My parents are big fans of Paul Westerberg and the Replacements. My mom and her friends would go to any concert of theirs they could when the band was touring in the 1980s. Naturally, I grew up hearing about them, but it was not until about a year ago that I really began listening to the Replacements for myself. “Swingin’ Party”, their most popular song, was the first one I listened to. I played it on repeat for nearly a month. The Replacements quickly became one of my favorite bands. They were the sound I always needed. I began to wonder how this perfect band never made it big.
The Replacements were a self-destructive band. They were one the first punk bands that had the ability to bring punk to more mainstream audiences. However, their behavior on and off stage hindered them from blowing up. They made it on SNL in 1986, but after some heavy drinking throughout the show, the performance was a catastrophe. Westerberg dropped the f-bomb on air, and Bob Stinson could barely stand. Lorne Michaels banned them from the show. In addition, they never made it big on MTV, which was a huge platform for propelling artist’s careers during the time. Bob Stinson had substance abuse problems that forced the other members to kick him out of the band.
Despite their downfalls, The Replacements were trailblazers for indie rock. They didn’t follow the mainstream path, and are legends because of it.
Here are my top 20 songs by The Replacements:
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Androgynous
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Here Comes a Regular
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Unsatisfied
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Swingin’ Party
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Sixteen Blue
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Bastards of Young
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Answering Machine
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Talent Show
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Achin’ to Be
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Sadly Beautiful
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Can’t Hardly Wait
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Never Mind
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Nightclub Jitters
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Alex Chilton
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Waitress in the Sky
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Kiss Me on the Bus
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Little Mascara
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Left of the Dial
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Rock ‘N’ Roll Ghost
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One Wink at a Time
-DJ Lizzo