The Replacements Are Colored Impressed In New Film

Stories Told By The People Who Knew Them

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DETROIT - The Replacements are the subject of a documentary of sorts directed by Gorman Bechard. None of the band members appear in this production and the story is told through a collection of people who knew them, saw them, and worked with them from the very beginning to the end. These people speak for them and create a complete picture.


The story begins in 1979 with a high school dropout, Bob Stinson, who creates a band in the high hopes of keeping his eleven-year-old brother out of trouble. Tommy Stinson picks up the bass guitar and they start rehearsing out of the house. They are joined by another dropout Chris Mars who plays the drums and call themselves Dogbreath.The loud noise is enough to pick up the attention of janitor Paul Westerberg who is walking home from work. He hides in the bushes day after day and listens to them and eventually joins the band. This is a really interesting part of the story because Westerberg completely takes over as the main songwriter and dominates the band and later fires both Bob Stinson and Chris Mars. This is a very important part of the story.

One account of their early reckless behavior comes from when guitarist Bob Stinson quits high school. The story goes that Bob went to the principles office with a big boom box and when the meeting started he hit the play button. The song "Fuck School" blasted out of the speakers and Bob immediately flicked off the staff. This wild energy and total abandonment for authority stayed with the band throughout its early albums and performances.

Hot Metro Finds Detroit Chicago Los Angeles | The Replacements | Bob Stinson | Tommy Stinson| Color Me Impressed Replacements Documentary| Minneapolis Rock Band| Paul Westerberg The Replacements |Chris Mars The Replacements

They changed the name to the Replacements and created a demo tape in 1980. The first show they did was canceled after one of the band members brought alcohol to a non-alcoholic club. Some accounts point the finger at Chris Mars. They were soon booked at Jay's Longhorn which was where all the punk bands played in Minneapolis. The band was very animated and 13-year-old Tommy Stinson wears ankle weights in the day time so he can strengthen up his legs for better stage jumps. The E.P "STINK" is released and it has seven songs of raw energy on it and also serves as a blueprint for all future albums to come. There is a powerful rock element in its presence but it also has some of the thrash with "Fuck School", "Kids Don't Follow" and the ominous "Go". The album opens up with a live recording of the Minneapolis P.D. who threaten to close the show and take the audience to jail. There is a pop culture rumor that places rocker Dave Pirnir from Soul Asylum in the audience who responds with a "Fuck you man" back to the police. Nobody on this documentary can verify that point.

The Replacements released "Sorry Ma Forgot To Take Out The Trash" which has 18 tracks on it. The album contains all the control room banter between the engineer and the band. Right away there is a distance between the band and authority. When the sound engineer announces "tape rolling" Westerberg responds with "so what". It is amusing and there is a real roughness with the style of songs and frenetic nature of the music. Grant Hart from Husker Du sums it the Replacements best when he quotes the line from the song "Customer" which says, "(I'm in love with the girl who works at the store where I'm nothing but a...) Customer". This is a loaded lyric and spells out the Replacements attitude of not fitting in or having a stable place in society. They are the outsiders and show a certain kind of vulnerability that makes them more realistic than established rock bands. They also have a do it yourself stage presence that has zero glamour. The Replacements appear rough around the edges and look like dressed up in flannels, scrappy jeans, and sneakers. They don't look like they are capable of fitting the bill of rockstars. "Sorry Ma Forgot To Take Out The Trash" is regarded as the Sgt. Pepper of Punk Rock music.

Everything about the album seemed rough including the liner notes. The whole collection of songs was very anti-star and didn’t seem to live up to the rock star celebrity status. There was a roughneck way about them and their stage presence lived up to their recklessness on record. Guitarist Bob Stinson would dress up in strange clothes on stage including a child-size Prince t-shirt and woman’s tutu. A lot of Bob’s big bulgy body would be hanging out of his clothes exposed to the audience. Another time he came out on stage wrapped from head to toe in duct tape. Once while standing in a trash can he delivered a powerful guitar solo and accidentally fell over on his side and continued playing totally unfazed. It was said that Bob played the right notes at the wrong time and his solos had an otherworldly approach to them. Then in a split second, he would reel you back into the song narrative and continue. This was the beauty of the Replacements because you would have these amazing moments and would expose you to a wide range of emotions. For an example of this checkout "Johnnys Gonna Die" a song written about New York Dolls Johnny Thunders.

