The Replacements-Let It Be Song By Song Thread

The guitar confection he has worked out here is miles ahead of garage band tinkering. It's a rather advanced sound like one would come up with only with some extensive experience behind them. More experience than I would expect from an indie band on a virtually unknown label. He has what sounds to me - like he has listened to some of the right records, and the touring has not hurt his playing at all.

The first line:

"Look me in the eye
Then, tell me that I'm satisfied"

Tells you right there that he means it. There is a "weary, and beaten down" tone to his delivery that says to me that not only in this song he means it, but the entire album gains some credibility because of it.

It's not a mood and feeling he liked to go to every night on tour. I can understand that. When an audience member shouts it out as a request, Paul has several answers all ready. One of them is "then go somewhere else" and another I've heard is "I don't know.. I'm just so completely satisfied" (that's a funny one), or he might (but rarely lately) go right into it. Definitely a "key" track on the album.

 

The vocal when he sings "OoooOoooo, Black Diamond" in some of the lines has a sexual lusty sound to it. A raw horny teen lust is what I hear which is about right for a teenage rock-calling from the band that wrote it. And that soulfulness is what again makes it convincing to me, or believable. I don't hear distance so much.

It sounds to me like they pull this off with "band chemistry" which shines brighter than professionalism can, on material like this. Love it!

 

I hear you. A little bit goes a very long way!

 

Black Diamond is awesome. Didn't know it was a Kiss tune until years later.

Metal guy but I never listen to Kiss in that era. I got the Midnight Special DVDs years later and it has a great version of Black Diamond by Kiss. That's when i learned it was a cover song. Favorite song by Kiss is their cover of the Stones 200 Man trippily.

Unsatisfied is so cool. Just a great song. Firm in the rock tradition but their way. Love this song.

I love this album a lot because it is a band album. The playing is rockin and raggedy. Not overproduced. The solos are just unhinged. After this it was more polished in the studio. This is their peak as a band playing on record to me. Live they tore it up all the way through their time.

 

Part of what 'makes' "Unsatisfied" satisfying - sorry! - to me, is the creative and melodic acoustic intro and the song's array of guitars. The layering of sound with the electric and acoustic guitars and of course the sound of the bare emotion and raw nerved vocals. And that moving bridge.

I think fwiw the track does border on having a bit of a 'Heartland Rock' and '70's Classic Rock' vibe to it, and there seem brief moments where the track can ALMOST lose its way or veer into the clutches of a cliche or descend into only filling out the invites to the pity party but never sending them, BUT, beneath it all and straightforward and direct, to its credit, imo, the track is still clever and fresh enough, and 'true' and is more than passionate and earnest enough too, that it gets its message through honest and clear. I feel like the performance and song has especially something like an integrity about it, or authenticity, but for some reason, I feel like oddly perhaps, it's even more integrity, but both qualities, that are hard to deny and difficult to ignore.

 

I agree. The intro is fantastic. The chorus and verse uses sections of the intro. The intro is almost like an overture in some ways.

 

There's certainly variety here on this album. It's the "Sgt. Pepper" of punk rock. Just kidding.

 

Ha!

 

I don't think there was any intent at ironic distance or mockery in their performance. They chose the song because they liked it, and they were upfront about liking Kiss. I think part of the goal in covering this was to stand up to the punk orthodoxy about what is and isn't supposed to be cool. In one early Westerberg song (Get Lost) he sang "You say your favorite band is the Clash/That's fine... I like Kiss." It wasn't cool for punks to like Kiss so they went out of their way to emphasize that they did.

There were four songs in contention for the cover spot on Let it Be: Black Diamond, 20th Century Boy, Heartbeat is a Love Beat, and Temptation Eyes. They were all chosen because they were songs the band liked. Here's what Mehr quotes Jesperson as saying about their choice:
The ’Mats also cut some early ’70s covers: the Grass Roots’ “Temptation Eyes,” T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” the DeFranco Family’s “Heartbeat (It’s a Lovebeat),” and Kiss’s slow-burn rocker “Black Diamond.” “The hip song to put on the record would be T. Rex—the curveball would be Kiss,” said Jesperson. “We decided it was cooler to put on the ‘uncool’ song.”

 

Yea, there really is a lot of variety. I guess that is some of it's appeal to me. Until now i never realized it.

 

Interesting.
I will discuss the other covers and Perfectly Lethal at the end of the thread. I have to say that I would not have minded if Perfectly Lethal was included on the album.

