Torn and Frayed: The Story of the Replacements’ 1987 Classic Pleased to Meet Me
By Jodi | Filed under 'Mats Memories, In the News | Comments (3)
So yeah, I don’t have an In the Blogs list this week. I’ve been busy trying to find a job and napping.
However, I just got this awesome story from Ari at Gibson. Yeah, that Gibson. They’ve worked up this excellent piece about the making of “Pleased to Meet Me.” You should go read it. Here’s a little excerpt:
There have been better bands, louder bands, and drunker bands, but there has never been a better, drunker, louder band than the Replacements, and the second two qualifiers wouldn’t matter one whit without the first. Gang Green never changed anybody’s life and you know why? Because they sucked. And on any given night, so did the Replacements—unforgivably. (As can be attested by anyone who ever waited a year and paid $20 to see the band only to find them falling down drunk, with Paul Westerberg inhaling helium before launching into unrecognizable versions of “Born in the USA” and “Whipping Post.”) But in a heartbeat (it’s a lovebeat), they could transform into the American Rolling Stones, but better—all heart, with none of the flamboyant rock royalty nonsense, just cranked guitars, hopeless desperation, and some of the best songs ever written. This was rock and roll as dropout high drama, entrenched in the moment, gut wrenching to witness, with stakes and brilliance only hinted at by the records they left behind.
Go read the rest: Torn and Frayed: The Story of the Replacements’ 1987 Classic Pleased to Meet Me
Tags: 'Mats, Gibson, Please to Meet me, the replacements
keep growing up, playing make-up, wearing guitar
By assemblyline | Filed under 'Mats Memories | Comments (2)
So my “How I Got Into The Mats” story takes place a year ago and isn’t as interesting as some of the ones I’ve read. I needed some new music and I was curious about the Replacements. I read about them lots of times, but I never really heard their songs. I ended up buying Pleased To Meet Me because it had the only song I knew: “Can’t Hardly Wait”. If I thought that they sucked, at least I had one song that I liked. If I liked the album, I could go and buy the other ones.
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So I Wanna Be a Rock n Roll Writer
By mmr421 | Filed under 'Mats Memories | Comments (5)
How I was introduced to the ‘mats:
As an 18 year old Johnny Thunders fan, I have absolutely no one in my life who even knows who the guy is. My peers here in socal (southern CA) like The Killers and stuff like that. Anyways, one day i was looking at Thunders CDs on the barnes and noble site, and i had an important question about one of the CDs, so I emailed the first reviewer on the page. He answered my questions and told me to check out The Replacements. I usually don’t check out ANY band suggested by a friend (see the second sentence in this paragraph), but I was so elated to talk to someone about Thunders. I took this stranger’s advice, and I downloaded (illegally) “Bastards” “Alex Chilton”, and “Can’t Hardly Wait.” I loved all three songs and now collect their material (legally) and dream of perhaps seeing Paul (once his hand is better from the screwdriver-wtf?) or Tommy (when he tours with GNR-wtf?) live.
Meeting my first (only) Westernerd on Myspace:
He is Brazilian, a Thunders fan as well. I was so excited but now he wants so send me discs in the mail, and I am scared to give out my home address to a stranger. Why I cannot find a single local ‘mats fan is beyond me. Sigh.
What Prompted Me To Buy My First ‘Mats CD:
I can’t really say album because I’m relatively young and this is 2007. Sorry. My first one was Let It Be. The cover had a lot to do with this purchase. At the risk of presenting myself as boy-crazy and shallow, I will admit that I have huge crushes on Paul and Tommy (mainly Tommy) from when they were younger (think from 1981-1991). Doesn’t anyone else around here?! Forgive me.
All In Their Place
By Wolfdog | Filed under 'Mats Memories | Comments (4)
You know how music can bring you back to a place and time? Here’s an attempt for me to nail down the time and place Replacements albums take me to. It’s harder than I thought, probably due to 20+ years under the bridge and how some of these albums (Pleased To Meet Me) encompassed all parts of my life for a long time.
Sorry Ma/Hootenanny – Oddly, these came last for me. I didn’t own them until the early 90′s. Don’t really have a place to pin them on.
Stink – 1983-84 School bus to basketball away games. Other kids had Van Halen and The Scorpions in their warm-up headphones. I had White & Lazy. It showed on the court.
Let It Be – 1970 Dodge Dart. Metallic Pea Green. $20 cassette deck. 24 bottles of Old Mil returnables. My age was the hardest age, or so I thought.
Tim – UW-Milwaukee dorm room. At one point I was convinced the key to getting a girlfriend in my co-ed dorm was to play this record constantly with my door open. Plan B should have been to leave the room once in a while.
Pleased To Meet Me – My first apartment, a dive in St. Paul. Sundays were party day with water balloon launcher fights in the living room and Red Red Wine cranked and repeated.
Don’t Tell A Soul – St. Louis Park townhouse. Trying to live ‘upscale’. Trying to be something I wasn’t. Maybe I don’t like this one too much because I didn’t care for me then. We were both trying to act slicker than we were.
All Shook Down – Me and my future-wife’s first apartment. Playing it over and over to try and make her ‘get it’. Being in awe of her when she did.
Your first PW/Mats memories
By zook | Filed under 'Mats Memories | Comments (18)
So when did you first discover Paul and/or the Replacements?
I will admit to being a little behind the curve on the Mats. I distinctly remember hearing “Bastards of Young” in a record store in college probably around 1985-86 and liking the tune but I never acted on it (this was sadly during my MTV/hair metal phase.) Ditto with “I’ll Be You” – saw the video, liked the song but never went further. Fast forward to 1990 where one of the guys who worked me asked me if I had ever heard of the Replacements. I told him I’d heard of the name but didn’t know much about them. He just smiled, handed me a cassette of Please to Meet Me and said that I had to listen to it immediately. I was blown away. I proceeded to buy All Shook Down, which had come out recently, and worked my way through the back catalog. I got to see the band once – on July 4th in Chicago for what turned out to the last show they’d ever play. Wherever you are – thanks Wayne for insisting I listen to that tape.
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