Replacements "Can't Hardly Wait" question

Ok, maybe I am just clueless...but what is this song about? Is it about coming home after a long tour? I know they play it at the end of the movie of the same name (the one with J.L. Hewitt), which would lead you to think it's about finally getting together with a girl...which the film was basically about...but I don't think the lyrics really spell that out...any help???

Thanks!

 

I love the lyric "Jesus rides beside me/He never buys any smokes".

 

Agreed - that's one of my favorite lines of all-time.

 

Besides notice given by critics and serious music fans, it is criminal how the genius of Paul Westerburg has been ignored by the general music buying public.

I know some fans prefer Let It Be, but I feel Pleased To Meet Me is one of the greatest albums of all time. It is the one album by the Replacements that should be in every music lovers collection.

 

I prefer the "Tim" version released on WB's "All For Nothing/Nothing For All" two disc anthology. Different set of lyrics.

 

from "Pleased To Meet Me"

I'll write you a letter tomorrow
Tonight I can't hold a pen
Someone's got a stamp that I can borrow
I promise not to blow the address again

Lights that flash in the evening,
Through a crack in the drapes

Jesus rides beside me
He never buys any smokes
Hurry up, hurry up, ain't you had enough of this stuff
Ashtray floors, dirty clothes, and filthy jokes

See you're high and lonesome
Try and try and try

Lights that flash in the evening,
Through a hole in the drapes
I'll be home when I'm sleeping
I can't hardly wait

I can't wait, hardly wait.

from All For Nothing (sorry, could only find the omitted lyrics)
I'll be there in an hour
Take least a week to get there on foot.

.... watertower
Climb to the top
Scream all alone if I could

I'll be sad in heaven
You won't visit me there

...

I'll be there in an hour
If there's a hole in the gate

Climb to the top of this crummy watertower
Screaming -- I can't hardly wait

 

In an interview in Goldmine magazine years ago, Peter Jesperson (the band's ex-manager) said that the original lyrics of the song were "tied to a specific subject in the group’s life," which he does not elaborate on further. The original lyrics talk about climbing to the top of a water tower, and some people speculate it was about suicide or a metaphor for drugs... I dunno.

Presumably the lyrics were altered to make them more general and vague. There are four versions of the song... two from the Alex Chilton-produced sessions of January 1985 (only available on bootleg), the version from the Tim sessions which appears on the "All for Nothing" compilation, and the altered-lyric version on "Pleased to Meet Me."

 

How do the Alex Chilton-produced versions compare to the two officially available versions?

 

One of the Chilton-produced versions is quite similar to the later Tim outtake version on "All for Nothing". Same tempo, same lyrics. The other version (known as the "airshaft" version because it supposedly was recorded in a ventilation shaft at Twintone) features just Westerberg on acoustic guitar and Chris Mars on a snare drum, with a slowed-down tempo and lots of echo. It's different, but overall the song works best as a plugged-in uptempo piece.