---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- Note: The file below may have several references to old addresses for the //Skyway\\. The new, correct addresses are: ** Skyway listserver: majordomo@novia.net ** Skyway submissions, to write to Matt: skyway@novia.net --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- / // The \kyway \\ / Winter Ain't So Bad Here in The South 1995 -- Issue #31 November 28th, 1995 (c) 1995 Bastards of Young (BOY/BetaOmegaYamma) Productions --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- ** Send your letters, stories, thoughts, babble, outspoken opinions: ** --> skyway-l@acm-lists.creighton.edu <-- ** Manager: ** skyway-l@acm-lists.creighton.edu (Matthew Tomich) --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- The manager of this list, Matthew Tomich, and the school's facilities that this list is produced from, Creighton University of Omaha, Nebraska, are not responsible for the contents of the following mailing except for that which they themselves have originally contributed. --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- SEND ALL COMMANDS IN THE BODY OF A LETTER TO: "lists@acm-lists.creighton.edu" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ** To subscribe to the //Skyway\\: subscribe skyway ** To unsubscribe from the //Skyway\\: unsubscribe skyway * To get a listing of //Skyway\\ files available: index skyway * To get a description of available files: get skyway !readme * To get a file: get skyway ---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===---===-- In this issue: -------------- * New address, moved to Durham, and one crazy fiesta. [M@] * IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE THIS ISSUE (besides the address change): A classic 'Mats-purchasing story from my college advisor. [Elsie Gaber] * If you haven't heard about it already, the Rolling Stone Westerberg interview report. [Bill Ruef] * New people speakin' up! [Damon Jordan, Kevin Parker] * I'm back!!! [Mark Timmins!] * Replacements home pages... [Kathy, Tom, and Dean Roe] (plus a re-print of definitely one of the most informative Westerberg interviews: "Autodiscography") * Review of the Tommy Stinson October 26th solo acoustic performance in Minneapolis [Bill Ruef] * How to get the most for your quarter and Spin's new record guide. [Scott Hudson] * The first Spin article on The 'Mats (from the first issue of Spin) and some boots to trade. [Mike] * That August 1995 Musician article on the Minneapolis music scene [Tom Ragatto] * Help! Want to fill in the gaps of my rare-'Mats collection [Todd Wicks] FROM ALT.MUSIC.REPLACEMENTS: (culled by Duncan DeGraffenreid) * Why doesn't Paul publish his lyrics? [Paul Greblo] * Lovin' the lyrics to "Seein' Her" [Kathy] * Origin of the 'Mats (serious creative blasphemy here...start organizing your protest now!) [Duck] * A commentary on 'Mats video performances [Dante Taylor] MARKETPLACE: * _Don't Buy or Sell...It's Crap_ promo EP (talkin' vinyl here) for sale [Tom Ragatto] * That book-version promo of the CD of _14 Songs_ for sale too [Dean Roe] SURVEY: * Some excerpts from recently-received //Skyway\\ surveys TRANSCRIPTIONS: * Correction/addition to "Here Comes a Regular" [Howie Wang] PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: * For Virgina, Washington D.C., and Maryland residents -- easy way to help a great cause! [Jon Anderson] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey, today's my birthday! I can't figure out how I'm 23, but that's what my driver's license says. I don't remember all those 8,395 days, but they happened somewhere along the line. You think I'd be better at dancing after having all those days to practice. Hey, to make a long story short, I'm now living in Durham, North Carolina with a rock star, movie theater manager, and radio station music director. I'll report all about NC, my hilarious roommates, and relate stories from the land of tobacco, basketball, and general disregard for the speed limit in the prologue of the next issue...however, if you are a Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill resident yourself, give me a call! I don't really know anybody in town except for my roommates and a handful of others and would love to just hang out and find out where the swank places around town are...just call (919)-419-0808 and ask for Matt TOMICH (pronounced "Tom-itch"...see, I've got a roomie named Matt as well...) Okay, get this: the night of October 14th, my band-for-six-weeks, "Adversary Set", played their first show at a party at a quiet, inconspicuous little house in the part of town affectionately coined the 'musician's ghetto' (low rent, low property values, high in the probability of somebody having band practice next door) in downtown Omaha. Check this shit out: I did what I'd normally do for any show anybody'd have. First, I made some fliers for the party; I felt crazy creative so all the fliers for the party all in Spanish and with some clip art of a mariachi band on it. They say "Fiesta de Musica!" and all this junk and it's in this font that's like old Western movie posters from the 60's and I printed them onto this yellowy-paper...so you get the idea... Well, it turned out that we picked the wrong night, because Phish was playing in Lincoln, there was an art exhibit and The Cows (that Minneapolis punk rock performance art band) at the local rock joint (The Cog Factory), and there was another party across town from the same 'scene'. As a result, there was a meager showing of about 10. And then the first band played, and then they said "Okay, see yah! We're going to go see The Cows!" And about half the people left with them. And then my band was about the play, except we realize the PA system speakers are now blown with the cataclysmic ending of the last band's set. So then we sit around upstairs for about 30 minutes and go, "Screw it...we'll just play since these people are here and call it a night." And so we play without a PA system, hook up a microphone up to a bass amp, and run through about 5 songs. And then, in the middle of our set, these four Mexican guys walk in and ask in Spanish where "el mariachi groupo" is! And then they start yelling out requests in Spanish! And then, we play our last song, and this really drunk and stoned guy runs up and grabs the microphone and says, "We're not done yet! We're gonna jam!" And we did this jazzy, beatnik jam with this prolific, drunk, stoned, crazy guy...for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, the Phish concert crowd stumbles in reeking of ultra-high blood THC levels and start passing around the microphone! And THEN the Cows themselves show up! They come in, have races up and down the stairs, put Barry White on the stereo, and break a lamp. It all wound down about 3:30 or 4 a.m. and I spent the night and helped clean up this morning. It was boring, disappointing, loud, wild, crazy, and dangerous, all depending on what time you were there. Okay, like I said, NC next time. Except on the way down, I bought a CB. Hours of endless entertainment. The best reaction I got is when I flipped on channel 19 (the public-everybody's-on-here-kinda-channel) and spoke a few words in Spanish. Whew. I'd say that there's some STRONG advocates out there from those who are responsible for stocking your shelves at the local StuffMart for English as the language of choice in this country! Whew! Oh yeah, and check this out...there's a WWW site dedicated to throwing stuff down ten flights of stairs: http://www.dropsquad.com/ Drop me a note if you know of any other badass sites out there! I gotta go find a goddamn job. Geeez. More later. (Until then, write in and say hi!) Mas luego amigos! -- Mateo! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [This classic letter is from my undergraduate college counselor, one-time boss, and friend. To fully appreciate the picture this story paints, you have to have the background that the teller is a professional-looking woman in her 40's. So get a load of this! - M@] Date: Mon, 06 Nov 1995 10:04:08 CST From: "Dr. Elsie Gaber" This past weekend I went to Columbia, MO for and I decided to go mall hopping (not for anything in particular but certainly something certainly would leap out at me) and it did. I was in a music store and saw Enya's "The Celts" which I was looking for, and when I picked up it I discovered behind it a mis-placed 'Mats CD: "Tim". So what the hey, I bought it! So the girl at the checkout said to me, "Are you buying this for YOU?!!" I said, "Hmmm...yes...." "Gee...WOW!" So I asked her why she was so amazed. "Well, you must have good taste if you're buying the Replacements." "But why are you surprised I would buy this for myself?" I replied. (And here's the clincher:) "Well, slacker guys who graduated from college 5 years ago without a job and nothing better to do typically buy them and you don't look like THAT!!!" I simply laughed walked out with a smile on the inside. Good to keep people thinking, don't you think? => Good CD though! Dr. LC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 09 Nov 95 10:35:42 EST From: Bill Ruef <102144.3242@compuserve.com> Subject: PW article in new RS !!! Hey all, Just got the new issue of Rolling Stone today (Lenny Kravitz on the cover), yanked out all those goddamn advertisement cards (as I always do first), and opened the book up to page 29 (swear to God it just landed there - must be some kind of sign) and there was an article by Jim Walsh titled: "Paul Westerberg Looks Back, Moves Forward On New LP. (In The Studio)" I won't try to reiterate the entire article, but I will tell you that he comments on the Goo Goos, has quit cigarettes per doctor's orders (still smokes cigarillos though - Is that any better for you ?) and that the album is expected to be out in MARCH !!!!!!!! There's also some song titles, and lyric samples and some comments on Bob's death, or more specifically it's impact on him (Paul) Rush out to your local newsstand now and demand your copy !!! Bill ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 02 Nov 95 19:59:59 EST From: FA09000 Subject: Replacements/Mailing List Anyway, I want to join skyway and this is the only address that I have been able to find. I'm a huge Mats fan and have been since I first heard "Alex Chilton" when I was 12 years old. They were just so much better than all of the slick, ultra produced bullshit music that was so prevalent in the '80's. It's too bad that no one ever really seemed to notice then or realizes now what a huge influence they really are on all of the popular stuff today. I don't want waste anymore of your time so I'll go. I want to join Skyway and I hope it's not a pain the ass for you to have me do it this way. Thanks Kevin Parker P.S. One last thing. I am looking for a copy of an August 1989 Mats show from the Orange County Speedway in Middletown