Blog

I like The Replacements. I like them very, very much. They are one of the very few bands I know who started hardcore-ish and developed a different sound as they went on whose later sound equals or betters their raw beginnings. This post is dedicated to those raw beginnings. Well, as raw as a debut LP can get, anyway.

There is just something about the Replacements that elevates what they do to being more than just some guys getting smashed and making noise. I haven't had the "pleasure" of seeing them live, of course, but I have had reports placed on my desk stating that they weren't exactly the most fan-friendly of bands, what with the alcohol and the drugs and the attitude. Despite this, they were doing a lot of things right. Recording this record their bass player Tommy Stinson had to be only like thirteen or fourteen, which earns him a hearty well done handshake from me. Instead of me giving my uninformed opinions of the people in the band, I will put this quote from the book This Band Could Be Your Life, spoken by Paul Westerberg (guitarist, singer, songwriter) about the way the songs he wrote were received by his bandmates:

"If it doesn't rock enough, Bob [Stinson, lead guitarist] will scoff at it, and if it isn't catchy enough, Chris [Mars, drummer] won't like it, and if it isn't modern enough, Tommy won't like it"

Anyway, enough of me pretending I have anything to say, and down to the down and dirty review itself:



Takin' a Ride

No pussyfooting around, let's just get right to it with a hell-raising opener about speeding around in a car: drunk, high, and fully aware that they'll probably end up dead. Adrenaline, adrenaline and more adrenaline, with music that wouldn't sound out of place as a soundtrack for some racing game, especially with the little drumrolls and the bit where everything else goes quiet while the bass descends and the guitar moves up in sync with it, in the intro and a couple of other places. My favourite part of the song is the thorough subversion of the whole driving too fast along with rock music in these lyrics:

Going real fast, hanging out the window
Drinking in the back seat, half the bottle
The light was green, and so was I
The radio blasting, TURN THAT SHIT OFF!

The song ends with them arrested (Out of the car/Your hands on the hood), but there's no hint of guilt or regret to be found anywhere, as an earlier verse is sung straight after that. It's just a song in the moment, without any statement to be made or lesson to be learned. After an opener like this, first time I listened this album I knew I was in for a treat.

Careless

Nothing in the attitude changes for the next song, summed up nicely in the opening couplet:

Irresponsibility's my closest friend
Forget my duty I couldn't give a shit

He's careless, and he couldn't care less. Very straightforward, enjoyable musically but not outstanding, delightful statement of intent.

Customer

A key member of the "punk songs about shopping" coterie, this song is so painfully true it's both sad and hilarious. It begins with a rushed spoken section: I'm in love with the girl who works at the store where I'm nothing but a... and then he goes on bemoaning that he's just a customer (I'm a customer, ad nauseam) while also getting as close to her as he can: "What's on sale?", "Uh, where're the Twinkies?", "Yeah, can I get change?" The crowning moment of this song is where he finally loses his cool and just comes out and announces: I love you!, and it echoes through the music as the guitar solo gets going. The guitar gets increasingly unhinged and high-pitched as the song closes and he continues to I'm a customer until the very end. Poor poor man.

Hangin' Downtown

There is one theme running through this album: that of the aimless, unambitious and somewhat hopeless youth, making music to say things that on the surface really don't need to be said. Over and over again. They take the most banal experiences and tangential ideas and turn them into ramshackle, chaotic music, for no more reason than because it's what they know and, probably, what they enjoy. This song, for example, is about hanging around downtown (surprising, huh), but nothing happens in the song. A bus stop is mentioned, as is TV and liquor stores, but the song goes nowhere. The music somehow livens the thing up: the relentless energy and freedom they play with and Westerberg's hoarse frantic vocals combine to give the song some spirit, while simultaneously showing up the mundanity of the lyrics.

Kick Your Door Down

The lyrics to this song are just gumpf grouped around the theme made evident in the title. The music is somewhat more restrained than it has been so far, with the lead guitar mixed more distinctly, and playing almost smoothly, slightly calmer drumming, vocals that sound almost like real singing from Westerberg, and an overall slower pace. It's kind of an opposite to Hangin' Downtown, where the music was wild but the events in the song were dull, as here it's all knock pound knock pound/I'm gonna kick, kick/your door down, but in a bizarrely sedate fashion for the most part. It's the second-longest song on the album, too, which came as a surprise to me when I realised.

Otto

The lyrics go everybody got to go Otto, Otto/everybody wants to know Otto, Otto, in the beginning of the song, a very repetitive, fiercely whirlwind beginning, then it slows to an old-style chugalong about halfway through to

Tried to come over here
Thought I might give her, give her a call
Tried to phone my baby, give her a call
But Otto, he went crazy
He ripped the phone right off the wall

At which point it revs right up again just to let Stinson the elder mess around on his guitar for a while before the song ends. So in other words this song is meaningless lyrically and kinda whatever musically.

I Bought a Headache

This song is the middle of the "whatever" trio of songs on this album, where I am just like hurry up with better songs please. This one is about wasting your money on shit drugs blah blah blah. Production quality is pretty bad too, it sounds pretty much live. I like the bassline though, so well done ickle Tommykins. I don't care how old he is now, he will always be ickle Tommykins to me.

Rattlesnake

The transition from Headache to this song promises so much, but the song fails ultimately to live up to that promise. It's a ramshackle jam where Westerberg goes on and on about being a rattlesnake: Cruisin' on my belly all night long I'm a rattlesnake I'm a rat a rat a rat. He sounds stoned in the end when it slows down and wears out at the end. I don't know why I even bothered to mention that.

I Hate Music

My one beef with this song is that it just has far too many notes.

