So what is your favourite Replacements track? Comment below Trash Theory playlists - Spotify: tinyurl.com/yxp32pjf Deezer: tinyurl.com/y2mdp8h2 Also if you want to help out, here's my patreon link: patreon.com/trashtheory
I was post-punk, knew their name, couldn't tell you a song if my life depended on it. That's how interesting they were for me, a weekly visitor of record shops.
Met Paul after a concert in Memphis many years back. About 40 people, myself included, lined up by his bus after the show. He allowed each one of us on his bus one at a time, let us sit on the couch with him, talk, get autographs, and take pictures. I’ve never experienced anything like it since. Great guy. The Replacements are legends.
On their tour in 1990, they had an in-store appearance in Chicago and there were a lot of people there, with a sizable number left in line at the end. Paul came outside, said hello, and signed autographs for everyone there. It was thoughtful and generous.
Yeah, he's a nice guy. Met him while he was walking with his wife around Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis about 15 years ago. I'm not an autograph or selfie guy, but I just wanted to shake his hand and thank him for the outstanding music. He could have easily said no, but he indulged me.
They have something in common with a lot of my favorite rock bands, which is the DGAF attitude. Not to say they don't care about the music (they cared deeply), they don't give a shit about anything or anyone else. Their industry self-sabotage is emblematic of that.
One of the most poignant lyrics I've ever heard in a song came from this album, on the track 'Bastards of Young' : " The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest And visit their graves on holidays at best The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them" Pure poetry 👍
Strongly disagree that Tim was their last "great" album. Pleased To Meet Me is every bit as great as the previous two, and arguably a much stronger overall album than either. Bob was hugely influential, and yes the band did change after he left, but to imply that everything after his departure was worse is overly simplistic and wrong.
I’m a lifelong Twin Cities resident, and I can tell you that the legend of the Replacements will forever be interwoven into the soul of Minneapolis/St. Paul. They are us and we are them. We also take pride in Prince being one of as well, but what average person from Minnesota or anywhere else could relate to a talent as unique as Prince? Who would ever feel like Prince was singing for them, or saying what they were feeling inside the way Paul Westerberg does? We cherish them both, but for representing different scenes of the same dream; one for being bigger than life and making it to the top...and the other for having the talent to write songs about the fear and dissatisfaction for life that all of us know, using words we never could. I have to go with “Alex Chilton” as my fav, but that could change in 10 minutes because there are so many.
@@neboderkica Hell yes. I have been to so many Bob Mould shows in the past 15 years that I lost track. Huskers and the Mats are nearly always mentioned in the same breath in the Twin Cities, and I love their music as much as I do the Replacements. It’s interesting to look at the similarities and differences that made them who they were...both formed in 1979 in Minnesota, Husker Du in St. Paul, the Replacements in Minneapolis....both started out as punk bands but had writers whose pop sensibilities were too strong to keep at bay...both had prolific songwriter front men, but Husker Du also had a formidable writer in Grant Hart whereas other members of the Mats didn’t write (or record their songs at least) during their time in the band....both Paul & Bob are Alt rock icons who later did arguably stronger work in their own bands, but also as troubadours who toured playing solo gigs with just a guitar...the gayest looking member of Husker Du was actually the only straight one, whereas the Mats were all heterosexual....Husker Du actively promoted themselves in a DIY fashion and were driven by Bob’s ambition, whereas the Replacements were nurtured and promoted by Peter Jesperson while actively sabotaging themselves many times....addiction led to the end of their classic lineups, the Mats managed to survive with Slim, whereas Husker ended their run....both bands came up in the incredible Twin Cities music scene of the 1980’s that included Prince and his protégés, along with the many alt rock bands. Off the top of my head, here’s a list of some of the talent that came out of the Minneapolis/St. Paul scene of the 80’s: Husker Du, Replacements, Soul Asylum, Suburbs, Dan Wilson (Semisonic), Prince, Morris Day, the Time, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Information Society, the Jets, Run Westy Run, Dez Dickerson, Andre Cymone, Babes In Toyland...and the rest I can’t think of at the moment...yet all we hear in the press is them waxing nostalgic about Seattle in the 90’s, which was awesome, but the Twin Cities doesn’t get promoted in the same way. It’s odd too, because with the media so obsessed with pushing race, you’d think they’d point to a place & time where both Rock music done primarily by white guys (extra points from the p.c. crowd for some of them being openly gay), and R&B/Funk/Rock by largely black musicians (yet also having the diversity seen in Prince’s bands) co-existed successfully. They don’t for some reason, and it’s probably because nobody here cared about the race angle as we were too busy enjoying the music.....So yeah, I love Husker Du as much as I love the Replacements, and even though they had many differences and similarities as well, the constant was their amazing music.
Tons of great music from Minnesota, besides Prince. Of course they are lesser known :) Trip Shakespear. Information Society ( whom I love.) Gear Daddies, whom I adore. etc. Love the Replacements of course. I think I first heard Alex Chilton. Well, I thought, this is pretty good. And I bought a bunch of stuff. And Hootenany was IT man! So much raw energy. So thrashy or punk or whatever you want to call it. And I listen to "Run It" and I can see the streets mentioned, and it makes me think of CC club where my dad bartended for many years. Miss you dad.
saw them warm up the plasmatics or iggy in mpls. when they did andro, bob came out in a skirt, ripped it off and jinglejangled through the crowd and bumped everyone, some over, on the way to the back bar. it was a fun memorable night. sad that bob passed. also the legends not having some commercial success to retire well doesnt make sense to this broke geeze
It's especially cool to consider how progressive that song is for being released in 1984. Paul's a great guy, even if he doesn't want to show it all the time.
Blew the chance to make money, sure. I still believe without the commercial success they are even more “legendary”. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Tim or even Paul’s solo stuff. Felt like I’d been robbed but it made it that much better.
Tell me do you like working harder at something than you have done at any point of your life only to NOT get paid? This romantic BS about "selling out" or missing financial success is pure unadulterated hot steamy crap. Unless you play in a band you have literally no idea how much work goes into getting where they were before it blew up.... like ZERO idea
@@robschaller9061 exactly. It’s cute to say”oh man, don’t sell out”when we go home to our houses after a show, but they gotta go to a hotel, get back on the bus.. daily.. I’m sure it get old!! It’s not a glorious life. Get the money when ya can, kids
My band opened for the Mats in 1986 in Dallas.They were very cool guys. When we asked what "Tim" meant backstage, Tommy signed our record as "This Is Money". T.I.M.
I had beers with him, same tour, Tuscaloosa. He signed my show flyer "Tim = This Isn't Money." I later learned the recording studio adage "Time Is Money."
But... Pleased To Meet Me is my favourite... The songwriting is fantastic, the jazz and blues influence keeps the record sounding diverse, and it has Alex Chilton. Can't go wrong with that.
You're entitled to your very wrong opinion :) I also like Pleased To Meet Me a ton, but I also tend to like the 'raw' or live versions of the songs better than the over produced versions on the record.
Fun lil trivia, When Johnny Knoxville was picking the theme song for Jackass he put it to a vote w/the crew between Corona by Minutemen and Bastards of Young by The Mats and while I’m happy Corona ended up being an iconic and totally fitting feel for Jackass, knowing that Knoxville had his ear on something that hits the heartstrings of self-destruction as a philosophy made me think of Jackass in a whole different light.
@WadeKubat: I actually used to work with Johnny Knoxville circa 1994 before he was Johnny Knoxville. I remember him saying once that he was raised on William Faulkner and the Sex Pistols. I never really paid much attention to Jackass though I am a huge Minutemen fan. Saw them live just a few months before D. Boon's death. The larger point is I am not surprised by J.K.'s musical tastes. Regardless of the image of Jackass...I give Johnny (i.e., "PJ" as we called him) credit for being a pretty erudite and well rounded fellow.
Wish I knew who to credit this to, but the best summation of the Replacements I ever read went something like 'the Replacements desperately wanted you to adore them, and when you finally did, they mocked you for it...'.
ehhhh... they were desperate for adoration, then felt embarrassed by it. "We're not punk if we take this seriously". I've been in a couple bands like that. You can always fall back on "we were just joking". Heartbreaking lookng back on those times
Yeah, one of the legendary bands that made college radio in the 80's the unforgettable experience that it was. So many great bands came out of that, the Mats being among the best.
The Replacements are the band I've been looking for my entire life. I grew up on Green Day, Gaslight Anthem, etc. But never found The 'Mats until I hit 30. I'm so glad I did. The yearning, the unshakable feeling that "it's all going to go wrong, so I might as well not try, or blow it up myself". Kindred spirits I suppose.
You just perfectly articulated the way I feel about them, too. The angst, nihilism, booze, isolation, pain, humor, it was all right in your face and real.
