brent johnson digs up another lost treasure, this week from The Replacements…
At a time when synthesizers dominated pop and hair metal ruled rock — otherwise known as the mid-1980s — there was a little band from the Midwest that spat on those trends. They were known for shambolic, alcohol-fueled live shows and songs that mixed punk riffs, raw distortion and impassioned lyrics.
They were called The Replacements.
They never sold many records. They never had a Top 40 hit. But they were great.
Led by Paul Westerberg — a gutter poet with a rare ability to make even the most ragged songs sound pretty — The Replacements hailed from the same fertile Minneapolis music scene that produced Prince. Only their songs had little to do with the Purple One’s sexy funk. They shunned slick production, wore dirty denim and unkempt hair, and sang about androgynous lovers, burnt-out ’70s rockers and telling someone how much you adore them by screaming into their answering machine.
The name of The Replacements’ 1981 debut album was appropriately snotty: Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash. And its best track was ‘Johnny’s Gonna Die,’ a raspy ode to one of their idols: notoriously drug-addled New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders. (Johnny did indeed die, a decade later, reportedly of drug-related causes, though some speculate that he was murdered.)
The Replacements went on to make two of the era’s best albums: 1984’s Let It Be and 1985’s Tim. Along the way, Westerberg’s songs got more melodic, even a bit alt-country. By the 1990s, though, The Replacements were no more.
Still, Westerberg has gone on to a respected underground solo career. The Goo Goo Dolls aped The Replacements’ sound on their first few records. And even the 1998 teen movie Can’t Hardly Wait took its title from a Replacements song.
Who needs a hit anyway?
