|
The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History
|
| List Price: | $21.95 |
| Price: | $14.93 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
47 new or used available from $6.50
Average customer review:
Product Description
At the dawn of "Morning in America"--a period that would nurse the rise of suit-and-tie culture--there emerged a national network of anti-corporate record shops, college radio stations, fanzines, nightclubs, and entrepreneurial record labels.
In the watershed year 1981, this "indie" scene fostered several seminal releases. Among recordings by bands such as Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Husker Du, The Minutemen, and R.E.M. was an album called "Sorry Ma . . . Forgot to Take Out the Trash", recorded by a scruffy, flannel-clad quartet from Minneapolis called The Replacements. Now, for the first time, all of the hearsay, half-truths, legends, and allegations associated with this maelstrom of a rock & roll band are unraveled in this oral history by longtime Twin Cities music journalist Jim Walsh.
Through interviews with family, friends, and fans; former manager Peter Jesperson; Twin/Tone record label cofounder Paul Stark; and musicians around the nation influenced by the band, Walsh lays bare with painful clarity a tale that unfolds like a tragic comedy in three perfect acts. Celebrated by national publications, "the Mats" often seemed more hell-bent on sabotaging their status as critical darlings than parlaying it. With their markedly apolitical stance amid their decidedly political peers, their uncool embrace of "classic rock" influences like KISS and The Faces, and their Dionysian appetites (and the resulting tendency to literally fall on their own faces), The Replacements lasted 12 years despite themselves.
From the bands founding to their rise through the local and national club circuits, their major label deal in 1985, and the slow and painful implosion that followed, The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting lays down the gripping oral history behind the little band that could--but didn't.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #182230 in Books
- Published on: 2007-11-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780760330623
- Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
- Notes:
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this loving, appropriately ramshackle tribute to one of the most beloved rock-and-roll bands of the 1980s, Walsh gives his subjects the oral history treatment, assembling a wide range of associates, friends and famous fans to put their memories on the record. The band's story is an archetype of the joys and pitfalls of underground success—a rabid and loyal local following leads to a major label contract that, with its attendant pressures and misunderstandings, brings about the band's slow dissolution and demise. The great moments in their history are all recounted here in warm detail: lead singer Paul Westerberg breaking copies of his new record Hootenany in the local record store; the drunk Oklahoma City show attended by 30 people that still led to a live album; the triumphant disaster of their first and only appearance on SNL. The self-destruction of Bob Stinson, the band's hilarious but alcoholic guitarist who died in 1995, is a fascinating and harrowing counterpoint throughout to the band's adventures. Walsh himself proves to be among the band's most eloquent and thorough defenders and explainers in his introductory essay and various excerpts from articles that appear throughout this consistently engaging and poignant work. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"'I recognized something of myself in him. This night, though, we may have never been more alike...' That's Jim Walsh on Paul Westerberg in the preface to his oral history of Minneapolis' most glorious drunk-rockers.
"Fast-forwarding to the present, he adds, `We're both healthy and f**ked up but plugging along, just like everyone who came up with the `Mats, I suppose...'
"The author's over-identification with one of rock's most famous anti-heroes is a troubling but understandable aspect of this otherwise right-on tale of life in the eye of the rock `n' roll s**t storm. Walsh was in a band of his own (REMs) during Minneapolis' illustrious early-80's heyday, which accounts for the close-but-no-cigar perspective. But it is his reporter's sense and up-close view that is essential to this story. He knows where the bodies are buried, and his interviews with the right scenesters make up the meat of his part memoir/part rock `n' roll testament to pre-`alternative' culture. The Replacements' tumult-fueled story emerges through the vivid recollections of fanzine writers, college radio DJs, record store employees, club bookers, partiers and musicians who transmit the undeniable important of Minneapolis in the `80s, along with the passion and sweetness of their youth.
