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About 1982, I was trolling through some vinyl in Rocehster, NY when I happened upon a hand ink stamped LP called “Stink”. “The Replacements Stink”. I was easily amused, so I bought it, took it home and it blew me away with it’s raw punk and intense, drunken lyricism. As a young folk singer, it was something I could really relate to. I soon picked up “Hootenanny” and “Hey Ma, I forgot To Take Out The Trash” - each LP jammed with blisteringly melodic, sub 3:00 minute songs. I eagerly awaited every subsequent release till the last.

I had the pleasure of catching The Replacements that year at some sh!thole in Rochester, NY. Despite not finishing one single song due to drunkenesss, they tore the roof off the place and I was hooked. I must have seen them live a dozen times from Rochester to NYC, Boston to Cincinnati, always the same even as the crowds grew and grew. 50 people, 200, 1000, 2000, the place always went nuts. Sometimes they finished songs, sometimes they started and stop a song 3 or 4 times and sometimes they played brilliant, uninterrupted sets filled with magical song segues and huge rock moments. Still, they kept up their tragic pace of drinking and brawling with their instruments till Bob Stinson drank himself to death and at that point I supposed they looked a little further inward and grew up some. We all do. Or most of us do.

The LP’s from “Let It Be” on had a fragile poetry hiding behind the ferocity of the band, a beautiful sadness not heard since frontman Paul Westerberg’s hero, Alex Chilton, was in his prime and songs that in looking back have a mature sense of arrangement that belied their youthful looks and drunk swagger.

The Replacements, one of THE GREATEST AMERICAN BANDS of any era.