I'm absolutely sure that I've been looking for them too, but for a different reason. I look at the world and it seems like no one understands anything. It's just a chaos of everyone talking at the same time, speaking nonsense. I listen to these guys and somewhere, deep inside of me, I believe that they get it. Other people don't get it, but they get it. I feel understood in a way that I don't experience in real life. This band is a replacement for everything and everyone in the world that doesn't make sense to me. it's the only intimacy I ever truly feel and it's not even true. An idea that is both good and very bad.
Growing up in Minneapolis there are few things that hit me in the gut like walking around in the snow blasting the ‘Mats in my headphones on the walk home.. usually with a girl in mind and a beer in hand Excellent documentary, man, keep it up
When I got my first car my dad gave me all his old CDs and Tim instantly became one of my favorite albums ever. To this day the replacements are my favorite 80s band and feel synonymous with my late teens youth, similarly to my dad.
@@Sam_thefool At the 1987 (or maybe 1989) 'Mats' show at the city auditorium here in Austin, that bastard Westerberg threw an empty whiskey bottle into the crowd which almost hit writer Lewis Shiner, then announced the location of the after-party (at my place!) to the entire fucking audience! And then he didn't even bother to show up, of course. I think Chris made it but I didn't see him and Tommy stayed mostly in the bathroom (...) but Slim looked like he was in heaven just because I brought him a beer rather than making him go through the ridiculously long keg line. Oh, and the bassist for openers Fishbone lost his wallet in our couch that night and partially because of that he ended up spending the night in jail, forcing the funky band to play their subsequent Houston show without a bass player!
grrttlc2 True, that and you can hear the influence and sound of The Replacements and Paul Westerberg in a lot of Nirvana and yet they never got mentioned as an inspiration...
I first heard the replacements when let it be came out. I saw them in 1985 at the ritz in nyc. They were wasted and did some great covers...green achers, surfing usa. I like to break it down like this..part one ended after tim came out. They matured as a band but as always the best songs were earlier in this career. Paul was one of the best song writers during my 20’s. I classify them with Big Star the best band that few have heard of.
@@VanielDeeform theres an interview floating around where Kurt says he actually doesn't like the replacements and never got into them. Probably just a coincidence, but I personally dont hear much replacements in nirvanas music anyway.
@@VanielDeeform I swear the first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit blasting out of the radio, I thought it was Westerberg singing w/ the Mats. There are also similarities in the sense of dynamics, in the mix of loud and soft passages.
@@yungforeverboy You know sometimes I think Kurt was messing with people because I have heard him say things like that about so many bands that obviously influenced them. Take anything a rebellious rocker says to the press with a grain of salt
It makes sense. I wasn't sure what kind of place he was writing about. The CC Club. I have to go there in a near future then! Anyway, Paul has a lot of sad songs. MamaDaddyDid is another contender
Yes, great video, with an abundance of video and song clips. The thing about the Replacements is that they are so unique, no documentary, film or book can ever quite capture what made them great. This mini-doc makes clear that they more or less wanted never to become hugely successful (or at least, felt mainstream success would almost be a betrayal of what they were about), and it's their relative lack of success, coupled with the musical heights they hit, that makes them such a legendary band. It's fitting that their failure to hit the bigtime parallels the fate of one of their major influences, Big Star. But as a band they leave an undeniable legacy of which they can be truly proud, and for which their devoted fans will forever be grateful.
I think Hootenanny & PTMM are both 9/10 albums, but Let It Be & Tim are the bonafide classics. The 2023 remaster is a revelation. There’s actually a really good album buried in that terrible mix, after all
Maybe not my "favorite" Mats track, but Sixteen Blue is a song I listen to periodically, as the father of teenage children. It reminds me how fucked up that time of life can be, and reminds me to be kind to my kids, because they're going through a lot of shit. I remember listening to it when I was around that age, and it helped me realize I wasn't completely crazy. It's a beautifully painful and poignant song.
So true and Bob's guitar at the end of Sixteen Blue is one of the most haunting I've heard. Also, none of their shoot-us-in-the-feet antics really matter. 1. Most people just don't have a morbid sensibility AND HUMOR AND SENSITIVITY TO APPRECIATE THEM. 2. Great bands like Guided by Voices can be ignored too. 3. They were ahead of their time. If they were out with Nirvana maybe they would have stood a better chance. Still one of the great bands with 39 great songs; Dylan only has 30, and Neil Young might have 35, I guess I still like them more than the Beatles though the Beatles have a few more good songs. No thanks to Paul McCartney though who wrote 16 great songs v John Lennon 35. I may not know music, but I know my numbers ha.
Oh god, same. I remember coming home from school and immediately putting on Sixteen Blue for several days straight. The album was new back then and I Will Dare was the single but I was transfixed on 16.
Pleased to Meet Me if excellent and Don't tell a Soul was more mainstream but doesn't have any bad songs on it. I love it. They are making a movie about them now, and I imagine it will suck like the narrators voice, but they are famous enough to make movies and write books about them.
@@charles616 I’ve listened to every one of their albums and I agree with their assessment. Bob Stinson leaving their band really changed their sound for the worse in my opinion. The production on these albums is much more slick and generic/streamlined than on previous albums as well
If it means anything, my dad died this past year. I walked to my car after leaving the hospital and the Tim Version of Can’t Hardly Wait is what I put on. I still don't know why, it just felt right
The "Tim" version of "Can't Hardly Wait" is _THE_ definitive version of the song. Even if you hate the single version (the one with the horns), listen to the "Tim" version. Arguably the Mats best song, both wild and soul crushing at the same time.
How does a 24 minute video about Tim not have a single mention of Little Mascara? It was their best song before, but recent remixes have made it an absolute masterpiece, as good as any pop rock song of the 80s.
To be completely honest, I prefer Don’t Tell A Soul to Pleased to Meet Me, and not even the dead man’s pop version. Pleased to Meet Me is an absolutely gorgeous record, but I think overall I prefer DTAS. Pretty unpopular opinion I know.
Agreed 100%. PTMM is an incredible album, despite some of the production tricks/tweaks. They were ferocious in a way they only were as a 3 piece (Paul overdubbing leads), and Dirty Pool, Red Red Wine, Never Mind, and I Don't Know were some of the best/coolest Mats tracks ever! And Mars didn't retire from music, which was another error in this vid.
I just wanted you to know that you just made the only UA-cam Music Minidoc that has ever made me cry. the 'Mats, and especially Tim, are real personal for me. this album is so sad and so fun at the same time. I'm kind of a screwup in my life and this record just speaks to all that failure. the failure of my band, my failure to move on from the bad shit that's happened in my life, etc. I had no idea that Left Of The Dial was actually about a real person, but I love that it was. my first girlfriend and I hosted an alternative radio show in the 2000s called RadiOMG and of course that was our theme song. I think it was the last song we played!
We're all kind of screwups in our lives. Not to take anything away from your screwed up life but that's the side of ourselves that the band hits on so well and glorifies. It's human. Hope you're feeling less like a screwup 2 years later.
To anyone interested in 80s american indie, I'd reccomend Michael Azerrad's 'Our Band Could Be Your Life' book. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular band from the era, from Black Flag to MInutemen, Minor Threat, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Butthole Surfers and obviously The Replacements. The Mats' chapter is specially hilarious, and probably my favourite one in the book.
I was lucky enough to see them on their reunion tour a few years ago when I was in high school. I had no idea who they were but my mom and Uncles told me I had to go. They've grown to be one of my favorite bands. Also, their biography is one of the best books I've ever read.
Cool. Wow. We are so far in the future that there are fans who saw the reunion when they were kids. I'm SO old ...... Time! You bastard! I've had enough!!!
I love the original mix of Tim. It's a classic album. The newly remixed version of Tim is amazing also. To hear it so clear is an experience. The same amount of desperation is there, but it's just a slight bit different. Check it out.
For some reason the Replacements always kinda reminded me Beastie Boys in terms of their attitude. I think it was that particular 1980s brand of smart ass, quasi-juvenile “dumb smart” drunken energy. Both came out of the hardcore scene and both had intentionally ragged performances that served as a middle finger to the people they despised.
Having been born in the Twin Cities, it’s so cool knowing you come from the same area as a great band. It must be how it feels for someone from Liverpool to hear about the Beatles forming there, or someone from New Jersey hearing someone talk about Bruce.
@@idontcareanymore7988 I don’t dislike them, they have some good songs, like that Girl On Heaven Hill song. I just think compared to the Replacements and Minutemen they don’t even come close.
