I love the way the Replacements Stink starts:
Hello. This is the Minneapolis police. The party is over. If you all just grab your stuff and leave there won’t be any hassle. The party’s been closed. The party is over with, grab your stuff and go and nobody goes to jail.
… then Paul Westerberg bawls 1-2-3-4 and we’re off switchbacking through ‘Kids Don’t Follow’, the band’s first real classic. All streamlined urgency, potent guitar lines and raggedy edges, like a much less rehearsed Hüsker Dü. It really is prime US punk, but something much more too, it has all the voltage of hardcore but you can see the Replacement’s Rolling Stones branded petticoats peeping out from under their skirts too. As far as I’m concerned it is just perfect music, powerful and melodic with hints of chaos just lurking behind it all. Best of all it was written as a response to U2’s ‘I Will Follow’, so there’s a grain of spite behind it too:
Then we get the exhilarating, petulant ‘Fuck School’ a total blast of energy and the sort of thing that makes me very happy indeed, despite the fact that I left school 27 years ago and I really should know better. You can guess how the chorus goes. ‘Stuck In the Middle’ is a paean to living in the middle of the USA, eking pride from necessity (‘Burgers on the grill, oh what a thrill’).
Stink is basically an EP on steroids, originally hand-stamped by the band and anyone else they could coax into helping them to keep the costs right down. I love the way it showcases their bratty glee, but it also hints at what was to come later for Minneapolis’ finest.
The playing is great throughout from everyone involved, Bob Stinson never seems to get his proper dues as a guitar slinger and Chris Mars was a hell of a drummer, even as early as this in 1982.
For every ‘White and Lazy’, a faux blues number that descends into a hardcore rant and every ‘Dope Smokin Moron’ there’s a ‘Go’. The latter is a restrained, fragile sounding slice of melancholy about having someone leave their lover for you, or that’s how I interpret it at least. The pain and melancholy point to the glories that would surface on Let It Be in a few years time, well the glories that didn’t involve songs about boners and KISS covers.
My copy of Stink is an eight song affair that I got in a Replacements box set but there is a great version with 12 tracks, although I fear you may have to digital for that, but they are all great especially the raw, emotional demo for ‘You’re Getting Married’.
Stink is worth smelling, just for the exuberance of it all, it is a great blast from the underground and a real staging post on the Replacements’ journey towards their uniquely ephemeral greatness. And there’s some ace swearing.
Kids don’t follow
What you’re doin’
In my face and out my ear
Kids won’t follow
What you’re saying
We can’t hear
812 Down.
PS. It has to be said that the cop shutting the party down on ‘Kids Don’t Follow’ sounds pretty friendly and pleasant. It was recorded live from a party and rumour has it that the voice you can hear cursing the police in the background is none other than Dave Pirner.
PPS: Just so you know there was a certain amount of ingenuity and technical know-how that went into getting the toilet roll into just the right angle to take the cover pictures. I mention this because I have never fancied being one of those undiscovered geniuses.
I know you like the swearing. Check out Sun Ra ‘Nuclear War’. I heard it yesterday and thought of 1537. It’s good.
It’s on the list now. Funnily enough I was just writing about Archie Shepp.
I’m stuck in that groove right now. Archie take coming up? Sounds good.
Yup! With you on the Stinson on guitar thing.
Nobody out there seems to bring up his name when discussing the best guitar slingers from the period.
There are so many Axmen that don’t get the love. You know the game.
I need these box sets I’m reading about.
Also, awesome photos. Although I think the young Lego man is trying to tell you something by always being near that TP, and the worst part for you is his hands do not reach down near his butt, so you may have your hands full, so to speak.
Lastly, that album title is dead wrong.
Thanks Bop, the LP really should have been titled ‘The Replacements Don’t Stink At All, And Are In Fact Pretty Great At This Loud Music Sort of Thing’.
I have only heard the ‘Unsatisfied’ song from them, but this is a bit more up my alley. I’ll have to check out some more of their stuff.
Cops in America are probably typical of the one depicted on the record. I was at a party in Ocean City, NJ back in 1982 and this cop came in like John Wayne informing us we had ten minutes to clear out. At the time, Ocean City cops thought they were great because they had killed two members of the Pagans MC in a shootout some nine or ten years earlier.
Wow. Here’s one of my favourite comments about US cops:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7noX9euytNc&w=560&h=315%5D
Ice -T hits the nail on the head. The irony is that now he’s playing a cop in a long running TV series.
This sounds great. Never got into this band, but not because I didn’t like them just never listened to them.
Let it Be is the one to start with, I reckon. There’s real feeling in there, plus a cracking cover of ‘Black Diamond’.
Sold! A Kiss cover!! That is all I need to know.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4RyjwIdwxc&w=560&h=315%5D
A great start for one of the greatest bands of all time. You can’t go wrong with Stink.
I’ve only heard up to ‘Let it Be’, but they’re all great so far. Which is your favourite?
Tim! The one that comes right after Let It Be.
I guess Let It Be has peaks that are higher than those of Tim, but Tim is a more consistent (in a great way) work. Pleased to Meet Me, the successor to Tim, is also a highlight, but to a lesser degree.
But honestly, I even like Don’t Tell a Soul and All Shook Down, which are often looked down on by fans of the band for sounding like attempts at a more commercial and clean sound, and for feeling more like solo efforts by Westerberg than albums by The Replacements (all the youthful energy is gone). But I feel the songwriting in them is still generally strong.
Thanks Matt – there is a second box set with the LPs after LIB in it – that’s looking quite tempting now.
That sounds like a good purchase to me.
Gettin’ reel arty-like with them there pictographs, ain’t we bud? I gotta wooden alligator just like yore tortoise. When ya tap the head, a lil’ pellet of poo comes out. Ver’ funny.
Are you okay Bruce? there appears to be something wrong with your typing fingers! We had a plastic Christmas reindeer that pooed chocolate pellets – my kids still rave about it.
Now THAT is a truly excellent Christmas accoutrement!
It’s up there with the pen shaped like a poo that I got given a couple of years ago.
No, it’s not.
Or was it a poo shaped liek a pen? I get confused so often these days.
You need a holiday, mate. Or at least a good lie down with some death metal in the background.
That is one of the best album openings ever. Have always liked Westerberg’s voice. First heard them on Hal Willner’s Disney tribute album ‘Stay Awake’! Brilliant version of ‘Cruella De Vil’:
That’s brilliant – thanks for posting that Matt. And what a brilliant song it was even before the Replacements got hold of it.
Although I like some of Westerberg’s solo stuff, I don’t like, or know, as much Replacements stuff as I probably should. Can’t say I was even aware of this one!
Some great photos here, by the way.
I bought a 4LP box set, accidentally of course, because I really wanted Let It Be and this was one of the early ones.
I think they were pretty uniquely talented dudes. Of course thingy went on to play bass with GNR for a long spell too and his solo LP is really excellent, Village Gorilla thingy.
Of course.
I’d actually forgotten Stinson was in Axl Roses. I guess cause pretty much everyone’s been in that band at one time or another.
Boners and KISS Covers go hand and hand doncha think??!
Well, that may be a personal thing for you Deke, as a rule KISS covers don’t excite me quite that much!
HAHAHAHA…well played!
I’m pretty sure this is the one Paul Westerberg-related release I’ve never heard – I guess I should check it out.
I’d really recommend it, you can hear the shoots of their later style coming through, plus ‘KIds Don’t Follow’ is worth the price of the record alone.
I like the self-deprecation in the EP title – though there’s a chance I won’t use ‘fuck school’ as my song of the day in class tomorrow!
You educator types! so narrow-minded!