By Jay Mazeffect
You
know the story. Or better yet, the legend.
Rowdy bunch of Mid-westerners spring up outta
the Twin Cities, give the underground rock
scene the indie equivalent of the Clash fronted
by a pizza and beer-fueled Bob Dylan, spend
a good portion of their career either tearing
the house down in transcendent, alter-your-life-and-way-of-thinking
performances, or drunkenly stumbling through
rambling, barely coherent sets of classic
rock and old country numbers, perennially
snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
They go for the brass ring on "the ladder
of success, and miss the whole first rung",
have some casualties along the way, and sort
of peter-out before they could reap the benefits
of the oncoming Nirvana-fueled musical upheaval
that they obliviously paved the way for.
I'm not going to go into an extended history
lesson. There's no point. You've heard it
all before, most likely when the first wave
of Rhino reissues came out some time ago (Sorry
Ma..Forgot To Take Out The Trash, "Stink,"
Hootenanny, & Let It Be).
Besides, if you want to get all of the stories
about the decadence and the delicate, google
"The Replacements." Not the Keanu
Reeves movie, you plebeian. Click on the one
after that.
What
I want to discuss is the music. But not in
the way you might imagine. You see, most people/articles/reviews
will spend their time touting the glories
of Tim and Pleased To Meet Me.
Rightfully so. These two records, along with
Let It Be, form a mid-eighties equivalent
of Bringin' It All Back Home, Highway
61 Revisited, and Blonde On Blonde.
Or even Rubber Soul, Revolver, and
Sgt. Pepper's. Yes, they are THAT
GOOD. All three are essential listening to
anyone that has a soul. Seriously. You should
be issued these records at the onset of puberty,
to help you through those acne-laced, self-doubting
years. Teen suicide would drop to almost nil,
I tell ya....But I digress. What I do want
to discuss at length are the last two of the
Replacements oeuvre, Don't Tell A Soul,
and All Shook Down.
Don't
Tell A Soul and All Shook Down
have been criminally overlooked, standing
in the shadows of the catalog that preceded
them. DTAS has been derided for being too
slick, lacking the passion of previous releases,
sounding like they sold out and were trying
to get a hit (which they did, get a hit, although
a minor one, in "I'll Be You") and
just sort of being a letdown after the indie
rock holy trinity of Tim, Let It Be,
and PTMM. To that, I say NAY!!! Sitting
back and listening to this reissue (with a
pristine remastering) reminded me that most
people got it wrong the first time around,
back in 1989. The album wasn't some sort of
major label about-face, complete with over-synthesized
regurgitated pap, but a collection of songs
as honest and poignant as any of their other
albums. People got caught up in the "shave
and a haircut" cleanliness of DTAS, but
the reality of it is, if these songs were
recorded on an 8-track reel to reel at Blackberry
Way Studios in Minneapolis, minus the spit
and shine, people would've hailed songs like
"Rock 'N' Roll Ghost" as a worthy
follow-up to "Here Comes A Regular,"
and "Talent Show" as an appropriate
album opener in the vein of "I Will Dare".
If you've ever heard the rip-roaring version
of it from the "Live Inconcerated"
promo disc, you'd know what the hell I was
talking about. But in lieu of that (my only
real complaint with this reissue in particular
is that they didn't include that aforementioned
EP in the bonus tracks), there is a demo version
of "Talent Show" that sounds more
like the 'Mats most folks know and love. I've
often told anyone that would listen that if
you stripped away the sheen, this album would
rock just as much as their greatest works.
The songs are THERE, man. Aside from the classics
"Achin' To Be" and "I'll Be
You", they have the passionate yet passive
"We'll Inherit The Earth", the underrated
"Back To Back", and the lovely ballad
"They're Blind". The bonus tracks
give us a peek into the "business as
usual" 'Mats, the fun, anything goes
unpredictability, with "Date To Church"
(featuring a certain Mr. Tom Waits), and the
rollicking good time set in stereo known as
"Gudbuy T' Jane" (a cover of the
Slade classic). By the way..listen all the
way to the end of "Jane" to get
a good laugh at indie rock's expense. I won't
give it away, but it made me chuckle...
All
Shook Down is the most interesting 'Mats
release, on an intellectual level. It's like
the boys from Minnesota (unbeknownst to them
at the time) had created their very own version
of Big Star's Third/Sisters Lovers
whatever you want to call it. It’s a
pop music diary of disintegration. A more
accurate title would've been Dead Man's Pop
(the original title considered for DTAS, but
more appropriate for this record). It was
a chaotic collection of people (Chris Mars
played on all of two songs on the record,
with a veritable who's who of studio musicians
filling out the proceedings,) giving life
to Paul Westerberg's running account of disintegration
and disinterest in what the ‘Mats had
become, and what became of them. Heady stuff,
indeed. It has its pop, like the beautiful
opening track "Merry Go Round" (the
Replacements knew how to open a record I tell
ya!), but listen to those lyrics: Melancholy,
right outta the gate. This record traverses
the musical/emotional field, from the devil
may care, flippant laugh at the state of the
union in songs like "One Wink At A Time"
and "When It Began", to the just
downright sad, hole-in-your-chest offerings
of "Sadly Beautiful" and the title
track. The bonus tracks give an even greater
insight into this swan song, but over and
above that, included on here is the Tommy
Stinson penned and sung "Satellite".
It first appeared on the "Don't Buy Or
Sell, It's Crap" promo CD, and then buried
on disc two of the "All For Nothing,
Nothing For All" collection that came
out a few years back. I note this particular
song, simply because it's one of the finest
songs the Replacements ever did, and it NEVER
got the attention it deserved. Spin it a few
times and then try to tell me it’s not
an over-looked classic...
All four of these reissues have superior
liner notes, extensive photos and information,
and amazing sound quality. Tim and
Pleased To Meet Me have also been
repressed on vinyl for you fetishists out
there.
In these hard times, I can quite comfortably
tell you without a shadow of a doubt to throw
what little money you have the 'Mats way.
It's not soul music, but music for the soul...
Now where's the reissue of "When The
Shit Hits The Fans"?
Jay Mazeffect
