You can find more eloquent descriptions of their music and mystique elsewhere. But for me, this was nothing less than the soundtrack of my wild and painful transition from adolescence to adulthood.
And as an adult, this music has not lost an ounce of its power to move me, humor me or otherwise inspire me. I vividly remember driving up from college to their final concert in the early 90s in Chicago, where they let their roadies take their instruments for the encore.
I will be the first in line if they ever have a reunion tour.
I've collected a number of Replacements tribute albums, many of them obscure. From that batch, this mix has their anthemic "Bastards Of Young" with a spirited female vocal from The Masticators. "Portland" never made any of their albums until they released a greatest hits/rarities compilation years after they broke up. They were known for their drunken gigs (I saw many of those) and "Portland" is an apology to the eponymous city for one of those. They later re-used the melody and chorus for "Talent Show". Here, "Portland" gets a slightly more countrified by Drag The River. The third Replacements cover on here is an even more radically countrified take of a sped up punk song, "Favorite Thing", by The Gourds.
For comparison, I have the original version of "Favorite Thing" by The Replacements. I love Tommy Stinson's bass on this. Two other originals by them here: the trippy "Willpower" and the hilarious and sweet "Kiss Me On The Bus."
Other musical treats that have nothing to do with The Replacements: the tense "Damaged Goods" by Gang Of Four, Sugar Minott's dreamy "Love And Understanding", Chico O'Farrill & Clark Terry's funky "Spanish Rice", Bryan Ferry's haunting "Zamba", and a live version of Neil Young's epic "Cowgirl In The Sand".
Rhymefest is a Chicago rapper and childhood friend of Kanye West. "Tell A Story" is off his first album Blue Collar. His next official album is finally out in March. Can't wait.
Growing up in Chicago, the only way I had to learn about interesting rock music outside of "classic rock" was to listen to WXRT. One of their DJs always used a snippet of The Bobbettes "Mr. Lee" as his introductory theme music. Shame that they didn't actually broaden their playlist and dig up more old records like this. It was Chicago, after all.
Gravediggaz were a rap supergroup featuring Prince Paul, Frukwan, Too Poetic and RZA. From their second album, the moody "What's Goin' On?"
Also here: the mellow "Dirty Water" by The Jesus & Mary Chain, an alternate acoustic take of "Piggies" by The Beatles, Rod Stewart's wistful "Lady Day", and late period Duke Ellington with a gorgeous reading of "After All".
The last song on here is "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones. They are my other favorite band ever, and like certain Replacements songs, this one never gets old.
If anything, a song like this that I loved as a kid and then a teenager packs more of an emotional wallop now.
