Just in case you’re misinterpreting my commentary as negative criticism, let me clarify: the apparent lack of anything closely resembling a pulse in The Replacements’ performance on “Nightclub Jitters” is just about the most perfect thing they ever did. “Valentine” was a song pulled out of the reject pile at the last minute because Warner wanted another track to comply with the running time paradigms of the day, and the less-than-enthusiastic performance reflects that. Rarely in the annals of music history has an album cover said so much. Like Lennon after the “more popular than Jesus” brouhaha, Westerberg had to defend the song repeatedly in interviews; unlike The Beatles, The Replacements were not the most popular band in the history of the universe. You can also follow the Album of the Day - a classic album presented in its entirety. Year in Review: So, How Was Your 2020, Nile Rodgers? Which the world sorely needs to be. Mehr describes the cover as “A Faustian handshake between a scruffy rock-and-roller, played by Westerberg, and a bejeweled record company executive.” Given his fuck-the-fans orientation, it is doubtful that Westerberg designed the cover to serve as a heads-up to the fan base, a la “Hey, I’ve sold out to the establishment, but I’m still me.” It is more likely that the cover depicts Westerberg looking at his reflection in the mirror and facing the reality of his situation. The others felt that way too, with the possible exception of Tommy, who may have been happy to go along for the ride regardless of what they decided to do. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Pleased to Meet Me should have ended with “Skyway,” but instead we get the producer-dominated “Can’t Hardly Wait.” This not-much-of-a-song had been around for a while, but The Replacements never found a satisfying arrangement. Pleased to Meet Me could be heard as an overcompensation for Tim's failings. While you do hear a few sops to commercial considerations on Pleased to Meet Me, most of those were added by Dickinson post-production. While some continue to champion the Replacements' Don't Tell a Soul and All Shook Down exit albums, Pleased to Meet Me truly represents the last vital effort of a great band beginning its descent. Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? “That” is the simple truth that nearly every artist in history has at one time or another sold out to the (usually) men with the money. The paradox couldn’t be starker. When I hear Westerberg sing, “Gallo or Muscatel, either one would be just swell,” I think, “Disgusting!” And when I hear him categorize all red wine into a single bucket like there’s no difference between Gamay, Pinot and Grenache, I think, “The man’s an idiot.” In any case, the song doesn’t feel quite right to me—they seem to be rocking without a whole lot of underlying commitment and it comes through as “forced enthusiasm.” Given my resistance to this song, those of you who are less anal about wine are free to provide an alternative point of view. Well, yeah, unless you’re the girl trapped under a hundred-and-eighty pounds of dead weight. Album Review, Altrockchick, Music Review. ( Log Out /  This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. April 18, 2020. Compare that to the orientation of Mr. Westerberg, as captured in Bob Mehr’s Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements. The cover image of The Replacements' 5th studio collection is a telling one: PLEASED TO MEET ME has one foot in the door and the other one in the gutter, with the spirit of the Minneapolis band's punk roots given a newfound polish and a willingness to explore other genres. Roscoe. Taken as a whole — along with Replacements’ biographer Bob Mehr’s ever-excellent liner notes (which shed some light on Bob Stinson’s departure) — the holistic skyway-view of the album shows a band that was a little looser than they would want to let on. Some producers are helpful, some are not. . Year in Review: So, How Was Your 2020, Lars Ulrich. A: We Are Devo! Pleased to Meet Me was recorded in Ardent Studios in Memphis, and as a member of The Dixie Flyers, producer Jim Dickinson just had to infuse some of the tracks with Memphis Soul. They did not have the common touch. 4.5 superb. ... Top review from United Kingdom There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Released in 1987 by Sire Records, Pleased To Meet Me is the only album recorded by the band as a trio, after original guitarist Bob Stinson acrimoniously left the band. Why are you sabotaging your own songs?”