the Best Rock Band

A journalist once asked Paul Westerberg. "Who is it that you want to replace?" His reply tells you all you ever need to know about the best rock and roll band, The Replacements. He said, "Everyone".

Rock and roll greatness is not measured in record sales or sold out arenas. To me it is how it affects you personally and great music hits you on a primordial, spiritual and intellectual level. If a band can achieve all three of these, then they are truly great in my estimation. For me the band that gets my feet stomping, touches my soul and makes me feel on an intellectual and emotional level like almost nothing else in the world is The Replacements. Rather than inundate you with a heap of information of the history of this band and how they came to be, I'm going to give you a brief glimpse of them. Besides, a quick Google search will give you everything you might want to know about the birth, life and death of this band.

I was a latecomer. I was not exposed to The Replacements until 1992, almost a full year after they had broken up and nearly thirteen years after their inception. My introduction to the band was given to me by a college roommate of mine. I remember him being very excited and claiming "You have to hear this band, The Mats. They are amazing." I was to find out later that the reason they were nicknamed "The Mats" is that a rival band once jokingly referred to them as "The Placemats" and the guys in the band thought it was funny and hence "The Mats" stuck. I remember him lovingly pulling the CD from its case and carefully putting it into the CD player. I glanced at the album artwork, while my friend quickly skipped over tracks to the desired song. I looked at the title "Tim", a strange name for an album I thought. Seconds later the first notes of "Bastards of Young" came roaring out of the speakers followed by that blood curdling howl of Paul Westerberg and the first lyrics to the song,

"God what a mess, on the ladder of success
Well you take one step and missed the whole first wrung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten"I was stupefied. This man in his gravelly voice that sounded like he'd downed a concoction of whiskey, cigarettes and gargled some nails for good measure, had summed up in a single stanza of a song, the angst I felt being a junior in college and soon to be unleashed on the adult world. I was hooked from that moment. Westerberg was talking directly to me. It is a common theme you find with fans of The Replacements. They have the innate ability of making you feel like you are in the room with them and these songs are only for you. A critic once said very appropriately, "They weren't a band. They were a gang." Those of us privileged enough to be part of The Replacements gang will never forget them.

When The Replacements first formed in 1979 their bass player, Tommy Stinson was 13 years old with drummer Chris Mars being 17 and singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg and lead guitarist/Tommy's brother, Bob Stinson both 19 respectively. Yet for their youth, they had a power and sound that was well beyond their years. Their debut album "Sorry Ma Forgot To Take Out The Trash", released in 1981 is an astounding collection of songs for such raw, unrefined talent. At moments the album sounds undeniably punk rock, fast and furious, yet sprinkled throughout are the seeds of tenderness, wit and power of observation that in later years would make The Replacements the darlings of music critics and college radio.

1984 to 1987 was to me, the most fertile period for The Replacements. "Let it Be", "Tim" and "Pleased To Meet Me" were a three album run that is nearly unequaled in rock history and these three albums make up the backbone of The Replacements pantheon of songs. They are such an eclectic collection of styles and influence that they defy categorization. The Replacements were musically a gifted band, but lyrically as the band evolved Paul Westerberg emerged as a voice that was not to be ignored and a true rock poet like his fellow Minnesotan and influence, Bob Dylan. His delivery was pure passion and sublime, raw emotion. Westerberg lyrically wore his heart on his sleeve and his fans and critics alike, loved him for it. He was real in an industry that celebrates pretense and deifies its messengers. The Replacements released two more albums before their ultimate demise in 1991. There were moments of brilliance on these two albums as well, but the band had run its course and after a final show in 1991 they called it quits.

As a live act, The Replacements were legendary and not always for the right reasons. One night they could blister an audience with brilliance and the next they might play a horrendous show that left the crowd shaking its head. This was part of their allure. They were notorious for partying and by show time being too drunk or drugged up to actually perform their own songs. It wasn't unusual for them to play a show of sloppy cover tunes.In the early days they would show up to a punk rock club and subsequently play blues and country songs, while if they got booked into the local country bar, they would play punk rock. They seemed hell bent on alienating as many people as possible and yet their stock rose. As their status grew they seemed intent on sabotaging their careers. In 1986 they appeared on Saturday Night Live and proceeded to get drunk with the host Harry Dean Stanton for several hours before the performance. They were subsequently banned from SNL for their behavior and for Paul Westerberg yelling an obscenity across the stage during the performance. As part of their contract with Sire/Warner Brothers they had to do a video for MTV. In defiance they released "Bastards of Young" as a single screen shot of a stereo speaker and Paul Westerberg's foot tapping in beat to the music.

Rock and roll has always belonged to the rebellious, the dissatisfied, the rogue and the counterculture. The Replacements exemplify these qualities perfectly. They were a bundle of contradictions and this is why the word irony creeps into so many descriptions of the band, and also why the band had, and still has such a cult following. They were alternative rock before the term had been coined. They hailed from Minneapolis in a time when if you wanted to be commercially successful in a band, you almost exclusively had to be in Los Angeles or New York. They were young and brash yet extremely shy and self deprecating. They were incredibly ambitious yet petrified of the fame and fortune that came with rock stardom. They were arrogant and cocky, yet totally uncomfortable in their own skin. It is this very dichotomy that makes them the best rock and roll band ever. They are rock and roll, they reside outside the boundaries and they are beautiful and flawed.

The Replacements never had a top 40 song or a top 40 album. They appeared and disappeared from the rock and roll radar in a brief blip. They are now relegated to the status of cult icons. They have a small, select and loyal audience that keeps their music, stories and memory alive. But in the end they have their reputation and mostly they have their songs. The songs are both a testament to their talent and greatness, and a reminder that they were a group of regular guys that just wanted to, as Paul Westerberg has put it, "Avoid getting a real job." For me it is their humanity, their intelligence, their irreverence and their blemishes that make them the best rock and roll band. The Replacements wrote a song called "I Don't Know" that sums up their band and their careers as succinctly and wonderfully as anything. It shows a band that had made the jump to a major label and was wrestling with fear of failure, fear of success and all the pressures that come along with being a cog in the great workings of the music business and they are some of greatest and most poignant lyrics ever penned. It is a tiny illustration, one of hundreds that make The Replacements the best rock and roll band.

One foot in the door
The other foot in the gutter
Sweet smell that they adore
I think I'd rather smother

The Replacements straddled the line between the door and the gutter and this is what made them great.