Going to the University of Minnesota in the early- to mid-1980’s meant that I had a front row seat to the “Golden Age” of the local music scene. Any day of the week you could easily see the Suburbs, Soul Asylum, Husker Du, The Phones, The Wallets, heck sometimes even Prince, and a host of other great bands that have slipped into the mists of time. However my personal favorite was by far The Replacements, a band that I easily saw more than 50 times. The album that put the Replacements head and shoulders above all the rest was Let it Be.
From the iconoclastic Beatles-esque title, to the cover of Paul, Bob, Tommy, and Chris sitting on the roof of a porch of a typical SW Minneapolis home, to the snarky song about MTV, the album perfectly captures the feel and sense of 1984. What is great about this album, however, is its timelessness. Even though I couldn’t imagine this album being recorded at any time other than 1984, the album doesn’t feel dated some 27 years later.
The album kicks off with I Will Dare which was easily the Replacements biggest hit and most accessible song. Through this song, a lot more people were brought into the Replacement’s fold and, like Pretenders, helped with the ladies as you could play this Replacements song and not clear the dance floor (important when you are in college!).
The following three songs, Favorite Thing, We’re Coming Out, and Tommy Got His Tonsils Out were classic Replacements rockers full of Bob’s furious guitar work and Paul’s smart assy lyrics. Androgynous is a switch as a piano-led, slower tempo song. It was right before Let It Be came out that Paul was hanging out with Peter Buck of REM (That’s Buck's mandolin playing on I Will Dare) and we saw them once running around at First Avenue with eye liner. Needless to say that my friend Pete and I used eyeliner a lot that summer when we went out.
Black Diamond was the first cover recorded by the Replacements and it was perfect as they played the song straight but in an “ironic”way so that anyone in the know would get the joke. Seen Your Video, with its three lines (Seen your video/it’s phony rock and roll/we don’t want to know) was also spot-on as by this time MTV had been taken over by slick, expensively-produced videos usually from fey English bands that didn’t have room for guitars. Finally I think Gary’s Got a Boner would be considered a classic rock and roll song if it wasn’t for its goofy subject matter.
The songs Unsatisfied and 16 Blue were probably the most lauded songs and really shone a spotlight on Paul’s song maturing writing skills. Even though I was 21 at the time, I wasn’t that too far removed from 16 and understood 16 Blue's significance completely. The Replacements were playing these songs live for a few months prior to the release of the album and at that time we knew that their next album was going to be something special.
Let It Be really demonstrated what the Replacements were and could be. It was an exciting time as it appeared that they were on their way to superstardom. Unfortunately they were about 10 years too early. If this album had been released in 1994, they would have been bigger than Nirvana. This album some kicked off what some consider the Holy Trinity of Replacements’ albums: Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased to Meet Me. Many consider Tim the definitive album, and I respect that opinion but for meaning and musical enjoyment, Let It Be will always be one of my fave’ things.
Previously, my only known exposure to Paul was Singles. After a quick sample of the album...I believe I'll be purchasing it posthaste.
Hi, We're the Replacements!
httpv://youtu.be/fgPpoj7Vu9o
hearing "dyslexic heart" and "love untold" about 50 million times on cities 97 during my scooping days as an introduction to paul westerberg kind of soured me on him, but i'd be willing to give the replacements a shot.
Is there any song Cities 97 can't run completely into the ground? The only thing worse than hearing "Babylon" or anything by Matchbox 20 for 10,000,000th time is listening to Brian Oake ever talk.
Hey there, Delilah...
Twas in Minny last 2 weekends and heard more Mumford+Hnos than necessary. I like them, but is better to dole out in drips and drabs, c'mon.
It's even more painful now when they take an artist (I'm looking at you, Adele) that has been getting solid play on The Current for a year or two and then play her every, single hour. Yes, I liked "Rolling in the Deep" the first twenty times I heard it on the Current, but now I don't need to hear it constantly after more than six months.
I just avoid the station. Problem solved*.
*Except for TV commercials, although I believe it was KS95 that made me sick of the same 5 seconds of "Barely Breathing".
Oh man, now that's stuck in my head.
Once, Adam and some of his co-workers got drunk at a parade & block party in Chicago, I don't quite remember which one, where they had a free Duncan Sheik concert. Duncan tried to play his other songs, but the group of them just kept yelling "Do 'Barely Breathing'!" loudly.
I do as well. I swear every, single time I inadvertantly get exposed to Cities 97, Brian Oake is on the air. I beleive he's a robot programmed to be as annoying and smug as much as possible.
Coincidentally enough, I put this on Grooveshark last week never having listened to it before. I wasn't blown away the first time, but I heard enough to mentally schedule another listen for sometime soon.
This album was actually one of my Christmas gifts from Sheenie last year.
While the 3 records you list were all damn good, it was live that you needed to experience the 'Mats. When they were on, they couldn't be touched. When they were off (re: hammered--about half the time), they sucked, but were still entertaining in a train wreck sort of way. I was probably at every one of those shows you were at, free. And another 30 on top of that. In fact, it was easier to count the shows I missed locally from '81-'86. No Cover nights at Goofy's Upper Deck and Duffy's. Freebies at the Entry, The Uptown, and of course, the Ave because I knew the staff. I think I only paid for a handful of shows: Harriet Island, the Coffman Union gig, and two at the Orpheum. If memory serves, they only played the Cabooze once--and were 86-ed for life for drunkenness. Once Bob left the band, they were never the same.
Interestingly enough, I hardly ever listen to them anymore--even though I still have everything they ever did--most of it in three formats, no less. (I also lost about 10 bootleg cassettes when some enterprising young gent did a smash and grab out of my old pick-up truck.)
Agree with all said here. There was a particularly memorable show at Goofy's Upper Deck. Free beer from 8 to 9, which of course we partook in even though the Mats didnt play til 11:00. At the end of the show Tommy took his mike stand and threw it over my head into the crowd. I'm guessing there were maybe 150 people there.
I was standing close to the woman who got hit with the mic stand. I remember thinking how rock and roll it all was. When I realized she was bleeding from the head, I thought Tommy was a dick.
Pretty sure Loud Fast Rules (later to be Soul Asylum) opened that night--Pirner broke out his trumpet.
That all sounds awesome. I wish there was a music scene like that around here. I keep meaning to read "Our Band Could Be Your Life". That sounds like something I'd like to have been a part of, probably thanks in no small part to the fact this place has highly influenced my music tastes.
It was a pretty amazing scene. Free's list missed a couple of other very cool acts from that era that you could see for peanuts--or less: Run Westy Run, The Form, The Mofos, Riflesport, The Clams, Good Joe(my friends who were in possession of the worst luck in rock and roll history), etc... Hell, the Jayhawks played no-cover every Friday night for a year or more at the 400 Bar circa 1986.
I
thinkknow the TC still has a very vibrant live music. I'm just a little too old (have to get up too early) to enjoy it.OMG Rifle Sport. God I loved that band. When they were on, no one could touch them live. And Yep we were at same Mats show at Goofys and Loud Fast Rules did open. Didn't realize a girl got hit by the mike stand. At age 20 unfortunately I probably had a different attitude about that than I do now.
Oh, and as I mentioned at the old place, I also had a few Maybelline products in my medicine cabinet.