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Friday Top 5
Oct. 2nd, 2009 11:16 amTop 5 Favorite Replacements Songs
About a week ago a friend asked me if I would help co-produce a documentary about the Replacements and their fans called Color Me Obsessed. Because of that, I thought I'd do a list of my favorite Mats songs.
1. "Color Me Impressed"
It's not the first Replacements song I ever heard, but it's the first one that really stuck with me. It sounds like it should be an anthem, but between the sloppy guitars and drums and the sense of pathetic despair that Paul gives the lyrics, it's like an anthem to lingering despondency. Still, it never fails to quicken my heartbeat at the first sound of that fuzzy guitar intro.
2. "Unsatisfied"
I'm not sure if I've ever heard a song that better puts that feeling of indescribable restlessness and unease to music. At the same time, there's an unshakeable beauty to the song's malaise that keeps pulling me back to it, along with the sense that in spite of how bad things might get for the singer, he'll keep going on because there's nothing else he can do.
3. "Kids Don't Follow"
The song where the Mats try to out-Hüsker the Hüskers and pretty much succeed. That screaming guitar intro counterbalanced with that thumping bass line pounds away like a throng of punks swirling and slamming through a pit of humanity and sweat. The Replacements were never a hardcore band, but you wouldn't know it from this song.
4. "Go"
Another track off the Stink EP ("Kids Don't Follow being the other"). It has some of Bob Stinson's most inspired guitar work as well as one of Paul Westerberg's most anguished vocal deliveries. The bridge where Paul almost seems to plead with the woman/girl he's singing about to "stay and close your eyes" is simply beautiful, and it makes the return to the chorus that much more breathtakingly beautiful.
5. "Johnny's Gonna Die"
This song is here simply because it has my favorite Bob Stinson solo. The way Bob moves from that two note hammer that flutters through the ether into a grinding, raunchy lead never fails to hit me in the gut. And it does that because the juxtaposition of the two is so unexpected and out of the blue. It's the sort of thing that could only be done by someone who didn't give a shit or who just didn't know enough about music to know you aren't supposed to mix genres or moods like that. Some people called Stinson an idiot savant on the guitar and maybe he was, or maybe he just wanted people to think that. Either way, he was a hell of a guitar player and the Mats were never the same after he left.
About a week ago a friend asked me if I would help co-produce a documentary about the Replacements and their fans called Color Me Obsessed. Because of that, I thought I'd do a list of my favorite Mats songs.
1. "Color Me Impressed"
It's not the first Replacements song I ever heard, but it's the first one that really stuck with me. It sounds like it should be an anthem, but between the sloppy guitars and drums and the sense of pathetic despair that Paul gives the lyrics, it's like an anthem to lingering despondency. Still, it never fails to quicken my heartbeat at the first sound of that fuzzy guitar intro.
2. "Unsatisfied"
I'm not sure if I've ever heard a song that better puts that feeling of indescribable restlessness and unease to music. At the same time, there's an unshakeable beauty to the song's malaise that keeps pulling me back to it, along with the sense that in spite of how bad things might get for the singer, he'll keep going on because there's nothing else he can do.
3. "Kids Don't Follow"
The song where the Mats try to out-Hüsker the Hüskers and pretty much succeed. That screaming guitar intro counterbalanced with that thumping bass line pounds away like a throng of punks swirling and slamming through a pit of humanity and sweat. The Replacements were never a hardcore band, but you wouldn't know it from this song.
4. "Go"
Another track off the Stink EP ("Kids Don't Follow being the other"). It has some of Bob Stinson's most inspired guitar work as well as one of Paul Westerberg's most anguished vocal deliveries. The bridge where Paul almost seems to plead with the woman/girl he's singing about to "stay and close your eyes" is simply beautiful, and it makes the return to the chorus that much more breathtakingly beautiful.
5. "Johnny's Gonna Die"
This song is here simply because it has my favorite Bob Stinson solo. The way Bob moves from that two note hammer that flutters through the ether into a grinding, raunchy lead never fails to hit me in the gut. And it does that because the juxtaposition of the two is so unexpected and out of the blue. It's the sort of thing that could only be done by someone who didn't give a shit or who just didn't know enough about music to know you aren't supposed to mix genres or moods like that. Some people called Stinson an idiot savant on the guitar and maybe he was, or maybe he just wanted people to think that. Either way, he was a hell of a guitar player and the Mats were never the same after he left.
