The Replacements: a whole bunch of rarities & b-sides
So in case you were not around cool humans a few weeks ago, you might not have heard that The Replacements are reforming to play three shows this summer at the Riot Fest (!!!). I am not a rioty person, but I do love me some Paul Westerberg in all of his many forms, and this news came out of a wonderful left field to surprise most of us. Even though we don’t know who else is in the band this go around (other than Tommy Stinson, and, maybe, Prince) — IT’S THE REPLACEMENTS.
I was trying to explain The Replacements to my intern (again, with the intern. This kid is getting double his unpaid-work-hours money) and I used words like “sloppy but melodic” and “like, this visceral rawness with classic rock n’ roll underpinnings.” I used the word “punk” a few times; something about the Beatles; we talked about the dangers of alcohol overuse. I think we both went home from work that day better human beings, and now he has a new band to discover.
Back in 2006 I posted a pirate’s treasure trove of Replacements and Westerberg rarities and b-sides that a reader sent me. In honor of the Riot Fest news, and to announce the ticket giveaway I get to do for it, here they are again below, all re-upped.
TICKET GIVEAWAY! I have two pairs of 2-day passes to the Denver stop of Riot Fest to give away to Fuel/Friends readers. It’s happening September 21 and 22 on a farm-looking place outside of town; I’ll also be going and probably camping, which should be delightful.
TO ENTER TO WIN: leave a comment telling me why you should win a pair of tickets, and I will pick two winners in a week or so.
Now tunes. For you, and the intern.
PAUL WESTERBERG RARITIES
Dyslexic Heart (Singles soundtrack)
Waiting for Somebody (Singles soundtrack)
Seein’ Her (b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Men Without Ties (b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Dice Behind Your Shades (Festicle version, b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Can’t Hardly Wait (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad) (Marah cover here)
Left of the Dial (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Another Girl, Another Planet (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Answering Machine (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Daydream Believer (live, b-side British single?)
A Star is Bored (Melrose Place Soundtrack)
Backlash (w/ Joan Jett) (Notorious LP)
Let’s Do It (w/ Joan Jett) (Tank Girl Soundtrack)
Sunshine (Friends Soundtrack)
Stain Yer Blood (Friends Soundtrack)
Make Your Own Kind of Music (Eventually Bonus Track Japan)
I Want My Money Back (Grandpaboy Single)
Undone (Grandpaboy Single)
Wonderful Copenhagen (Suicaine Gratification Bonus Track Europe)
33rd of July (Suicaine Gratification Bonus Track Europe)
Nowhere Man (I Am Sam Soundtrack)
Be Bad For Me (Folker Bonus Track Europe)
WESTERBERG RARITIES AS ZIP FILE
REPLACEMENTS RARITIES
If Only You Were Lonely (b-side of I’m In Trouble)
Hey Good Lookin’ (b-side of I Will Dare)
20th Century Boy (T Rex cover) (Let It Be Outtake)
Who’s Gonna Take Us Alive (Let It Be Outtake)
Temptation Eyes (Let It Be Outtake)
Street Girl (Let It Be Outtake)
Nowhere Is My Home (Boink LP – England)
Bundle Up (PTMM Rehearsal, Jungle Rock w/ new lyrics)
Empty As Your Heart (aka PO Box) (PTMM Rehearsal)
Time Is Killing Us (PTMM Rehearsal)
Kick It In (PTMM Rehearsal)
Run For The Country (PTMM Rehearsal)
Going Out Of My Head (PTMM Rehearsal)
(“We’ll learn it tomorrow. Think of another one.”)
Trouble On The Way (PTMM Rehearsal)
Make This Your Home (PTMM Rehearsal)
Cool Water (PTMM Rehearsal)
Route 66 (b-side of Alex Chilton)
Tossin’ and Turnin’ (b-side of The Ledge)
Ought To Get Love (Don’t Tell A Soul Outtake)
Kissing In Action (All Shook Down Outtake)
Name: Heather Browne
Thanks for this!!
SxPxDxCx — July 2, 2013 @ 4:08 pm
Because I am generally amusing, and even more so at festivals!
Miles Buckingham — July 2, 2013 @ 4:09 pm
because i’ve got a dyslexic heart
tylerw — July 2, 2013 @ 4:12 pm
I’ve got no war to name me, I’m achin’ to be at this festival, even though Alex Chilton isn’t scheduled to appear. Leave me a message on my answering machine if I win.
Scott Slusher — July 2, 2013 @ 4:16 pm
Show the intern the legendary ‘shaved eyebrows’ MTV interview and let him make up his own mind. You rarely knew what the ‘Mats were going to do, but you never doubted it would be entertaining. And loud.
jimbo — July 2, 2013 @ 4:43 pm
You should pick me because I’ll be a brand new Colorado transplant by way of florida and it will be a good chance to do something fun and learn the area! Not to mention free tickets will probably win over my roomie’s heart (if she’s cool!).