Excuse me, did you just imply that Pleased To Meet Me isn't a truly great album? What the hell are you on about!? There's not a dud on that entire record.
this band was and is so important to my development as a young man. a band that no one else i know even is aware of. the mediocrity, the passion, the innovation. so happy to have heard unsatisfied at 13, never stopped listening
I easily could have written this. Same experience including age! I so clearly remember walking into Bob's Records in Woodstock NY and Let it Be was playing. The album was on display in that place where they used to put the albums that were playing in the store at the time (not sure how to describe it). One look at the album cover (I particularly remember seeing them in converse sneakers thinking that was cool) and 30 seconds of hearing the track that was playing and I bought it immediately. I was also 13 at the time. I became obsessed with them. Throughout high school, I was literally the only person (that I know of) that listened to them. They were a defining band for me. Even more so bc I'm my small town, they were like my secret
@@analogdaniel exactly, i hesitate to even try to put other friends on to them cause they really truly wouldn’t understand what it is about them that brings me to tears. i barely understand
The Replacements are my favourite band. I heard them when I was teenager, and saw the "Bastards Of Young" video on a late night punk show. Blew my mind. I needed more, but had difficulty finding their records. I was fortunate enough to see them in Toronto, at their first reunion show. insane to think in the span of a day I saw The Weakerthans, Dinosaur Jr, Iggy and The Stooges and The Replacements. I never expected to EVER see the Mats live. it was fantastic. Thanks for covering them. I'm intrigued to see what comes out of the Trouble Boys film when it comes out. I think I'd have to say either Unsatisfied or Bastards of Young are my 2 Fav tracks.
I love the Replacements to death. That being said, of the three times I saw them live not one goddamn show was worth a shit. I never felt so let down and ripped off by a band I adored so much in my entire life.
Saw them on their Tim tour. They were a sloppy mess and I loved it! It was exactly what I was expecting. I was 19 and met them at their same energy. To this day, they’re my favorite band ever.
have you ever seen a Pogues show? same feeling. I only got to see the replacements at their last(money grab - according to Paul's shirt) shows. But I loved that I got to see them once.
Only played on MTV a few times? Yeah, but were those times on 120 Minutes? If you got played twice on 120, that pretty much makes you a rock god in my book.
When I was young, I LOVED the Replacements. I bought into the loveable loser narrative. Now, as an adult, I can see so clearly how they blew so many chances. Their music is still great, but it’s sad to look back on all the self sabotage. I bought the Trouble Boys book that went into great detail about everything you could want to know about the Replacements and their history. I read about half of it, but I couldn’t finish it. It was just too sad to relive all their countless stories of self destruction. I was in a band when I was young, and I would have loved to have had 1% of the opportunities they had. To know they squandered almost all of them is depressing and heartbreaking.
Yeah, I can't stand that line of thinking in many of the Replacements fans. It seemed like there were so many "fans" who wouldn't allow them to grow or change or strive because they were supposed to stay the small, unknown, ultracool "lovable losers." I think their later records were all good in different ways.
I love them, one of my favorite bands 💜 I know their whole "failure and self-sabotage" tale is well known, but tbh I think they did pretty well considering and have gained quite a big following throughout the years.
"The coolest losers you'll ever meet" They made some of the best music of that era. That's winning in my book. They didn't get the fame and fortune, just the infamy. Demons. Too many demons. But what great recordings
"We were trying so hard to get a hit but never did, someone was making sure we didn't." Yeah someone was. It was YOU! Lol every time they got a chance to hit it big they intentionally fucked it up, and afterwards are all like aw shucks what happened that was some bad luck the way we made a point to do the opposite of what we needed to do.
I saw the Replacements at the Cameo Theatre on Miami Beach in approximately 1989. I got there early and headed up to the men's room upstairs. I walked in and the whole band was there, hanging out. I was dumbfounded. I literally didn't know what to say...could barely finish my business and slink out. I was 29-30 at the time and just moved from Richmond VA. This opened my world!
Underneath the self sabotage were definitely true artists. The emotion really shows itself on "Androgynous" and "Within your Reach". For a while "Kiss Me on the Bus" was my favorite for some reason.
A mix tape of songs sadder than that Jacobite's song (Which is a great song and very sad indeed): 1.Big Star- "Holocaust" 2. Pinetop 7- "Drying Out" 3.Idaho- "The Thick and the Thin" 4.Mark Eitzel- "An Answer" 5. Red House Painters- "Uncle Joe" 6. The Innocence Mission- "I Never Knew You From The Sun" 7. Low- "Just Make It Stop" 8. Television Personalities- "I Don't Want to Live This Life" 9. Magnetic Fields- "One Hundred Thousand Fireflies" 10. Richmond Fontaine- "Five Degrees Below Zero" 11. Vic Chestnutt- "Flirted With You All My Life" 12. Joel RL Phelps- "Give Me Back My Animal" 13. The Entire Mount Erie album about his wife dying. Edit: Please add songs you think are as sad or sadder. I love sad songs.
Glad to see someone else who knows of Nikki Sudden. Johnny Thunders had some sad ones as well, then I'd go further and play some Nick Drake. Thanks for the idea! cheers
Jason Isbell: If We Were Vampires, Cover Me Up, & Elephant. BYO endless box o Kleenex The Posies version of I Am The Cosmos Edit: Cover Me Up isn’t really sad, but I insta-cry every time I hear it, like Pavlov’s freakin dog
Mats forever. It's sad, but if they didn't have that self-destructive streak, they wouldn't be the same band. I'll always love their music. I'm one of those that didn't think their later albums were bad. I liked it all. Don't tell a soul was over-produced, but there are some really great songs on that record.
For all their self-sabotage, they had another huge shot at the brass ring, which you left out -- opening for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers on tour. Tom's daughter loved them and Tom picked them out for the gig himself. And then, they fucked up, stealing dresses from Mike Campbell's wife to wear onstage. That was the last straw after their typically up-and-down drunken sets, and Petty kicked them off the tour, stealing Westerberg's lyric as revenge "rebel without a clue." Which is how the Mats came off in the end, innit?
Having seen the Mats several times in the 80s and 90s you didn't know if they would do a great show or a terrible one. They were pretty much unpredictable live and they were effin loud.
My mother always loves to tell me this story about seeing the Mats at first ave. She went there one night and didn't know who was playing but the ticket booth lady told her, "you're gonna want to see this band." So she went in and they were fucking amazing. So she told my dad that night, "you gotta come see this band they're playing again tomorrow." And they both went the next night, the whole band was drunk, and disorderly, and Westerberg was falling over himself and all they played was a drunk, ruined version of 'Hello Dolly' My parents left early.
I was lucky enough to see them a bunch of times in MSP when I was in college. You never knew what you were going to get when they got up on stage. I was also at their breakup show in Chicago.
Brilliantly researched piece! The Mats are my favourite all-time band, and their jaded perspective was the coolest thing I'd heard from anyone as a 20-something in the record business. Saw their first reunion show in Toronto (minus Mars & Dunlap) and it was absolutely amazing. Fave track? Answering Machine
I love your channel because it really is well done and well researched. It brings back to ol' MTV, VH1, etc days of their music docs. But somehow you do it so much better and I love it.
Growing up with them...I felt like they were my band. No one had heard of them in the tiny Wisconsin town i was from. I knew they were good then...but damn, they are truly great now. Is it weird that reading these comments and watch the video brings up deep emotion and watering eyes...wtf? Next time you are driving through your city at night...roll the windows down and turn the radio up, play Within Your Reach. Fucking delightful.
Saw them on Don't Tell A Soul tour. One of their "ON" nights. "We'll Inherit The Earth", to this day, is still the best live performance of a song I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure I had an outer-body experience during the coda.
One of the greatest rock bands to ever lay down a track. Me and my brother went to see them in Charleston SC 1987 it seems like every song they did would start perfectly as if to show how good of a band they could be, then the songs would sink into a total mess. The most disappointing part of the show came when Paul played skyline acoustically, Started out perfect then he detuned his guitar and changed the lyrics. I left the show still loving the band but wishing that I would have saved my money. I still love the band as well as Paul's solo work. They were not the Beatles and they were not Madonna. Mainstream success can be both good and terrible. We have their music with credibility in tack. Tom Petty said that even without the fame and fortune he and his band would have played anyway, maybe the same thing is true for the replacements. they were a band that just had to be and if you are one of the lucky ones to know and love the music they made well for me that's good enough.
Just seeing that piece made me feel 20 years younger. All time favorite band. Saw them several times in the 80'a. Some shows were better than others. When you saw them live they could be a box of chocolates.They were as talented as any band in the 80's but seemed to have a real fear of becoming sellouts and self sabotaged any chances of commercial success. Long live the mats.