. IHateRadiohead September 28th 2015. Then they’d be good and drunk, and it would be great. Unlike, say, the Velvet Underground, who turned into just as wonderful a group when John Cale was axed, the Replacements lost a good bit of steam once the elder Stinson was gone. But sometime after recording their beloved Tim album, Paul Westerberg decided they ought to grow up a little, the group parted ways with founding guitarist Bob Stinson, and the ‘Mats became self-aware. You know that he’s on his game in the second line of the song when he elongates the completely unimportant word “right” in the phrase, “Step right up son” with gravelly delight. Pleased To Meet Me is the critically acclaimed fifth studio album by the American rock band The Replacements. When you’ve grown up in a certain place and have become thoroughly familiar with the sights, you tend to see patterns instead of details. © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Well, that would be my plan until the end of the first bridge when Prince Gabe makes his entrance. Rieger’s platonic ideal of a performer was Bruce Springsteen: someone who wrung emotion out of every lyric, put himself on the line with each show, and gave 100 percent night after night. You don’t have to be like them in order to relate to them. And I look great in leather. But mostly I just happen to like the tune, and I think it sounds great. The arrangement is one of blessed simplicity: acoustic guitar enhanced with echoing reverb and just a touch of vibraphone. In today’s world, painters sell out to gallery owners, authors to publishing houses and musicians to media companies. Point of fact, Pleased to Meet Me also has the unique distinction of being the last new album I bought on vinyl in the spring of 1987 before switching over almost exclusively to CDs a month later (though, of course, I returned to purchasing vinyl again before the decade was out). Nelson Rockefeller died “of an apparent heart attack.” Now that is fake news. This review can also be found on my blog. I also remember “Nightclub Jitters” being played sloppily on purpose, which was funny, but it was still musical. Note that this is a fantasy, not a confession: I was only five years old when Prince Gabe left in all his glory, so don’t try to pin his collapse on me. Oh by the way, I saw the Replacements in 1991, five months before they called it quits, and I remember that bassline from “Alex Chilton” sticking in my head for days afterwards. I’ve got 9 non-string versions on my iTunes alone. “I Don’t Know” definitely needed something to ground the drunken exuberance and Dickinson made the right call when he brought in future Rock Hall of Famer Steve Douglas on baritone sax. These recordings all have a raw, intimate quality that sounded polished on the LP. Had they ever written something as catchy as “Surrender,” they would’ve been too embarrassed to play it in public. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! I never liked going to Costco. At the end of the song, I’ll say to the band, “That was real nice, boys. Over in the far corner you see a worse-for-the-wear Westerberg at the upright piano, the slop from a glass of bourbon on the rocks barely glistening in the dim pink spotlight shining on the dust-encrusted piano top. Westerberg met him after yet another disastrous concert in New York; contrarian Chilton thought was The Replacements were great and said he’d love to record with them. They may not have done as well in the charts as they might have if they’d totally sold out, but they made a greater contribution to music by remaining true to their blessedly human flaws. The Replacements' 'Pleased to Meet Me' box set shows new depth to the band's last great album. The Beatles could afford the bad press because they had built up tons of goodwill; The Replacements couldn’t afford the controversy. The band’s previous five LPs were snarky slacker masterpieces full of chintzy songs about hating music ’cause it’s got too many notes, ironic Kiss covers, and the occasional tender ballad, and their concerts were more like drunken hootenannies — all of this sloppiness was what won them their legend. In “Skyway,” Paul Westerberg positions himself on a one-way street below the Skyway, “the place where I’d catch my ride most every day.” His wait coincides with the schedule of a woman who uses the Skyway regularly to get to wherever she’s going, most likely to work. On the whole, I think Jim Dickinson’s contributions to music and production have made the world a better place. They sing “I’m in love. By the way, do you know what the “R” stands for? The Associated Press reported that Kirby died after he had “collapsed at home,” which sounds like journo-speak for dying in the middle of a glorious ejaculation. ... but come on. He could live with drunken insouciance or bored incompetence, so long as it was real. The Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me marked the moment when Minneapolis met Memphis. For this tour, Chris Mars had been replaced by Steve Foley, which made the Replacements visually reminiscent of Cheap Trick: two cool guys (Paul and Tommy) and two nerdy guys (Slim Dunlap and Steve Foley). It took some doing, but I did find some Mud Boy stuff on YouTube, and his production was spot-on: roots music perfection. But as he spit out the  words again to Rieger, it went far deeper. The key to interpreting the song lies in what appears to be a throwaway line in the first verse. And the country-rocking “Even If It’s Cheap” is a nice addition, if only to hear Tommy Stinson sing the album title: “Pleased to meet me, the pleasure’s all mine, I’ve seen you here before.” The winking nature of the way he sings the verse and the bridge that sounds a bit like “Jesse’s Girl” maybe explain why it didn’t make it much farther. Please try again later. Then again, the Replacements don't make sense as a success story, so