The Replacements

So The Replacements re-released a number of their early albums all digitally remastered and with additional, never-before heard tracks, including the much-rumoured alternate version of one of their seminal songs. For 'Mats fans, and there only ever seem to be hardcore fans, this is like crack. They imploded spectactularly onstage in Chicago, never having reached their full potential, and leaving us fans who identified so much with them sadly and permenantly unfulfilled.

My two favourite of their albums:

I spent the last week in an identity-confusing haze listening to the albums. (Yes, mum, I bought them all, but when you download them they're like half the price).

They sang about being stuck in dead-end jobs, being broke, not being good enough for the girl you liked, or striking out in a self-loathing insecure rage against the world. Which, on the face of it, is what a lot of Rock 'n' Roll is about. But they sang a particular Minneapolis strain of it.

Which was me.

They understood the futility of living in the Midwest that I felt. Even if I couldn't articulate it at the time.

Because of this, I've always thought of them as being a very Minneapolis band. I've kept my love of them private because I've always felt that no-one over here would truly understand why I thought they were so great, because they'd never been to Minneapolis or had the experience I had living there.

Or maybe it's because I didn't want to reveal who I was back then. My favourite song of all time is their 'Can't Hardly Wait', which, basically, is about being a fuck-up and knowing it. Which is what I was (God the Brits are gonna love this bit of intimacy).

Another, 'Here Comes A Regular', is about the people who go to bars to drink away their shame.

In listening this week, I realised I can no longer really identify with them the way I did back then. I have come a very long ways in the ensuing years. Because I identified with them so strongly, they seem to be of a specific time and place. And it's not a place I think my friends over here can relate to.

Still, I still love them, and it's comforting to know they're back there in my memories.

I just wonder if that's where they need to stay.