The best Rock and Roll is supposed to be a bit sloppy. Some bands pull it off better than others. The Stones at their best, The Faces, The Pretty Things, The Who all knew that the feel was more important than technical excellence. In NZ we had the La De Das, Toy Love and Hello Sailor. In the US it always seemed a bit rarer for bands to forsake technical mastery for The Feel - at least not in the long run.
The Replacements certainly did. The Feel was what it was all about and at their best they were incredibly sloppy.
I have heard cases made for Let it Be (and not The Beatles' one) as not only The Replacements finest album but one of the best albums ever made. I do not quite agree but do believe it was the start of them being a really great band and perhaps America's only great sloppy rock'n'roll band.
It starts with the truly classic I Will Dare - the opening chords as important and resonant to some as that chord that kicked off The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night. They don't forget their irreverent side with Gary's Got a Boner and Tommy Gets his Tonsils Out and their cover of Kiss's Black Diamond but it is the slower songs like Unsatisfied, Androgynous that pointed to Paul Westerburg's growing skills as a songwriter.
Next Step Tim!!
To some people The Replacements are the most important band of all time. Last year they reformed for a few shows and I was surprised that I have came across 3 people who made the pilgrimage to Minneaplis to their home coming show.
No comments:
Post a Comment