Trying To Get To You

Friday, February 06, 2009

Bootleg Friday: The Replacements, 1987

When I was a kid, I expected and waited for the Replacements to get huge. They didn’t. Even though it’s twenty plus years later, there’s still a part of me that thinks/expects/hopes/prays that someday, maybe just around the corner, justice will prevail, and it will happen.

Maybe someone will write a blockbuster movie about growing up in the 80’s and will use their music as the basis for it – the sound of sensitivity, snark and punk/soul all wrapped into one. I figure that there has to be someone who is a great writer in their prime, who, back in the day, was sustained by Let It Be, Tim and Pleased To Meet Me. Their catalog sales will explode and they will finally get the full measure of their due as one of the best, if not the best, American bands of the 80's.

Today’s Bootleg Friday is a selection of songs from the Replacements show at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, on November 12, 1987. Touring behind the great Pleased To Meet Me, the music is a combination of punk insouciance and soul conviction. And the Prince cover (from Sign Of The Times, which had just been released) displays Replacements leader Paul Westerberg’s great taste to full effect. It’s shambolic and highly moving – just like the band.

Download: “I.O.U.” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Never Mind” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Hold My Life” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Can’t Hardly Wait” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Little Mascara” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Nightclub Jitters” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Sweet Soul Music (Arthur Conley)” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “20th Century Boy (T. Rex)” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Prince)” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Unsatisfied” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “I Will Dare” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI
Download: “Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)” 11/12/87, Detroit, MI

6 comments:

Michael Verity said...

Hi Ben: Been too long since I've come around...another well written point of view...coincidentally, I've been posting about the CD's I've been playing for the carpool kids on the way to school...we listened to All Shook Down earlier this week...they actually know Sadly Beautiful from the cover Glen Campbell did recently...and they liked the sax in One Wink At A Times...they'll probably be one of the great bands of the 80's that doesn't become their most famous until the 2010's...hey, go write that movie! Music Junkie at Fusion 45.

Unknown said...

Amen, brother.

Anonymous said...

I'm from the Twin Cities, and I can assure you these dudes get mad respect in their hometown, whether or not they get justice in the broader musical scene. Great post, good lookin out!

Anonymous said...

"Maybe someone will write a blockbuster movie about growing up in the 80’s and will use their music as the basis for it – the sound of sensitivity, snark and punk/soul all wrapped into one."

Watch "Adventureland".

Matt Carr said...

Adventureland really did a great job using Replacements tunes as a social backdrop for its characters. Both "Unsatisfied" and "Bastards of Young" made it in, as well as a Husker Du track.

Sam L. Parity said...

I was there! Great show. Someone held up a banner that said "where's Bob?"