the failure of the gleaming, glistening Pleased to Meet Me winds up making its polish kind of heart-rending. . . "It lands in that sweet spot where technology, team, craft, chops, guts, attitude, ideas, creativity and some major label money all intersected at the … This new box set shows how the album could have been even better. What’s that song? and "Shooting Dirty Pool" practically sound like Exile on Main Street at 78 rpm. All my Replacements music was alphabetized under T except that one. I run into an inherent bias in evaluating “Red, Red Wine,” as I have been a wine snob since the age of twelve when my mother began what proved to be a lengthy and thorough oenological education, with close attention paid to the impact of a given terroir on the character of the finished product. To appreciate the importance of the cover, think of Paul Westerberg as the anti-Joe DiMaggio. Then again, the Replacements don't make sense as a success story, so the failure of the gleaming, glistening Pleased to Meet Me winds up making its polish kind of heart-rending. As it turns out, this was the last time they could still shoot for the stars and seem like their scrappy selves and, in many ways, it was the last true Replacements album. “Shooting Dirty Pool” is just Westerberg bitching about a no-account promoter who bad-mouthed The ‘Mats on college radio after yet another crappy concert. Perhaps the best review I have read about Pleased To Meet Me comes from David Fricke (Rolling Stone Magazine) who gave it a glowing review, saying "Tracks like "I.O.U." .” The cause behind the failure to connect isn’t about physical separation or even class in and of itself, but the separation caused by the shame of perceiving himself to be “less than.” That last verse serves as sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy of personal shaming. 'Pleased to Meet Me' is considered the 'sell-out' album but really it sounds like a slightly more buffed up and moderately less consistent 'Tim'; I still like it a fair deal, the curveball tracks in particular ('Nightclub Jitters' and 'Skyway') do an excellent job of breaking up the track flow and stop monotony from their typical sound setting in. What takes the song to another level is the fade, where Westerberg repeats the line “I’m in love. And now I can deal with that.”. The Replacements – Classic Music Review – Pleased to Meet Me. Later in the chapter covering Pleased to Meet Me, producer Jim Dickinson recalled that “When we started, ‘art’ was a word he wouldn’t let me use . Was quite enjoying the style of the review up to this. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Uh, oh. “That’s part of the reason people gravitated to him as an artist. Yeah, it’s a pretty good song when the Mats just let it flail. It also comes with a 12" x 12" hardcover book with rare photos and new notes by Bob Mehr, author of Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements. I’ve often wondered whether the Replacements could have been not only more popular but also a better band if they had been more willing to compromise. Pleased to Meet Me was the sound of the Replacements trying for once. Sexy, sinuous and sensitive wins out over lean and hungry every time. Replacements fans are not horrible drunks and screw-ups. Gospel organ ran through the original mix of “Valentine.” It sounds like somebody played a little mandolin in “Alex Chilton” at some point. What’s that song? “They wouldn’t be drunk enough early on in the day to get anything. Mehr, together with Rhino’s Jason Jones, produced this new collection. Though not all of Dickinson’s enhancements worked out, hiring Steve Douglas was a masterstroke. “IOU NOTHING,” penned Iggy, which Westerberg thought “was the coolest thing in the world.” (Mehr) While fans may interpret that act as cold rather than cool, it helped Westerberg clarify the attitude of an artist towards admirers: if you don’t maintain a healthy distance, you run the risk of letting them define you and deflect you from your artistic trajectory. Eight of the tracks feature some of Stinson’s last recordings with the band, and his whiplash snarls on “I.O.U.,” rockabilly shredding “Time Is Killing Us,” and tasteful accents on “Valentine” show what the album could have been. I’m not a hoodlum. the place I’d catch my ride most everyday Pleased to Meet Me should have ended with “Skyway,” but instead we get the producer-dominated “Can’t Hardly Wait.” This not-much-of-a-song had been around for a while, but The Replacements never found a satisfying arrangement. Westerberg sounds drunker than usual, straining to hit the notes and failing to achieve any sense of coherence in his phrasing. For their second major label album, fifth overall, first without founding member Bob Stinson, and lone offering as a trio, the 'Mats called upon Jim Dickinson. He draws small comfort from the fact that the Skyway isn’t the bourgeois refuge it seems to be (“It’s got bums when it’s cold like any other place”), but still clings to the fantasy of meeting the girl someday. It was always too cold inside. Does anyone name their kid Roscoe anymore? Buddy Holly is too cute for the Replacements to sing about. 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