 

RRB, per your post, those shimmering, chiming guitars, and the harmonic ambience that the use of the pedal steel creates, are ear-charmers!! The ghostly sounds of that pedal steel - it's haunting!

 

I dig the other cover songs. That i heard on the deluxe cd. But, Black Diamond is a great song. It's heavy but it has that cool slow intro. I just love the dynamic. The other songs are great but the dynamic of Black Diamond appeals to me. And the way they do it is just great. Totally serious and rockin'. Not satirical.

 

Great points. I am trying to think of other songs where Paul plays pedal steel. Too stewed to think of any at this point.....today is my birthday!

 

Fwiw I think part of its lyric makes for an effective transition into Unsatisfied...

 

It was a bit of both, I think. They definitely played up the "watch us play this unhip tune" live, more than once, when I saw them. I would think an older Westerberg might pull back on some of that stance a bit, if he had it to do over. To be sure, it was more of a "statement" of fashionable unfashion to include a cover of a Kiss song during that time period, than a T. Rex tune (a bit like The Minuteman and Van Halen).

 

Which intro is right out of "hard luck woman"

 

Have you heard the other outtakes (that didn't make it onto the reissue as bonus tracks): Street Girl and Who's Gonna Take Us Alive?

 

Unsatisfied – Paul says this is half baked and overrated. Most fans heartily disagree, including me. The acoustic build up is beautiful. The feeling behind Paul’s vocal is unmatched and I’m pretty sure that’s why most of us love this song. (Along with the relate-ability of the lyrics) Easily a top 10 Replacements song for me. Probably top 5 and in the discussion for my favorite.

 

This song spoke very strongly to me as a freshman in college in 1985. A masterpiece.

 

This song was my gateway drug that pulled me in to the Replacements.

 

I always thought both HLW and Unsatisfied used this song as a template for the intro.

 

Paul is a big Faces/Rod fan and in Trouble Boys it specifically mentions Never a Dull Moment being one of his early favorites.



edit: found it online.

---

He bought his first real records in 1972, picking up Seventh Sojourn by the Moody Blues, mostly to impress his sisters. He also got Never a Dull Moment, the fourth solo LP by Rod Stewart, the laddish, raspy-throated singer for the Faces. Paul would stare at the unusual album cover -- Stewart looking bored and deflated, sitting in an armchair—and wear the record out, absorbing its raw, beautiful folk songs and loose-limbed rock numbers. Later, for a couple of days before a session, Paul would shout at the top of his lungs to get Stewart’s huskiness into his voice

Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements

 

Seen Your Video (Westerberg)

I am pretty sure Paul (left channel) is tuned to open A. Bob standard tuning.

Opens with a Chris count off and hard descending line and then to a power chord fest in B Major. Bob plays a cool sounding descending line and Paul plays a funk tinged rhythm with the chords F#-B. At :20 a descending turnaround. Everyone plays tough sounding. Another drawn out turnaround at :50. Paul really gets funky at 1:05 and even does some chicken scratching at 1:16. Another turnaround follows and then at 1:33 the chorus enters and the key shifts. Bob plays the chorus melody with some octaves....a trademark of his. A turnaround at 2:03 and at 2:10 Paul tugs at the strings and lets them go in a cool chord. A weird bridge with piano that is dissonant and pierces the familiar power chord sound of B-E chords and is unsettling. Paul takes on the role of an MTV jock, a demonic laugh, and at 2:27 the chorus roars back with the refrain in a mocking tone. That Paul. Bob cranks out slashing octaves playing the chorus theme. The chorus repeats with Paul giving it to them. At 3:00 Chris ramps it down and a big B 7th chord hints at a return to the “verse” section but instead brings the song to a close.

A great put down song with awesome guitar work from Paul and Bob. The rhythm section keeps it steady and does not overplay. Another winner from the album. A testament to how Paul can use passing chords brilliantly to provide movement in what would normally sound static and boring. Great mixing up of turnarounds as well. Chris plays great and really carries the song knowing just when to add tension and release.

 

Is that Paul doing the VJ voice? I always thought it sounded like Alan Hunter. Like maybe they recorded it right from the TV. It's funny how the MTV stuff doesn't come in until the song is almost over. Makes it seem kind of tacked on. Anyway, Seen Your Video is a great surf rocker. Kind of a companion song to Buck Hill.