So the Replacements finally got back together (sort of. they don't actually play together on the tracks in question. The just sing back up) I was happy for about a minute. Then the abstract of the reunion was overwhelmed by the concrete of the actual fruits of said labor. As I just mentioned, It's not really the Replacements playing together. Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars (Bob Stinson having died years ago) just sing back up on a couple of songs that Paul Westerberg wrote. Chris doesn't play drums, and Bob's replacement on guitar, Slim Dunlap, wasn't even invited. Why I give a shit has to do with the fact that once upon a time, the Replacements were (to borrow a phrase from the Clash) the only band that mattered. At least to me they were.
It started with the infamous SNL appearance where they all traded clothes and INSTRUMENTS between songs so that the second set sounded like shit. I still scratch my head at the thought that they were let on the stage at SNL at all, but the early and middle 80's were by far the best years for musical guests on that show. Then there was the interview on MTV's Cutting Edge Happy Hour where they were unable to control their giggling. They sat there like a bunch of 1st graders, until Peter Zaremba, the host, realized that they had all shaved their eyebrows. They were instantly one of my favorite new bands, and I still hadn't even heard more than a song or two. As it stands, the trilogy of Let It Be, Tim and Pleased To Meet Me is the best three record run of the 80's. For that matter, I'd be hard pressed to find very many bands in any era that have recorded two classic albums in a row, let alone three. My second favorite video of all time is for "Bastards of Young", a single take stationary camera shot of a stereo speaker as it plays the song. They took a similar approach to the video for "The Ledge". It was a series of random single take shots of the band and their surroundings, ie. shoes, a couch, cigarettes, a mouth etc. When MTV wouldn't play the video because of the song's subject matter (suicide), they just literally changed they music and submitted the same footage as the video the song "Alex Chilton"
They had songs about transvestites, drinking, visits to the doctor, drinking, flight attendants, and long forgotten Power Pop singers. and more drinking. But mostly, they had songs about love and heartache and heartbreak and regret and longing and frustration and all the other things that make the rockin' world go round. Like drinking. How great it was, that their golden age existed when I was most willing to subscribe to it. Much like Star Wars, I was the right age at the right time. Music always inspires its most fervent worship between the ages of 15 and 19, give or take a year or two. For some people its Fugazi, Pavement, Black Flag or even At The Drive In. For me it was the Replacements. And as much as I just don't get a couple of the aforementioned bands (one in particular, I truly hate) I get the fans. I know how they feel. 'Cos I used to feel the same way about something too. And for better or worse (but mostly for better) they broke up when I was 19 before I stopped caring as much and before they did too.
Eventually, they sobered up (except Bob, who didn't know when to stop). Chris started painting, Paul got even crankier and Tommy joined Guns and Roses (?!?!) I don't know if he's still in the band since Axl controls the flow on info tighter than the producers of Lost (did you see that one coming, this week?) but today I learn that he's also the new bass player for the also newly reformed SOUL ASYLUM (WTF!?!?!?!?!?!).
But as for the 'Mats now that they've "reunited"... I feel a little more than empty about it. Because the songs in question aren't good? yes, there is that. They sound little better than Westerberg's solo catalog (one sounds almost identical to the song Dyslexic Heart), but that's all they essentially are. And because the final Replacements record was little more than a Westerberg solo record in everything but name, these songs wouldn't sound too out of place on All Shook Down (come to think of it, pretty much all his solo work sounds like it belongs on All Shook Down) The real truth here, is that the reason i feel empty about the whole thing is that I just don't care that much anymore. i can't get excited or angry about something that I've moved so far away from. And that's the thing that really makes me sad. Because, like Robert Frost wrote, "Nothing gold can stay, Ponyboy"
Anyway, for what it's worth, here are two video clips of the Replacements perfoming live in their prime:
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Both from 2/24/86 at a sound check at Maxwell's in Hoboken New Jersey
And then more amazingly, there's this one:
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From 1981 onstage at 1st Avenue in Minneapolis.