Lyrics. Lyrics. Lyrics. The poetry is the key. Most people just want something simple minded, something they don't have to be emotionally invested in. i.e. people who don't like the Mats generally aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.
I'd heard about this band and how influential they were, so some years ago I borrowed their 'Best Of' CD from my local library. I listened to it a few times and didn't dislike it by any means, but it didn't make me go "wow", except for a couple of moments here and there. But after seeing this doco and following the highlighted lyrics (and reading some more lyrics in the comments section) I think I'm going to have to do a deeper dive.
I just finished reading it. Gut wrenching. I was fortunate enough to see there first show in Chicago at O'banion's. A lot of us went back to DV8 house including all of the Replacements. They were really nice guys. Paul was actually a little shy & gotton cotton spitting drunk, in a quiet way, Tommy a goofy kid (because he was like 14-15 years old), Bob wasn't there in more ways than one. I thought Chris was the most regular guy in the band. Needless to say there were multiple beer runs that night!
Talent show on the Dont tell a soul album is my favourite track by the Replacements. It feels kind of magical to me. It captures that feeling of being in a band with mates and having a laugh, chasing dreams.
The Replacements sum up every band that was, coming up in the '80s. Parents with they're own fucked up, hypocritical standards and band trying not only to figure their own selves out personally but coming up with a sound that others would approve of while telling those at the top to F-Off. A lot of anger and depression. All the bands repped in this video were at the forefront in our minds, like a bigger sibling to follow and somehow finding that path to still carve out your own originality. Many did and still do, fear success because they do not want to be the Rolling Stones or Metallica; REM was still cool because they weren't that big yet. The Who got it right, I feel sometimes that perhaps it's better to die young when you got your balls running 120 mph and you're going to do something amazing that no one else has done. Bravo for making this video... it's more about the culture at the time then it is about a struggling band trying to do their own thing. Thanks again for making this video!!
So what is your favourite Replacements track? Comment below
Trash Theory playlists - Spotify: tinyurl.com/yxp32pjf Deezer: tinyurl.com/y2mdp8h2
Also if you want to help out, here's my patreon link: patreon.com/trashtheory
My favorite is Androgynous. But I've not yet dived deep into their discography
Favorite Thing by far
Unsatisfied
I was post-punk, knew their name, couldn't tell you a song if my life depended on it. That's how interesting they were for me, a weekly visitor of record shops.
I don't like the Replacements, but your vids are well done Man. You trashed a band or 2 I like as well, but am still a fan of your vids.
Met Paul after a concert in Memphis many years back. About 40 people, myself included, lined up by his bus after the show. He allowed each one of us on his bus one at a time, let us sit on the couch with him, talk, get autographs, and take pictures. I’ve never experienced anything like it since. Great guy. The Replacements are legends.
On their tour in 1990, they had an in-store appearance in Chicago and there were a lot of people there, with a sizable number left in line at the end. Paul came outside, said hello, and signed autographs for everyone there. It was thoughtful and generous.
I was living in Memphis when Tim came out. My good friend's name was Tim. He bought the record and we blazed up and listened to it.
No kidding? Now THAT is quite a way to treat fans, wow--God I wish I could've been one of them! Westerberg is a GOD...
Unfortunately, Paul mistreated many band members with his caustic tongue. But he grew up.
Yeah, he's a nice guy. Met him while he was walking with his wife around Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis about 15 years ago. I'm not an autograph or selfie guy, but I just wanted to shake his hand and thank him for the outstanding music. He could have easily said no, but he indulged me.
They tried? They succeeded. We still listen and talk about them today. That's success.
Yeah, it's like Thunders said; *'It's better to have bad press than no press, it's bad when they stop writing about you..'*
Once people like you are gone, no one will care about them. I was at their early shows. They were never very good.
@@horrido666 it’s gonna be a long time before all the people like him are gone
They have something in common with a lot of my favorite rock bands, which is the DGAF attitude. Not to say they don't care about the music (they cared deeply), they don't give a shit about anything or anyone else. Their industry self-sabotage is emblematic of that.
@@horrido666 so sorry they disappointed you. That must have been rough.
One of the most poignant lyrics I've ever heard in a song came from this album, on the track 'Bastards of Young' :
" The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them"
Pure poetry 👍
It´s very Keats-esque. It´s beautiful.
Yes. That one really hit home with me as well.
One of the best lyrics ever written IMO
I lost my folks from the trump virus so it hit home with me....
Best lyric ever. Breaks my heart every time I hear it because of how true it is.
Strongly disagree that Tim was their last "great" album. Pleased To Meet Me is every bit as great as the previous two, and arguably a much stronger overall album than either. Bob was hugely influential, and yes the band did change after he left, but to imply that everything after his departure was worse is overly simplistic and wrong.
I agree with you 100%
My favorite Replacments record (pleased to meet me)
There are some good songs on “All shook Down” I think “Merry Go round,” and “Bent out of shape” are good songs.
Don't Tell a Soul is one of my favorites too
Absolutely, “Alex Chilton” and “Can’t Hardly Wait” are some of the most electrifying rock songs of their era.
I’m a lifelong Twin Cities resident, and I can tell you that the legend of the Replacements will forever be interwoven into the soul of Minneapolis/St. Paul. They are us and we are them. We also take pride in Prince being one of as well, but what average person from Minnesota or anywhere else could relate to a talent as unique as Prince? Who would ever feel like Prince was singing for them, or saying what they were feeling inside the way Paul Westerberg does? We cherish them both, but for representing different scenes of the same dream; one for being bigger than life and making it to the top...and the other for having the talent to write songs about the fear and dissatisfaction for life that all of us know, using words we never could.
I have to go with “Alex Chilton” as my fav, but that could change in 10 minutes because there are so many.
What about Husker du? Had to be proud at them too.
@@neboderkica Hell yes. I have been to so many Bob Mould shows in the past 15 years that I lost track. Huskers and the Mats are nearly always mentioned in the same breath in the Twin Cities, and I love their music as much as I do the Replacements. It’s interesting to look at the similarities and differences that made them who they were...both formed in 1979 in Minnesota, Husker Du in St. Paul, the Replacements in Minneapolis....both started out as punk bands but had writers whose pop sensibilities were too strong to keep at bay...both had prolific songwriter front men, but Husker Du also had a formidable writer in Grant Hart whereas other members of the Mats didn’t write (or record their songs at least) during their time in the band....both Paul & Bob are Alt rock icons who later did arguably stronger work in their own bands, but also as troubadours who toured playing solo gigs with just a guitar...the gayest looking member of Husker Du was actually the only straight one, whereas the Mats were all heterosexual....Husker Du actively promoted themselves in a DIY fashion and were driven by Bob’s ambition, whereas the Replacements were nurtured and promoted by Peter Jesperson while actively sabotaging themselves many times....addiction led to the end of their classic lineups, the Mats managed to survive with Slim, whereas Husker ended their run....both bands came up in the incredible Twin Cities music scene of the 1980’s that included Prince and his protégés, along with the many alt rock bands. Off the top of my head, here’s a list of some of the talent that came out of the Minneapolis/St. Paul scene of the 80’s: Husker Du, Replacements, Soul Asylum, Suburbs, Dan Wilson (Semisonic), Prince, Morris Day, the Time, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Information Society, the Jets, Run Westy Run, Dez Dickerson, Andre Cymone, Babes In Toyland...and the rest I can’t think of at the moment...yet all we hear in the press is them waxing nostalgic about Seattle in the 90’s, which was awesome, but the Twin Cities doesn’t get promoted in the same way. It’s odd too, because with the media so obsessed with pushing race, you’d think they’d point to a place & time where both Rock music done primarily by white guys (extra points from the p.c. crowd for some of them being openly gay), and R&B/Funk/Rock by largely black musicians (yet also having the diversity seen in Prince’s bands) co-existed successfully. They don’t for some reason, and it’s probably because nobody here cared about the race angle as we were too busy enjoying the music.....So yeah, I love Husker Du as much as I love the Replacements, and even though they had many differences and similarities as well, the constant was their amazing music.
Tons of great music from Minnesota, besides Prince. Of course they are lesser known :) Trip Shakespear. Information Society ( whom I love.) Gear Daddies, whom I adore. etc. Love the Replacements of course. I think I first heard Alex Chilton. Well, I thought, this is pretty good. And I bought a bunch of stuff. And Hootenany was IT man! So much raw energy. So thrashy or punk or whatever you want to call it. And I listen to "Run It" and I can see the streets mentioned, and it makes me think of CC club where my dad bartended for many years. Miss you dad.
Sounds like Gary & F-tards!
