Great piece. I’m kind of amazed that you got to hear an entire recording of a live show you were at almost THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO. It’s very similar to the set played a month later at that Maxwell’s show in Hoboken, NJ which came out in 2017. But I still can’t wait to hear it.
Yeah, it’s pretty mind-blowing. I’ve been to many great shows in my life, but to be able to listen back to a show that has remained a favorite memory - and to hear it in it’s entirety for the first time in nearly four decades - is really special. And yeah, RIP Zephyr…
I always love your writing, and I often come away with one killer quote. This time - the drummer in me finding it especially spot on - it's: "Up on the drum riser, Chris Mars slams through every song like Charlie Watts in a particularly bad mood, which I mean as a sincere compliment." Perfect!
I do admit to being surprised by your relative lack of interest in Pleased to Meet Me, which I've always considered superior to Tim. Song for song, I just think it's their best LP. And has even more of Westerberg's finest moments.
But also, you might consider revisiting All Shook Down. While by no means a classic like Tim or PTMM, it hit me when it came out in a particular way. Westerberg - in what might as well have been his 1st solo LP - left a lot of 'mats fans feeling cold at the time, maybe even more so than he did with the overly slick Don't Tell a Soul. But in that autumn of '90, while driving around the country with my best mate, doing a traveling sales job that took us from Ithaca to Omaha to South Carolina between August and October, All Shook Down provided a welcome soundtrack along the often bleak highways and byways of America.
Thanks, my man. I did like PTMM, and loved a handful of songs on there, but by the summer of '87 I was just way more into '60s garage and psych, newer British stuff like Robyn Hitchcock and Jazz Butcher, thrash metal, and rediscovering the joys of 70s faves like ELO, Led Zeppelin and KISS — The Replacements just seemed less interesting to me in comparison at that point. And while I'm glad All Shook Down gave you what you needed when you needed it, I had to hear that record once a day while working at a record store and came to deeply loathe it. Just thinking about that ocarina part on the title track is making me gag right now, hahaha...
Ha ha!! Almost *any* record I had to hear too often while working record retail - which I did a lot of between '86 and '93 - causes a gag reflex in me, too! 😂
So much of what you have written here rings true to me. I did enjoy the When we were younger and you turned me onto them, their story seemed sad, drunken and tragic to me. But as the years have passed I have seen that it wasn’t tragic as much as it was intentionally self-destructive. And once i realized that’s really what the Replacements were about, I couldn’t forget it. I did enjoy the Ed Stasium re-mix quite a bit and it did ignite in me a dive back into the Mats, but it was brief.
One of the areas of good fortune in my life are friends who write about music in interesting ways.
And because I have a fondness for cosmic strangeness, it was great to see your Crusher reference, as I've had the song going through my skull the last few days.
Loved this piece, Dan! I never saw them live, just never got the opportunity, so it was great to hear that context of going to the shows and what the band meant to you. I like hearing the remix as an exercise and it sounds "good", but, I also want to hear the version that came out at the time, because it connected to a ton of people, even if it sounded shitty. I mean, I want to hear the remixes (as is my duty as a nerd) but that's not what music is about for most.
BUT ALSO, I think it is awesome that this whole conversation adds to their lore.
Great piece! Don’t Tell A Soul was my on-ramp to the band, so I came in a little later, but I definitely relate how we feel about records at certain points on our life.
Great stuff Dan. Really. And the angsty college reflections of yours are also mine. Your passion for music and how you feel that bittersweet nostalgia always shines through. I finally saw the band on their last show in the Hudson Valley in Kingston (consulting setlist.fm it was April FOOLS, 1989!) our most drunkenest Vassar class(less)mate Bob Wayman did not stop yelling TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL throughout the entire show. Maybe you remember Bob?(Majordomo of Ferry House and native Denverite like me) he was an eternal Mats fan and now rests in eternity sousing with Bob Stinson. RIP the both of them...Great album. Love it in any incarnation, I say!
Ashtray floors, dirty clothes and filthy jokes:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-replacements/1986/metro-chicago-il-1bcf15d4.html
Yep — that's the one!
Great piece. I’m kind of amazed that you got to hear an entire recording of a live show you were at almost THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO. It’s very similar to the set played a month later at that Maxwell’s show in Hoboken, NJ which came out in 2017. But I still can’t wait to hear it.
