It's A Hootenanny

There is a certain attraction......beer stained leather jackets salvaged from the trash,the piercing blue eyes of a rampant hopeless romantic seen through unkempt hair,as the rarely sober gutiarist waddles around in an ill fitting dress,something that looks like as if it was a standard ripped straight from the page of housewive's choice,something completely unexpected of a chronic drinker of his stature.One ponders this as he pulls ridiculous macho rock moves with the singer,the drummer and bassist who looks like as if he could be twelve (and he was) look dissaprovingly on.There is a certain essence to The Replacements,who have had me hooked by many a ditty of theirs.The first time i had read Michael Azerrad's chronicle of the american indie underground, Our Band Could Be Your Life(Read it,eat it,sleep it,live it,be it.....Devour it,it's amazing) i had been fascinated by The Replacement's story,but had been left fairly underwhelmed by their music.It lacked the bite of the bands i liked at the time (Swans,Big Black,DNA,Masonna), but it was only a matter of time before i realised what a fool i was.Big anthemic choruses chocked full of hotshot musicianship,Paul Westerberg's used and abused holler being the icing on the cake.This formula only really appears on thier later albums,Sorry Ma,Forgot To Take Out The Trash and Hootenanny being the formative primordial soup out of which Let It Be,Tim and Pleased To Meet Me crawled out.Trust me,these albums(Let It Be being your best bet) are worth forking out for.If not,at least read thier story-from being discovered by manager Peter Jeperson,who makes sure that they try to rocket to stardom,no matter what,and Westerberg being mentored by the recently deaceased Alex Chilton,to gutiarist Bob Stinson and drummer Chris Mars's odd concert dressing up antics,to teenage bassist's Tommy's running away tantrums.It's got love,despair,action and loss,but in the end,The Replacements win thier own personal battle against the mainstream...by making legendary albums that will ring out thier notes in my ears forever.To half-quote The Standells,Good Guys Don't Always Wear White.....sometimes they come in beer-soaked thrift store plaid.