@@mnmade9062 love this thank you
Androgynous is easily my favorite Replacements song. Dozens of masterpieces but that completely different track just destroys me.
saw them warm up the plasmatics or iggy in mpls. when they did andro, bob came out in a skirt, ripped it off and jinglejangled through the crowd and bumped everyone, some over, on the way to the back bar. it was a fun memorable night. sad that bob passed. also the legends not having some commercial success to retire well doesnt make sense to this broke geeze
One of my favorites. Period. Joan Jett does a fantastic cover of it
That whole album is amazing, definitely in my top ten favorite albums of all time.
Very relevant song to today.
It's especially cool to consider how progressive that song is for being released in 1984. Paul's a great guy, even if he doesn't want to show it all the time.
Blew the chance to make money, sure. I still believe without the commercial success they are even more “legendary”. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Tim or even Paul’s solo stuff. Felt like I’d been robbed but it made it that much better.
Tell me do you like working harder at something than you have done at any point of your life only to NOT get paid? This romantic BS about "selling out" or missing financial success is pure unadulterated hot steamy crap. Unless you play in a band you have literally no idea how much work goes into getting where they were before it blew up.... like ZERO idea
@@robschaller9061 He has played in a band, according to his Facebook page at least. Have you?
If they made it at the end, they'd be big like R.E.M
@@robschaller9061 Paul was a millionaire (for a day) Tommy gets GNR money, and Chris art nets him a lot of money, and Slim is taken care of.
@@robschaller9061 exactly. It’s cute to say”oh man, don’t sell out”when we go home to our houses after a show, but they gotta go to a hotel, get back on the bus.. daily..
I’m sure it get old!! It’s not a glorious life. Get the money when ya can, kids
My band opened for the Mats in 1986 in Dallas.They were very cool guys. When we asked what "Tim" meant backstage, Tommy signed our record as "This Is Money". T.I.M.
funny but not how they chose the title. Its explained in Trouble Boys. Basically a drunk guy that passed out during their whole set
@scott Makes perfect sense, as the cover features that drawing of a ceiling and Bob too, on his back!
I had beers with him, same tour, Tuscaloosa. He signed my show flyer "Tim = This Isn't Money." I later learned the recording studio adage "Time Is Money."
But... Pleased To Meet Me is my favourite... The songwriting is fantastic, the jazz and blues influence keeps the record sounding diverse, and it has Alex Chilton. Can't go wrong with that.
IKR? Plus, it was recorded in Memphis and produced by the late Jim Dickinson, which mean a lot to me personally.
It's mine too! Soooo good!
You're entitled to your very wrong opinion :)
I also like Pleased To Meet Me a ton, but I also tend to like the 'raw' or live versions of the songs better than the over produced versions on the record.
@@austintrousdale2397 Dickinson? I don't hear any cowbell on P2MM :)
You're right and the video is full of crap on that point. For example, "IOU" and "Red Red Wine" out-rock any song on Tim.
Fun lil trivia,
When Johnny Knoxville was picking the theme song for Jackass he put it to a vote w/the crew between Corona by Minutemen and Bastards of Young by The Mats and while I’m happy Corona ended up being an iconic and totally fitting feel for Jackass, knowing that Knoxville had his ear on something that hits the heartstrings of self-destruction as a philosophy made me think of Jackass in a whole different light.
Wasn’t Corona the theme song for Wild Boyz not Jackass?
@WadeKubat: I actually used to work with Johnny Knoxville circa 1994 before he was Johnny Knoxville. I remember him saying once that he was raised on William Faulkner and the Sex Pistols. I never really paid much attention to Jackass though I am a huge Minutemen fan. Saw them live just a few months before D. Boon's death. The larger point is I am not surprised by J.K.'s musical tastes. Regardless of the image of Jackass...I give Johnny (i.e., "PJ" as we called him) credit for being a pretty erudite and well rounded fellow.
They used Treatment Bound over the credits of one of the Jackass movies.
Eh. "Treatment Bound" still shows up in the credits of #2. That's cool enough for me.
lol wow why y´all styled like how we grew up ?
Wish I knew who to credit this to, but the best summation of the Replacements I ever read went something like 'the Replacements desperately wanted you to adore them, and when you finally did, they mocked you for it...'.
ehhhh... they were desperate for adoration, then felt embarrassed by it. "We're not punk if we take this seriously". I've been in a couple bands like that. You can always fall back on "we were just joking". Heartbreaking lookng back on those times
The Mats have said this about themselves, in interview and lyrics.
It's also best summed up by the psychological term self-sabotage
One of the most underappreciated bands of all time. Just a fantastic group.
Yeah, one of the legendary bands that made college radio in the 80's the unforgettable experience that it was. So many great bands came out of that, the Mats being among the best.
The Replacements are the band I've been looking for my entire life. I grew up on Green Day, Gaslight Anthem, etc. But never found The 'Mats until I hit 30. I'm so glad I did. The yearning, the unshakable feeling that "it's all going to go wrong, so I might as well not try, or blow it up myself". Kindred spirits I suppose.
You just perfectly articulated the way I feel about them, too. The angst, nihilism, booze, isolation, pain, humor, it was all right in your face and real.
I'm absolutely sure that I've been looking for them too, but for a different reason. I look at the world and it seems like no one understands anything. It's just a chaos of everyone talking at the same time, speaking nonsense. I listen to these guys and somewhere, deep inside of me, I believe that they get it. Other people don't get it, but they get it. I feel understood in a way that I don't experience in real life. This band is a replacement for everything and everyone in the world that doesn't make sense to me. it's the only intimacy I ever truly feel and it's not even true. An idea that is both good and very bad.
Are there any specific songs of them that articulate that feeling of "i might as well not try"?? i really want to listen to them
Welcome aboard, youngster!
@@ChorusArtists Great username.
Growing up in Minneapolis there are few things that hit me in the gut like walking around in the snow blasting the ‘Mats in my headphones on the walk home.. usually with a girl in mind and a beer in hand
Excellent documentary, man, keep it up
I live in Mpls as well and I thought he was off on most of it. It's like he's too smart for their sarcasm.
When I got my first car my dad gave me all his old CDs and Tim instantly became one of my favorite albums ever. To this day the replacements are my favorite 80s band and feel synonymous with my late teens youth, similarly to my dad.
How old are you, out of curiosity?
This is more punk then many punk bands ever got
They were staying true to the nihilistic core of punk
@@Sam_thefool At the 1987 (or maybe 1989) 'Mats' show at the city auditorium here in Austin, that bastard Westerberg threw an empty whiskey bottle into the crowd which almost hit writer Lewis Shiner, then announced the location of the after-party (at my place!) to the entire fucking audience! And then he didn't even bother to show up, of course. I think Chris made it but I didn't see him and Tommy stayed mostly in the bathroom (...) but Slim looked like he was in heaven just because I brought him a beer rather than making him go through the ridiculously long keg line.
Oh, and the bassist for openers Fishbone lost his wallet in our couch that night and partially because of that he ended up spending the night in jail, forcing the funky band to play their subsequent Houston show without a bass player!
They were punk in the spirits, totally.
@@Sam_thefool Punk was NOT "nihilistic".
You either don't know what that word means or what punk was. Or both.
lol, no
The end of Replacements coinciding with the break of Nirvana is too much
grrttlc2 True, that and you can hear the influence and sound of The Replacements and Paul Westerberg in a lot of Nirvana and yet they never got mentioned as an inspiration...
I first heard the replacements when let it be came out. I saw them in 1985 at the ritz in nyc. They were wasted and did some great covers...green achers, surfing usa. I like to break it down like this..part one ended after tim came out. They matured as a band but as always the best songs were earlier in this career. Paul was one of the best song writers during my 20’s. I classify them with Big Star the best band that few have heard of.
@@VanielDeeform theres an interview floating around where Kurt says he actually doesn't like the replacements and never got into them. Probably just a coincidence, but I personally dont hear much replacements in nirvanas music anyway.
@@VanielDeeform I swear the first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit blasting out of the radio, I thought it was Westerberg singing w/ the Mats. There are also similarities in the sense of dynamics, in the mix of loud and soft passages.
@@yungforeverboy You know sometimes I think Kurt was messing with people because I have heard him say things like that about so many bands that obviously influenced them. Take anything a rebellious rocker says to the press with a grain of salt
"Here Comes A Regular" - that's the saddest song that I know
That songs about the CC Club. I work there 5 nights a week. Hardly a sad place. More like a den of thieves.
Yes, and one of the best!
Really? I always found Within Your Reach sadder.
It makes sense. I wasn't sure what kind of place he was writing about. The CC Club. I have to go there in a near future then! Anyway, Paul has a lot of sad songs. MamaDaddyDid is another contender
@@t-man5196 I found Neil Young's Little Wing sadder and Westerberg's Things makes me almost cry.