New York. It was the only time that I ever saw them and I would love to have a audio and/or video copy of the show. I was told that you guys might be able to help. Thanks again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Nov 95 07:51 EST From: dejordan@iquest.net (Damon Jordan) Subject: At afternoon parties where nobody heaves Hi. I'm Damon Jordan and am new to the list. I live in Indianapolis (was raised in Evansville) and work for Macmillan Computer Publishing. I started listening to the Mats when I was a sophomore in high school after I met a guy who once sneaked out of his house to go to Bloomington to see them play when he was 13. (I think he saw Bastards of Young on 120 minutes or something and had to know.) That's probably all you want to know about me, but I look forward to being on the list. Later, Damon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 01:19:00 -0400 From: MRTimmins@aol.com Subject: It's Good to Be Back Hello out there in cyberland. I've been offline for the last six months or so -- the unfortunate side effect of having finished graduate school -- and have thus been w/o my //Skyway\\. The small company where I am now working is not internet-accessed, so I finally caved in and joined aol, just so I could do the email thing again and get my monthly dose of //Skyway\\ .... I don't have a whole lot of new mats-related insight to offer, but I was gratified by the fact that more than once during my 'absence' I received snailmail requests (kindly forwarded to me by the nice lady at the PO in the town where I used to live) for copies of _The Fans Hit Back_. I kinda burnt out on that tape when I made it, but hearing it again reminded me of just how much fun the whole project was, and just how much talent is out there. I've been asked if I would consider doing a second volume. I suppose now that the crunch of finishing grad school is behind me, I could make the time for it, if there really was enough interest out there -- especially on the part of //Skyway\\ subscribers who would want to submit recordings of their bands. Without that, we're nowhere, right? Email me privately if you're interested. I have to thank Bill Rueff for forwarding me the last half-dozen or so //Skyways\\, which I've just skimmed through. I was moved by the disparity of opinion concerning Chris Mars. I haven't heard _Tenterhooks_ (is that a camping thing?), but neither of the other two albums moved me much -- sure, there were a few isolated bright spots, and some tunes caused me to grin once or twice, but on the whole I've found his body of work to be unimpressive. However, perhaps the best Chris Mars recording to own, IMO, is a demo copy I found of "Public Opinion " (this song should have been on the Kinks' 1982(?) album _Give the People What They Want_, don'tcha think?) which contained four "b" sides (b-, c-, d-, & e-sides?), the 4 best songs from the first album: "Popular Creeps," the "Monkey" one, the other tit les escape me now. It's kinda funny, too, cuz I've heard interviews with him and he seems like a decent, down-to-earth guy with a sense of humor I could really relate to. But that doesn't make him a songwriter... Perhaps the most transcendant Mats moment I've had in the past year was playing "Never Aim to Please" as the first song in my first-ever live performance at an open mic last fall. I really shoulda taken up the drums at 12 instead of in my late twenties! Anyway, I'll stop boring you all now. Goodnight. -Mark P.S. Due to the recent "surge" of Tom Waits cover songs (okay, 3 in all: "San Diego Serenade" by Nanci Griffith, "Heart of Saturday Night" by Shawn Colvin, and "Ol '55" by Sarah McLachlan), I have begun exploring the back-catalog of Tom Waits to see what inspired these three songstresses to cover him. On _Closing Time_, his 1973 album, Tom does a song called "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You," that if you told me was the inspiration for both "If Only You Were Lonely" *and especially* "Here Comes a Regular," I would believe you. The barroom piano feel of songs like "The Last" and just the whole boozy poetic outlook also make me wonder whether Paul is drawing inspiration from TW. Anyone else ever notice this? Or am I just trying too hard? Date: Sat, 28 Oct 1995 18:16:52 -0400 From: MRTimmins@aol.com Well, as a footnote to my earlier note, I discovered this past week that a cover of the Tom Waits song I was extolling is to be included on an upcoming tribute album, with this track (rather weakly, IMHO) covered by 10,000 Maniacs. Paul should have done it instead! He'd a be a natch for this tune. Y'all check it out. -Mark Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 10:30:30 -0500 From: MRTimmins@aol.com I had completely forgotten the overt Mats/Waits connection (Tom Waits singing backup on "Date to Church") when I wrote that bit about the song "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You." That just adds to my argument that Tom influenced Paul. btw, the song is on the album _Closing Time_, which you ought to be able to find for less than $10. -Mark ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dean T Roe Subject: WWW page Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 17:43:25 -0500 (CDT) Matt, Well I guess the Mats web site is good enough for people to look at now. The address for it is http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/g519/roex0006/home.html As always it is under heavy construction... Dean roex0006@gold.tc.umn.edu From: TGROP@cahners.com Date: Fri, 03 Nov 1995 09:44:48 -0500 Subject: Replacement's "Official" Web Page Hi Matt, I know, I have yet to mail in my bio yet. It's coming, I swear. That doesn't mean I'm not eternally grateful for your creation and somewhat bummed I could not share in the Midwest festivities. Maybe there will be an east coast version someday. Anyway, I just discovered Twin/Tone has a Replacement's Web Page. http://www.twintone.com/twintone/mats.html It is still evolving but promises early video clips coming soon. It currently has some sound files and a discography that pales to anything you have collected. I have not seen this mentioned in SKYWAY so I felt it my duty to call this matter to your attention. Besides videos, all I am aware of is the SNL episode (which your hosts graciously distributed out in Minn) and an appearance on the American Music Awards, where they performed "Talent Show,". In case you never saw it, it seems they had been fore-warned the censors were going to delete the "feelin' good from the pills we took," line. As Paul sings this verse, the sound is suddenly blocked out and Paul looks right at the camera and rolls his eyes. Then at the end, instead of singing,"It's too late to turn back, here we go," the band sings, "It's too late to take pills, here we go,". And another great moment in television/music history is enjoyed by all. I used to have a copy of this and the SNL episode. I lost the SNL, but I can get my hands on the American Music Awards tape if you like. If this is indeed a collector's item, I would gladly exchange it for some bootlegs. All I have approaching bootleg status is THE SHIT HITS THE FANS. However, my copy is autographed by the whole band but that's a story for when a write my "official" hello. Take care, Tom From: Kathms@aol.com Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 19:16:13 -0500 Subject: Mats Home Page/Interview Hi Matt and skyway people! I haven't contributed anything in awhile but I have been keeping up - thanks for the great issues as usual. I have two things - one is an interview with Paul I posted to a.m.r - I thought people here might like it too. It's from The Bob in 1990 and it's Paul talking about each of the records. And the second is my home page - I feel like a such a geek - but it was fund oing it. I Have some Mats stuff and pictures and I'm working on adding a page devoted to just Paul . Anybody with any ideas, pictures whatever they want to contribute (donate) lemme know! Be kind as I'm still learning this HTML stuff.... The URL is: http://public.navisoft.com/pub/mats.htm Aloha, Kathy ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (This has already been in the Skyway...it appeared approximately October 1993. But it really is a classic...interpretations of Replacements songs straight from the man who wrote them...and deserves to be re-printed for the benefit of those who haven't already read it.) Here's the interview: Replacements Autodiscography from _The Bob_ 1990 The Bob: "Would you mind doing an auto discography and talk about each one of the LPs?" Paul: "Of our stuff?" The Bob: "Yeah" Paul: "Don't listen to it" The Bob: " You can either start from the earliest one or start from the new one" Paul: "Ask me a question on each one and I'll try and give you a suitable lie" The Bob: "Well SORRY MA - I still listen to it and enjoy it. Do you ever listen to it, and if you do, do you still enjoy it?" Paul: "I was at an all-ages show about 2 months ago. I went with my sister and they put it on. It was really loud and I didn't know who it was until the second song. So that tells you how often I listen to that. And I was thinking 'Who the FUCK is this playing this old-hat shit?' You know, some crank band that thinks they're playing rock and roll. And sure enough, it was me. And they couldn't believe that I didn't realize it was the Replacements. But I always do that. Whenever I turn on the radio and we're on, I immediately don't recognize us. I just think 'This is familiar, who is this?'." The Bob: "The thing that set SORRY MA apart from other hard-core band of the times was the lyrics. I've always thought the Replacements' strongest point were you your lyrics. A few albums ago in an interview you claimed you were illiterate. That seems so ironic because insightful lyrics are what make the Replacements stand out." Paul: "Well yeah I mean, Einstein was dyslexic [laughs]. But I think that's what saved us on SORRY MA, because musically there's nothing really going on there. I guess I was from a different school of thought at the time - everyone else was getting into whatever was hip at the time, which I guess was more politically-oriented things. And I had probably just met my first girl a week ago so I was obsessed with that. The Bob: " The next record STINK was all-out, hard, hard-core." Paul: "Well, yeah, that one rang the falsest of them all. It's funny that a lot of people still like that one the best. It was done in two nights. We recorded it on Saturday and mixed it on Sunday afternoon. That was kind of our way of making a demo tape to send out to the clubs to say: 'See we can play this stuff too. Can we have a gig?'