THE REPLACEMENTS
HarveyCanal
"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
ALL ABOUT...
AND 
MUST GO GET STONED NOW.
AND MUST GO GET STONED NOW.
Comments
This is their towering achievement:
WHO'S GONNA TAKE US ALIVE
(for the real matz headz)
C'mon, now...maybe in some thin tie and a suit we swear we can at least pretend to be adults now kind of way.
But those first 2 albums are some smoke some weed through a budweiser can on an apolstered bench seat while driving up a curb with your passenger jumping out of the moving vehicle as everyone in the backseat rolls out laughing like drunken hyenas type shit.
That's that raelness.
Then agsin I suspect you might be a couple of years older than me, which might give you a different perspective...and I was actually rocking those albums in high school circa '88 rather than when they were originall released in '81-'83.
But beyond the tomfoolery...there are some smart songs on there like Johnnie's Gonna Die, Within My Reach, and Willpower.
"Red Light Red Light Run It"
It's close, but Tim nudges it out...nothing on Let It Be matches the rock goodness of "Left of The Dial", "Bastards of Young" or "A Little Mascara". Throw in "Here Comes a Regular" and "Kiss Me on the Bus", ignore "Waitress in the Sky"(too cutesy) and BAM! a classic.
I like the cover of 'Let it Be' a million times better tho. It almost takes it on the cover alone. That cover sums up Minneapolis rock from '83-'89, PERIOD.
"Waitress" is a snotty diss, classic Replacements in it's
drunken beligerence "my own sign says I'm sorry I'm smokin'"
"Kiss Me" wins me over for the absolutely unapolgetic
cuteness of the lyrics - "your tongue, your transfer,
your hand, your answer" ... there's always been debate about
the lyric, "everyone's looking forward - I am (ain't) looking forward"
- I've seen and heard it described as "looking for it" but I always
thought it was much more clever, as in everyone on the bus is staring
straight-ahead, but he's looking over at her ...
I bought Let It Be when it came out when I was a junior in HS. But that was my first 'Mats record. I went back and got the rest, and loved all of it. I just don't think the majority of that early stuff holds up as well, it is still a whole lot of fun tho. 'Buck Hill', 'Take Me Down To The Hospital', 'Customer', 'Johnny's Gonna Die'....all great....just too much filler for my tastes (even then I skipped around those two LPs a lot).
Remind me to drop a rip of their infamous 'The Shit Hits The Fans' cassette only release sometime in RealHeadz! Not something to listen to on a daily basis, but entertaining if you are a fan to hear the boys do a passable cover of the Jackson's "I'll Be There"!
NOWHERE IS MY HOME
I was in Minneapolis rock heaven when I got on the bus in like 1988 and who was riding downtown on the same bus but Tommy Stinson and his girlfriend. And I think he even kissed her on the bus. How cute is that?
But I still consider Let It Be and Tim to be their shining moment. The first two albums are good, but they could have been any ole early eighties h/c band. Pleased To Meet Me, as I said in another thread, Hasn't Aged Well thanks to glossy production, but the songs are still cool. The last few albums (a/k/a the "I'll Be You" years) are best forgotten.
Gotta avoid that Paul Westerberg solo ish as well.... anybody remember those tracks off the Singles soundtrack?? Only thing that kept me from playing that shit front to back...
Really? Cuz "Let it Be" is my shit! I just discovered it a few years ago- so I think "Tim"'s on my list next.
"This is the Minneapolis Police....the party is over!"
Any of you record nerds have the 12" of 'I Will Dare' b/w '20th Century Boy' & 'Hey Good Lookin' that they can rip for me? One of the many stupid moves I have made was giving that record away!
The afternoon Dj at KEXP loves the Replacements and plays them on the regular. I think plenty of people
know the deal, as evidenced by a 2 page thread.
I Love the Mats even Pleased to Meet Me.
Well, that's good to see. A lot of modern-day people are quick to uphold Michael Stipe or Kurt Cobain as alt-rock icons, but I hardly see ANYBODY riding for Paul Westerberg the way I used to 20 years ago. Maybe it was all them lame solo albums that did it.
have some really good material on them. I saw him do a free
in-store live appearance at Virgin for the "Stereo" release,
and it was great ... he did a bunch of Replacements stuff
but would forget the lyrics to some of it and need help
from the crowd to get back on track ... sloppy, but endearing.
KISSING IN ACTION
Some friends of mine live in Minneapolis and one of the times I visited them I rolled up to their new place on Bryant to discover it was that house. I was beyond geeked, even went down to the basement just to have been in it.
I'd take Let It Be over Tim any day. The good songs on Tim are amazing but it was always way too bumpy to me. I was never a fan of the sound on that album either.. even PTMM seemed more neutral to me.
I can listen to "Alex Chilton" over and over again....
In 1984 or so I saw them at another Athens venue called Lunch Paper (an empty commercial sewing factory and fiberglass fabrication plant that had shows for a few years) with Allen Ginsberg serving as the opening act. The contrast between the crowd listening to every word of the poet followed by the most intense mosh pit I'd seen til that point was incredible.
The last time I caught them was in 1987 in Cleveland (at the Phantasy or the Agora I can't remember). Still great but lacking the anarchy of earlier shows (Bob Stinson).
I know that Paul Westerberg thinks those albums up until Let It Be are "unlistenable," but I love them.
I had a hook-up to meet Paul Westerberg down in the Cities but my roommate and I never made it happen. I regret it.