Hot Metro Finds Detroit Chicago Los Angeles | The Replacements | Bob Stinson | Tommy Stinson| Color Me Impressed Replacements Documentary| Minneapolis Rock Band| Paul Westerberg The Replacements |Chris Mars The Replacements

The followup album was Hootenanny. Here the band was a bit tighter in some spots but captures the wild energy of their live shows. For a goof, the band members all switched instruments for the title track in the recording booth. This wasn't known to the engineer and recorded them and did what he was told. The track, as awful as it sounded, remained on the album. Paul Westerberg rushed a copy of it to a rock and roll club and the DJ put it on thinking that he had struck vinyl gold. Having a serious interest in the band he felt honored to get one of the first pressings and was eager to put this on the big sound system. The song, if you heard it, is dead awful and Westerberg knew it and was grinning ear to ear. The DJ was not amused but this is another great moment.

Paul Westerberg was improving as a songwriter and also putting in a lot of deep emotions into his music. By the time "Let It Be" came out they had quite a reputation of playing great gigs and also playing some of the worst shows imaginable. This album had a very low key picture of them sitting on what looks like an Ann Arbor house rooftop, (they went down big there). They looked like four scrappy college students wearing sloppy clothes. The Replacements didn't have any star quality and they looked like four kids just hanging out. The year was 1984 and this was the year that I found them in an issue of Rolling Stone Magazine and I thought they looked boring. But I did notice that the critics were taking a sincere interest so I made a mental note.

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Bob Stinson was comfortable being the clown and showing up in dresses on stage and not ready for the big time. There is one story where he chooses a game of pinball overdoing his live performance at the gig. He bums a quarter off of someone in the bar and they go head to head in a game while Paul and the others take the stage. The guy he played with didn't recognize him as the guitarist from the band. After the third song, Bob wanders over to the stage to join the others and gets a boot to the mouth from Paul when he tries to climb up. These guys weren't the Beatles and would get into fistfights right in front of the audience and not care what it looked like. The is an appearance in the film by Stinson's ex-wife who adds dimension to his character and what he was really like. The stories are rich with character and funny instances. The ex-employees from Twin Tone record label join in and add their memories and there isn't a dull moment.

In 1986 the album "Tim" came out and it would be Bob Stinson's last album he would record with the band. Bob was showing up late for gigs, and his alcohol and drug problems were adding up. A true fan will wonder where the title for this album came from. The title was inspired by Timothy G. Piotrowski AkA Tim and was the singer for Duck Kicking Vulture. Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson went to see this band play and they ended up being the only two guys in the audience. Tim admits he was out partying the night before and had fallen asleep drunk under the mic for most of the show. Despite the comedic beginnings this album had some radio-friendly music on it namely "Kiss Me On The Bus". The album also had their first real anthem on it with "Bastards of Young" and these are the two songs they ended up playing on NBC's "Saturday Night Live". Harry Dean Stanton was the host that night and the station had rolled out the red carpet for them. This was their big break to national stardom and America would be introduced to this great rock and roll band. But as they ended up sabotaging for reasons unknown. Comedian Tom Arnold relates a story where Bob Stinson crapped in an ice bucket and sent it down in the elevator to greet the visitors in the lobby of 30 Rock.

Hot Metro Finds Detroit Chicago Los Angeles | The Replacements | Bob Stinson | Tommy Stinson| Color Me Impressed Replacements Documentary| Minneapolis Rock Band| Paul Westerberg The Replacements |Chris Mars The Replacements

NBC had also sent box lunches to the crew and the band. Each box had sandwiches and fruit which the band smeared onto the walls. The bananas were ground into the carpeting and they trashed the Green Room. The Replacements were far from done. Sometime after soundcheck, they piled into a limo and hit Manhattan. They emptied out the limo bar and in Bob Stinson's own words "We went to town". It is unclear how long they were out but when they came back they were really too drunk to play. They looked awful and Paul looked like he just fell out of bed. He got so lost in the moment he actually said fuck on live national television and it was heard by millions of people. NBC staff flipped out and banned the group from ever having anything to do with them again. The Replacements were banned from 30 Rock for life. There are only a few other performers who have achieved this including Frank Zappa and Sinead O Conner.

The stories and quotes from the people who knew them really do say it all. Singer and guitarist David Bielananko, Marah "When I heard that music I thought they had a gift that they weren't supposed to have

and that's a really cool thing to have in the art world". The Replacements had a name and their fame grew in the entertainment world. When asked "Do you want to be the Beatles of Comedy?" Kids in the Hall cast member Kevin McDonald replied "No we would rather be the Replacements of comedy". Even though they were growing in stature they were not really a household word. At least not yet anyway. When asked about who the Replacements were rocker Jon Bon Jovi reportedly said "If they're so big how come I never heard of them".

The film clocks in almost two hours and you can find this right now on Amazon Prime. You can watch it for free, or rent it as well as
get the DVD.


** THE NIGHT THE REPLACEMENTS PISSED OFF TOM PETTY IN NASHVILLE >>>>

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