------------------------------------------------------------------------------ / // The\kyway \\ / skyway@novia.net Issue #36 April 14th, 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (c) 1996 Bastards of Young (BOY/BetaOmegaYamma) Productions list manager: Matthew Tomich (matt@novia.net) technical consultant and thanks to: Bob Fulkerson of Novia Networking ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SKYWAY SUBSCRIPTION/LISTSERVER INFORMATION Send all listserver commands in the body of a letter to "majordomo@novia.net" To subscribe to the //Skyway\\: subscribe skyway To unsubscribe from the //Skyway\\: unsubscribe skyway THE //SKYWAY\\ WEB PAGE Check here for back issues, lyrics, discography, and other files. http://www.novia.net/~matt/sky/skyway.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send submissions to: skyway@novia.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Still checkin' Central Time! (Matt Tomich) I. Young Fresh Fellows A. Will B. Mike Troemel C. TB D. Dan Gulbrandson E. Mark Celichowski F. Renee G. Wade Krueger H. Chris Ratliff I. Albert Hasse II. Interview with Westerberg from The Times On-Line (Thanks to Robert Winder) III. Reviews of "Eventually" A. Spin (Mr. Trouble) B. Pop (Kristofer Andersson) C. New York Daily News (Kevin) D. College Music Journal (Michael Davis) E. The Times On-Line (RT John H) F. Details (RT John H) ^ ^ (you ain't ready for this one.) IV. Word from the listening party fiesta in Washington D.C. (John Anderson) V. Paul in _Guitar_ magazine's songwriters list (Mohammad Ahmad Qayyam) VI. Heady analysis stuff A. Rebuttal to letter in Skyway #35 (Ken Feinleib) B. Regarding Paul's solo stuff (Mike Bruner) C. Therapy (Chris Moore) VII. The 'Mats on TV (or at least allusions to...) A. About that 120 business last week... (Amanda Dorsey) B. Norm! (Wayne, Charles Ford) C. Paul n' Tommy on Divorce Court (Jeff Hekmati, Adam Keats) VIII. Perfect's perfect set list from the SXSW show (Diego Navarette) IX. Slim has bad karma with cars too (Elizabeth S.) X. Web stuff A. New demos up! (Mike Monello) B. New guitar chord transcriptions up/wanted! (Jose Moreno/Jennings) XI. Tape stuff A. Update on "The Fans Hit Back II" (Mark Timmins) B. Updated address for The Swedish Connection (Patrk Dahlblom) XII. Other bands A. Pablo Loserama and The Leatherwoods (Jeff Hekmati) B. Liquor Giants (Matthew Benz) ** Thanks to Duncan DeGraffenreid for forwarding some selected articles from alt.music.replacements and alt.music.paul-westerberg. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUCK IN THE MIDDLE Okay okay okay okay. I'm still not in North Carolina. I left for Omaha on December 21st, 1995 for a week long Christmas break with the family and I'm STILL here. I've had problems with two cars, one insurance company, four mechanics, two truck drivers, one airline, and one machine shop. However, next week, I will most-truly-definitely-fer-sure be returning back to North Carolina after my extended stay here in the Midwest to be in attendance for some of the coldest winter in recorded memory. All this time it's always appeared that I would be leaving in just a week or so...otherwise I would have boarded the Friendly Skies back to the Pine State long ago! Last week I was doing some freelance computer help at this real estate company. I think I've met a certifiable lunatic, the kind of guy that shows up in Vonnegut books, the guy that you figure always existed in this country but that you hoped you never met. He comes in the form of an acquaintance-of-mine's father, a high energy, go-getter six figure big wheel real estate agent with minor computer problems and inquires such as: * "This *@#$ing thing is too *@#$ing slow!" * "This *@#$ing thing needs a kick in the *#@$ing ass!" * "This *@#$ing thing is gonna get thrown out the *@#$ing window!" * "Who designed this *@#$ing thing?!!" * "Where do you plug in the *@#$ing mouse anyway?!!" This hombre in question can be easily discerned by the following traits: * Smokes big honkin' cigars * Carries a loaded gun in his desk (for the evicted and armed that may come to his office to settle a dispute.) * Carries a loaded gun in his car (because he saw somebody get carjacked in a movie once.) * Makes maniac left turns into the far lane at nearly double the legal speed limit, and then hangs halfway out the window yelling and gesturing wildly when the otherwise legal occupant of the lane: - honks - slams on their brakes - yells out the window - gestures wildly - is talking on a car phone - breathes oxygen - has a heart attack - does nothing * Refers to his computer help as "yeah, you, whiz kid." It's been an interesting week watching wheelin' and dealin' and trying to explain how to use Windows, Excel, and a property speculation program to a guy who with a four-figure systolic blood pressure! Next time you stop by the //Skyway\\ web site, sign the new guest book! Also, two weeks ago I saw my first episode of an addicting TV show (and I usually hate TV) called "My So-Called Life"...man, "Sixteen Blue" or "Hold My Life" or "Bastards of Young" would've fit perfectly in this show! Check out the episodes being played on MTV! (I hear that Buffalo Tom shows up in one episode with "Sodajerk", "Late at Night", and "Frozen Lake"...and the soundtrack is full of other 'alternative' stars.) When you get ahold of your copy of Eventually on April 30th, feel free to bombard the Skyway with your opinions, ratings, comments, criticisms, and speculations! The next issue of the Skyway will be a special issue of all our reviews. And again, thanks to everybody to wrote the contents of this issue! !Hasta luego! - Matt -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. THE YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 20:17:19 EST From: NPVP03E@prodigy.com (MR JAMES MCCARTHY) Subject: New 'Mats bootleg CD expected soon... Hi. This Shyway, oops Skyway thing brings a smile to face (sure, I could have corrected the typo but I am shy, so it seemed appropriate). I'm reminded of how, back in '87 when PLEASED came out and I was living with my bestest college roommates, we all did not know quite where we fit in with the crowd - we weren't exactly hippies (despite our recreational inclinations), we were bright but not straight A students, and we were too sensitive to be metalheads - and somewhere, somehow, we got turned onto the Replacements. We realized that there a whole lot more who were sensitive and shy, and we felt at home. I'd like to say that we wore t-shirts most of the time because, having seen that garb in the photos on the back of PLEASED, we finally felt comfortable, but maybe we just had no other clean laundry...anyway, I felt comfortable there for a while, and the Skyway reminds me of it. My name is Will by the way, not James McCarthy--I'll get this account straightened out someday. And I was reminiscing back to the University of California at Santa Cruz, fall 1986 to winter 1987 (I left after that) - Drop me an email if you are a long lost friend or acq.! OK, so the news is: I've heard from a source that a NEW bootleg smurf by the Mats is due to hit the shelves in the next couple of weeks. Distribution should be terrible, but spendthrifts among us should contact their dealers now to make sure they get in line. I have heard precious little about what it is. It will be either one or two discs (no, really) and it is going to be called GARAGE DAYS. The label will most likely be the "Third Eye" label, but if that is wrong, well, my source was telling me this from memory. He thought it was going to be something extra special, but I suppose it would be too much to hope this could be early demos...If anyone hears more, please let it be known. And just a caveat to any Sire record executives who may be reading this: I'd rather be buying a box set from you! But sheesh, what is it going to take? A 'Mats fan being elected president and inviting Paul to perform at the White House? (I bet that would make them release a box set!). -Will at NPVP03E@prodigy.com From: Mike Troemel Date: 24 Mar 96 13:43:24 EDT I've been a lurking subscriber for awhile now, and at the risk of generating a lot of meaningless blather, thought maybe I should try to submit a formal contribution. I was raised in a suburb of Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis from 82-86. Reading the Daily (the U of Ms student paper), Sweet Potato (now City Pages) or the Twin City Reader (free, entertainment-oriented newspapers), you were kinda aware of a buzz about the Replacements in the early 80's, however I didn't get into them until Hootenany came out in 83 - hearing Color Me Impressed on the U of M's station got me hooked. The first time I saw them was at a 1983 New Years Eve concert at the Minneapolis Hyatt where they were the second-to-last band to play (The Suburbs, on the strength of their Credit in Heaven double-LP, were the headliners). Not