. And then we did like a full year of touring with Husker Du and Black Flag and Suicidal Tendencies, whoever. I think that was the short-lived period when we thought we were a hard-core band. And then we'd go back to the van and listen to Ted Nugent [laughter]. The Bob: "HOOTENANNY was a period of transition for you, because it started getting away from the hard-core and took a turn towards slower, more emotional songs like 'Within Your Reach'". Paul: "Hmm-mm. I think each record is almost a reaction to the one before it. It was like a year or six months of touring and doing the STINK thing, and the last thing I wanted to do was really bash out another one. You could hear me or less trying to find my voice, or trying to find out where I fit in - 'I don't FEEL like a skinhead, I like pop songs, I like bubblegum stuff'. That was in a way trying to fuse what I had been listening to growing up into what was happening at the time." The Bob: "LET IT BE is the one that made people realize that, Hey this band is something else, this band is definitely not a hard-core band." Paul: "This band knows Pete Buck" [laughter] The Bob: "The songs were kind of transcendent compared to your earlier stuff. That album has some of my favorite songs of all time like 'I Will Dare', 'Answering Machine' and 'Unsatisfied'." Paul: "And every one of those three was written at a turbulent period of my life. I'm glad we recorded then - had it been 2 months later, it might have been different. I hate when I look at it that way, because then we're back to the question of 'Well, do you need that tension in your life to create great art?' But it seems to come back to the fact that those songs that stay with you are the ones that were written at a hard time." The Bob: "And then TIM was the first major-label release." Paul: "That was right when we were splintering with Bob, Bob wasn't on much of the record. And Tommy Ederlyi for all the help he gave us, did a pretty crappy-ass job of mixing the thing. I mean, he mixed it on head phones cause he was deaf from playing with the Ramones. So it didn't help up a whole lot. But it's got some great tunes on it." The Bob: "On PLEASED TO MEET ME, you played guitar by yourself and I think you did a great job." Paul: "Thank you. That one was coming out of TIM and not knowing what we were doing by getting rid of Bob. SO we looked to someone older and Dickinson was perfect because he sort of took us by the hand and said, like 'Don't worry boys, just put on the clown makeup one more time and make a punk rock record'. And it was like 'Sure OK, we know how to do that.'" The Bob: "Have you seen Bob recently?" Paul: "Yeah just the other night Tommy and I were out and Bob came in and it was nice, 'cause we all sat down and it was like he had never left-within 2 minutes we were both insulting each other and had our arms around each other. There's definitely alot of love there. I think any bad feelings are definitely water under the bridge." The Bob: "DON'T TELL A SOUL kinda shocked d people by its mellowness. I liked the songs but I was disappointed by the ultra-heavy-sheen production." Paul: "Hmmmm. And I think that was the problem of having a third party in there - having a guy mix it who didn't know the band, and wasn't there for the recording, and more than anything didn't listen to the words. He thought 'I'm getting paid, this is my job to make it sound like Eddie Money, and that's what I'm gonna do'. And us at the time, we were figuring, 'Hey, it might work'. But it didn't." The Bob: "Are you disappointed with it now?" Paul: "Ummm, no. I mean, of all the songs, 'Asking Me Lies' I still listen to that a lot. And not so much for the lyrics, but I just kinda like the groove that Tommy and Chris were playing. I think DON'T TELL A SOUL is gonna be a sleeper like TIM was. A lot of people didn't like TIM at first, and now I get all this: 'Oh, there's great songs on TIM'. I think that it's the new TIM, it'll be the one that people come back to later." The Bob: "And then there's the new one, ALL SHOOK DOWN. Some of the best songs you've ever written and I think your best singing of all time." Paul: "Hell, if that's an endorsement, then I'll take it. Yeah, I agree. And it's a reaction to the last record which was a little too slick so I made sure we pulled it in the other direction. " The Bob: "I haven't seen the album's first single 'Merry Go Round' in the stores yet but I understand that Tommy does the song on the B-side." Paul: "Yeah that's called 'Satellite'. We just recorded that about 3 weeks ago. That was really kinda fun. That was the first thing we had done as a band in a long time. I sort of took the role as producer, and Tommy took the helm, playing the guitars and singing and playing bass. And Chris and Slim added their parts. It would have been nice to have done the new Replacements record that way. And it did open a new door that I guess we could work this way if we wanted to. But the album has to go top 40 before they'll even press that up." The Bob: "On 'My Little Problem' you sing a duet with Johnette Napolitano. Was that song originally written as a duet?" Paul: "Yeah it was. And it was kinda written with her in mind. She was one of my first choices, or I thought Joan Jett might be fun. But yeah, it was definitely written with a female vocalist in mind. And Johnette and I, were similar in alot of ways and I figured it would be a nice match. She blows me away. Actually I had a hard time keeping up with her [laughs]. She's cool. The Bob: "'The last' could be taken in a lot of different ways. You could be singing about the last love, as in getting married. Or you could be singing about the last Replacements album, implying that this could be the last one-" Paul: "Or of course the last drink." The Bob: "Exactly, that was my third..." Paul: "Yeah and it's all three of those". the end. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 30 Oct 95 08:37:57 EST From: Bill A Ruef <102144.3242@compuserve.com> Subject: Tommy Stinson Show Report Hey fellow Skywegians !!!! Since I usurped the last issue so much, I thought I'd better write something in for this issue. On Thursday 10/26/95 I attended the Tommy Stinson solo show at the Uptown in Mpls. Chris Koehler was my host/guide/companion/inn keeper for the trip (Much thanks Chris, Carolyn, Paul, and Charlie -- that's right, Chris named his first son Paul! This guy is a true Mats fan!) We had an excellent time, and I'm going to report on the whole excursion since it was a kinda Mats pilgrimage. I got into town around 3:30 Thursday afternoon following a pleasent 4 1/2 hour drive (it was a great day to be barreling up I-94 through NW Wisconsin at 80 mph) so I decided to do a little sight-seeing. Thanks to our great tour during the "Swingin' Party" a while back, I was able to see and get pictures of quite a few Replacements Landmarks including The CC Club (didn't stop in - should have), Oarfolkjokeopus, the LIB house, The Uptown Bar, etc. After grabbing a bite at Taco Hell, I whizzed over to Chris's house in the Western part of St. Paul near the UM campus. We had a nice long visit before the show listening to and dubbing boots, watching videos, showing each other Mats songs on guitars and talking about the group. Chris is a life-long Minnesota resident, and long-time Mats fan. He's seen the group something like 9 times (bastard - can you smell my jealosy) and had all sorts of tales to tell, which I'll let him send in sometime (Wait 'til you hear the one about the Georgia Satellites show!). We headed down to the Uptown around 9:00 and found there was NO COVER !!! COOL!! Tommy liked to joke about this fact during the show, saying he could do what he wanted since we didn't pay. The opening act was called "The John Ewing Band". They sounded great. Just straight forward rock/pop in the fine Minneapolis tradition. I heard a little bit of the Beat Farmers in a few songs. Tommy came on armed with only an electric Gibson guitar, a microphone, and his early Rod Stewart/Duran Duran/Dippity Doo hair style. Quite a switch after years of classic Sid Vicious spikes ! He played for about an hour and did 3 Bash & Pop songs including Tiny Pieces, First Steps, & Friday Night, the latter two of which he closed with. He also did the Partridge Family song (awesome - I grew up on the Partridge Family) and Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arm Around A Memory". The rest of the show was comprised of new material including some "Perfect" (Tommy's new band) songs. The new songs all sounded great and were in the same general tradition as B&P. I'd really love to hear them with full band arrangements. Hopefully he'll bring the whole band along next time as he said he would. I was especially impressed with Tommy's Voice. He sounded great, especially for someone who never used to sing lead and just started doing it a few years ago. He handled himself excellently on stage, joking with the crowd, wandering around the barren stage, looking out the windows and waving at passersby on the street. At one point he apologized to his mother who was in attendance for having such a "potty mouth" on stage. He said, "If I stay for a week that might stop". He also complained jokingly about being alone and not having his band with him saying things like "Leave me the fuck alone" and "I'm by my fucking self up here - I can't defend myself" when people would yell out stuff. When folks would keep requesting songs that he really couldn't pull off without a band, he said "Just don't keep yelling dumb stuff at me O.K.?" All of this was said jokingly and with a smile. He seemed a little nervous but to really enjoy himself in front of the home-town crowd that included such luminaries as his afformentioned mom and some other family members, Terry Katzman, Bill Sullivan, Steve Foley, and none other than he of the curly hair and sunken eyes, Slim Dunlap, who kinda hid in a back corner booth with friends most of the night. (sorry - didn't see Paul or Chris anywhere). After the show Chris and I headed over to an all-night Kinkos to copy a bunch of Mats articles. (never thought I'd ever find myself in a Kinko's in uptown Mpls at 1:00 a.m. photocopying Replacements stories). We then headed home and crashed. The next day I said my goodbyes and headed back toward the Uptown to get a T-shirt before heading home. I got there only to find out I'd lost my wallet (I always have problems with my wallet when I go to Mpls. - but that's another story). A quick call to Carolyn revealed it was back at their house so I headed back for that and decided I'd better start my journey home sans T-shirt since I was supposed to go to work friday (I made it in at about 3:00 PM - only about 7 hours late). I was able to record the show and it came out sounding pretty decent, despite some problems with my recorder. If anyone is interested in getting a copy I'll trade for other Mats or Mats related shows, or for one 90 minute Maxell XL II or TDK SA 90 minute tape and return postage. Just email me and we'll set it up. I also have tons of other Mats boots and am always looking for new trading partners, so if you have a list, send it along and I'll get mine off to you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 08:41:21 -0500 (CDT) From: Scott Hudson Alumni Subject: A couple of notes After reading the latest Skyway, here's a couple of thoughts: 1. Next time you go to the C.C. Club, look for the Supersuckers disc on the jukebox. If you plug the number after the last one listed you'll get the entire disc played for one credit. 