Great video! Love the Replacements! I once was on the same plane as Tommy Stinson to Albany when he was doing the reunion gigs back in 2013/2014ish
Yes, great video, with an abundance of video and song clips. The thing about the Replacements is that they are so unique, no documentary, film or book can ever quite capture what made them great. This mini-doc makes clear that they more or less wanted never to become hugely successful (or at least, felt mainstream success would almost be a betrayal of what they were about), and it's their relative lack of success, coupled with the musical heights they hit, that makes them such a legendary band. It's fitting that their failure to hit the bigtime parallels the fate of one of their major influences, Big Star. But as a band they leave an undeniable legacy of which they can be truly proud, and for which their devoted fans will forever be grateful.
Tommy lives up there somewhere, doesn't he? So weird that he ended up in upstate NY.
@@timontide6404 im not sure if he lives up there it's a lovely area
@@8ackbiter434 They appear masculine, yet also fragile. Also Nirvana.
NO you weren’t !!!
"Pleased to Meet Me" is a masterpiece. One of the best rock albums of all time.
Top to bottom.
Agreed! Might just be my favorite of theirs (or tied with Tim)
Let it Be is their best album in my opinion
Yes!
I think Hootenanny & PTMM are both 9/10 albums, but Let It Be & Tim are the bonafide classics.
The 2023 remaster is a revelation. There’s actually a really good album buried in that terrible mix, after all
Maybe not my "favorite" Mats track, but Sixteen Blue is a song I listen to periodically, as the father of teenage children. It reminds me how fucked up that time of life can be, and reminds me to be kind to my kids, because they're going through a lot of shit. I remember listening to it when I was around that age, and it helped me realize I wasn't completely crazy. It's a beautifully painful and poignant song.
So true and Bob's guitar at the end of Sixteen Blue is one of the most haunting I've heard. Also, none of their shoot-us-in-the-feet antics really matter. 1. Most people just don't have a morbid sensibility AND HUMOR AND SENSITIVITY TO APPRECIATE THEM. 2. Great bands like Guided by Voices can be ignored too. 3. They were ahead of their time. If they were out with Nirvana maybe they would have stood a better chance. Still one of the great bands with 39 great songs; Dylan only has 30, and Neil Young might have 35, I guess I still like them more than the Beatles though the Beatles have a few more good songs. No thanks to Paul McCartney though who wrote 16 great songs v John Lennon 35. I may not know music, but I know my numbers ha.
I like that you have compassion for ya kids. More than we ever got.
That entire album is terrific. Unsatisfied.
That is an achigly beautiful song.
Oh god, same. I remember coming home from school and immediately putting on Sixteen Blue for several days straight. The album was new back then and I Will Dare was the single but I was transfixed on 16.
Couldn't disagree more with the backhanded assessment of their last 3 albums, especially Pleased to Meet Me and Don't tell a soul.
Really? I totally agreed with it
Pleased to Meet Me if excellent and Don't tell a Soul was more mainstream but doesn't have any bad songs on it. I love it. They are making a movie about them now, and I imagine it will suck like the narrators voice, but they are famous enough to make movies and write books about them.
They probably didn't listen to them.
@@charles616 I’ve listened to every one of their albums and I agree with their assessment. Bob Stinson leaving their band really changed their sound for the worse in my opinion. The production on these albums is much more slick and generic/streamlined than on previous albums as well
I agree with you. All three were solid indie pop records with great mood and songs.
Definitely my favorite band of the 1980’s. Westerberg is in rare air as a songwriter.
What Ivan said!
If it means anything, my dad died this past year. I walked to my car after leaving the hospital and the Tim Version of Can’t Hardly Wait is what I put on. I still don't know why, it just felt right
I’m sorry bro
I don’t know why, but that song makes me think of heaven. I’m sorry for your loss. I hope you get to see your dad again some day
There’s two versions of Can’t Hardly Wait on Tim; an acoustic and an electric one. Which one did you put on?
@@t-man5196 electric
@@andrewferguson8032 Thank you.
🎵 How Do You Say I Miss You To An Answering Machine ? 🎵
I always think about how the understanding of that song has an expiry date.
If you need help...if you need help...if you need help.....
great song! the desperation in the vocals! for those uninitiated, it's off of Let It Be.
their best track imho
Song sums up everything great about them, and it doesn't even have drums.
Once Paul got into real songwriting their albums are near perfect. His solo albums are excellent.
The "Tim" version of "Can't Hardly Wait" is _THE_ definitive version of the song. Even if you hate the single version (the one with the horns), listen to the "Tim" version. Arguably the Mats best song, both wild and soul crushing at the same time.
so stupid they left it off Tim.
I'm from Memphis so I actually dig the horn version best, but the lyrics are what nailed my heart first time I heard the song & everytime since
How does a 24 minute video about Tim not have a single mention of Little Mascara? It was their best song before, but recent remixes have made it an absolute masterpiece, as good as any pop rock song of the 80s.
Swinging Party is the saddest song of all time.
Here Comes a Regular tho
You never heard swans or coil then
Good day on one of his solo albums is pretty sad.
@@5ycey7.n.84 true dat tough call
How?
"the last great replacements album..." Um no, Pleased To Meet Me is amazing, and the Dead Man's Pop version of Don't Tell A Soul is great!
To be completely honest, I prefer Don’t Tell A Soul to Pleased to Meet Me, and not even the dead man’s pop version. Pleased to Meet Me is an absolutely gorgeous record, but I think overall I prefer DTAS. Pretty unpopular opinion I know.
Looks like we may just have to agree to disagree on this one
Agreed 100%. PTMM is an incredible album, despite some of the production tricks/tweaks. They were ferocious in a way they only were as a 3 piece (Paul overdubbing leads), and Dirty Pool, Red Red Wine, Never Mind, and I Don't Know were some of the best/coolest Mats tracks ever!
And Mars didn't retire from music, which was another error in this vid.
I just wanted you to know that you just made the only UA-cam Music Minidoc that has ever made me cry. the 'Mats, and especially Tim, are real personal for me. this album is so sad and so fun at the same time.
I'm kind of a screwup in my life and this record just speaks to all that failure. the failure of my band, my failure to move on from the bad shit that's happened in my life, etc. I had no idea that Left Of The Dial was actually about a real person, but I love that it was. my first girlfriend and I hosted an alternative radio show in the 2000s called RadiOMG and of course that was our theme song. I think it was the last song we played!
their biography Trouble Boys had me crying at the end of it, very worth it if you haven't checked it out
We're all kind of screwups in our lives. Not to take anything away from your screwed up life but that's the side of ourselves that the band hits on so well and glorifies. It's human. Hope you're feeling less like a screwup 2 years later.
@@honuman39 I am, thank you
To anyone interested in 80s american indie, I'd reccomend Michael Azerrad's 'Our Band Could Be Your Life' book. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular band from the era, from Black Flag to MInutemen, Minor Threat, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Butthole Surfers and obviously The Replacements. The Mats' chapter is specially hilarious, and probably my favourite one in the book.
Our band could be your life is a lyric from a gorgeous song by the Minutemen called History Lesson part II
That’s a great book.
Just started re-reading it!
@@marlowename3713 Exactly! One of their best songs if you ask me
@@TheHamOnRye23 I usually re-read it from time to time. Specially single chapters. It's just so entertaining
I was lucky enough to see them on their reunion tour a few years ago when I was in high school. I had no idea who they were but my mom and Uncles told me I had to go. They've grown to be one of my favorite bands. Also, their biography is one of the best books I've ever read.
Wish I could have gone, but I didn't know about them yet, you're super lucky man
Cool. Wow. We are so far in the future that there are fans who saw the reunion when they were kids. I'm SO old ...... Time! You bastard! I've had enough!!!
Trouble Boys is a must.
If I could only listen to one band for the rest of my life, it would be the Replacements.
The little band that could have, but didn't, because they weren't sure if they wanted to in the first place
Well said.
Nicely done...
I think they wanted it, but on their own terms. The music industry doesn't work that way.
@@machbaby and it never has or probably will. but they sure got close and thats pretty punk of em
I love the original mix of Tim. It's a classic album. The newly remixed version of Tim is amazing also. To hear it so clear is an experience. The same amount of desperation is there, but it's just a slight bit different. Check it out.
For some reason the Replacements always kinda reminded me Beastie Boys in terms of their attitude. I think it was that particular 1980s brand of smart ass, quasi-juvenile “dumb smart” drunken energy. Both came out of the hardcore scene and both had intentionally ragged performances that served as a middle finger to the people they despised.
Having been born in the Twin Cities, it’s so cool knowing you come from the same area as a great band. It must be how it feels for someone from Liverpool to hear about the Beatles forming there, or someone from New Jersey hearing someone talk about Bruce.