really any memories of the concert, except for the fact that Chan Poling (The Suburb's keyboardist) came out and played on one song (Sixteen Blue?). My love for them was forever solidified when Let it Be came out in 1984 - fuck-you attitude, humor, angst and hooks big enough for a winter coat all in one glorious album. The local papers were filled with articles and reviews wherein the critics fell all over them selves praising the album. Included among those were a couple Westerberg interviews that I vaguely remember which showed his us-against-the-world attitude in full flower: ...even if this band falls to hell tomorrow, at least I know I've got 3 friends... and ...if we get booed off the stage or run out of the bar, our next step is to come back into town with our guns drawn - I think this band is something special... or words to that effect. The Village Voice did a cover story on them about that same time - their critic evidently rode around in the 'Mats tour van for awhile and ended up writing an article painting them as tragic characters - talented losers, done in by their own self-destructive attitudes and behavior. I think it was also this story which mentioned that Twin/Tone, in an attempt to drum up interest in the band, shopped some of the 'Mats songs around to other artists, including making an attempt to interest Rod Stewart in 16 Blue. Fortunately (unfortunately?), Rod and/or his label didn't bite. I continued to follow the band over the next several years and albums, though for my money they never topped Let it Be. Probably saw them a total of 10 times at various places in Minneapolis and Madison WI, which in hindsight, seems like an awfully small number. The last concert I saw was in '89 at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis when they were touring behind Dont Tell a Soul. The Orpheum is a sorta historic, though decaying, 3-4,000 seat theater in downtown Minneapolis, usually booked by touring Broadway productions or similar highbrow acts. Paul's comments upon taking the stage were vintage Westerberg: 'It's taken us 10 years to get to this place - what a dump!'. Would've probably tried to see them on their last tour for All Shook Down, however in July 1990 I took a position in Singapore with the company I'm working for and have been stuck here ever since. Western pop/rock does get air-play over here, despite Singapore's authoritarian, repressive, anti-west image, though it either tends to be repetitive plays of the US Top-40 or absolutely unironic spins of early-70's mush - the only place in the world where Lobo, Bread and The Carpenters are still in heavy rotation. Despite this, there is something of an indie scene, mostly fostered by a local rock magazine called BIGO (stands for Before I Get Old; think they have a Web page, if anyone's interested). Within this scene, the 'Mats have had a bit of an influence. One of the local bandleaders started his own label, calling it 'Tim Records' after guess-which-album. Also a few years back, a compilation album of local bands doing their own stuff came out that was titled' Left of the Dial' after guess-which-song, though I doubt any of the Singaporeans knew what the title referred to. Unfortunately that''s about it - with the exception of a few half-hearted plays of Dyslexic Heart in 91 when Paul had an almost-hit on his hands, the local DJs have never deigned to play a Mats or Westerberg song. Thats it, expect to say I really enjoy reading each issue of Skyway - it's great to know other people feel the same way about the Mats. Also it would be cool if someone who has access could dig up some of those early Mats stories/reviews in back-issues of the Daily or other Minneapolis papers. Would be fun to re-read what Paul had to say back before the band got "famous". Mike_Troemel@Notes.Seagate.Com From: BRUSTL19@gbvaxa.uwgb.edu Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 10:15:49 -0500 (CDT) Subject: That awards show I'm a brand new person to all of this, but I did notice the comment about the Mats appearing on an awards show awhile back. I saw that show way back when - and it was indeed a heady experience. I think another running joke was started on that night - in the middle of "Talent Show" when all the yelling in the background is going on (if I'm not mistaken doesn't Tommy say something about a party in Slim's pants?) Paul sang something about "But we don't say bad words on TV." This may have been, of course, another reference to the "pills" thing. Yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, since that show I saw the Replacements live a couple of times and got my hands on a couple of live tapes - and almost everytime Paul says "But we don't say bad words on TV." I saw one of the last shows the Replacements played at Milwaukee's Summerfest. It also happened to be the day of one of the worst rain storms in Milwaukee history. We went at 10 AM to get great seats for the 6 PM show. I sat through that downpour to save my front row center seat. The show was awful. A million drunken morons showed up ten minutes before the show and pushed and shoved and made life miserable. All of us who sat up front all day kind of got to know each other and whatnot.... and somebody came out from the crew right after the storm and videotaped us sitting there like wet dogs. The guy with the camera said something about how the tape was for Tommy so a bu nch of us flipped him off. The show was an hour and a half and they played all the "hits" so fast and so thoughtlessly... I left in a sunburned, wet, drunken, tearful rage. Wow. I never told anyone that before. - T vDate: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 02:07:22 -0800 From: "Daniel J. Gulbrandson" <102776.3227@compuserve.com> Sign me up! I'm actually a little embarassed -- I thought I was one of the biggest mats fans around -- I've been bragging about it for years. I hope to learn more about what I previously thought I knew -- especially the trading of demos and videos. In case you're interested..... ...I was first exposed to the Replacement's music via my younger brother in about 1985. He incessantly played "Sorry Ma,..." every morning before school and I remember giving him shit for listening to what I naively thought was "noise". Needless to say, when "Tim" came out it immediately became my favorite album (and the mats my favorite band) and I went about building my collection of albums -- I mean CD's. I am currently a grad student at the University of Chicago (originally from Mpls, not Mnpls) and am interested in sharing any/all stories/recordings/videos/nostalgia concerning the band that has seen me through more moments of my life than any other existence in this world. Thank you -- as i'm sure several others have told you, the service you provide is invaluable! dan gulbrandson 102776.3227@compuserve.com (or) mdgulbra@gsbpop.uchicago.edu Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 20:33:45 -0600 From: mrcelich@students.wisc.edu (Cel) Hello, just writing to introduce myself since I am a new subscriber. Let's see I first started listening to the Replacements when "Don't Tell A Soul" came out, I was in eighth grade at the time I guess. I am currently a in my second year at the University of Wisconsin, the home of Bucky Badger. My favorite song is "Achin' To Be" and my favorite album changes as my mood changes. Well that is who I am, and I am really glad that there is a group of people out there who love the Replacements also. Mark Celichowski mrcelich@students.wisc.edu P.S. I've read some negative thing about "Eventually" from people on the newsgroup, say it ain't so. Hey maybe it will be a hit like that Replacements wannabe band the Goo-Dolls. Which song did Paul write on their "Superstarcarwash"? [Paul reportedly wrote the words to "We Are The Normal". It appears that he wrote about six lines and the band turned it into a whole song. - M@] Date: 03 Apr 96 23:28:57 EST From: richard esquivil <76053.3123@compuserve.com> Subject: Welcome to skyway Hi! I'm so happy about finding this mailing list. I first heard about it in a Big Star fanzine, but I guess the listed e-mail address was wrong. Someone on the American Music Club mailing list put the address for a Replacements website in their message, so here I am. How cool. I don't know any other big 'Mats fans. Actually, most people I know have never heard of them (big surprise). I live in Castro Valley, CA. You're thinking, "Where is that?" right? It's right next to Hayward and not too far from Oakland. Castro Valley has hundreds of expensive, nearly identical houses and a fast food restaurant on seemingly every block. (CV was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records under "Most fast food restaurants per square mile." I'm not kidding.) I graduate from CVHS in two months. I am not going to the Senior Ball. I bet the Replacements never made it to a ball or prom (especially