Cherilyn — July 2, 2013 @ 5:02 pm
I want to hear the nasally delivery of Travis Morrison as he belts out “You Are Invited” when the Dismemberment Plan grace the stage at Riot Fest! But before that, I’d like you, Heather, to tell me “You are so needed by everyone to do everything. You are invited for all time…” to the Riot Fest.
P.S. I am concocting a nothing but love post for Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats after I hit SUBMIT COMMENT on the brilliance of his Sounds on 29th set — which I totally was at!
Dave — July 2, 2013 @ 5:50 pm
Witnessed the genius of the Mats in my hometown in 1989 at the Orange County Speedway when they opened for Tom Petty. Classic Mats – they were wasted. I spoke with a wasted Paul Westerberg through a chain link fence trying to coax him to meet us at our local dive bar hangout. When we tried to bribe him with free drinks he replied in slurred speech “Free drinks are no problem!” and he stumbled away. Me and my buds still laugh are asses off when we imitate Paul response from that night. Please pick me! Thanks, P.J.
P.J. Labanowski — July 2, 2013 @ 9:08 pm
Do you need another intern!? Sign me up!
Riotfest would be awesome. The Replacements, Yo La Tengo…and the Dear Hunter? Um, yes please. I feel like the world is ready for me to belt out “Whisper” in a festival setting instead of just my car.
Lindsay — July 2, 2013 @ 10:02 pm
GBV. GBV. GBV. Since their final show at Metro, I’ve mourned the demise of GBV. The fact that they’re back. Near Denver. With the Reunited Replacments. A Carnival. DeVotchKa. Matt and Kim. Airborne Toxic Event. Stars (seriously – their new video brings a tear to my eye, amazing). Iggy. It’s a dream lineup. I saw GBV in their early-ish days in Dayton. I saw them in Denver, at Westword Music Showcase when their roadie fell off the stage with a slightly ominous bleeding ear. I love Bob Pollard’s lyrics, spontaneity, kicking, drinking, energy, unpredictability – you name it. I grew up with that band from the mythological town of Dayton, Ohio. And I’d love to see them again.
Dawn — July 2, 2013 @ 10:58 pm
It’s the air fare that’s stumping us, not the ticket prices – it’s breaking my heart that the Replacements are playing together again and my husband, who loves that band more than anything, will be missing it.
last year's girl — July 3, 2013 @ 3:13 am
For a little taste of recent Replacements. Here’s Wilco with Tommy Stinson covering “Color Me Impressed” at the 2013 Solid Sound Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_oC4kXFotw
Doug Hacker — July 3, 2013 @ 4:27 am
Because I once got a ticket on I-94 for not yielding to an emergency vehicle because I couldn’t hear the sirens because I was playing “My Favorite Thing” at max volume on the cassette player.
DrDoug — July 3, 2013 @ 7:25 am
One of my favorite bands from my high school years that I’ve never seen live. Let me tell you a story. It was the 80s and I was growing tired of hard rock and not entirely sure what to make of new wave and punk. The local independent newspaper put out their 10-best albums of the year so I headed to the record store with Christmas money in my pocket. Let it Be was out of stock so I came away with Hootenany and Reckoning by some other band I’d never heard of. Those two albums opened a door for me. Soon to follow were Husker Du, Let’s Active, The Swimming Pool Q’s, Pixies and a bunch of other new music that make up the soundtrack of my life from those days.
Pablo — July 3, 2013 @ 8:10 am
This collection is awesome, Heather. Thanks.
My reason: because I had tickets to see The Replacements at the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri in the summer of 1991. I had to go to DC to see about a girl. Paul came around a while later, and passed out on stage after sort-of playing three songs.
Because Pete Smith gave me his copy of Let It Be on vinyl in 1989 just before he sold his entire record collection. Because he had to go see about a girl.
Because “Unsatisfied” still wrecks me, every single time.
Clayton Moore — July 3, 2013 @ 8:19 am
I grew up in the sticks, and Let It Be changed/saved my life. I never got to see them play (see: grew up in the sticks) and my husband, who never would have looked at me twice were it not for our mutual love of the Replacements, regularly rubs it in that he saw them live many times.
Kassy — July 3, 2013 @ 9:16 am
Because I’m poor and out of work and this would make me happy.
Fred — July 3, 2013 @ 9:51 am
First off, thanks for posting the rarities! These will get heavy spin from my friends and I.
As for my reason why I’d love to win the passes….well, I’m only 30 years old and for that reason consider myself lucky to even know who the Replacements are. Luckily I have a few close friends whose dads brought them up on all this really great rock n’ roll and I truly consider it one of the great blessings in my life that they have been able to pass it on to me…
Of these great bands they’ve put me on to the Replacements come only second to the Rolling Stones, who I was blessed to see in 2005, thanks to my amazing wife, as a birthday gift. The Replacements are an AMAZING band with some of MY favorite songs of all time. I seriously contend that Cant Hardly Wait is one of THE greatest songs of all time!
