Bastards of Young

The Replacements were a big part of my college years. I first heard their catalog of music after moving to Minneapolis in 1987. Granted, by that time they had released their final album with their original lineup and they were no longer playing local clubs. But their music was still revolutionary to me in the ways that Paul Westerberg's lyrics and Bob Stinson's guitar work made me think that music could still be great and fresh even without popular radio help.

This summer I spent a couple days reading Jim Walsh's "All Over But the Shouting" about the Replacements 1979-1992. The book consisted of interviews that were printed prior in various publications and interviews that Walsh did himself. It was a book that I've been meaning to read since it came out almost two years ago, but as they say 'The best laid plans...'. Anyway, I wanted to read it for quite a while.

Before I give my thumbs-up/down on it, I should admit I'm biased regarding the author. Walsh worked as the music editor at City Pages and the St. Paul Pioneer-Press (when I was there in 1996). He was also a musician of a minor note during the same period that the Replacements were playing local clubs. I never found Walsh's writing coherent or particularly insightful. His writing style comes across as the aborted love fetus of Lester Bangs and Virginia Woolf -- that is self-indulgent stream-of-consciousness B.S. I was less interested in knowing about Jim's personal mindset than I was in knowing what Wilco's set list was on their last show at First Avenue.

Walsh nearly sprains his shoulder patting himself on the back early in the book by placing himself as Westerberg's muse for the song "Unsatisfied". Several sentences later he writes that he didn't add that anecdote to make readers think he had any part in Westerberg's song, but you can't have it both ways my friend.

Walsh's book was without a narrative string. It merely consisted of one interview linked to another. Overall, the book disappointed me and I was left hoping that Walsh could have hit a homerun on this one -- even though I didn't expect it. His best work dealt with Bob Stinson's death (presumably due to a drug overdose) in Uptown. Walsh printed the eulogy that he wrote for Stinson's funeral and it was admittedly touching.

Despite the Replacements local ties, I never met or spoke to any of the band's members over a beer at a local tavern. Bob was the closest. I would see him occasionally at local establishments and his drug issues and mental instability were apparent. His mother still works at the Uptown Bar on Hennepin. I remember one time I was there having a beer with a friend and we were discussing famous rock-and-roll flameouts. I mentioned how Stinson's death seemed inevitable. I probably was talking too loud because a woman (I later found out was his mother) brought us our beers and said to us "Well, we did the best we could."