Start playing guitar How to choose a guitar for beginners?
Uncategorized

The Replacements – “Tim” Reviewed and Revisited

The Replacements - "Tim" Reviewed and Revisited

Everyone wanted to be like The Replacements. Nobody could be like The Replacements. The majority of the band’s indie-rock contemporaries tried anyway.

That’s how this band from Minneapolis, known for great songs and shabby, drunken performances intended as self-sabotage, ended up with so many imitators.

“Tim” is widely acknowledged as The Replacements’ finest hour, best album, and greatest reason for so many bands to pick up guitars and try to sound like them.

The Mats never quite got their just due, but that was part of the course. This is why I am reviewing, revisiting and casting loving glances at one of the greatest moments in indie music, alternative rock.

The Replacements - "Tim" Reviewed and Revisited

Paul Westerberg and the Impediments

Out where Paul Westerberg grew up, nobody tried. Or, if they did, they didn’t let on. People worked shitty jobs but never made an effort to change things. Why bother trying and failing?

And, the people out in the punk-rock scene in which The Replacements landed never tried playing songs that had more than three chords? Why bother trying, succeeding and having someone accuse you of liking progressive rock? Or worse, selling out?

But that’s just what the young Westerberg liked. Yes, to be more exact. He bluffed his way into a band that was practising down the street. When he realized that Bob Stinson and Chris Mars were never going to learn Yes‘ “Roundabout,” he decided The Replacements would be a punk-rock band.

The Replacements were rounded off by Bob’s much younger brother, Tommy Stinson. They paraded the fact that they couldn’t play. They drank copious amounts of booze and often messed up intentionally. Many of their shows included drunken covers of songs from The Wizard of Oz. Those who knew them loved them.

Eventually, The Replacements became part of an unlikely Minneapolis music scene that included Husker Du and, further uptown, the genius Prince. Westerberg’s band played dumb and looked to appeal to runaways and juvenile delinquents.

But for the most part, Westerberg hid a great secret in plain sight. He wrote better songs than anyone in Minneapolis, and indie rock, for that matter.

The Replacements - "Tim" Reviewed and Revisited

“Tim” Reviewed

It wasn’t so much the members of The Replacements but the fans who wore the fact that the band was signed to independent record labels and made thrashy punk rock a badge of honour.

Signing for a major record label was viewed with distrust by the band’s supporters. But The Mats fell into safe hands. Seymour Stein owned Sire Records. He had discovered the Ramones and Talking Heads and genuinely seemed to love punk-rock music. It was Stein who paired The Replacements with Tommy Ramone as producer of “Tim.”

Now, The Replacements made several fantastic albums around this time. Why is “Tim” so famous? Is it arguably the best because of the recording budget or the promotion that Sire attempted to do for the album?

Yes and no. “Tim” simply has the best collection of songs by Paul Westerberg out of any album by the band. Secondly, the band, when pacified enough to try, could produce a wallopping, marvellous sound. They were the punk-rock, American version of The Rolling Stones when at their best.

Great songs, you say? Really great songs. Nearly everything here is a classic.

The Replacements - "Tim" Reviewed and Revisited

Tender, Loving Punk

Sure, Westerberg can still talk to the kids back home in a language that they’ll understand. “Bastards of Young” is one of the great alternative rock anthems about not fitting in. “Kiss Me on the Bus” is a great teenage love song filled with lecherous lust.

However, Paul Westerberg finally comes clean about his songwriting ambitions. “Waitress in the Sky” is a tender ode to his runaway sister from Minneapolis, who wound up becoming a stewardess. “Here Comes a Regular” sounds like a folk song about tavern-attending folk sitting on the edge of despair.

And, on the most beautiful, memorable album, “Left of the Dial,” Westerberg writes a love song to the alternative music scene itself. Independent bands of the 1980s could hope to be found left of the radio dial, on college stations, and could look forward to a life of travelling the world, playing in bars.

You know how this ends, right? Nearly every serious magazine and website considers “Tim” to be one of the greatest albums. Alt77 does as well.

But The Replacements don’t quite make it as big as they should’ve. Part of the blame is theirs. When they get on television, on Saturday Night Club, they start a raucous and get thrown off air. There are more practical jokes out on the road. By the time Nirvana came along in the early 90s, they professionally covered the ground that the Replacements refused to tread.

It didn’t matter though. It’s all on record – the great songs, the great chaos, Bob Stinson finding a way to make his guitar scream. “Tim” is one of the great albums by one of the greatest alternative rock bands.

About author

Eduard Banulescu is a writer, blogger, and musician. As a content writer, Eduard has contributed to numerous websites and publications, including FootballCoin, Play2Earn, BeIN Crypto, Business2Community, NapoliSerieA, Extra Time Talk, Nitrogen Sports, Bavarian FootballWorks, etc. He has written a book about Nirvana, hosts a music podcasts, and writes weekly content about some of the best, new and old, alternative musicians. Eduard also runs and acts as editor-in-chief of the alternative rock music website www.alt77.com. Mr. Banulescu is also a musician, having played and recorded in various bands and as a solo artist.
Related posts
Uncategorized

Frank-Einstein and Skinner Reviewed

Uncategorized

Queen - "A Night at the Opera" Reviewed and Revisited

Uncategorized

The Dangerous Summer - "Gravity" Review

7.5
Uncategorized

Caleb Veazey and Sam Singer Reviewed

Be part of the Alt77 community

Leave a Reply