Most people from jersey hate Springsteen, we like the misfits.
@@cmdrcriton Huh... agree to disagree I guess
Great bands from two distinct movements at the same time
R&B/Funk - Prince, The Time etc
PostPunk 'Mats, Husker Du
@@brianmiller1077 the Burbs were the popular band that met at the middle
The replacements, husker du and the minuetmen are the perfect American 80s bands
wipers
@@km-hi9wj I’m a big fan of Greg sage
Yes, minus Husker Du of course.
@@t-man5196 why do you dislike husker du I’d assume if you were a fan of one of these three bands you’d be a fan of all of them
@@idontcareanymore7988 I don’t dislike them, they have some good songs, like that Girl On Heaven Hill song. I just think compared to the Replacements and Minutemen they don’t even come close.
Excuse me, did you just imply that Pleased To Meet Me isn't a truly great album? What the hell are you on about!? There's not a dud on that entire record.
I do concur.
Thank you!!
SHOOTING DIRTY POOL! ALEX CHILTON!
Ohhhhh my heart hurts I'm SO fucking oooold...
WLIR FOREVER!!!!!
Well... "Shooting Dirty Pool" and "Red Red Wine" are definitely the weak links on that album.
THE BEST BAND IN THE WORLD, BAR NONE
Tim is my favorite album of theirs. Fucking brilliant
The album art is one of my favorites. It looks super cool!
They did not get the SNL gig "sight unseen." GE Smith knew of them and pushed for them to be on the show.
@Rouge That was Bob's Les Paul. Theres plenty of pics online of him playing that guitar pre-1986
I'm so happy I got to see them live a ton of times in small venues when Bob was still in the band. They will always be my favorite band.
How’d you discover them?
Alex Chilton is easily my favorite song by these guys
What's That Song ? 😂
Im in love with that song
A true masterpiece
That’s gonna be a yikes from me dawg
"...would rather aim for disaster than risk failure through trying."
Now that is fucking relatable.
You said it, brother feel like that’s my whole life in a nutshell
I think you’ve got to respect Pleased to Meet Me as an album for “Alex Chilton” and “Can’t Hardly Wait” if nothing else. Wonderful tracks
Agreed along with The Ledge and Never Mind
Still my favorite album of theirs, 'specially Alex Chilton, also IOU & Nightclub Jitters
Was waiting for a Replacements episode. Best band of all time.
_No mention of the delicately beautiful piano lead Androgynous?_
this band was and is so important to my development as a young man. a band that no one else i know even is aware of. the mediocrity, the passion, the innovation. so happy to have heard unsatisfied at 13, never stopped listening
I easily could have written this. Same experience including age! I so clearly remember walking into Bob's Records in Woodstock NY and Let it Be was playing. The album was on display in that place where they used to put the albums that were playing in the store at the time (not sure how to describe it). One look at the album cover (I particularly remember seeing them in converse sneakers thinking that was cool) and 30 seconds of hearing the track that was playing and I bought it immediately. I was also 13 at the time. I became obsessed with them. Throughout high school, I was literally the only person (that I know of) that listened to them. They were a defining band for me. Even more so bc I'm my small town, they were like my secret
@@analogdaniel exactly, i hesitate to even try to put other friends on to them cause they really truly wouldn’t understand what it is about them that brings me to tears. i barely understand
How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?
@@analogdaniel how old are you?
@@t-man5196 im 25 at this point
Thank you for this.. As someone from Minneapolis The Replacements will always hold a special place in my heart
Very honest and accurate summation of one of my top five bands. Humbling, sad, and cautionary.
If Only You Were Lonely -- the Replacements at their boozy, mopey, defiant best. Love that song.
“Twenty push-ups this mornin’, that was half of my goal, tonight I’ll be doin’ chin-ups on thee toilet bowl.”
the version with tom waits singing too is awesome!!!
Favourite song by them has to be Treatment Bound. Such an anthem and sums them up so well.
The Replacements are my favourite band. I heard them when I was teenager, and saw the "Bastards Of Young" video on a late night punk show. Blew my mind. I needed more, but had difficulty finding their records. I was fortunate enough to see them in Toronto, at their first reunion show. insane to think in the span of a day I saw The Weakerthans, Dinosaur Jr, Iggy and The Stooges and The Replacements. I never expected to EVER see the Mats live. it was fantastic. Thanks for covering them. I'm intrigued to see what comes out of the Trouble Boys film when it comes out. I think I'd have to say either Unsatisfied or Bastards of Young are my 2 Fav tracks.
discovered the replacements in my dad's vinyl collection after I bought a vinyl player--lifechanging find
Well now we need the story on Big Star. The sad tale of Chris Bell alone is worth it.
ua-cam.com/video/gxAbkqRGxqY/v-deo.html
@@ck1355 Mills and Stipe are in it? I'm sold! Thanks!
@@mikewilson3581 It’s really good.
Oof. Chris Bell. Sad sad story
“Go” I think has to be one of their most underrated songs.
chills.
Completely agree
Yeah I cannot agree more
It really stands out and is Proto-Grunge as well...
Yes, quite an influential track as well
I love the Replacements to death. That being said, of the three times I saw them live not one goddamn show was worth a shit. I never felt so let down and ripped off by a band I adored so much in my entire life.
Saw them on their Tim tour. They were a sloppy mess and I loved it! It was exactly what I was expecting. I was 19 and met them at their same energy. To this day, they’re my favorite band ever.
have you ever seen a Pogues show? same feeling. I only got to see the replacements at their last(money grab - according to Paul's shirt) shows. But I loved that I got to see them once.
I've been a big fan of the Mats since high school back in the 80s... my favorite track of theirs... I think... is probably "Answering Machine".
yeah sad as fuck !
Says a lot about the band that all the fans in the comments are mentioning different songs and albums as their favorites 👍
Only played on MTV a few times? Yeah, but were those times on 120 Minutes? If you got played twice on 120, that pretty much makes you a rock god in my book.
When I was young, I LOVED the Replacements. I bought into the loveable loser narrative. Now, as an adult, I can see so clearly how they blew so many chances. Their music is still great, but it’s sad to look back on all the self sabotage.
I bought the Trouble Boys book that went into great detail about everything you could want to know about the Replacements and their history. I read about half of it, but I couldn’t finish it. It was just too sad to relive all their countless stories of self destruction.
I was in a band when I was young, and I would have loved to have had 1% of the opportunities they had. To know they squandered almost all of them is depressing and heartbreaking.
'Tim was their last truly great album'.
No.
Yeah. Pleased to Meet Me is just as good as both Let It Be and Tim. Also Don’t Tell a Soul is a hell of an underrated record
Yeah, I can't stand that line of thinking in many of the Replacements fans. It seemed like there were so many "fans" who wouldn't allow them to grow or change or strive because they were supposed to stay the small, unknown, ultracool "lovable losers." I think their later records were all good in different ways.
@@antacidchain3022 hot take, I think I prefer Don’t Tell A Soul over Pleased to Meet Me. Both are amazing, but I prefer the overall record of DTAS.
‘Tim was their last truly great album’.
Yes.
@@MrCrescendo I don't think the guy who did this video is actually a fan with so many errors
I love them, one of my favorite bands 💜 I know their whole "failure and self-sabotage" tale is well known, but tbh I think they did pretty well considering and have gained quite a big following throughout the years.
"The coolest losers you'll ever meet"
They made some of the best music of that era.
That's winning in my book.
They didn't get the fame and fortune, just the infamy.
Demons. Too many demons.
But what great recordings
"We were trying so hard to get a hit but never did, someone was making sure we didn't."
Yeah someone was. It was YOU! Lol every time they got a chance to hit it big they intentionally fucked it up, and afterwards are all like aw shucks what happened that was some bad luck the way we made a point to do the opposite of what we needed to do.
The Replacements were better at the fundamentals of song writing and live playing than any rock or pop musicians today. Imagine if they really tried.
@Rouge They would blow any contemporary band off the stage.
Need to check out there list of covers, maybe Yo La Tengo beats them
I saw the Replacements at the Cameo Theatre on Miami Beach in approximately 1989. I got there early and headed up to the men's room upstairs. I walked in and the whole band was there, hanging out. I was dumbfounded. I literally didn't know what to say...could barely finish my business and slink out. I was 29-30 at the time and just moved from Richmond VA. This opened my world!
Underneath the self sabotage were definitely true artists. The emotion really shows itself on "Androgynous" and "Within your Reach". For a while "Kiss Me on the Bus" was my favorite for some reason.
