Alright, there's two parts to this whole thing.
First off, Alex Chilton has passed away. That makes the following points a bit dicey to touch on, but....lets. First of all, Big Star was amazing. Big Star deserves JUST as much credit as the Velvet Underground, because in their own way, they were the 70's version of that same thing. All, like, 20 people that bought "#1 Record" started a band. And a KILLER band. The first two Big Star albums (The other being "Radio City"), had great stuff all the way through. There's a point where you realize that every single song on both of those albums could be a radio single. Back before Big Star, I suppose that the Box Tops are, at worst, worth listening to. Chilton is a fantastic singer, a good songwriter, and a pretty clever, if not good, guitar player. But, after leaving Big Star, following those first two records, I get confused on how he got this insane cult following. I've read blog tributes to Chilton that are written by people who obviously have NEVER followed anything he did after Big Star, and just know that he was worshiped by the indie rock elite all through the 80's and 90's. During which time, he released a lot of poorly received solo work (outside of "High Priest", which is an album I just find to be fantastic.), but still...Chilton is seen as an artist that changed the course of indie rock. Through what? I'm not sure. Lou Reed doesn't get this much respect. Still, I won't dwell. I pray that he rests in peace, and I attempted to listen to Big Star records all day.
I did not listen to Big Star records all day. Moving on to the second part of this, The Replacements were by far one of the last honest rock bands we'll ever see. I was searching for a song to link as a tribute to Chilton, and I recalled that the Replacements had a song titled "Alex Chilton", which...unsurprisingly is about Alex Chilton. Normally, this would make me want to throw up. It's not tongue in cheek, or taking the piss out of Chilton, like when Glen Matlock wanted to call the first Rich Kids album "The Monkees Greatest Hits"....no, this is genuinely, literally a love song to Alex Chilton, who had the audacity to play on the record. It would reek of sucking up if it wasn't such a damn good song. And with that, I abandoned my musical Chilton tribute, bought some Replacements vinyl, and lived the dream. And of those guys that listened to the first few Big Star albums, and decided to start a band, Paul Westerberg and Bob Stinton were the best. A few weeks ago, in yet another ridiculous record store debate (I do love those so much...), the topic leaned towards who the best musician out of the Minnesota area was. And naturally, the room split between Prince, and Dylan (What? No love for Lang?? even Prince co-signed this kid when he was like 16....digress.), and The Replacements were not even considered by anyone in the discussion. Not entirely surprising, but, for me...they're one of the few bands that were just incredibly cool, AND made excellent music. And over a sustained period of time. The Velvets were cool, but only made GREAT music for a short time. The Strokes are cool, but they don't make great music. INXS was cool...maybe a little too cool, if you catch my drift? (OK, I swear that this isn't just me being in poor taste, but when I googled Michael Hutchence, this came up pretty early. Don't shoot the messenger?)...but no one had a run of albums like the Replacements WHILE being drop dead cool as hell. Here's a brief list of why the Replacements were cooler than you and anyone you know, unless you know Lou Reed:
1.) Tommy Stinson was seriously 12 when he joined the band. 12 year old bass player. Oh yeah.
2.) Their first album, "Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash" was like a half hour long. And it had 18 songs on it! No one does that anymore! Tegan and Sara came close ("The Con", with 14 tracks, clocked in at 38 minutes), but that wasn't a debut album. That's literally not caring if people take the time to listen to you or not, and I admire that.
3.) On any given night, Bob Stinson would play in a dress, if he felt like it.
4.) On some nights, he would play in even less, which is what got them kicked out of CBGB's in '83, at a major label showcase. Something the band obviously didn't care about.
5.) In the 1988 Winona Ryder classic, "Heathers", the high school in the film was named Westerberg High, after Paul Westerberg, who could have no doubt had Winona Ryder as a lover if he so chose.
The list could go on and on. About how every midwest band out now, like The Hold Steady, pays it's respects to the Replacements, the same way that The Replacements paid it to Big Star, and the same way that Big Star paid it to the Velvets. But, this is the coolest Replacements story I can think of ever reading/hearing.
So, I often think that oral histories are ridiculous self-serving circle jerks that are hardly ever worth reading. There are two exceptions to this rule: The AMAZING oral history of american punk rock, "Please Kill Me", in which Richard Hell is easily at his best, and Wayne/Jayne County tells a story of a drag queen fight at CBGB's that will have you in stitches. Buy that book. And then there's "All Over But The Shouting" , the oral history of the Replacements, put together by the great Jim Walsh. There's a story in there, that I'd heard before, but it's always excellent. In short, When The Replacements got a major label deal, and left Twin/Tone records for Sire records, after the release of "Let It Be" in '84, they were told that they couldn't have their master recordings, that they belonged to the label. Not being wise to label politics, or not at all giving a shit, Tommy Stinson decided that if THEY couldn't have their own masters, NO ONE should have them. So, ever the charmer, Tommy waltzed into the Twin/Tone offices, made small talk with the secretary, who let him go back into (manager) Peter Jesperson's office, despite Jesperson not being there. Tommy located the master recordings, boxed them up, walked out of the office with a smile, and then proceeded to throw all of the recordings into Lake Superior.
Take that in. There's only a few pure rock n' roll moves these days, it's the last of 'em I'll tell ya. You ain't gettin' any kids bronzing guitars these days just for the hell of it, and you SURE as hell ain't going to get anyone throwing their masters into a large body of water. 'Cause that's MONEY, right? I remember watching an interview with Pete Wentz where he was talking about getting the Fall Out Boy masters and throwing them into the Chicago river, but he was too nervous. Pssh. I've got no clue what the price tag would be for the master recordings of those first 4 Replacements records, but Stinson didn't care. He was standing up for what was RIGHT, not legally, of course, but hell yes, you know? That's a killer rock n' roll move, and I DEFINITELY want a baby that looks like that. These so-called rock stars today could take notes. I'm not talkin' recklessness for the sake of it. Do it with a PURPOSE. The Replacements got it.
There's some tragedy there, as well. They went on about 2 albums too long, they kicked Bob Stinson out of the band when his drug habit got too bad, and his own little brother had to do it, no less. And Bob Stinson died before 40, literally because his body just couldn't take being alive anymore. No overdose, no romanticized suicide...his body literally just gave up. I can't imagine the hard living that you'd have to do to have that happen. Still, what greatness doesn't have tragedy attached to it, right?
So, here's to Alex Chilton, the greatest band he inspired, spring being here, and Anne Hathaway still being the hottest woman alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment