Man, if you’re a Replacements fan, you gotta read these. Even if you’re not a fan (and really, if you’re not, I’ve got some records you should probably hear), you’ll likely get a kick out of these liner notes. I haven’t seen the new liner notes, as I bought the re-issue from Amazonmp3, and, alas, no digital booklet (why? why? why? What exactly is up with not giving customers a little more than they bargained for. It’s all on the margin. Delight me, motherfuckers. Please!)
Anyway, these liner notes were written by the great rock journalist Bill Holdship who is the editor of the Metro Times, where you can also find these liner notes and a review. FYI, I’m pasting them in their entirety below because they’re so darn good, and should The Metro Times decide to take them down, I don’t want (or you, dear readers) to have to hunt. That said, should the author or the paper wish me to take them down, I shall abide.
Same goes for this track, which you should maybe listen to while you read. Of course, you should really listen to the whole album:
06-never-mind
(And, ya know, as much as Cobain loved him some Pixies, Meat Puppets, and REM, he didn’t name any of his albums after one of their songs….Just sayin’.)
I’ve written about the ‘Mats before. They bring out a certain side of me, that I wish came out more often. Reading the liner notes below make me feel…ah, Nevermind. Just read ‘em
THE REPLACEMENTS — PLEASED TO MEET ME
When the Replacements headed to Memphis in the winter of 1987 for the first batch of sessions that would become Pleased To Meet Me, there were questions as to whether there still even was a Replacements.
The group was now a trio, following guitarist Bob Stinson’s dismissal at the end of the Tim tour. One of the final straws was a late spring show at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater when Bob didn’t even show up until six songs into the set, trying to convince security guards down front that, yes, he was indeed a member of the band. Things had to have gotten awfully bad to be fired from a band that was as notorious for their drunken kamikaze performances as they were for two spectacular albums in a row. But as great as they sounded that night as a three-piece — the Stones in 1969 couldn’t have sounded any better — Paul Westerberg did comment “Now we got it!” when Bob finally plugged in his guitar. And at that moment, they suddenly went from being a great rock band to a spectacular one, despite at least three of them being so drunk they shouldn’t have been standing up let alone doing a concert.
So the band wasn’t unfamiliar with playing as a trio; they’d been doing it on occasion since their earliest days. “It did add pressure,” Westerberg says, “but even when we were rehearsing in the basement, Bob would sometimes be upstairs and just come down and play when he felt like it.”
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