Westerberg, in particular, seemed temperamentally unable to stomach coexistence when he felt there was even a tinge of inauthenticity. The path of destruction the band left in their wake included friends, business partners, girlfriends, wives and eventually one another. He put out their first records, turned them onto obscure music, became their manager, protector and apologist, and was eventually fired for his trouble. Pete Jesperson, co-founder of Twin/Tone Records, was their first and biggest fan. Still, for all their orneriness, the band always had its champions and protectors. It is even more of an achievement, since their entire reputation was built on defiance and lack of interest in cooperating with anyone. The book makes clear that vacillating unpredictably between chaos and order was their modus operandi.īy talking to almost everyone ever involved with The Replacements, Mehr makes as nearly complete a picture of their formation and eventual disintegration as is possible. How can a barely competent guitarist have a direct line to the gods with every strum, while a diligent and talented student of the instrument's every elaborate effort sound tired and stillborn? The tension between skill and feeling is at the root of understanding the music of this band. The alchemy required to make art rather than craft is a difficult thing to articulate, especially about music.
When these damaged kids come together, the results are a beautiful and unique sort of disaster. Westerberg is similarly obsessed with music from an early age and sees it as his salvation. He forces an 11-year-old Tommy to learn to play bass because he needs him for his band, thus robbing the younger boy of any chance for a normal adolescence. Playing the guitar is his one link to sanity and self-worth. Their mother, Anita, goes through a series of broken, violent men who each scar Bob, in particular, for his entire life. The Stinsons' chaotic, vagabond early years are particularly disturbing. Alcoholism, mental illness and child abuse abounds. Mehr begins by tracing the childhoods of Bob and Tommy Stinson, Paul Westerberg and Chris Mars.
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