Trouble Boys (2016)

The book we always thought had to be written about the Replacements has finally been written, and I have finally read it. Bob Mehr’s sensitive and meticulously researched biography might be one of the great rock biographies. It’s hard for me to judge. I was close to the action, a Twin Cities music journalist from 1982 to 1985. As someone scarred by alcoholism, my instinct was to keep my distance from such shenanigans. It wasn’t a big hilarious joke to me. But I saw my share of terrible shows and great shows and I heard a lot of the stories. Not all of them—there were some new ones for me in this book. I followed along with the albums, which got exponentially better from Stink through Let It Be and stayed pretty good even after that. All Shook Down is where it flattened out for me and never recovered. I was aware of the first Paul Westerberg solo album and of Tommy Stinson’s foray with his own band, Bash & Pop. I even knew Chris Mars’s solo album, on the brink of his painting career. I appreciated their potential to become a legendary great rock ‘n’ roll act—I appreciated that they were, to some extent, certainly on some nights. But Westerberg is the first to say they never scored a hit, a reasonable metric for any wannabe legendary rock ‘n’ roll act. In the end their underachieving and self-sabotage was a disappointment. I was disappointed—but check out their reactions here. There’s enough heartbreak to go around. I had to wince at some of their antics—setting per diem cash on fire, as one example. Drinking, drugging, defiantly playing their worst shows when it was important to be better, as when they knew the music industry was in the building. They often followed their terrible shows with great ones, coincidentally when they knew they didn’t need to make an impression on anyone. The greatest knock on them may have been their talent as consummate contrarians. The story of the Replacements is fun and exciting, full of laughs and great music, but it’s also sad, as illustrated by the fortunes of Bob Stinson (the soul of the band) and, later, his replacement Slim Dunlap. Tommy went on to become a real-life rock star, playing for years with Guns ‘N Roses. Even if he never had a hit, Westerberg wrote a handful or more of the best songs of the era, all of which should have been hits, as they say. It pained me to read how many of his song demos Westerberg has destroyed in fits of pique and self-doubt. But, well, it’s also the epitome of the Replacements too. All the glory and all the troubles are in this great biography.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over.