since three of them didn't finish school). Tomorrow is my 18th birthday and I'm not feeling so great. Yesterday I called my friend who was kicked out of school and got the answering machine. I guess that's it, for now. More later. Thanks for the lyrics. Renee Date: Fri, 05 Apr 96 17:39:21 -0800 From: Wade Krueger So--on with the now-customary guts-spilling. I spent my formative years in Hawkinsville, a small town in the middle of Georgia that for years picked up nothing but country and top 40 radio stations; I thought I was in heaven the day that Macon, the nearest radio market, introduced classic rock to the airwaves (Zeppelin and Skynyrd beat the shit out of Paula Abdul, you know?). Even so, by the time I was 15, about a year before MTV started doling out 120 Minutes, I'd started reading Rolling Stone and Spin on occasion, and I knew that there was something better happening out there, something happening in the present tense. This I knew by the now-quaint term "college rock." Being from Georgia, I'd been into REM for a couple of years after seeing them do "So. Central Rain" on Letterman, and I was desperate to hear these other bands that more or less fell into their camp, according to the gurus of rock journalism. Ah, but I was timid; too many times I'd been burned by the reviewers of Rolling Stone. They would promise me that, say, Paul Kelly and the Messengers would change my life, and I'd scrape up the $8.99 plus tax for the tape only to find that, if it didn't suck, it wouldn't quite do what I wanted--what I needed--it to do; it wouldn't stick to me, if that makes sense. So, when I first stumbled across the Replacements in an RS review of Tim, I was skeptical. Sadly, I let the skepticism win. One of the few benefits inherent in the passage of time, however, is that we tend to accrue wisdom along the way. And so, a couple of years later, when David Fricke lauded Pleased to Meet Me in the Records pages of Rolling Stone, comparing it to Exile on Main Street (which I was seriously into at the time), I thought, "What the hell?" I borrowed my Mom's car (mine had no cassette player), drove thirty miles to the nearest record store, and bought up one of maybe two copies of Pleased to Meet Me they had in stock--a steal at only $6.99! When I heard the first chords of IOU, I knew I'd found something unlike anything I'd ever heard before; by the time I'd gotten to Skyway and Can't Hardly Wait, I knew I had the entire human experience of damnation and salvation captured on cassette tape. One of the real bitches inherent in the passage of time is that you can't repeat an epiphany. The last verse of Skyway, simultaneously inevitable and utterly unexpected, shocked me to the core of my being. When Paul sang, "There wasn't a damn thing I could do or say up in the skyway," I felt roughly the same thing that I felt at the end of Schindler's List. It sounds ridiculous, I know, and I don't mean to suggest that the experiences conveyed in the two works are at all comparable. Rather, my experience of the two works was similar: it's the impossible juxtaposition of beauty and terror, the recognition of the art coupled with the empathetic response to the tragedy it describes. I wanted never to move beyond that moment, to undergo the inevitable intellectualizing of the emotional state. I wanted never to be happy again. But then Can't Hardly Wait corrected, or rather healed all of that, told me to cling to whatever I could and to find a way to cherish it. I tend to think of Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased To Meet Me as something of a Holy Trinity, roughly akin to the Rolling Stones' late 60s / early 70s grand slam of Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile. This first occurred to me sometime in late 1987, probably, because I've been thinking it for a long time, but I distinctly recall that at the time I conceived the idea, it was still possible to believe that the follow-up to Pleased To Meet Me was going to push things to even greater heights. Or maybe those LPs are like different vintage wines: each one is ideal for its own specific occasion, depending on what kind of cheeseburger you've got, or on which ex-girlfriend you're obsessing over at a given moment. Tim, I think, boasts the largest number of greatest songs, but I don't think Paul will ever duplicate the travesty of "Dose of Thunder" again (although "Silver Naked Ladies" comes close). I'm not real wild about the sound of Tim, either, particularly on the rockers: kind of thin, kind of hollow, maybe too afraid to sound like a major label release but failing to capture that great Twin Tone warmth. I saw the Mats four times, once on the Don't Tell a Soul tour (I bought the dollar bill t-shirt) and three times on All Shook Down. Every show was incredible, but seeing them in Athens, Ga., in the spring of 1991 burned the most indelible impression of them into my mind. They opened with I Will Dare, and although I was disappointed that Peter Buck didn't join them onstage for the solo (we can dream, can't we?), I was highly gratified when Paul dove into the crowd before the song ended to go after some guy who'd lobbed a beer at him. Someone Take the Wheel and Achin' To Be followed, and those two back to back had about the same effect as the first experience of Skyway / Can't Hardly Wait: Tommy screaming the final, desperate "Somebody take the wheel" absolutely chilled me. I never shed tears in a concert hall before, and I haven't since. When I saw them in 91, I was all too aware of the autobiographical stuff of "Take the Wheel." I had spoken to Paul before the show, having joined the pilgrimage from the front steps of the Georgia Theater across the street to the Georgia Bar--lots of regional pride in Athens--after Paul and Tommy just sort of appeared on the horizon and ventured inside. I told him that all the break-up articles accompanying All Shook Down had broken my heart. "Well," he said, "we've got a new drummer now, so it's fun again." The show was so great, and they just seemed to enjoy playing togehter so much, that I was able to believe that they'd recovered, that somehow Steve Foley had healed all internal wounds. But then a couple of weeks later I saw them in Savannah, and the vibe was completely different. They played a kick-ass show, but the tension, as any writer strapped for original ideas will tell you, was palpable: Paul changed one of the lyrics in "Happy Town" to "The plan was to sweep the world away / So we stopped in this little tourist town for a day," Tommy threw his bass down at the end of the last encore and left the stage as a flat electronic buzz filled the air, and they stalked out of the club to their bus without speaking to each other or to any fans (none of whom, I don't think, were so much waiting for the band as hanging out and talking to each other). I could see Paul and Tommy pretty well inside the bus, and they were both sitting alone, sort of scowling at the floor. Outside, a cop grabbed a kid in a full nelson and slammed him face-first into the back of the bus's side rearview mirror. I guess the symbolism was pretty palpable as well; I knew I would never see them collectively again. Anyway, thanks for setting this page up. Writing about all of this has felt really good, has helped me reconnect with everything about the band that sucked me in in the first place. I look forward to hearing from you in the future. --Wade K. Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 21:08:10 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Michael Ratliff Okay I'm Chris Ratliff, I live in a small Mississippi college town called Starkville, with not much of nuthin to do. I was born in '72 and I've got a BA in History if that matters for anything. Of course being from such a back water place a caught on to the 'mats late, early '93 in fact, a couple of months before "14 Songs" came out. I personally don't know anybody into the 'mats, some of the more informed around here have at least heard of 'em. One girl I was talking to thought I was talking about the Commitments (that Irish movie band)! Let it Be was my baptism into matdom. I still can't decide if that or Tim is my favorite. Unfortunatly, I recently lost my Sorry Ma cassette. The only live bootleg I have is Shit, Shower, and Shave which I pick up in Italy along with a couple of Husker Du boots. I am searching(in vain it seems) for a copy of The Shit Hits the Fans, mostly for the original version of Can't Hardly Wait with Bob playing. My other favorite bands include the Clash, Husker Du, the Who, Elvis Costello, the Pogues, Pavement, Otis Redding, Social Distortion, Johnny Cash, early Soul Asylum, early Stones, Beatles, Buzzcocks, Big Star,the Minuteman, early Prince, and a bunch of others i'll think of later. I'm also somewhat of a film buff, a worker of dead-end jobs, an awful guitar meddler, and apparently a terrible speller and user of grammer. Like I said before, this isn't 'mats territory and even though rock'n roll was started here, people around here wouldn't know a decent rock band if it jumped up and bit 'em on the ass. To them rock is Grateful dead Allman Brother shit. Alright let me stop rambling, it feels good to vent this frustration that isolation breeds. Thanks for listening, see yall later. Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 17:17:16 -0400 From: AHasse@aol.com I guess it's time for my 'mats testimonial. First, the most profound thing about being a Replacements fan is that the band attracted such a diverse following. People found the band and fell in love with the music in different ways and for different reasons. For me, the lyrics said things I wish I could have said, and the coarse nature of their sound seemed to capture feelings one could not begin to explain. It has always been very private for me, and I've never been big into winning people over as fans. Partially for selfish reasons, I must admit. I still don't feel that the 'mats are for everyone. For one thing, it requires a little thinking! The Replacements epitomized life's contradictions. They carried themselves in such a non-serious manner and played often times like they didn't care, but the lyrics and the sound just blew you away. The first time I saw them play was in 1987, while I was traveling in Europe. My brother and I happen to be reading a local paper and saw that the band was playing on that particular night in a local club. Obviously, we went......... The next time I saw them was stateside that same year, in Austin, Texas at Liberty Lunch. They opened the show with "Drop a Bomb On Me," an old Gap Band song. I couldn't believe it. I went on to see them play two more times, the last of which was regretable. They were opening for Tom Petty in 1989 after the Don't Tell a Soul release. It wasn't that the music was bad, just the circumstances of playing for a reactionary crowd in a venue that didn't do them justice. In 1990, I was in a club in Dallas on a monday night watching a friend's band play. The place was virtually empty and I was just drinking beer when I thought I saw Paul Westerberg out of the corner of my eye. I focused and confirmed that it was, indeed, the master lyricist himself. I sheepishly approached him ( I have a problem with making a big deal about pseudo-celebs) and ended up talking to him for about an hour. Nice guy. At that time he had just given up drinking. A couple of interesting tidbits from the conversation: Bob Mould is gay. Bob's brilliant solo album "Workbook" (which I recommend highly) was not about the break up of Husker Du - as most people thought, but was about the end of a personal relationship with another male. Hmmmmm. Paul also mentioned that he was uncomfortable with how seriously people took his songs. After meeting him I felt like I had accomplished my life's goal and wondered what could ever top that. As of this very moment I am awaiting the birth of my daughter. She is due any day. Her birth and my career are a reminder that life keeps moving, and things change whether we want them to or not. I'm not the same guy I was when I listened to "Let It Be" and ached when I heard "Within Your Reach." I've changed, but the songs haven't. I can't wait for Paul's new CD. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. WESTERBERG INTERVIEW This interview is from the April 12th issue of the (London) Times Online at http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/. This web link will take you to a screen where you have to register and then you're free to roam. There's also a recent picture of Paul wearin' a suit! {Don't worry...he's still Paul!} Special thanks to Dr. Robert J. Winder for sending The //Skyway\\ a copy of this article! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times April 12 1996 ARTS --------------------------------------------------------------------- David Sinclair talks to rehabilitated rock 'n' roller Paul Westerberg about drugs, death, hellraising and the joys of a quiet evening. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Too fast to live, too old to die Rock stars do not often break down and cry in interviews with journalists they have never met before. And Paul Westerberg, one of the most noted hellraisers of his generation, is the last person you would imagine to be an exception. Leader of the enormously influential and perpetually under-the-influence American group the Replacements from 1979 to 1990, Westerberg has lived the swaggering, staggering, rock 'n' roll lifestyle to the hilt. Now, on the eve of the release of his second solo album, Eventually, he is a sober, 36-year-old man with a taste for nothing more life-threatening than French cigars. He is, however, still counting the cost of his former band's excesses, specifically the drug-related death in February 1995 of guitarist Bob Stinson. "I knew this would happen sooner or lat er," he says, jaw quivering as he removes his shades for the first time during our interview, and wipes the tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his black suit. "I've been able to keep the lid on it until now, but . . . "I go back and look at some of the press before he died and I remember a quote which said, 'What's supposed to happen is that one of us dies because that's what they want' and that's what they did want. We all knew that Bob was on the highway to hell. Even before we split up, he was out of the band through drug abuse that was even beyond what the rest of us were doing. He was not a stable man. He needed help and he never really got what he needed." Westerberg has written a song for his lost friend, a desperately poignant ballad called Good Day with a chorus that goes, "A good day is any day that you're alive". "I never thought I would make a statement like that, but we change. I don't look forward to playing it live," he says, recovering his composure at last, and even raising a wan smile. Good Day is one of 12 new compositions on Eventually that confirm Westerberg's enduring status as one of the great, unrecognised heroes of rock 'n' roll. His writing style combines poetic intimacy and humour with an authoritative, rhythmic cool in a way that recalls the work of greats such as Ray Davies and Keith Richards. The new album is a mellower and more rounded collec tion than his sensational debut, 14 Songs, released in 1993, although tracks such as Ain't Got Me and Had It With You recall the raucous spirit of old. "I was very relaxed about the writing and the pace at which I recorded this album, and I think that's reflected in the songs. And I chose a batch of songs that all felt the same way. I wanted to make this album easier and more accessible than 14 Songs." If Westerberg is now actively looking for a taste of commercial success, you can hardly blame him. After all, he has been knocking on the door for 16 years. Born in the last few hours of 1959, and brought up in Minneapolis, he came from a large family that numbered both musicians and alcoholics among its ranks, which may explain the young Westerberg's passion for both music and booze. He was never pushed to be a high achiever, which he now believes made him try all the harder to make something special of his life. The Replacements sprang out of the same Minneapolis hardcore punk scene that spawned Hüsker Dü, another of the great, unsung influences on latterday American rock, and later, Soul Asylum. Taking their cue from the New York Dolls, the Mats (as the Replacements were known) became renowned for their raucous, ragged brand of garage-band rock and notorious for their royally drunken displays of craziness on and off stage. But thanks to Westerberg's exceptional ear for a tune ­ which eventually produced gems such as Left of the Dial, I'll Be You, Skyway and Alex Chilton ­ they always seemed to promise so much more. "Around the time of the fourth album, Let It Be, things were really rolling. Everyone was saying we were headed for the top. For a while we were the coolest band in America. We thought, 'We're going to be rich in a couple of years', and then two years later the crowds are thinning out and you suddenly realise that that was your heyday." In fact the Replacements' most successful album was Don't Tell a Soul, released in 1989, which sold about 350,000 copies. But by then the combination of hard slog and even harder partying over so many years had taken its toll. "We could have been millionaires and we would still have been sick of each other. We played our last gig on July 4, and it just dawned on everyone. Yeah, I guess we're done, aren't we?" It is a cautionary tale and one that Westerberg admits he is lucky to be around to tell. He lives quietly now and spends most of his evenings reading. "Everyone knows it takes a lot to get me out. What do you do when you go to a club? If you're not