Released: October 28, 1997
Reprise Records
This is actually two discs, but the second disc comes up as Nothing For All on the 'ole iTunes, and so I'm not going to mess with the order. The first disc features songs from the major label releases on Sire Records: Tim (1985), Pleased to Meet Me (1987), Don't Tell a Soul (1989) and All Shook Down (1990). A couple of months ago I heard an interview on KEXP with Jim Walsh, whose book about the band, The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting, was published last year. I do want to read it, and hopefully I'll get to it this summer before school starts in September. He and Kevin Cole (the dj interviewing him) talked about how they just never took off in the way they should have. I have read and heard, before, how the band kinda shied away from the spotlight when they had the opportunity; and when they were ready (and sober, I believe) to dive in, they just didn't make quite the splash anticipated. Too, too bad. I remember when Don't Tell a Soul was released and everyone I knew loved the single, "I'll Be You". I was a freshman in high school and had heard of the band, but didn't own any music. (I didn't own a lot of music, period, unless I could get it used from Zia and it was $2.99. Can you believe that? Used tapes used to be $2.99... did I just do one of those, "When I was your age music used to cost a nickle!" things? Ouch.) Even then, among those who had followed the band there was talk of "selling out" on that album. Well, others claimed the same thing when they signed to a major label after Let it Be. Am I talking out of my ass, here? Probably.
In college my boyfriend at the time owned lots of Replacements cds. Hurrah! I became a much bigger fan and sans the "they've sold out" baggage. Not that I haven't been a curmudgeon in that regard. And some bands really do. They get big and they get lazy and they lose something. Not everyone. Not every band that can sell out Wembly Stadium has signed a contract with the corporate devils and lost all artistic integrity. Now in my 30's, I've tried to let go of the whole "ahhh... That band I like had a successful record and play concerts at Key Arena now. They've sold out." Bull. Great bands should make money. Good for them. The bummer in that is the inability to see them in a small venue and for less dollars. Otherwise... as long as the music is still good, back off naysayers! I digress. The point of the boyfriend/Replacements catalog is that when we were no longer together I no longer had a steady supply of their albums. It's taken me quite a while to acquire some more, and that's till not much. What with the Rhino Records reissue of the first four (?) albums and the future release of the rest of 'em, I plan to remedy this situation. Until then...
"Left of the Dial" starts out this compilation album. Outstanding, and appropriate, first choice. That guitar intro thrills me every time I hear it. A declaration. An anthem of underground music. "Here Comes a Regular" always makes me think of my friend, D., and a letter he wrote me from Seattle when I was still living in Phoenix and we did things like that. Write letters and miss each other. He wrote that he'd seen Westerberg play at the Crocodile and when he sang that song, tears happened. I don't hear this song without thinking of that letter. Of D. Of our friendship.
Besides the lyrics and the guitar, what I love about the Replacements is the DRUMS! It's the exact kind of drumming that makes me giddy when I hear it and too bad for me that I never saw them live. Bands with infectiously great drums I am a sucker for. I don't know how to describe it or what the precise quality is that gets me, but there is definitely a certain something and that je ne sais quoi remains a theme in my music likes. The Walkmen, U2, Pela, The National... o so many others, but those immediately come to mind (probably because that's what I've been listening to, lately). One day, I'm going to come across a writer who articulates that quality that resonates all over me, and I'm going to copy it down and then I'll be able to say why.
What I like about the set up of the album, in general, is listening to the maturation of the band. I don't mean to say they grow up, though they do--we all do, hopefully. (I realize that the band went through some lineup changes and that the final album was essentially a Westerberg solo project without officially calling it that.) Maybe it's that despite never having the commercial success that they deserved--above many other bands who did--they never sound like they gave up. They still believed in making music and making it good and not being stuck.
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