it was just insufferable, because they were undeniably tight and catchy but then they would just stop the show for a few minutes to make fart jokes, like it was expected of them. But it came off as momentum killing to me. When the Replacements got wrecked, they took the whole set down with them. And when they had it together, they blew the roof off. Not knowing which Mats you were going to get was I suppose part of the appeal, vs. Blink, who were gimmicky goofs. Similar affinity for covering the Only Ones, though.

At least the Replacements had the decency to be utterly self-destructive and self-sabotaging alcoholics

Also there is nothing in the Blink songbook even in the same galaxy of sensitivity and power as, say, Sixteen Blue.

Reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about seeing Coldplay two nights in a row (his kid was a big fan). Not only was it the same setlist both nights, they told the same jokes.

Blink 182 mostly sucks but it seems like millennial nostalgia is pretty stuck on them

The best thing about them was the title and cover of "Enema of the State."