going to pick up a girl or get drunk, it cuts down the fun, really." So is rock 'n' roll,­ as Ian Hunter so memorably expressed it in his valedictory song Ballad of Mott,­ a losers' game? "It depends what you want out of it. If you want people to admire you and you want to get laid and make money, you can do all that. But if you want to touch people, it's harder to do. "Performing rock 'n' roll is just vaudeville; they pay money and you play the fool. All my early life all I wanted to do was play rock 'n' roll, but I've grown a little tired of it. Why can't you play rock 'n' roll on Friday night and go out to dinner with your family on Saturday night? I can play the music but I don't have to live the lifestyle any more." * Eventually is released by Warner Bros on April 29 [April 30th in the States] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. "EVENTUALLY" REVIEWS From: mystery_instigator@i'm_in.trouble Newsgroups: alt.music.paul-westerberg,alt.music.replacements Subject: An Uncommonly Dead-On _Spin_ Review: _Eventually_ Date: Sat, 06 Apr 1996 05:28:44 GMT Without further adieu, from the "Special Issue TV Nation" (!) May 1996 edition of _Spin_: PAUL WESTERBERG _Eventually_ (Reprise) [6 out of 10] Whether you heard Paul Westerberg's first solo adventure as a return to late-great-Replacements form or a calcification of 'Mats methodology depended on your toleration for silver naked ladies. Stone sober, I found _14 Songs_ paralyzed in the extremes - bumptious, fists-up fronting in one highball glass, mawkish open-heart surgery in another - as if the bartender had forgotten how to shake and stir. The good news is that Westerberg's new _Eventually_ begins to move away from those stale oppositions and into a less predictable landscape; the bad news is that the album still comes off, to quote Vic Chesnutt, not crazy enough. By "crazy" I don't mean sloppy and speedy like "the old days." Christ, no. Almost the opposite: What's past due is, um, some _replacement_ (italicized) of an adolescent image of excitement, some richer identity equally unsettled and unsettling. To his credit, Westerberg knows all that and _Eventually_ explores a few promisingly slippery personae. Matching a melancholy cruise-control chorus with a bitchy Soul Asylum rap, "Century" does the generational-spokesman thing with more self-aware trickery and less bombastic obviousness than "Bastards of Young" and "World Class Fad." "Hide N Seekin" is a cool, slinky noir about sex and reproduction, magical in its ambiguity. "Time Flies Tomorrow" reinvents Westerberg sportingly as a Neil Diamond/Glen Campbell '70s-radio pop crooner, sneakily framing his dramatic poetical verses in rhinestones and big hair. Unfortunately, all the stingingly subtle songs here are burdened by doppelgangers, evil twins that make the same points with sledgehammers. And so the album delivers rote Westerberg work-ups like the one-joke "You've Had It With You" (lacerating wordplay, man) and the histronic "Angels Walk," a paean to children (huh?-I can't hardly listen) bathed in early-U2 portentous schlock. Lazy overstatement and literalness may sound like the Ten Commandments when served by and for a buncha drunks; in this more rarefied company, they thwart Westerberg's wilier instincts like a lame, dragging leg. In the battle between the snap arrangements of "Ain't Got Me" and the vapid verbiage of "MamaDaddyDid" lies Westerberg's Faustian choice: whether to trade in reliably cult-pleasing old postures for the glancing, mysterious pleasures of stories not fully formed. - TERRI SUTTON Reprinted entirely without any form of expressed permission what-so-ever. Fuck off, you got paid already. Deal with it. Empathy, Apathy, Enmity Trouble From: d94ka@efd.lth.se (Kristofer Andersson) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Eventually review in `Pop' Date: 7 Apr 1996 22:14:02 GMT I thought you might be interested in reading how `Eventually' is received here in Sweden, so I'll translate and type in a review I found of it in the quite nice magazine `Pop' (issue 17). If you find that the language in any way is bad or even erroneous, then it's my fault and not Pop's. Fifteen years after his debut with the Replacements, Paul Westerberg collects his first Billboard-number-one. OK, I don't know for sure, but it seems unreasonable that `Love Untold' --- third track on this his second solo album --- can pass without setting millions of American hearts on fire. It is a completely wonderful thing, a simple lo-fi rocker that combines the melancholy of the last Replacements album, underrated `All Shook Down', and the rougher attitude of solo debut `14 Songs' with a melody line straight from heaven. I utterly hope my prediction is correct, since few deserves real success as much as Paul Westerberg. It was the Replacements that, together with Husker Du, grew the piece of land on which the grunge scene later blossomed. `Eventually' contains more strong songs, even though not as sensational as `Love Untold'. The new producer Brendan O'Brien --- who previously has worked with, among others, Neil Young and Matthew Sweet --- seems on the whole to have emphazised the songs rather than the expression, as if to accentuate the of-Swedish-origin American's melodies and lyrics. When he wants Paul Westerberg actually is one of our time's finest and most inspired singer-songwriters. As far as a direction of form is traceable it is fusions of the kind described in the beginning, between the temperaments of the albums `All Shook Down' and `14 Songs'. Perhaps the spectrum reaches further than that. Perhaps `Eventually' links all phases of Paul Westerberg's career. `Once Around the Weekend', `Mammadaddykid' and `Trumpet Clip', in which old Replacements-cool-guy Tommy Stinson teams up on his bloodbrother's side once again, undeniably covers hues from the very earliest to the very latest albums. The album is rated 7/10. Kristofer [Hey wait, I though Lou G. was the producer? And Westerberg is Swedish? I thought he was German...maybe they thought that because he's from Minnesota...correct me if I'm wrong on any of this please! - M@] Date: Tue, 09 Apr 96 13:02:32 EST From: FA09000 Here is the review of Eventually from the New York Daily News that appeared on 4/2/96. It was written by Jim Farbe. On The Other Side of Snide: Westerberg, wise Cracker Lowery veer off the cynical route. (It was a joint review w/ the new Cracker record. I have edited out all of that review). Paul Westerberg Eventually (Reprise) 4 stars Even the toughest cynic can soften when the moment's right. Take two of music's hardest cases: Paul Westerberg and David Lowery (of Cracker). Both came of age as smart-alecs in the 80's, providing some of the best punch lines in the proto-alterna-rock underground- Westerberg w/ the Replacements, Lowery in Camper Van Beethoven. For years, they communicated best through the sarcastic riff and the flip remark. Now, however, as they tumble toward their 36th birthdays, they're clearly yearning to express themselves more earnestly. For Lowery, the singer and primary songwriter in Cracker, the reach proves to be a stumble. For Westerberg, the leap deepens him dramatically, resulting in the most moving music of his career. (Cracker review deleted) Westerberg, on the other hand, makes statements on Eventually that could only come from learning every lesson the hard way. Singing in a deeper, less mannered voice, he only lets three of his 13 songs rock. The rest carry the beauty of the best Byrds' ballads, ruminating lyrically on the pain of time lost. There's no shortage of Westerberg's old verbal invention like his description of drunken eyes looking "like two hubcaps at the bottom of a river", or of his heart "breaking like a pinata". But the writer has never risked as many direct statements before. In "MamaDaddyDid", he swears off the notion of raising kids with equal parts assurance and regret, while in "Good Day", he manages to soberly state that "A Good day is any day that you're alive". For a cynic like Westerberg to state so plain a truth rates as nothing less than heroic, giving voice to the very emotions that he, or we struggle most to keep at bay. ------------------------------------ I don't know if this is a really fair review since my advance copy of the record is floating around the country due to the complete incompetence of Federal Express. However, I do have to question what music of Westerberg's this reviewer has listened to. I always thought that one of the best things about Paul and the Mats was that his writing was so direct and honest (ie. Unsatisfied, Bastards, etc.) So I would have to disagree with him painting Paul out to be some jokester who's trying to get more serious in his old age. However, it is good press for him and maybe it will convince someone to go pick up the record. Also, did anyone catch the comment by Bill Holdship in the 4/4 edition of USA Today? It was in an article about the Sex Pistols reunion. He made the comment that he has more respect for bands like The Replacements who shun all temptations to reform and cash in. He feels that they are more interested in how history will view them than in making a fast buck. I wish the same could be said for the Pistols but who am I to say? Kevin FA09@Iona.Bitnet From: otter@mindspring.com (Michael W. Davis) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Eventually reveiwed in May CMJ NMM Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 23:16:52 -0400 Hey everybody, Just wanted to let everyone know Eventually got a good review in the May CMJ New Music Monthly. As of now, this issue probably hasn't hit stores yet only subscribers like myself are fortunate enough to have it already. Guided by Voices --brilliant, in their own unique way-- made the cover so personally I couldn't ask for more. We'll be getting this issue at our bookstore in about a week so let me know if you want one. You can check out this wonderful publication at: http://www.cmjmusic.com Michael From: hydro1@vt.edu (Hydro1) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Two for Two:"Eventually" in Musician Date: 5 Apr 1996 18:35:19 GMT Apparently Musician magazine also loves "Eventually". The new issue (with Hootie and the Blowfish on the cover, has "Eventually" as the primary review. We also get a new picture of Paul, new hairdo and all. The review is actually pretty short and doesn't go into much detail (i.e., lyrical content), but one statement stood out, "As contemporary pop, 'Eventually' is as good as it gets." Go figure. Those are probably not the words I would use to describe the album. Am I missing something on this album. Nothing really strikes me as being lovable (mmm...maybe 'Mamadaddydid'), and I've really been trying these last few weeks to love this album. I just can't. I hope, for Paul's sake, the album does really well, though. BTW, anybody else notice the change in Musician over the last year or so. They recently put the GinBlossoms on the cover and now Hootie and the Blowfish. Looks like I cancelled my subscription just in time--they're turning into Rolling Stone Jr. Marc From: rtjohnh@aol.com (RTjohnH) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: Paul Reviewed In NY Times Date: 10 Apr 1996 10:32:35 -0400 Here's that review from Times Online Paul Westerberg The songs Paul Westerberg wrote for the Replacements in the '80s provided models for current hit makers like the Goo Goo Dolls. But by the time the Replacements broke up in the early '90s he had outgrown his old adolescent adrenaline. Yet he has held on to his gift for Beatles-tinged melody. Most of the songs on "Eventually" (Reprise) are folk rock built on acoustic guitars; they cast a sympathetic eye on missed romance, lost childhood and the passing of time. Now and then, the old Replacements raucousness turns up in songs like "You've Had It With You." But even when Westerberg grows contemplative, his voice buttonholes listeners with palpable sincerity. ********************************************************** If you knew how i felt now, you wouldn't act so adult now -p westerberg From: rtjohnh@aol.com (RTjohnH) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Harshest Review yet from Details Date: 10 Apr 1996 18:18:48 -0400 This is the harshest review I've seen yet, from the new Details. They review Eventually along with Bob Mould's new record (which they also hate, just not quite as much) They give it a 2 out of 10 rating (Bob's got 5). Wow. I'll skip over some of the stuff that's just about Bob's record. Husker Du's Bob Mould and the Replacements' Paul Westerberg were the original twin voices of screechy confessional punk, dropping proverbs from a cloud of industrial-strength cigarette smoke. But both bands were history by the time Nirvana wedded the sound of Husker Du's "Whatever" to the Replacements "Never Mind." Now Mould and Westerberg sound bitter about missing out the new world Nirvana opened up and they reply by casting themselves as classic rockers instead. [lot of stuff about Bob, I don't feel like typing] Westerberg aims for the same singer-songwriter independence on Eventually, but you wouldn't believe how ugly the songs are. He leaves spineless folk ballads on your doorstep like so many orphaned kittens, and tries to rock out with nightmarishly cute Grease schtick. Mould's solo misery might be a dead end, but at least he's passionate about it-the depressing part of Eventually is that Westerberg obviously hates his job. ------------------------------- Still dying to hear this myself. A friend made me a copy last night, but I haven't heard it yet. Kind of afraid to listen. ['Details' is still railed in Chapel Hill for a ridiculous article they wrote from three years ago that made it sound like it was like the next Seattle ("on Prozac"). Maybe the same genius was reponsible for this work of art. - M@] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. WORD ON THE "EVENTUALLY" LISTENING PARTY IN DC Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 17:49:12 -0500 From: Maxsilent@aol.com Subject: Pre-Release Westerberg Fiesta The party went quite well... I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all. A total of nine Skyway (and Skyway related) folks made it... including three guys who came down together from Philly (!), and along with a bunch of my non-Skyway 'Mats fan friends, we were the core group that rocked on until 5 A.M. Most folks stayed until midnight or one a.m. and everyone (myself included) enjoyed the chance to meet fellow Skywayers and swap tales of their devotion to the 'Mats. General reaction to the record was favorable; many folks did mention that they look forward to hearing it when they can devote their complete attention to it (amiable conversation did not cease when the record was played, folks continued to bond as well as keep one ear on the speakers, I think). No one hated it (not altogether surprising... I figure anyone willing to come to such a bash is predisposed to like the material. So all in all, a fun time... I'm certainly glad to have had the opportunity to host the gathering, and for the opportunity to meet a group of cool folks... a hearty thanks to all who attended, and apologies to those who couldn't make it. To all who have the record already: There seem to be a fair number of folks out there with advance copies of "Eventually"... why not host a similar affair in your town? It's still gonna be over a month 'til the record comes out officially, so throw a party and meet some fellow Skywayers!! Best, John P.S. What's with the news that the tour is going to involve sheds? That could really suck if it turns out to be true! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- V. WESTERBERG IN _GUITAR_ MAGAZINE From: Mohammad Ahmad Qayyum Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: PW in Guitar Magazine Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 01:20:05 -0500 The latest issue of GUITAR magazine has our hero in one of its cover articles... The article RETURN OF THE SONGWRITER profiles outstaning songwriters from the 60s on... Neil Young, Springsteen, Richard Thompson, Chris Isaak, Goo Goo Dolls, Kurt Cobain, McCartney, Matthew Sweet, Dave Mathews, Tom Petty, and just below Tom on page 70, Mr. Paul Westeberg. Here's what the piece say about our boy: Paul Westerberg --------------- Known for his work in the Replacements, a post-punk 80s hardcore band, Paul Westerberg successfully made the leap from rude boy to songwriter of reckoning. The Replacements first record Sorry Ma Forgot To Take Out The Trash was a wash of post-punk noise that nevertheless allowed Westerberg's wit, talent and serious songwriter's sensibilities to peek through. By the time the Replacements released their third album, Hootenany they had established themselves as true pop stylists and not just a harcore genre band. Let it Be garnered them even greater popularity and led to their major-label release Tim in 1985. Brilliant (!) follow-ups like Pleased To Meet Me and Don't Tell A Soul only cemented Westerberg's reputation as a guy who could play mean guitar while writing inspired songs. Even after the Replacements' demise, which coincided with 1990's All Shook Down Westerberg's star continued to rise (!!!). His songs appeared in the film Singles and his solo album 14 songs and the brand new Eventually have met with critical aclaim (!!!!!). Listen to Things and First Glimmer for two examples that exhibit the range of this punker-with-a-brain songwriter. Pretty nice to our man huh ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. BIG THOUGHT STUFF Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 16:49:09 -0500 From: kfeinlei@sun115.ny.wgl.com (Ken Feinleib) Subject: Re: Throwing rocks at the shrine I don't want to start a feud here, but I found Dave Forbus's "Westerberg: Love It or Leave It" creed in Skyway #35 so demeaning that I couldn't let it pass without comment. As a "supposed Paul Westerberg fan," I am deeply offended by the way Dave tars those who criticize _14 Songs_. To accuse fans who been disappointed in Westerberg's solo work of feeling that way because they are resistent to change is an oversimplification , if not an outright mischaracterization. I begrudge Westerberg neither the right to be human nor the liberty to make whatever kind of music he damn well pleases. I absolutely agree that life is change. Not all change, however, is for the better. I have as little interest in seeing Paul write "Fuck School" in 1996 as he probably does in writing it, but I fail to see how any of the solo material he has so far released in any way represents growth as either an artist or a person. At least "Fuck School" presents a definable point of view, a genuine emotion, which IMHO is more than can be said for the majority of songs he's released under his own name. Just because he may have turned the volume down doesn't necessarily mean that his work has become deeper or more mature. Even under the torrential power chords of _Sorry, Ma_ there is more apparently a mind at work than on the product of recent vintage; if there are any lines in "A Star Is Bored" wiser than "I hate my father, one day I won't," I didn't catch them. That, of course, is MY opinion. But I digress. My point here is not to debate the relative merits of old Westerberg and new Westerberg. My point is that by digging his heels in the way he has and branding me and others like me as whiny crybabies, I feel that Dave does a disservice not only to his fellow fans, but also to the subject of our little tea party here, Westerberg himself. By seeking to silence debate and discourage criticism of Westerberg's work, it grants Westerberg no favor and, in fact, diminishes his worth as an artist and displays an unintended lack of respect for him as a person. If the emperor is naked, who does it help to pretend that he isn't? The fact is that there are people who preferred the acoustic Dylan to the electric Dylan, which is a matter of personal taste, and to call them "fair-weather fans" is, I think, rather high-handed and exclusionary. There are also, after all, people who would much rather hear "All Along the Watchtower" than "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"--and, unfortunately, people who would rather hear "Sussudio" than either--but that doesn't make any of them evil, only different. It's a big, wide, (sometimes) wonderful world, Dave. I would never attack you in your right to like Westerberg, and I hope that you will respect my right--and the right of others like me--to judge his work on its merits in accordance with my own personal taste. It would be mighty dull if everyone liked only vanilla or only chocolate or only pistachio, to say nothing of all the out-of-work Baskin-Robbins employees the economy would be forced to absorb. All best wishes, Ken Feinleib kfeinlei@ny.wgl.com Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 22:34:14 -0500 From: "http://paranoia.com/~tableau/" I've been quiet for sometime but I now feel inspired... In light of the fact that Paul's new album will be out soon, I wanted to toss in my two cents on his solo work. I agree with most sentiments on the Skyway: Bash and Pop's album was better than 14 Songs, etc. But I also think many people are looking at Paul's solo stuff the wrong way. While 14 Songs don't compare to replacements albums, it was still a f*cking good record. And while I miss the old mats aura, I also welcome the feel of 14 Songs. This is how I look at it: 14 Songs is simple, sincere, tuneful and surprisingly confident and fun. Wasn't it so nice to hear Paul's voice singing a silly song like Manquin Shop without turning it into something degrading? And for Paul to sing "You're looking hip, oooh good enough to . . ." After the breakup and his dropping booze for good, I think he's came out on the good side. He's still got more sincerity than most other artists and finally seems generally happy. For as much as I love "Unsatisfied" I never particularly liked feeling that way. I'm sure Paul didn't either. I haven't heard any of the new album yet, but it hasn't gotten glowing reviews from people on the net that say they have. I, for one, don't expect it to change my world the way "Let It Be" did anyway. I think it's unfair to expect that--those older albums took a significant amount of pain/change/anguish/escape/dreams to creat. Paul lived that way for a long time. It's my humble opinion that he's allowed to relax a little bit now and breathe some fresh air. Mike Bruner tableau@paranoia.com Date: Sun, 24 Mar 1996 03:10:00 -0500 (EST) From: "C. D. Moore" I love the list. I think that there's always been a real comraderie with the Mats fans, though at times it was a lot like telling stories at a funeral (in more ways than one). Unlike any of the other music lists I've ever been on, this one seems to be more personal in nature. I think that this is at least partially the result of the way that most replacements fans have a very personal connection with the songs, and with the band members. I remember in high school thinking that I was the only person in the world who had anything that meant as much to me as the Replacements did. More than anything, I wanted to just meet Paul in a bar someday, and just start talking to him about inane sorts of things, have him bum a smoke off of me and then just when he's accepted that I don't have a clue of who he is, I'll tell him that I knew he was singing to me when he did "Sixteen Blue" or "Swingin Party" or whatever and then just run out of the bar. I think that being a Replacements fan, for me, meant that I was in group therapy. That's what this list is like: group therapy. Thanks again, Chris ****************************************************************************** Upon the steep floor flung from dawn to dawn | Christopher D. Moore The silken skilled transmemberment of song; | Permit me voyage, love, into your hands . . . | cdmoore@indiana.edu ****************************************************************************** http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~cdmoore -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. THE TUBE Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 10:36:05 CST From: "amanda d. dorsey" Hola M@ - Caught a little Paul yesterday afternoon on one of the many "Best of 120 Minutes" thingy-s that MTV had on. I think it was Green Day that was spouting something about "staying up just to see that Replacements video of the cigarette and the speaker". I smiled. Also got a kick out of Paul saying that "yeah, we were sick of getting Quiet Riot and Night Ranger crammed down our throats...." Classic Paul. I think I've seen that same sentiment echoed on quite a few of the "obligatory first" Skyway posts. Also enjoyed old Pixies videos. Frank Black is a talented freak. So, Mandy Dorsey From: wynswrld@aol.com (WynsWrld) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: George Wendt/Replacements trivia... Date: 28 Mar 1996 05:07:24 -0500 Saw the George Wendt ("Norm!") anecdote in the Skyway/alt.music.replacements FAQ, and it reminded me of a similar occurrence on some sitcom on the Family Channel a few years back. George was playing a neighbor of a character played by that 'Body by Jake' guy, whose teenage kids were on the way out to a Replacements show. George's character goes off on how he is a big fan of the Mats, but was a little disappointed in their latest album (I think it was All Shook Down). He remarks on how "...the lads seem to be maturing." Naturally, the kids were blown away that their dad's friend had even heard of the Replacements, never mind being such a huge fan. Does anyone else out there remember this, and can confirm which show it was on? Or was I hallucinating? Wayne From: cford@vnet.ibm.com (Charles Ford) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: George Wendt/Replacements trivia... Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 22:24:11 GMT I saw it, too.. The show was called "Day By Day." Actually, as I remember the premise of the show, Dad's pal was making himself obnoxious with his attempts to appear 'hip' to the kids. The Replacements reference was just used as a device to illustrate his annoying traits. But, I fell out of my chair when I heard it... Charles From: jhekmati@aol.com (JHekmati) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: 5 Apr 1996 00:26:33 -0500 About 10 years ago, circa Let It Be, there was an episode of Divorce Court where the Divorcing couple were Chris Mars and either Paul Westerberg or Bob Stinson - I can't remember. One of the issues in the divorce was who was going to get custody of their son, Tommy. I didn't see the episode, but everyone I talked to for the next several days asked me if I had. I guess one of the staff writers for divorce court was a Replacements fan. Has anybody seen this? If so, could you straighten me out on the facts? What were the circumstances of the divorce? I.e., were there any Replacements trivia snuck in to the story, etc.? White and Lazy, Jeff Hekmati Greetings from Lawrence, Kansas. From: ez049256@boris.ucdavis.edu (Adam Keats) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: 10 Apr 1996 23:01:47 GMT I know one of the former writers for divorce court, and he definately is a big Replacements fan. Knowing other things they put on the show, I would not be surprised if this is true. I'll get in touch with this guy and find out the scoop as soon as possible... --adam -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII. A PEEK AT SOME PERFECT SONG TITLES... From: Diego Navarrete Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Perfect Set List: Babe's Mar 16, 1996 Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996 23:56:41 -0500 Sorry it took so long to post this; I'm not sure of the song after "Candy Man". Those posted with and "*" are songs which Tommy said would be on the EP. Happy Need To Turning Inside Out Flap Sometimes Hit the Wall * Thing I Call Miss Self Esteem * Candy Man Alt Monk (or Negative Feed, I'm not sure) Me Heartbeat is a Lovebeat Crocodile Rock Would've liked more? I would have too, but Tommy said that was all they knew! Diego -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IX. REPLACEMENTS (NOR I) AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE DRIVERS LICENSES Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 02:02:37 -0500 From: "Elizabeth S." We almost lost another Replacement recently: The man they call Slim Dunlap made a narrow escape from a car fire a few weeks back. Thankfully, all band members were unharmed, and the group even made the next gig on borrowed equipment. And they're featuring Eventually on the new-releases showcase on the commercial alt station in Atlanta. It's too late to turn back...here we go! Elizabeth -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X. WWW Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 23:03:39 -0400 From: Mike Monello Subject: New Demos Up! Just a note to tell all the Mats fans out there that I've just posted some new demos on the Demos and Rarities Page, (http://www.magicnet.net/~mikem), for your listening enjoyment. The new files are as follows: Hootenanny Outtakes - DON'T GET MARRIED and SHOOT ME, KILL ME Tim demo - KISS ME ON THE BUS PTMM demos - BEER FOR BREAKFAST, I THINK I'M GOING OUT OF MY HEAD (f'ing hilarious, IMHO), TELEVISION, and TROUBLE ON THE WAY. The old demos are no longer available, due to server space, however there is a listing to see what was once there (and will return eventually, I guess). Peace- Mike M ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit The Replacements Demos and Rarities Page! D/L your favorite demos! http://www.magicnet.net/~mikem ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- from: Matt Tomich (matt@novia.net) NEW REPLACEMENTS CHORDS UP: Bastards of Young Can't Hardly Wait (both thanks to Jose Moreno) You can get them directly at http://www.novia.net/~matt/sky/matschords.html From: jennings@mama.indstate.edu Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 19:56:43 -0500 (EST) Subject: tabs or chords needed I'm a big fan of "The Replacements" and I was wondering if you knew of anyone that has the tabs or chords for the song "I'll Be You" from the album "Don't Tell A Soul"? I have looked for this song on other sites and no one has it, can you help me out? thanks jennings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- XI. TAPED STUFF From: MRTimmins@aol.com Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 19:02:43 -0400 Subject: The Fans Hit Back II Just a little update on the tape compilation project. To date, some 5 or 6 people from the //Skyway\\ have sent me tapes or CDs of themselves/their bands. Submissions range from surf/punk to powerpop to folk, from a single song recorded on a boombox to full-blown independently released CDs. Thanks to all of you. It's looking as if the talent on this year's tape will be as diversified as on the first tape.... Several others of you have sent email expressing interest in this project. This letter is meant for you, in particular. For planning purposes, I'm looking to get a feel for how many people are realistically planning to send me something in the reasonably near future -- you know, so I khave a sense of what I'm still waiting to get in the mail, so I know when I can start the compiling. As it stands, I have far fewer than enough songs to fill a tape, so don't be shy. If others of you have changed your minds and now want to contribute, let me know. Hopefully we can get this thing put togetherover the next couple months. Later. Mark Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 16:27:46 -0500 From: Patrik Dahlblom Subject: New address I got a letter from Pierre Hellqvist, the Swedish guy that wrote to the //Skyway// [via snail mail] a while ago [see issue #34]. He's moved to another town and address. He can now be found at: Petter Swartzgatan 8, bv 602 35 Norrkoping Sweden And he still wants to trade tapes etc. with other Mats fans. Turns out he writes for Sound Affects, a really good Swedish rock magazine, and he might do an interview with Paul in the near future. Patrik Dahlblom. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- XII. OTHER BANDS Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 00:19:17 -0500 From: JHekmati@aol.com Paul played on an album under the name Pablo Louseorama; the group was called the Leatherwoods led by Todd Newman. The Leatherwoods, before they broke up, were Todd Newman, Tim O'Reagan and whoever would play with them at the time. Todd's from Topeka, but went to KU and lived in Lawrence when I started to work at KJHK, the local college radio station where I met him. When I became one of the converted sometime around Hootenanny, Todd had been preaching the Replacements gospel for several years, ever since Sorry Ma.. Todd moved to Mpls in the late 80's and a few months later, a friend in Mpls. said that Todd and Paul were hanging out together and that Paul was producing Todd's demo. The next thing I heard, was that Paul was playing on the Leatherwoods CD. I can't imagine the thrill you'd get from someday actually becoming friends with your hero and then collaborating with him. The CD is titled "Topeka Oratorio" and it's full of great pop songs: Proof Positive, Tell me Another, Jamboree, Wastin All My Time. I don't particularly care for O'Reagan's contributions, although the duet "She's Probably Gonna Lie" is pretty good. Paul gets two song-writer co-credits, though mostly for the guitar solos. Todd wrote and played these songs years before he ever met Paul, but I must admit the solos are quality PW efforts. You'll recognize that it's produced by Peter Jesperson at Blackberry Way and several other studios. The label "Medium Cool" is related to Twin Tone somehow, though I don't know how, exactly. Highly reccomended! Also... Around 1982 or so Todd and another guy named Blake Gumprecht wrote and recorded a song titled "The Girl from Little Rock". I never saw this for myself, but a friend says he heard the Replacements play it live in Atlanta once sometime around 1987. I'd love to track this down on a bootleg somewhere. Always enjoy Skyway. Thanks. Jeff Hekmati [The Medium Cool label is partly run by Peter Jesperson like Twin/Tone. - M@] Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 15:45:33 -0500 (EST) From: Matthew Benz-OHS For those of you who can't get enough of that classic 'Mats sound, I recommend the Liquor Giants. Led by Pontiac Brother Ward Dotson, the LG's have a great album out on ESD titled "Here". Lots of good Westerbergian riffs topped off with a little dash of early Kinks (including a cover of a old Dave Davies tune). I would also recommend some local Columbus OH boys, The Gunshy Ministers, who've mastered that scruffy mats-like sound, but they've only got a single or two out. Well, maybe someday..... Matthew [There's a song on that Liquor Giants CD that's a dead ringer for the best unreleased Bash n' Pop song; their next album is due out soon on Matador. Right at this moment I'm listenin' to Kevin Salem's "Soma City", which has a definite Westerberg-songwriter feel...sneak a listen at the used CD joint! -- Another Matthew] fin. --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- Matthew Tomich The //Skyway\\: The Replacements Mailing List 2407 Chapel Hill Road ---------------------------------------------- Durham, NC 27707 To subscribe, send "subscribe skyway" in the (919)-419-0808 body of a letter to "majordomo@novia.net" --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- "Revolution is just a T-shirt away." -- Billy Bragg