The right to arm bears is a bop and I will die on this hill
Skyway, which I understand isn't a popular choice, but it means a lot to me
Oh then one day watch you on that bill a little one way at the place I catch my ride most everyday wasn't a damn thing I could do or say
A mix tape of songs sadder than that Jacobite's song (Which is a great song and very sad indeed): 1.Big Star- "Holocaust" 2. Pinetop 7- "Drying Out" 3.Idaho- "The Thick and the Thin" 4.Mark Eitzel- "An Answer" 5. Red House Painters- "Uncle Joe" 6. The Innocence Mission- "I Never Knew You From The Sun" 7. Low- "Just Make It Stop" 8. Television Personalities- "I Don't Want to Live This Life" 9. Magnetic Fields- "One Hundred Thousand Fireflies" 10. Richmond Fontaine- "Five Degrees Below Zero" 11. Vic Chestnutt- "Flirted With You All My Life" 12. Joel RL Phelps- "Give Me Back My Animal" 13. The Entire Mount Erie album about his wife dying. Edit: Please add songs you think are as sad or sadder. I love sad songs.
Joanie Mitchell "Blue," Patti Smith "Wave" R,E,M, "The Wrong Child" The Neats "Sad"
Glad to see someone else who knows of Nikki Sudden. Johnny Thunders had some sad ones as well, then I'd go further and play some Nick Drake. Thanks for the idea! cheers
Jason Isbell: If We Were Vampires, Cover Me Up, & Elephant. BYO endless box o Kleenex
The Posies version of I Am The Cosmos
Edit: Cover Me Up isn’t really sad, but I insta-cry every time I hear it, like Pavlov’s freakin dog
@@anitapricecheck9554 nice, good choice. Some Big Star too.
and this probably tops all ua-cam.com/video/HbJiriEol44/v-deo.html
Mats forever. It's sad, but if they didn't have that self-destructive streak, they wouldn't be the same band. I'll always love their music. I'm one of those that didn't think their later albums were bad. I liked it all. Don't tell a soul was over-produced, but there are some really great songs on that record.
For all their self-sabotage, they had another huge shot at the brass ring, which you left out -- opening for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers on tour. Tom's daughter loved them and Tom picked them out for the gig himself. And then, they fucked up, stealing dresses from Mike Campbell's wife to wear onstage. That was the last straw after their typically up-and-down drunken sets, and Petty kicked them off the tour, stealing Westerberg's lyric as revenge "rebel without a clue." Which is how the Mats came off in the end, innit?
Having seen the Mats several times in the 80s and 90s you didn't know if they would do a great show or a terrible one. They were pretty much unpredictable live and they were effin loud.
Though my favorite has changed at least 50 times over the last 25 years, my current fave is "A Little Mascara".
Yup. This is my favorite too. It is a brilliant piece of songwriting in my opinion.
could not agree more, the song that sold me on the mats! lol, my favorite song is usually whichever one is playing!!!
My mother always loves to tell me this story about seeing the Mats at first ave. She went there one night and didn't know who was playing but the ticket booth lady told her, "you're gonna want to see this band." So she went in and they were fucking amazing. So she told my dad that night, "you gotta come see this band they're playing again tomorrow." And they both went the next night, the whole band was drunk, and disorderly, and Westerberg was falling over himself and all they played was a drunk, ruined version of 'Hello Dolly' My parents left early.
Great video, watched the whole thing. How do you get around copyright issues playing the music clips?
I was lucky enough to see them a bunch of times in MSP when I was in college. You never knew what you were going to get when they got up on stage. I was also at their breakup show in Chicago.
Brilliantly researched piece! The Mats are my favourite all-time band, and their jaded perspective was the coolest thing I'd heard from anyone as a 20-something in the record business. Saw their first reunion show in Toronto (minus Mars & Dunlap) and it was absolutely amazing. Fave track? Answering Machine
I would say Pleased To Meet Me is as good as Tim and Let It Be. In fact, it's my favorite.
I'd say none of em could touch Stink or Sorry, Ma.
Good thing your opinion has no bearing on the reality of the situation.
The ledge, helped me through the worse of times
I love your channel because it really is well done and well researched. It brings back to ol' MTV, VH1, etc days of their music docs. But somehow you do it so much better and I love it.
Growing up with them...I felt like they were my band. No one had heard of them in the tiny Wisconsin town i was from. I knew they were good then...but damn, they are truly great now. Is it weird that reading these comments and watch the video brings up deep emotion and watering eyes...wtf?
Next time you are driving through your city at night...roll the windows down and turn the radio up, play Within Your Reach. Fucking delightful.
This is the best history of the replacements I’ve seen. Well done!
Saw them on Don't Tell A Soul tour. One of their "ON" nights. "We'll Inherit The Earth", to this day, is still the best live performance of a song I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure I had an outer-body experience during the coda.
Was so excited when I saw the thumbnail for this. Tim is my all time favorite album.
One of the greatest rock bands to ever lay down a track. Me and my brother went to see them in Charleston SC 1987 it seems like every song they did would start perfectly as if to show how good of a band they could be, then the songs would sink into a total mess. The most disappointing part of the show came when Paul played skyline acoustically, Started out perfect then he detuned his guitar and changed the lyrics. I left the show still loving the band but wishing that I would have saved my money. I still love the band as well as Paul's solo work. They were not the Beatles and they were not Madonna. Mainstream success can be both good and terrible. We have their music with credibility in tack. Tom Petty said that even without the fame and fortune he and his band would have played anyway, maybe the same thing is true for the replacements. they were a band that just had to be and if you are one of the lucky ones to know and love the music they made well for me that's good enough.
This comes just as I'm getting deep into the Replacements music. Very well done video.
Bring your own lampshade, somewhere there’s a party
Pass around the bottle, plenty of enough room in jail...
Ash tray floors, dirty clothes and filthy jokes
Jesus rides beside me...but never buys any smokes.
If being wrong's a crime, I'm serving forever. If being strong's your kind then I need help here with this feather.
I'll stop now..
If being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side...
you failed to mention Chris Mars's Solo album; Horseshoes and hand grenades. It's one of my all time favorites :)
He apparently put out 4 of 'em! I've never heard of any except Horseshoes.
I'll never get tired of Trash Theory saying "electropop record"
Just seeing that piece made me feel 20 years younger. All time favorite band. Saw them several times in the 80'a. Some shows were better than others. When you saw them live they could be a box of chocolates.They were as talented as any band in the 80's but seemed to have a real fear of becoming sellouts and self sabotaged any chances of commercial success. Long live the mats.
Whenever I played the Mats for my friends, they never seems to like it. Which only made me love the Mats even more. Good or bad, it was my music.
Same.
Second that emotion
My ex yelled at me for playing them in the car. In 1987.
Lyrics. Lyrics. Lyrics. The poetry is the key. Most people just want something simple minded, something they don't have to be emotionally invested in. i.e. people who don't like the Mats generally aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.
I'd heard about this band and how influential they were, so some years ago I borrowed their 'Best Of' CD from my local library. I listened to it a few times and didn't dislike it by any means, but it didn't make me go "wow", except for a couple of moments here and there. But after seeing this doco and following the highlighted lyrics (and reading some more lyrics in the comments section) I think I'm going to have to do a deeper dive.
Tim and Let It Be are rock and roll perfection.
"Trouble boys" a book about "The Mats" by Bob Mehr
I just finished reading it. Gut wrenching. I was fortunate enough to see there first show in Chicago at O'banion's. A lot of us went back to DV8 house including all of the Replacements. They were really nice guys. Paul was actually a little shy & gotton cotton spitting drunk, in a quiet way, Tommy a goofy kid (because he was like 14-15 years old), Bob wasn't there in more ways than one. I thought Chris was the most regular guy in the band. Needless to say there were multiple beer runs that night!
Talent show on the Dont tell a soul album is my favourite track by the Replacements. It feels kind of magical to me. It captures that feeling of being in a band with mates and having a laugh, chasing dreams.
The Replacements sum up every band that was, coming up in the '80s. Parents with they're own fucked up, hypocritical standards and band trying not only to figure their own selves out personally but coming up with a sound that others would approve of while telling those at the top to F-Off. A lot of anger and depression. All the bands repped in this video were at the forefront in our minds, like a bigger sibling to follow and somehow finding that path to still carve out your own originality. Many did and still do, fear success because they do not want to be the Rolling Stones or Metallica; REM was still cool because they weren't that big yet. The Who got it right, I feel sometimes that perhaps it's better to die young when you got your balls running 120 mph and you're going to do something amazing that no one else has done. Bravo for making this video... it's more about the culture at the time then it is about a struggling band trying to do their own thing. Thanks again for making this video!!
"REM was still cool because they weren't big" wdym by this
That was great man, thanks for the tribute to one of my all time fav bands.
Although, I gotta say, I love pleased to meet me.
I'll always love them, they were there for me when I needed their music.