2. Spin has just released a record guide book. "Stink" gets a surprisingly high rating, while PTMM is criticized for having little guitar. (Say what?) Anyway, sounds like you guys had a great time in the big city last month. I wish I could have been there. Scott ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mikey568@aol.com Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 20:14:55 -0500 Subject: Spin Article I apologize if this has been posted before, but I checked the archives, and I didn't see it in there. I was at my parents house a couple of weekends ago and I was going through some boxes of stuff that I had when I was in high school. I came across the very first issue of Spin (with Madonna on the cover), which sure enough has an article on the mats. Actually it was an article on the mats and the Del Fuegos, but it alternated back and forth between the two bands. I just transcribed the parts of the article pertaining to Paul & Co. Not a whole lot of big news here, but I still thought it was kind of neat. (Note the botched Answering Machine lyrics). Here goes... --- Long and Winding Road By Chuck Reese Spin Magazine - May 1985 - Volume One Number One The Fuegos and the Replacements were the wildest, loudest drunkest bar bands in their home towns. Now the wonderful sub-slime hope to be sublime...but in different ways. Paul Westerberg, the lead singer, songwriter and de facto leader of the Replacements--four bad boys from Minneapolis--hates like hell to admit his deep concern for the band's future, but he can't hide it. He and I are walking down the front hallway of the 688 Club in Atlanta about three hours before showtime when he sees Bob Stinson, the band's addled but affable lead guitarist, involved in what looks like a shady deal with a stranger. "No, Bob," he says sternly under his breath. "No!" Westerberg wants the show to cook tonight. He'd rather spare Atlanta, a town that has been pretty good to his band, one of those patented Replacements debacles that once provoked a critic to call them "almost invariably awful live." ***** The opinion that the Replacements are awful live is dead wrong. When Westerberg, Stinson, Stinson's brother, bassist Tommy, and drummer Chris Mars manage to tumble together into a good groove, the Replacements can raise a crowd straight into ecstasy. "Usually it's spontaneous." Westerberg says. "It just happens onstage. Usually, when we try to plan the next move that'll work, it just doesn't fly. It's best when it happens by accident, because that's when it's the most fun. It's exciting for us. You've got nothing to lose, and it could go over big or everything could just crumble, right? You shoot for something, and if it doesn't make it, well..." Well, you go down together. The Replacements' magic and their mishaps are predicated on the volatile friendship among Westerberg, Mars and the Stinsons. "The playing--doing the songs, worrying about who's gonna catch on to it and how big and what's gonna happen next, that stuff--it's scary, and we just don't want to think about it," Westerberg says. "We don't do all that because we'd probably flip out. I think we've got the right attitude, and probably not the one that's gonna take us as far as we possibly could go, but it's probably the one that's gonna keep us together the longest. "That strong feeling is what binds us together. Like if one gut can't cut it, and you know you're hot that night, just the fact that he's going down--well, then I'm going down with him. It's a bond. It's something you can't get anywhere else. It's a real good feeling, even when you go down." Deliverance and laughs--with a dark twinkle in the eye--are what you get from the Replacements--if you're lucky. They mix brazen hilarity and pointed confession so effectively that you become immersed in their pain, but come up laughing. Last winter's Let It Be album, a critical success and college radio favorite, is the best showcase yet for the band's trashy sound and commonplace wisdom. "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out," is an account of 18-year-old bassist's operation, from the doctor's point of view. "Let's get this over with/I'll be home in an hour/My Cadillac's running/Rip rip! Gonna Rip 'em out now!" Then turn the album over and listen to "Answering Machine," a lament over blocked communication between lovers: "Can't reach her heart, only her answering machine." Over a churning and slashing guitar riff, he wails darkly, "How do you say I'm lonely to an answering machine?/How do you say I love you to an answering machine?/Ooooh, I hate your answering machine." Emotions like that weigh heavy on the Replacements, making it hard for the the band to be just smiling entertainers. "I say a lot more in a song than I do to the band," Westerberg admits. "We're close and all, but we don't sit around and talk about deep feelings or anything. It's difficult to show them a song--the lyrics are like me talking to them, which is something I never do. That's why it's difficult sometimes to have people cheering and shit when I'm doing 'Answering Machine.' There ain't no way I could be happy and smiling when I'm doing that. It's a whirlwind of different feelings." Westerberg writes good hooks; his band could have more hits. Westerberg wants to write more soul-blaring and humorous tunes and produce records that are more sophisticated than the Replacements first four discs on an independent Minneapolis label. But the message is in his every word: they are always the Replacements. they could run headlong at 90 mph into the brick wall of the Big Record Business and explode. "Then again," Westerberg asks with a grin, "would you like to see us turn to stone and crumble? If we go, we're gonna go down in flames. Then we'll come back with, like, suits and chick singers..." --- On an unrelated note, I'm looking to acquire some more tapes of shows. I have the following so far and am always looking to trade. If anyone has an interest, e-mail me (Mikey568@aol.com) REPLACEMENTS 11/8/84 - G.S. Vig's; Milwaukee, WI - "...In Heaven There is No Beer" - 1X90 12/9/84 - CBGB's; NY - sbd - 1X90 - B 4/21/87 - Providence, RI - 1X90 6/?/89 - University of Wisconsin; Milwaukee, WI - Sire promo 5-song live EP - filler: B-sides & rarities - 1X45 8/31/89 - Lake Compounce; Bristol, CT - "Shit, Shower & Shave" - sbd - 1X90 7/1/91 - Summerfest; Milwaukee, WI - 1X90 7/4/91 - Petrillo Music Shell, Grant Park; Chicago, Ill - "It Ain't Over Until the Fat Roadie Plays" - 1X90 PAUL WESTERBERG 7/8/93 - The Stone Pony; Asbury Park, NJ - "Gravel Pit" - 1X90 Thanks, Mike ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Duncan deGraffenreid Subject: Mats article from 8/95 Guitar World Date: Fri, 3 Nov 95 9:46:57 EST [from Guitar World's August 1995 issue. Gleefully reprinted without permission.] LEFT OF THE DIAL By Marc Weingarten In the early Eighties, H=FCsker D=FC, The Replacements and a handful of other scruffy Minneapolis bands forged what is now known as indie rock. This is their story. * Part 1 (1959-'76): LAND OF 10,000 GARAGE BANDS * Part 2 (1976-'89): DO YOU REMEMBER? * Part 3 (1984-'89): HERE COMES SUCCESS * Part 4 (1989-'95): LOUD FAST RULES Most regional music scenes of any historical significance can be characterized in 10 words or less. Seattle? The birthplace of grunge, of course. New York? Breeding ground for the epochal punk revolution Athens? Home of R.E.M., avatars of jangly alterna-pop. But any attempt to pigeonhole the Minneapolis music scene into a convenient, easily marketable category would prove to be futile. This Midwestern city, located smack-dab in the center of Minnesota, has produced too many great bands and different sub-genres to be thought of as stylistically monolithic. And yet, the Minneapolis music scene is just as influential as those aforementioned focused movements, perhaps even more so. If one traces the evolution of today's so-called alternative music, all roads lead to Minneapolis. The punkish-pop of Green Day and the Offspring would not have been possible without their groundbreaking forbearers, Minneapolis hometown heroes HFCsker DFC and Soul Asylum. Contemporary roots rockers like Wilco and the Bottle Rockets owe a huge debt to Minneapolis twang-and-clang bands like the Jayhawks and the Gear Daddies. And Kurt Cobain, perhaps the most important musical artist of the Nineties, was not the first songwriter to combine punk crunch with heart-on-your-flannel sleeve vulnerability. That honor belongs to the Replacements, arguably Minnesota's greatest musical export since Bob Dylan. The Mats, as the Replacements were known to their most devoted fans, made an incalculable impact on the Seattle grunge scene. "When I was living in Seattle, every band worshipped the Replacements," says Tom Hazelmyer, owner of the Minneapolis indie label Amphetamine Reptile. "If you look at some of the older photos of the Replacements, they were wearing the flannel shirts and the ripped jeans. Those guys virtually invented the whole grunge look, to say nothing of the sound." But the roots of the Minneapolis music scene extend deeper than the Replacements, HFCsker DFC and Soul Asylum, and its impact stretches far beyond Seattle. Part 1 (1959-'76) LAND OF 10,000 GARAGE BANDS There's a rule of thumb in Minnesota that goes something like this: the number of local bands increases in inverse proportion to the temperature, which can get as frigid as 60 below in the winter. "It gets so cold here that people have to stay inside," says guitarist Slim Dunlap, who has been a fixture on the scene for over two decades and was a member of the Replacements for the last five years of the band's existence. "Musicians can also survive here for very little money. If you're a musician in cities like New York or Chicago, you live about as well as a junkie." Perhaps this accounts for the explosion of Minneapolis bands that sprouted in the wake of 1964's British Invasion. Prior to that momentous event, Minneapolis was primarily a sleepy college town (The University of Minnesota is located there) whose music scene consisted of a few coffeehouses that catered to the folkie crowd. This pre-rock era is not without some historical import, however; a young U of M drop-out Robert Zimmerman, soon to be named Bob Dylan, played his first gigs during this time. "There was quite an explosion in the Sixties," says Peter