Wednesday, May 31, 2006
i was thinking about not writing on here this summer and just posting videos with a little clarifying text to go along with it.
an extended caption of sorts.
but i dont think you people would let me get away with that.
in 1986 the replacements were in a difficult situation.
they had just signed with Sire Records, a division of Warner Bros who had seen great success with acts like madonna, talking heads, and depeche mode. unfortunately on Let It Be, their last record at the independent minnesotan lable Twin/Tone, the Mats had recorded a beautiful mostly-instrumental track called "Seen Your Video" which ends "seen your video/it's phony rock n roll/we dont wanna know/we dont wanna know"...
the final lyrics, it is assumed come at the end of the tune when MTV would show the band's name and album title, etc.
the replacements had never released a video for any of thier singles, up until that point, complaining among other concerns - idealistic and otherwise - that they were too ugly to be in a video.
but most of the time they simply said that videos were lame and took away from the personal and unique experience that each person has with music.
1986 found the Replacements on basically a major label and homie didnt play that no-video hippie bullshit. but the replacements were these quasi punk quasi godfathers and forefathers of grunge. they couldnt just release a video as soon as signing to sire.
and yet they had to. the label had signed them in order to sell records and in the 80s everyone had a video in hopes of it getting on mtv.
so the replacements gave in and in doing so made the greatest video of all time.
a still camera, a throbbing speaker, an unidentified hand and cigarette, and in the end, violence. as a record spins.
in black n white.
far too good for mtv who raved about it on 120 minutes and even on the headbanger's ball, but sometimes its just too bad if youre too good and Tim never took off despite being one of the greatest records of the 80s, and what some consider the Replacements' best ever. like me.
yesterday a topless college girl in washington performed a very nice reworking of the classic on whats gotta be near its 20-year anniversary.
"bastards of young" (westerberg)
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
And Pete's pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons...
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, there'll ain't no beer tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
And Pete's pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons...
Willingness to claim us,
ya got no word to name us
The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons
Young...
take a shower take a shower take a shower i believe the young lady was almost one years old when the LP was released.
larger version of the pants video + westerberg, skyway acoustic + replacements live 1981 customer
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