The phrase “once in a lifetime” gets used somewhat liberally, but to see The Replacements, given their history, and being too young to have been able in their heyday, is really once in a lifetime; RiotFest will most likely be my only chance.
Now that we’re homeowners and parents on a single income, unlike in 2005 when my wife got us the Stones tickets, it’s hard to come up with the money to travel to something like RiotFest..but I know if I could win passes that it would tip the scales and we’d figure out some way to afford the other expenses of going. It would be a dream come true and an experience of a lifetime.
On top of that, I’d love to see the Western US and Colorado specifically and I LOVE camping (excited to see you say that it will be a camping setup!).
Thanks even for the consideration and for being cool enough to love the Replacements and help some other people see them.
~Chris
Chris Koenig — July 4, 2013 @ 6:37 am
My fiance (and myself, respectively) are huge Replacement/Paul/Grandpaboy/Etc. fans. We had given up the hope of ever seeing them live because of their lengthy hiatus and basically just fed our obsession with them with hours of live footage and stalking the Man Without Ties message board on a daily basis for even a hint of new material. A few years back we decided to go on a ‘Replacements’ tour of Minneapolis and the surrounding areas. I’ve never seen my man more happy than the day he stood outside of the ‘Let it Be’ house, or visiting Twin/Tone Records, drinking Schlitz by the pitcher in a bar they used to play shows in and geeking out over every piece of memorobilia we could find. The Replacements have played such a huge part in our relationship over the last 5 years and we’re to be married in November (‘Time Flies Tomorrow’ by Paul Westerberg is in the running for our first dance, ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ our recessional). I couldn’t imagine a better pre-wedding celebration than standing in that crowd holding his hand and waiting for a moment we thought would never happen. It would be lifechanging in the best possible way.
Rebecca — July 4, 2013 @ 6:37 am
Thank you so much Heather! This makes my weekend!
Kevin — July 5, 2013 @ 8:40 am
Great post! I remember the song “Can’t Hardly Wait” from the movie…Can’t Hardly Wait haha. Ah, young Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Nick — July 9, 2013 @ 8:35 am
Dear Ms Heather,
My name is Zander. I’m a 22 year old senior at Emerson College in Boston, and I will DRIVE to Denver to see the Replacements. I’ll even live-blog it – but not while driving because that’s dangerous
The Replacements are my favorite band in the world. It began one summer several years ago in Newton, MA when I checked out All Over But The Shouting from the local library and spent an entire family reunion in Virginia reading about Peter Jesperson, Paul’s fasciation with Johnny Thunder’s and Peter Perrett, and their idiot-savant SNL appearance in ’85. From there on out the Replacements were my band.
Like Indiana Jones battling snakes and fascists, I pieced together a complete collection of original pressing LP’s and singles (something not easy to do in Boston). I convinced my girlfriend to take me to the former site of Oar Folkjokeopus (now Treehouse Records) on a trip to the Twin Cities for her brother’s wedding. Sometimes late at night I like to scroll through pics of Bob wearing dresses on Google Images. Hell, I even sat through that Color Me Obsessed doc at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge a year or two ago.
Unlike a lot of the other folks who’ve begged their cases, I’ve never had the chance to see them live – and not because I was “seeing about (aka ‘making mashed potatoes with’) a girl” out of state, but because I was a year old when they broke up and really had no say in the matter of attendance. Plus I’ve never been able to forgive my parents for their over site, and they’ve spent a lot of money on therapy to sort this thing out. Hopefully together we can bring them some peace.
Thanks for all the great reads and listens over the years!
Zander — July 10, 2013 @ 12:19 am
Because this would be an amazing way to spend my birthday!
Laura — August 3, 2013 @ 10:33 pm
Because my wife and I met due to Westerberg. She had a picture of Paul playing guitar at her desk at the office we both worked. I couldn’t place it thinking I’d seen all published and many unpublished pictures of the band. “Where is that picture of Paul from?” “You know who that is?”
Also, our first dance at our wedding was to “If Only You Were Lonely”.
Two kids later…
RTTDTX — August 5, 2013 @ 9:16 pm
Am I too late? If not, I would love these tickets because I am dirt poor and I haven’t done anything fun in months and I am desperate to go to Riot Fest. Please.
Ashley — August 8, 2013 @ 9:34 am
Love to go, never got to see the Mats the 1st time around, had tickets once but there was an issue with some police that needed attention so I missed the show. Now I’m older and wiser and will behave better, or maybe not.
Happi — August 26, 2013 @ 11:45 am
[...] I’ve been listening recently to a set called The Replacements “The Complete Collection.” As you might imagine, it seems to have just about everything the Replacements recorded and released on lp or ep. Don’t ask me about bonus tracks or anything, the draw here seems to be all the discs in track order, from the first to the last. (If you want rarities and alt versions, check out this site.) [...]
Night Music: The Replacements, “Takin’ a Ride” | Rock 'n' Roll Remnants — February 16, 2014 @ 10:14 pm
please re-up .zip links!
Mark Mendoza — January 16, 2019 @ 11:09 am