According to Rolling Stone, The Replacements were the greatest band that never was. I don’t know what that means or whether it’s so, but they may well have been the most beloved Minneapolis band of the ’80’s. They are certainly the only such band to have a (respectable) 500-page book devoted to them: Bob Mehr’s Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements. I’ve read enough of Mehr’s book to confirm that the true story is not a happy story. Local journalist Jim Walsh compiled two more books on the band, one an oral history and the other a photographic history.
The Replacements made their name in concert and on Twin/Tone Records. The Twin/Tone page on the band here includes the band’s discography on the label and provides access to each album’s songs in streaming form. Twin/Tone Records was an essential part of the band’s story. Twin/Tone’s Paul Stark was Twin/Tone’s driving force. I admire Stark’s accomplishments with the label.
The band moved on to Sire for four albums at the end of the decade before breaking up. I hope fans of the band will forgive me, but I was never a fan or of the punk/alt-rock genre and can only note their rightful place in my series here (assuming that Westerberg is still a working musician).
Their “Alex Chilton” tribute on Pleased To Meet Me (Sire, 1987) is my favorite of the band’s songs. However, Let It Be (Twin/Tone, 1984) may be the most beloved album of this beloved band. “I Will Dare” is from that album.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.