Johnny's Gonna Die

This is one of my favourite songs by them ever. Of which there are probably at least twenty. It has similarities to the sound of some of Johnny Thunders' own dark songs from the late seventies, especially So Alone. I assume this is intentional. There's a lot of empty space in the song, hypnotic bass, ghostly guitar lines, and sparse lyrics portraying Johnny as a lonely, fucked up man on the edge of reality, just edging closer and closer to the inevitable. The ending is tragic, with Westerberg calling out Johnny ... Johnny ... building up into a desperate howl, then just closing out the song with fading bye-bye ... bye-bye ... It took Thunders quite a few years to eventually make the song come true, but I guess it was always going to happen. I can't imagine how it would have felt for him to hear this song, or how the Replacements felt when he really had died. I hear it in context all the time, and I have only come to love it more the more I hear of Thunders' life and work. Even the childish Johnny's gonna die, na na na-na naaa naa is made poignant by the atmosphere. Though the song sticks out like a sore thumb on this album in terms of both sound and attitude (it is well-crafted !!?!), when considered in context with their later work it fits in perfectly.

Shiftless When Idle

This is another one of those songs generally considered to be the best on an album which I just see nothing special in. I'm listening to it now, trying to think of something to say, but to me in seems pretty much a by-the-numbers early Replacements song, without really much to say but saying it anyway, forcing a little energy into it but ultimately not memorable.

More Cigarettes

He's fixated on cigarettes, needs more, smokes them a lot, needs more again.

Don't Ask Why

This was an early favourite of mine, for two main reasons:

You're...

Goin'...

Out of my mind
I'm...

Stayin'...

Out of your...
Way I used to love ya
That's the way I hate ya now
You know the way I used to love ya
That's the way I hate ya
Don't ask why
Don't ask why
Don't ask why

Pretty good lyrics, especially for the standard of this album, but the delivery is what makes it great, the way it goes from being words into ragged fragments of sound just falling out of his mouth. The other great bit is the ending:

Don't ask why
Don't ask why
Don't ask why
Don't ask why

...Why not?

In terms of what the song is about, it's the first kind of conventional relationship song. They're usually more into songs about the lifestyle, but this song is really a pretty good breakup song, where it's a surprise to neither party, not really a sad thing (You don't call, I don't cry), but he's still apparently not all that happy about it. The song itself is fast, driven by drums heavy on the rolls like so many of their songs are, with pretty frenzied guitar and Westerberg's hoarse, impassioned vocals giving it no small amount of character.

Somethin' to Dü

The second song about another band, this is a song obviously about Hüsker Dü, their contemporaries and local rivals. Like Johnny's Gonna Die, they take the style of their subject and meld it with their own. As a result, this song is fast and guitar-driven, heavier than their usual fare. It seems to be fondly derisive, with digs at the tough-guy image the Huskers had:

Delivering noise
Real tough boys
What else have I got?
Half-priced drugs
Stolen guitars
What else is new
It's somethin to du
Somethin to du
Well it ain't nothin' new

Also, the stand around and sweat/girls? you bet! has to be tongue-in-cheek, and usually makes me grin. As does the end, where it changes to Somethin' to Husker, and as the song ends you hear break the [Bob] mould, which despite all the rivalry stuff flying around never actually seemed to be on anyone's agenda. Despite being from the same city, kind of playing the same scene, I never picked up on there being any actual bad blood between the two. Maybe because they really weren't that similar, just lumped together by geography and the way they started.

I'm in Trouble

You're in love/And I'm in trouble. What more needs to be said? Girlfriends only spend my cash, waste my time so this guy's in deep shit with this girl crushing on him. He runs and hides, but draws the line at suicide. I really like this song, even though I can't really think of anything to say about it. Not many lyrics, not much stands out musically. Just good, somehow.

Love You Till Friday

Building on the same theme, this song starts up with:

Girls are a pain in my life
When they try to be my wife

Commitment is not a strong point, it seems. The whole love you till Friday thing consistently makes the da-da-da-da! from David Bowie's Love You Till Tuesday go through my head. Thanks a lot, Replacements, what did I do to deserve that? I don't need reminders of dumb old twee pop while listening to your album. The styles don't exactly mix well. Aside from that, the song keeps the momentum of the album going without adding too much of interest for me.

Shutup

I am always slightly confused by this song, not only because half the lyrics are incomprehensible (he really lays on the rasp and lays off the diction) but because I'm really not sure who he's talking to at different points and who exactly is being told to shut up and why. I really enjoy listening to it though, even though it tooks me months to understand the lyrics to the second verse, which are clearly the greatest part of the whole song:

Well Tommy's too young
Bobby's too drunk
I only can shout one note
Chris needs a watch to keep time
We'll never find the time to vote

Raised in the City

What better way to end the album but with a perfect summary of the attitude, a song with lyrics such as:

Raised in the city
Till I'm old
Buy a car maybe
When I'm old
This my goddamn band

and

Outta my way
I can't see it
Outta my way
Can't see no band

Most of the songs in the middle aren't even necessary. Open with Takin' a Ride, close with Raised in the City, you know what the deal with this band is.

But they end up going a lot further. As fun as this album is, it's pretty much an exercise in unpolished rock and roll. I don't know exactly how punk I consider it. They're disenfranchised youth, yes, the music is fast, pretty sloppy and straightforward, yes, the songs are short, yes, the vocals are more emotional than they are melodious, yes, but I just don't get much of a punk feel from the whole thing. It's called punk, maybe even hardcore, but I'm just not convinced. If anything they only hit punk at Stink, before they just came out with Hootenanny, Let It Be and Tim. There are hints of what is to come to be found in this album, but it is still incredible to me that they developed so much without losing the spirit that can be found here.

Probably my third- or fourth-favourite album by them, but being my introduction to their music always has a soft spot in my heart. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going off to listen to Johnny Thunders.