Jesperson, widely acknowledged as the patriarch of the second great phase of Minneapolis' music scene. "There were a bunch of great bands, like the Hi-Spirits, the T.C. Atlantic and the Jesters, covering all the popular British groups of the time. That was the first time I ever heard the word `punk' applied to music." The first Minneapolis band to achieve any national success were the Trashmen, whose one and only hit, 1963's "Surfin' Bird," climbed all the way to Number Four on Billboard's singles chart. The song, which features three poorly played chords and a baleful "bird is the word" chant, remains one of the loopiest Top 5 hits of all time. "Surfin' Bird's" amateurish aesthetic was also a significant harbinger of punk-the Ramones and the Cramps both paid homage to the Trashmen years later with their own hopped-up interpretations of the song. "The Trashmen were like giant super-stars to us," says Slim Dunlap. "I saw them many times. `Surfin' Bird' just hit you like a ton of bricks-it was so damned weird. All of the other songs of the time had these chants that were about dances, like `Foot Stompin'. But then you heard this thing-`ba-ba-ba-ba-bird is the word'-and you thought, `What the fuck is that?'" A few local bands managed to chart nationally post-"Surfin' Bird"-most notably the Castaways, whose "Liar, Liar" peaked at Number 12-but during the late Sixties and early Seventies, Minneapolis was primarily a cover-band ghetto. "There really wasn't an audience for original music in Minneapolis at the time," says Dunlap. Thumbs Up, however, were among the few bands in town that could play original material and get away with it, and it had everything to do with their driving force, singer/songwriter/guitarist Curtiss A. The magnetic frontman (whose real name was Curt Almstead) wrote eccentric yet infectious r&b flavored pop and possessed a powerful, impassioned voice similar to that of another blue-eyed soul singer, Van Morrison "Curt was like Wilson Pickett with a guitar," says Bill Batson, leader of mid-Seventies Minneapolis favorites the Hypstrz. "He could do absolutely anything with his voice." Almstead's musical foil in Thumbs Up was a young guitarist from southern Minnesota named Bob "Slim" Dunlap. "I was drawn to Curt's band because he was one of the few guys in Minneapolis who wasn't playing Top 40 stuff," says Dunlap. "I loved soul music at the time and you didn't hear many musicians playing it. Curt would play guitar riffs that didn't make any sense in the song but sounded great. He was a highly influential musician in town." Curtiss A. may have blazed the trail, but the Suicide Commandos irrevocably changed the rules of the game. Led by guitarist Chris Osgood, the Suicide Commandos were Minneapolis' first real punk band Loud, fast and heavily influenced by proto-punk bands like the Stooges and MC5, they created the musical template for virtually every great Minneapolis band that emerged in their wake. "The Suicide Commandos were the fundamental band at the time," says ex-HFCsker DFC drummer/songwriter /vocalist Grant Hart. "When punk rock hit, they really filled a need in Minneapolis." Adds Jesperson, "Without the Commandos, I wouldn't have been doing what I was doing, and I don't think the Replacements, Husker Du or Soul Asylum would have happened. They were the true catalysts for the whole scene." By the time most of the world caught wind of the punk explosion happening in New York, the Commandos had been performing for well over two years. "When that first Ramones record came out in 1976, we all thought, `Wow, somebody else is doing what the Commandos are doing,'" says Jesperson. The first Minneapolis band to get signed to a major label-their debut album, Make A Record, was released on Polygram's short-lived punk imprint, Blank-the Commandos instantly legitimized the nascent local scene and provided the impetus for other local bands to start writing and performing their own material. If the Suicide Commandos were Minneapolis' answer to the Ramones, then the Suburbs were the Midwest's very own version of the Talking Heads. This quirky quintet combined the angular, jumpy rhythms of the Heads with a high quotient of ironic detachment and Dada-esque, absurdist humor. "When the Commandos cashed it in, they sort of passed the torch to the Suburbs," says Peter Jesperson. "They were as wild and irreverent as anything I'd ever seen." The dance-influenced 'Burbs, formed in 1977, would soon become Minneapolis' most popular club draw. By 1978, the Minneapolis music scene was thriving. The Suburbs and Suicide Commandos were selling out clubs like the Longhorn, the Blitz Bar and Suttons, while other local bands like the Wallets, the Flamingos, the Hypstrz, the Spooks (Curtiss A's new band) and the Fingerprints were developing sizable followings of their own. Like so many other Minneapolis music fans, sound technician and amateur record producer Paul Stark was excited about the changes afoot in his home town. Stark, who had already produced a few singles for the Commandos on his teeny P.S. label, was anxious to work with some of these great new bands and help them get the exposure he felt they deserved. So, joining forces with local sportswriter and closet music freak Charlie Hallman (who had "discovered" the Commandos) and Peter Jesperson, Stark formed Twin/Tone Records, a label that would prove to be the prime mover for the music boom to come. Part 2 (1976-'89):DO YOU REMEMBER? Although Minneapolis in the early Eighties had its fair share of important, high-profile clubs-The Longhorn, the Blitz Bar, 7th Street Entry and Goofy's were key venues-the locus for the burgeoning music scene was, in fact, a mom-and-pop record store called Oar Folkjukeopus. "It was the clubhouse," says Peter Jesperson, who managed the store for 11 years. "Oar Folk was the kind of place where nobody felt excluded. We weren't exactly guys with cool haircuts, after all-just nerdy record collectors." By stocking Oar Folk with imported punk vinyl at a time when those records were hard to come by, Jesperson drew serious music fans from all over the region to the store. "We all hung out at Oar Folk," says ex-Replacements drummer Chris Mars. "It was the alternative record store at the time." Using Oar Folk as his base of operations, Jesperson would soon become the overlord of the early Eighties Minneapolis music scene. In addition to managing the record store, Jesperson also worked as a D.J. and part-time booker for the Longhorn and served as A&R man and house producer for Twin/Tone, which had already released E.P.'s by the Spooks, the Suburbs and the Fingerprints. "I guess I was a good guy to give a tape to at the time," says Jesperson. One of the many bands hoping for a shot with Jesperson was Dogbreath, a quartet that certainly didn't conform to any notions of punk credibility. While guitarist Bob Stinson, his bass-playing baby brother Tommy and drummer Chris Mars worshipped the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks, they also had a strong allegiance to dinosaur artists such as Bad Company, Ted Nugent and Yes. "Bob idolized [Yes guitarist] Steve Howe, and he was doing a lot of speed at the time," says Jesperson. "So his band would play stuff like `Roundabout' and `Cat Scratch Fever' at 100 miles per hour." Paul Westerberg, who lived in the Stinsons' neighborhood, was an ambitious guitarist and songwriter in search of a band. "I had played with Paul once before I met the Stinson brothers," recalls Chris Mars. "He was real nerdy. When Paul first joined the band, he would be drinking orange juice while we would be getting really drunk. Eventually he broke down, though." Westerberg, who used to eavesdrop on the band's rehearsals, managed to cajole his way into Dogbreath by convincing the lead singer that the other band members hated his voice. With Westerberg in tow, the band changed its name to the Replacements and recorded a crude four-song demo in the Stinsons' basement. Bob, the oldest member was 21, while his brother Tommy, the band's bassist, was only 14. Meanwhile, across the river in St. Paul, another chapter in Minneapolis' storied musical history was being written. Grant Hart, who worked as a clerk in a St. Paul record store, wasn't exactly enamored of the legendary Oar Folkjukeopus: "Oar Folk was a place to get dissed," he says. "I remember walking in there and getting an `Oh, you're buying that?' kind of vibe." A lover of movie music and jazz as well as obscure indie rock bands, Hart fashioned himself as an outsider. So did Bob Mould, a guitar player who had just moved back to Minnesota from a stint attending college in New York. "Bob walked into the store one day looking for this indie stuff that he couldn't find in New York," says Hart. "He also had a bunch of cool records that I had never seen before, so we just hit it off from there." Enlisting fellow record store employee Greg Norton, the three joined forces and formed a band, which they called Husker Du. The pidgeon Swedish name, a winking tip of the hat to Minnesota's large Scandinavian population, actually came from an old board game. The Huskers' formation coincided with the emergence of hardcore, the hyper-fast punk sub-genre that had already spawned a few great bands (Bad Brains, Black Flag) and countless lousy and mediocre ones. There was nothing pedestrian about Husker Du's brand of hardcore, however, primarily because the band was melodic and noisy in equal measure-their tuneful "steel wall of sound" was far more evolved than that of the typically plodding head-banging bands of the era. All three members brought with them a large degree of muscular musicianship that had heretofore been largely absent from hardcore. Hart drummed at a frenetic, whip-cracking pace, Norton was a human metronome on bass, and the dexterous Mould had a thick, caterwauling tone-all of which made Husker Du sound more like a five-piece band than a trio. "Bob can do two things at once on guitar," says Slim Dunlap. "He can fool the ear into thinking there are more than just three people in the band. Instead of just strictly sticking to lead or rhythm, Bob will hold a chord, then play an intricate two-note figure, then go back to the chord effortlessly." Recalls ex-Suicide Commandos guitarist Chris Osgood, who was one of Mould's early guitar teachers: "Bob was able to create a sound that was both crunchy and sinuous at the same time. It's very unique to him." Like just about every other band in the St. Paul/ Minneapolis area, Husker Du recorded a few rough tracks and brought them to Peter Jesperson, who rejected the band outright. "And I was like, `Oh, by the way, you're going to have a problem with that Scandinavian name,'" Jesperson recalls. Unbowed by Jesperson's thumbs-down, the band did what all resourceful, label-less punks did at the time-they released their first single, "Statues"/"Amusement," and