P. S. - Zephyr closed in 2006...R.I.P.
Yeah, it’s pretty mind-blowing. I’ve been to many great shows in my life, but to be able to listen back to a show that has remained a favorite memory - and to hear it in it’s entirety for the first time in nearly four decades - is really special. And yeah, RIP Zephyr…
I always love your writing, and I often come away with one killer quote. This time - the drummer in me finding it especially spot on - it's: "Up on the drum riser, Chris Mars slams through every song like Charlie Watts in a particularly bad mood, which I mean as a sincere compliment." Perfect!
I do admit to being surprised by your relative lack of interest in Pleased to Meet Me, which I've always considered superior to Tim. Song for song, I just think it's their best LP. And has even more of Westerberg's finest moments.
But also, you might consider revisiting All Shook Down. While by no means a classic like Tim or PTMM, it hit me when it came out in a particular way. Westerberg - in what might as well have been his 1st solo LP - left a lot of 'mats fans feeling cold at the time, maybe even more so than he did with the overly slick Don't Tell a Soul. But in that autumn of '90, while driving around the country with my best mate, doing a traveling sales job that took us from Ithaca to Omaha to South Carolina between August and October, All Shook Down provided a welcome soundtrack along the often bleak highways and byways of America.
Thanks, my man. I did like PTMM, and loved a handful of songs on there, but by the summer of '87 I was just way more into '60s garage and psych, newer British stuff like Robyn Hitchcock and Jazz Butcher, thrash metal, and rediscovering the joys of 70s faves like ELO, Led Zeppelin and KISS — The Replacements just seemed less interesting to me in comparison at that point. And while I'm glad All Shook Down gave you what you needed when you needed it, I had to hear that record once a day while working at a record store and came to deeply loathe it. Just thinking about that ocarina part on the title track is making me gag right now, hahaha...
Ha ha!! Almost *any* record I had to hear too often while working record retail - which I did a lot of between '86 and '93 - causes a gag reflex in me, too! 😂
So much of what you have written here rings true to me. I did enjoy the When we were younger and you turned me onto them, their story seemed sad, drunken and tragic to me. But as the years have passed I have seen that it wasn’t tragic as much as it was intentionally self-destructive. And once i realized that’s really what the Replacements were about, I couldn’t forget it. I did enjoy the Ed Stasium re-mix quite a bit and it did ignite in me a dive back into the Mats, but it was brief.
Fantastic piece, Dan
Thank you, Joe!
Fantastic rundown. I’d always heard “Waitress in the Sky” as a criticism for how people treat service workers rather than a sexist diatribe. I read that Westerberg’s sister was a flight attendant and the song was about the creeps she met flying https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2019/05/02/paul-westerbergs-sister-julie-waitress-in-the-sky-inspiration-retires-after-four-decades-as
Okay, that makes sense — maybe he just "played the part" a little too well for me!
FWIW, his other sister was a DJ on The Current for years.
Interesting. Makes the article
Make sense
Great piece, thanks for sharing.
One of the areas of good fortune in my life are friends who write about music in interesting ways.
And because I have a fondness for cosmic strangeness, it was great to see your Crusher reference, as I've had the song going through my skull the last few days.
Hahaha — there's a strange coincidence, indeed! Hope you're feeling better!
Loved this piece, Dan! I never saw them live, just never got the opportunity, so it was great to hear that context of going to the shows and what the band meant to you. I like hearing the remix as an exercise and it sounds "good", but, I also want to hear the version that came out at the time, because it connected to a ton of people, even if it sounded shitty. I mean, I want to hear the remixes (as is my duty as a nerd) but that's not what music is about for most.
BUT ALSO, I think it is awesome that this whole conversation adds to their lore.
Great piece! Don’t Tell A Soul was my on-ramp to the band, so I came in a little later, but I definitely relate how we feel about records at certain points on our life.
Great stuff Dan. Really. And the angsty college reflections of yours are also mine. Your passion for music and how you feel that bittersweet nostalgia always shines through. I finally saw the band on their last show in the Hudson Valley in Kingston (consulting setlist.fm it was April FOOLS, 1989!) our most drunkenest Vassar class(less)mate Bob Wayman did not stop yelling TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL throughout the entire show. Maybe you remember Bob?(Majordomo of Ferry House and native Denverite like me) he was an eternal Mats fan and now rests in eternity sousing with Bob Stinson. RIP the both of them...Great album. Love it in any incarnation, I say!
Thanks, John! I do remember Bob, though I don’t think we ever spoke more than a few words to each other. My loss - he was clearly a man of taste!