"Though Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson declined to be interviewed and drummer Chris Mars only appears briefly, late guitarist Bob Stinson lives in these tales (and his replacements Slim Dunlap and Steve Foley add their own firsthand color). The band's carefully edited quotes underscore the idea that this story took place in a time when computers were for geeks and rock `n' roll was still do or die. The Replacements is a very necessary document of a time when you could still tell something about a person by their shoes--or by the ultimate test: whether or not they liked the Replacements." -- HARP Magazine
"In [The Replacements], Minnesota's bastard sons get the oral history treatment for a combination of myth building and myth busting. Author Jim Walsh is a longtime Replacements conspirator (his band, Laughing Stock played with them in their early `80s days and he delivered a eulogy at guitarist Bob Stinson's funeral in 1995), and he nakedly approaches his subjects with the thesis that they were the greatest band of their generation. Still, he makes no apologies for the often cruddy way they treated their fans, their friends, and each other. I came away from this book feeling the same way I came in: the Replacements definitely were a great band, but they sure seem like a bunch of d**ks." -- The FADER
Review
Publishers Weekly, Oct. 15, 2007
“In this loving, appropriately ramshackle tribute to one of the most beloved rock-and-roll bands of the 1980s, Walsh gives his subjects the oral history treatment, assembling a wide range of associates, friends and famous fans to put their memories on the record. The band’s story is an archetype of the joys and pitfalls of underground success – a rabid and loyal local following leads to a major label contract that, with its attendant pressures and misunderstandings, brings about the band’s slow dissolution and demise. The great moments in their history are all recounted here in warm detail: lead singer Paul Westerberg breaking copies of his new record Hootenanny in the local record store; the drunk Oklahoma City show attended by 30 people that still led to a live album; the triumphant disaster of their first and only appearance on SNL. The self-destruction of Bob Stinson, the band’s hilarious but alcoholic guitarist who died in 1995, is a fascinating and harrowing counterpoint throughout to the band’s adventures. Walsh himself proves to be among the band’s most eloquent and thorough defenders and explainers in his introductory essay and various excerpts from articles that appear throughout this consistently engaging and poignant work.”
Booklist
“The Replacements were a careening indie rock band of the 1980s that garnered more reputation than commercial success (of which they received hardly any). Somehow the scruffy Minneapolis foursome managed to last 12 riotous years. During that time, they staged some legendary “you had to be there” shows and were worshipped by fans with the fervor of the recently converted. What was it about these guys? Was it the goofy-looking guy in a dress, who played scorching lead guitar? Or the sensitive lead singer-songwriter, who shredded his vocal cords on cuts like “I Hate Music”? Walsh, pop-music columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, doesn’t try to answer such questions as much as capture the time and place of the happening that was the Replacements. His oral history recounts the differing reactions of musical contemporaries such as Bob Mould of Husker Du, rock critics such as Steve Albini, and members of the Replacements themselves. But the best remembrances come from ordinary fans, who saw in these awkward adolescents kicking at the status quo something that made them say, “Hey, that’s us.” Recommended, maybe must reading for fans of the Replacements and indie rock in general. Album art, candid photos, and early handbill posters complement the text.”
St. Paul Pioneer Press
“Jim Walsh expertly navigates the divide between the truth and otherwise in his new book, The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting. It's a compulsively readable, passionately compiled oral history of the infamous Minneapolis foursome who spent the '80s writing a new rock 'n' roll fairy tale while simultaneously ripping out its pages.”
Customer Reviews
Finally, a great book about my all-time favorite band
While I loved the chapter devoted to The Replacements in the terrific book, "Our Band Could Be Your Life", I always hoped someone would put together a more complete history of this incredible band, and Jim Walsh did a great job putting "All Over But the Shouting" together. I'd highly recommend the book to any fan of The Replacements, and to anyone curious about 80's underground music in general. Oh, and in response to the person who found all the names in the book confusing, there's a list in the back of the book that briefly explains who all those people are, or in some unfortunate cases, were.
Buy it now!
This is a fascinating documentation of one of the greatest, most unique bands that ever existed. The author was so much of a part of the band's history (he gave the eulogy at guitarist Bob Stinson's funeral!) that he wisely chooses to step back and let the participants tell their sides of the story, while filling in details when needed.
When you hear so many different viewpoints, you get a much more well-rounded feel for these characters who raucously carried the rock and roll torch through a generally bad decade of music.
This book is a must-read for anyone who loves The Replacements. It could be used as a textbook for any aspiring bands or musicians in the "school of rock".
A Long Overdue Pleasure
It is an absolute travesty that it has taken this long for a book on the 'Mats to find its way to print. Kudos to Jim Walsh and Voyageur Press (a Twin Cities publisher) for rescuing the die-hard, Mats-starved fans. While many oral histories can be tricky reads, Walsh made the absolute best decision when he chose this format for his book. Rather than hearing only one voice tell the story--as legitimate as Walsh's voice may be--he tells the story through the many voices of those who had consumed the band in all its tragic greatness over the years. After all, the Replacements were never a band to simply be heard...they had to be experienced. This book helps readers who may have never seen the band live do just that.
On another note, I would like to provide some clarification as to a previous 2-star review of the book. The reviewer lodged a complaint about the author not letting us know who each person is throughout the book. I won't address how we disagree on the value of this book, but I did want to let folks know about a very helpful list starting on page 269 entitled "The Players." Each person quoted in the book is listed, along with a brief description of who they are.