first two albums, Land Speed Record and Everything Falls Apart, on their own Reflex label. (Land Speed Record was distributed by New Alliance, a company owned by the legendary L.A. punk trio the Minutemen.) Recorded at an early gig on a paltry $400 budget, Land Speed Record has the sound quality of a bad bootleg, but the The Huskers' pile-driving, sonically expansive hardcore cuts through the record's lo-fi sludge like a sledgehammer through butter. Despite the record's bargain-basement production, it was clear that Husker Du was a new local band to be reckoned with. The trio invariably attracted a largely male, leather-clad, blue-Mohawk hardcore crowd to their shows. "There was violence in that scene, but it was friendly aggression, male bonding," Bob Mould told GQ in 1990. "It was about getting your hair cut short and bumping into all these guys you didn't know. It was misinterpreted by adults, but then, everything is." While the Husker's were playing their first gigs, Paul Westerberg was busy hustling the Replacements' demo. "Paul came in to Oar Folk one day and handed me this cassette tape that had stuff scratched out on it and `The Replacements' written underneath," says Jesperson. "One day a couple of weeks later, I'm sitting in the back office of the store doing some paperwork and popping demos into a boom box. About 10 tapes or so into my listening session, I put the Replacements tape in. I don't think anything will ever be as magical for me as that moment. They were like Chuck Berry updated or something. It just absolutely floored me." Jesperson and his Twin/Tone partner Paul Stark immediately booked studio time for the band at Blackberry Way, a studio that Stark co-owned with ex-Fingerprints members Mike Owens and Kevin Glynn. "We just hit the record button and said, `Go ahead.' They plowed though about 15 great songs in a row. I turned to Paul Stark and said, `I think we're talking about an album here.'" That album, Sorry Ma Forgot To Take Out The Trash, and its 1981 follow-up The Replacements Stink, are furious blasts of snotty petulance and locker-room humor played by a band who wore their manic, willfully sloppy execution like a badge of pride. Lurking just below the surface of the Mats' anarchic, frayed-at-the-edges attack, however, there were flashes of brilliance. Songs like the elegiac "Johnny's Gonna Die," "Raised In The City," "God Damn Job" and "I Hate Music" ("I hate music/It's got too many notes") were a considerable notch above the kind of sloganeering, nihilistic punk being proffered at the time. Westerberg wasn't interested in writing class-conscious screeds like the Sex Pistols or comic-book punk ala the Ramones. Rather, he was merely articulating the typical fears and frustrations of a bored, jaded teenager growing up in suburban middle America, albeit with more passion, raw power and intelligence than any other songwriter in any genre. Although Westerberg's music immediately resonated with like-minded Minneapolis teens, it was the Replacements' freewheeling, wildly erratic live shows that forever sealed the band's near-mythic status Frequently fueled by booze, the Mats' devil-may-care attitude made a mockery of rock star posturing. Audiences never knew what to expect-some nights the band would play brilliantly, while other nights they would deliver slurred, barely competent versions of "Smoke On The Water" and "Kumbaya." And Bob Stinson, the Mats' guitar-slinging court jester, usually led the way. Stinson, who would often spit on crowd members and wear dresses on stage, was the very embodiment of the band's anti-slick, balls-to-the-wall ethos. "The first time I ever saw the Replacements, it completely changed my world," says Martin Zellar, ex-guitarist for Minneapolis roots-rockers the Gear Daddies. "It was one of their drunken shows. About halfway though the set, Bob, wearing a dress and a hat and tons of necklaces, gets pelted with a beer. "Well, Bob starts staring the guy down while the rest of the band is chugging away. Suddenly, he makes this motion with his hand, as if to say, `Bring it on,' and the crowd starts throwing beers at him left and right. Bob just started playing again, totally getting off on it I had come from this bar band, please-the-customers ethic, and here was this band saying, `Fuck you, we do what we want to do.' It was incredible." But Stinson was more than just comic relief or rebellious symbol-his slashing, careening guitar playing was the heart and soul of the band's sound. "Before Bob, there were all these impeccable, `tasty chops' kind of guys in Minnesota," says Slim Dunlap. "Bob was the first guy to say, `Fuck that.' He was the first guitarist in Minneapolis to play without trying to be Mr. Flashy God. His emotions came out in his playing. When he was really on, I have seen few greater guitar players." By 1983, the Huskers and the Mats were firmly entrenched at the top of Minneapolis' musical hierarchy. Incessant touring and a series of strong albums had garnered both bands a considerable following beyond the borders of their hometown. Husker Du, in fact, were now recording for SST, a California label owned by Black Flag co-founder Greg Ginn The Mats and the Huskers also found themselves moving away from the hide-bound constraints of punk and hardcore, respectively, into a more musically mature realm. Metal Circus, Husker Du's first E.P. for SST, was a giant leap forward for the band. They were now venturing into previously uncharted territory, adding elements of pop and confessional songwriting into the mix. Similarly, Westerberg was now tempering the Replacements' sophomoric tendencies with new-found poignancy and emotional depth. This became evident on their third album, Hootenanny, particularly on the album's stand-out track, the bittersweet "Within Your Reach." "Actually, Paul was writing quieter songs early on, but he was reluctant to show anybody because he thought it was weird," says Peter Jesperson. "So at the same time he was writing stuff like, `I need a goddamn job,' he was secretly writing these plaintive acoustic ballads." 1984's Let It Be, the Replacements' fourth album, was a perfect synthesis of Westerberg's alternately sardonic and soul-searching sensibility. Widely acknowledged as the band's masterpiece, Let It Be completed the Replacements' transformation from one-dimensional punkers to mature rockers. Granted, the Mats hadn't completely sacrificed the youthful brashness of old, as songs like "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" and "Gary's Got A Boner" made perfectly clear. But hook-laden Westerberg compositions like "Unsatisfied" and "I Will Dare" were catchier, smarter and more fully realized than anything he had tried before. The band itself was sharper than ever. Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars had by this time coalesced into a strong, cohesive rhythm section, while Bob Stinson's stinging, smoldering leads and staccato fillips provided the perfect counterpoint to Westerberg's gut-wrenching, tar-and-nicotine vocals. "We had a big dose of attitude in the early days," Westerberg told Rolling Stone in 1989, "and it's kinda hard to put attitude down on tape. But we tried for, like, three records. We kinda gave up the ghost on Let It Be, and let a little bit of music happen, too. And that was the right mixture." Let It Be would prove to be a critical turning point in the band's career. It sold more copies than their previous three releases combined and was effusively praised in the mainstream press as one of the decade's seminal albums. At the same time that the Replacements were being hailed as rock and roll saviors, Husker Du were making waves of their own with their magnum opus, the two record, 23-track Zen Arcade. A bracing blend of acoustic balladry, psychedelic experimentation, quasi-rockabilly, ear-piercing distortion and the band's "pop-core" sound, Zen Arcade was Husker Du's breakthrough album. Like the Replacements, Husker Du would no longer be regarded as local cult faves. They were now unquestionably two of the best bands on the planet. "It was kind of like having the Beatles and the Stones in Minneapolis," says Chris Osgood. "We had two very prolific bands making great music. It was really an amazing time." The Mats and the Huskers had arrived. Or had they? Part 3 (1984-'89):HERE COMES SUCCESS After four albums with Twin/Tone and the critical triumph of Let It Be, the Replacements were teetering on the cusp of mainstream success. But while the band certainly longed for mass recognition, they didn't court it, and they sure as hell weren't going to work for it. "Paul wanted to have his songs on the radio, but he didn't want to go through all of the bullshit to make that happen," says Peter Jesperson, who by this time had become the band's manager. "If you told Paul before a show that there were some record execs in the audience, that was as good as saying, `Go out and suck, please.'" Says Mars, "We didn't plan on becoming stars, so when we actually became known in our own right, we felt very uncomfortable with it. We sort of threw it back at people." Despite the band's ambivalence about fame, they were getting too big for Twin/Tone to handle. "One night the band just went for the throat at this gig in New York. They were just great," recalls Jesperson. "After the set, I spotted our attorney talking to this pudgy guy wearing an old corduroy jacket. After this guy left, our attorney turns to me and says, `That was [Sire Records President] Seymour Stein and he says he's going to sign the band before the tour is over.'" The band did indeed sign with Stein's Sire, a Warner Brothers imprint, in 1985 and soon recorded their fifth album, Tim. Produced by Tommy Erdelyi (a.k.a. Tommy Ramone), Tim contained some of Westerberg's most anthemic, radio-ready songs to date, and the Mats became critical darlings, receiving praise from coast to coast. But just when it seemed as if the Replacements were going to hit the motherlode, the band's reckless lifestyle got in the way. "I just kind of got caught up being a performer," Westerberg told author Gina Arnold in her book, Route 666: On The Road To Nirvana. "And where do you turn to? Drugs and alcohol, and every fuckin' escape you can possibly imagine." Bob Stinson's drinking and cocaine intake was excessive even by the band's bacchanalian standards. "Bob didn't have a clue," Westerberg told Spin in 1989. "He didn't know the key of A from his left foot, so I'd sort of show him where to put his hands. `Just kinda start there, Bob.'" The band's internal strife and obstinate refusal to play the major-label game did little to help Tim's commercial prospects. They didn't even appear in their own video for "Bastards Of Young," opting instead to use a single, black and white shot of a phonograph speaker instead. Not surprisingly, Tim was not the hit Sire was hoping it would be. The band's uneasy association with the mainstream had begun. Shortly after a European tour in support of Tim, Westerberg fired Stinson. "The band was getting screwed up with cocaine and Bob was a scapegoat," says Chris Mars. "Everybody said, `Well, we did it for Bob's sake,' but we were all doing it just as much. After Bob left, I didn't see how we were going to fill his shoes." The band's next album, Pleased To Meet Me, was recorded as a trio, with Westerberg handling most of the guitar chores. Produced by Memphis music legend Jim Dickerson, Pleased To Meet Me is the band's last great album and Westerberg's absolute peak. From the taut, raucous rave-ups "Red Red Wine," "Alex Chilton" and "I.O.U." to the fake cocktail jazz of "Nightclub Jitters," the wistful "Skyway" and "I Don't Know," a sly commentary on the band's next-big-thing status ("One foot in the door/ the other one in the gutter"), Pleased To Meet Me was an astonishing showcase for Westerberg's wide-ranging songwriting skills. And while Westerberg was no match for Bob Stinson, his searing solos on "The Ledge" and "Never Mind" were ample proof that he was a far better guitar technician than he had previously let on. Yet, despite almost unanimous critical praise, Pleased To Meet Me, like Tim, died an ignominious commercial death. Husker Du suffered a similar fate when, in 1986, they followed the Replacements to Warner Bros. By this time, the trio had burnished their "candycore" sound to perfection on the SST albums New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig, dulling the old corrosive edge with streamlined song structures and a more palatable production veneer. Now that the Huskers had signed with a music biz behemoth, however, they faced the classic ex-indie-band conundrum: trying to expand their fan base without alienating their stalwart followers, many of whom felt betrayed by the move. Despite the cries of "sell-out," Husker Du's Warners debut, Candy Apple Grey, was hardly the corporate concession the band's hardcore fans feared it would be. A ferocious mix of twisted love songs ("Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely") and straight-ahead rockers ("Dead Set On Destruction"), Candy Apple Grey won over the nay-sayers but made nary a dent in terms of sales. Candy Apple Grey's underwhelming commercial performance, coupled with the band's own substance abuse problems, began to breed infighting. Hart and Mould, Husker Du's principal songwriters, were now at odds over the band's increasingly pop-oriented direction. "I was challenging the punk stuff with more pop things, and Bob was more into hardcore," says Hart. "It got to the point where we were both doing side projects and we weren't focusing on the next Husker Du album." Recorded under the most hostile conditions imaginable, 1988's Warehouse: Songs and Stories would prove to be the band's swan song, and what a glorious valedictory it is. Across two albums and 20 songs (11 by Mould, nine by Hart), the band pummels their way through some of the strongest, most accessible material of their career. It, too, was a commercial disappointment. When Husker Du's manic-depressive manager David Savoy committed suicide in 1988, the band -burned-out and embittered-called it quits. By this time, the Replacements were also slowly unraveling. Not only were they working without a lead guitarist, but their drinking and drug problems had turned into full-blown addictions. With two mediocre-selling Sire albums under their belt and the label breathing down their necks, they were hurting for a hit. In 1987, Westerberg recruited Curtiss A/Spooks alumnus Slim Dunlap to join the band. "I had no desire to be a Replacement", says Dunlap. "I was too old, I had a family; I just couldn't risk it. Then one night when I was doing a session, the guys dragged me to a bar and got me plastered. Somehow they talked me into joining the band. I just couldn't say no-I didn't want to see their music die." Don't Tell A Soul, the Replacements' first album with Dunlap, was a tired, strained and-a first for this band-humorless affair. For the first time, Westerberg's writing sounded contrived and belabored. "I remember when Paul was making this record, he told me, `This is supposed to be my dark pop album, and [Sire] wants me to write `Bastards Of Young' all over again,'" recalls Peter Jesperson. "Songs like `Anywhere is Better Than Here' and `We'll Inherit The Earth' were phony little anthems that Paul was feeling pressure to write." A disastrous tour opening for Tom Petty would prove to be the band's final indignity. "That tour was horrible," says Chris Mars. "We would be playing as people were coming in. Nobody cared. It was sort of a bitter end for the band." 1990's All Shook Down was a Replacements record in name only-Westerberg recorded most of the album without the band. While it was certainly an improvement over the listless Don't Tell A Soul, All Shook Down lacked the piss-and-vinegar exuberance of the band's greatest triumphs. And, with grunge on the horizon, nobody was really paying much attention anyway. Shortly after All Shook Down's release, the Replacements unceremoniously broke up. In a two-year span, Minneapolis had lost its two greatest bands. An extraordinary era had ended, but it was hardly the death knell for great Minneapolis music. In typically resilient fashion, the scene continued to grow and flourish well into the Nineties. Part 4 (1989-'95): LOUD FAST RULES In 1984, with the Replacements' inevitable departure from the label looming, Twin/Tone's Jesperson and Stark were anxious to fill the void, and there were certainly more than enough bands in Minneapolis to choose from. Taking their cue from the Mats and Husker Du, post-punk bands such as the Magnolias, the Mofos, Run Westy Run and the Flaming O's (formerly the Flamingos) continued to keep the city's clubs pulsating with great music. Jesperson was especially keen on a band called Loud Fast Rules, who had occasionally opened for the Replacements. Jesperson recounted one particularly magical gig for writer Gina Arnold: "One night at a club called Merlyn's, Tommy Stinson and I walked into the club real late and Loud Fast Rules were on stage ripping it up. I was getting chills it was so insane, and I went backstage afterwards and said to the singer, `We've got to make a record.'" Loud Fast Rules, who soon changed their name to Soul Asylum, would make five albums with Twin/Tone (two of them produced by Bob Mould). A tightly wound unit known for their high-adrenaline live shows, Soul Asylum were the next great band to emerge from Minneapolis, and the first to achieve the kind of big-league success that had eluded the Replacements and Husker Du. Four years after Soul Asylum signed with A&M, their 1992 album Grave Dancers Union sold over two million copies, thanks in large part to their photogenic front man, Dave Pirner. While Soul Asylum, the Replacements and Husker Du were putting the Minneapolis scene on the musical map, their supremacy was being challenged at home by a contingent of hardcore groups who continue to regard this elite clique with healthy skepticism, if not downright disdain. Bands like (the now defunct) Halo Of Flies, the Cows, Hammerhead and Guzzard refused to fall in line behind the countless other would-be Minneapolis rock stars who were aping the sound of the Mats/Huskers/Soul Asylum axis. Twin/ Tone's once unassailable hegemony was also challenged, as local indie labels like Red Decibel and Amphetamine Reptile began churning out records by Minneapolis' new generation of noise bands. "There was definitely a reaction to what had become of the whole Minneapolis scene," says Tom Hazelmyer, who originally started Am/Rep in order to release records by his then-band Halo Of Flies. "Everyone had been injecting a lot of pop into the hardcore sound, and there were a lot of people who wanted to get away from that." On another front, roots-rockers like the Jayhawks and the Gear Daddies were looking to country artists like Hank Williams and the Louvin Brothers as well as the Mats and Husker Du for musical inspiration. "We were originally from Austin, Minnesota, so we had no idea what was going on in Minneapolis at the time," says ex-Gear Daddies guitarist Martin Zellar. "You couldn't even buy Replacements or Husker Du albums. However, if it hadn't been for those bands, we wouldn't have been signed." The Gear Daddies made two countrified pop albums for Island records before splitting up in 1990. The Jayhawks recorded one self-released album and one for Twin/Tone before signing with Rick Rubin's American Records in 1992. Their latest release, Tomorrow The Green Grass-featuring the band's high-lonesome harmonies and shambling, pastoral arrangements-is finally garnering these local favorites some long overdue mainstream exposure. [Note: In November 1995, the Jayhawks split. - M@] As for the ex-members of Husker Du and the Replacements, only Bob Mould has managed to achieve some modicum of commercial success, with his power-pop trio, Sugar, which has reportedly broken up. Grant Hart's band Nova Mob now records for Peter Jesperson, the man who turned down Husker Du. Paul Westerberg's first solo album 14 Songs fared just as poorly as his ground-breaking work with the Replacements; he has another album due soon. Slim Dunlap and Chris Mars have all recorded solo albums. Tommy Stinson formed a new band, Bash & Pop, which recorded one album for Sire before being dropped. Bob Stinson, who for so many personified the reckless, rule-busting spirit of the Minneapolis scene, died last February 18, a victim of drugs, alcohol and his own manic depression. Minneapolis still continues to spit out great bands-Polara, the Hang Ups, Babes In Toyland and Zuzu's Petals currently lead the pack. But if history is any barometer, the best is yet to come. Perhaps Peter Jesperson, the scene's resident historian and most ardent champion, said it best: "The really great scene in Minneapolis right now is the one we don't know about yet-it's happening in kids' basements and garages." Originally appeared in Guitar World August 1995 --------------------------------------------------------------------- This story A9 1995 by Harris Publications, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden. Back issues of Guitar World are available in the U.S. for $6.50 per issue, Canada for $8.50 and to other foreign countries for US$12.00 (please include an international money order). Please send your check or money order and the date of the issues you would like to purchase to: Guitar World Back Issues, Dept. D. Harris Publications 1115 Broadway, 8th Floor New York, NY 10010. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: completing Mats collection Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 12:10:40 -0500 (EST) From: "Todd M Wicks" Hey everyone! I'm trying to complete my Mats music collection. The songs I'm missing are: Who's Gonna Take Us Alive Temptation Eyes Sweet Girl Cool Water Trouble On the Way Run for the Country Make This Your Home Beer for Breakfast Nude Goin' Outta My Head Learn How to Fail Backlash (Westerberg and Joan Jett) Situation & Harboring a Fugitive (Bash and Pop) I have plenty of Mats & Stones stuff and am looking for someone who will tape these songs for me. Please send me personal e-mail if interested. THANKS! [What ever happened to the "Out of Place 'Mats" tape tree? Is that still active? - M@] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM ALT.MUSIC.REPLACEMENTS: From: pgreblo@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Paul Greblo) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: I need Replacements lyrics. Date: 13 Oct 1995 16:51:41 GMT In article , Leo D Alapont wrote: >hello everybody- > Paul Westerberg is so good with words...so how is it that he never >included the lyrics in any of his albums??? I would love to have all of >his lyrics, can anyone help me? -Leo D Alapont e-mail lda@cats.ucsc.edu > THANK YOU. I believe Westerberg has gone on record saying that he does not publish lyrics to his songs because it removes the lyrics from the music, something that disconnects the two when it fact, they are integrally related. He added that published lyrics give the impression that the words can stand alone, like poetry, which he adamantly denied was the case. In short, we are left to figure out what he is saying, as many discussions here have revolved around, and in a sense this may give the song a meaning unique to each individual. Paul From: kathms@aol.com (Kathms) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: Favorite lyric twists Date: 16 Oct 1995 21:03:17 -0400 Post Mats lyric twists - my fave would have to be "Seein Her" - a seemingly inoccuous lost love song til you get to the kicker "I'll be making love to you, but seein her" OUCH!! That's gotta hurt. It's one thing to sing about a lost love wistfully, it's another to direct that song towards your current amour, telling her that no matter what you'll always be thinking of the one you lost. Bad Paul, bad! Kathy "If being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side.... at the swinging party down the line" From: duck5@ix.netcom.com (Duck) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: 17 Oct 1995 19:44:32 GMT >lda@cats.ucsc.edu (leo alapont) wrote: >>what was the original name of the band? why did the name have to be changed? From Genesis, Chapter 1 --- Pardon if this isn't exact, there are lots of beer stains on the holy text --- In the beginning Bob created Dog Breath and the band was without form and drunk and drunkenness was on the faces of the band. And the Spirit of Bob moved upon the guitar frets and Bob said, Let there me more volume. And the band divided and took on a new singer. And Bob and the Others said, Let's be the Impediments. And this was the eve of the first gig. And Bob and the Others drank and drank And they thought this was good. But the halfway house man gathered them and said his was a dry land and there was no show. So the Impediments recreated themselves in their own image and rose again to have dominion over the land. Behold, they said, we are the Replacements. And God looked down and said, Man, those bozos are really drunk, but they're also very good. Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements From: dante taylor Subject: Re: why did they do it? Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 00:51:28 GMT Animal Boy wrote: >> I was actually watching VH-1 a few days ago, and as I got up to go the >> bathroom I heard the opening guitar intro to "Bastards of the Young." > I always thought it was terrific, and I think I first saw it right before > I started listening to the Mats. I've always assumed that Sire wanted a > video. I always heard that they hated them, refused to make them. This was > there idea of a music visual experience at home, just look at the stereo. > I've never seen it, but my friend Jason tells me about the Seen Your Video > (maybe, I actually am not positive) video. He saw it years ago. The Mats > wander into a field, sit down on a couch in the field, and drink beers > lounging on the couch. WOW. When I interviewed the Mats back in 87 (on the 'Pleased' tour) they were quite sarcastic about the idea of videos. In fact, Paul chided me when I asked if there would be any vids for the new LP and said, "Yeah, we're doing seven of them...we're going to put on heavy metal wigs and everything." In reality, they only did one for "Alex Chilton," which consisted of the band sitting around on couches, closeups of hands/fingers tapping, and everyone looking very uncomfortable. It was sort of like the "Bastards of Young" vid, though with a tad more interaction. As for a "Seen Your Video" video, I'm not so sure. Twin/Tone released a compilation of videos for the label a few years back, and I'm sure they would've been smart enough to include a pre-major Mats video if one existed. Sounds like a bit of an urban musical legend to me...if it exists, I'd LOVE to see it! For good Mats footage to check out, I suggest the following... - The insane, drunken, 'Tim'-era Saturday Night Live footage - Their "skit" when presented with the 'Best Album' award by Joan Jett on some bizarre awards show (c. 'Pleased') - The "American Music Awards" performance where Paul, obviously pissed about being bleeped for the line "We're feelin' good from the pills we took" improvises "pills, pills, pills" at the end of the song. - The great, last true look at the Mats in the "I'll Be You" video Other than that, we're stuck with the lame "Achin' to Be", "Merry Go Round", and "When it Began" vids from [the post-Mars days]. Too bad Paul only rocks live these days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- MARKETPLACE: Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 08:37:53 -0500 From: ragatto@lafb.ag.state.mn.us If any Replacements collectors are interested, I've got a mint copy of the "Don't Buy or Sell, It's Crap" EP on vinyl. Send an e-mail to ragatto@lafb.ag.state.mn.us Tom ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dean T Roe Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 10:27:50 -0600 (CST) Hey fellow 'Mats fans, I was at a local record store this weekend and was able to pick up a copy of the Paul Westerberg limited edition "14 Songs" cd/book for 1/2 price. That brings it down to $14+shipping if you're interested. It is brand new and still sealed. If you're not familiar w/ the cd, it has the same songs as the regular one but comes in a book-like form with extra pictures and a written interview with Paul. Send me email if you're interested or have any further questions. Thanks, Dean roex0006@gold.tc.umn.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUFF FROM RECENTLY-RECEIVED SURVEYS: 8) What Replacements song do you find most disappointing when played live. (If you want, name a particular date of such a travesty.) When I saw Paul play in Columbus, Ohio a couple of years ago, he played Answering Machine (which was, of course, brilliant). However, while I was revelling in that Westerberg experience, some asshole jumped onstage and touched him. Of course, we all want to touch Paul, but couldn't this guy have waited for the Monkees cover? 22) The thing I like most about Paul as a songwriter is his ability to turn a phrase (like "Playing makeup, wearing guitars") with a catchy guitar and a great band backing him up. The thing I like most about telling people about the Replacements is the abundant amount of myth material to work from. The thing I like most about the drinking stories is the time they puked in their hands and threw it on the ceiling of the studio. The thing I like most about the Replacements was their ability to do anything they wanted and make it theirs. The thing I like most about Bash and Pop is they made me stop thinking of Tommy as a little kid. The thing I like most about Chris Mars' albums is his voice. The thing I like most about Slim Dunlap's album is his lack of fear to just play songs. The thing I like most about the Replacement's starting out stories is that they got kicked out of a roller rink. The thing I like most about Hootenanny is "fucked 'em up." 23) The thing that annoys me most about Paul was his propensity to be an asshole just for the sake of being an asshole (note: the time he told Bob to get off his stage if he wouldn't drink with him, even though Bob had just gotten out of rehab). 25) If you were to take Tommy Stinson to dinner, what would you and he eat? $.59 burritos from taco bell and old milwaukee ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHORD TRANSCRIPTIONS: Date: 09 Nov 95 10:57:44 -0800 From: Howie Wang Subject: Here Comes a Reg chords Hi, I was trying out some of the mats chords, and the ones for "Here Comes a Regular" didn't sound quite right to me. In the chords you have only 3 chords are used, D, A, and G. I replaced D with G, A with b minor, and G with C, and it sounds closer to the original to me. You can try it out and see what you think. By the way, I used all barre chords: G: b: C: --3-- --2-- --3-- --3-- --3-- --5-- --4-- --4-- --5-- --5-- --4-- --5-- --5-- --2-- --3-- --3-- --x-- --x-- Actually, I'm not sure if it starts on G because my guitar was out of tune when I was trying to figure it out, but I think it's definitely a I-iii-IV progression rather than I-V-IV. Howie ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Date: Wed, 22 Nov 1995 23:56:37 -0500 From: JFAnderson@aol.com Subject: For VA, MD, DC folks Matt, Please do me a favor and pass along the following message to Skyway, and anyone you know in the DC, VA, MD area. My girlfriend passed it along to me and I wanted to get it out there by any and all means... Thanks - I recently foud out about a program called Community Threads sponsored by Bell Atlantic. By enrolling in this program, Bell Atlantic will donate 1/2% of the Bell Atlantic portion of your phone bill to the Whitman-Walker Clinic which does mainly AIDS research. This is at no cost to you. All you have to do is call 1-800-334-BELL and give a recording your phone number, name, and billing address. (And you have to live in VA, MD, or DC.) This is a cost and hassle free way to do some good. Please pass this on to anyone you think might like to help. fin. --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- Matthew Tomich The //Skyway\\: The Replacements Mailing List 857 Loveland Drive ---------------------------------------------- Omaha, NE 68114-5339 To subscribe, send "subscribe skyway-l" in the (402)-397-2100 body of a letter to lists@phoenix.creighton.edu --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- "And I don't mind...If I don't think about it." - Yo La Tengo