The Replacements - Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? - The Best of the Replacements
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Artist: The ReplacementsEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-06-13
Music Label: Rhino / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Takin A Ride
- Shiftless When Idle
- Kids Don't Follow
- Color Me Impressed
- Within Your Reach
- I Will Dare
- Answering Machine
- Unsatisfied
- Here Comes A Regular
- Kiss Me On The Bus
- Bastards Of Young
- Left Of The Dial
- Alex Chilton
- Skyway
- Can't Hardly Wait
- Achin' To Be
- I'll Be You
- Merry Go Round
- Message To The Boys (New Recording)
- Pool & Dive (New Recording)
Music reviews of Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? - The Best of the Replacements
Music Review: Decent starting point, but missing too many key Twin-Tone tracks to be the last word on 'Mats comps
Rating: 3 Stars
The first question any record geek worth his collection of rare, OOP picture sleeve singles asks about another compilation -- particularly one of a former indie cult band gone major -- is "who's it for, anyway?" Fans, who have all the original LP's, EP's and 7"'s? Or newbies, who must be tired of all the old guys telling them how great the 'Mats were "back in the day"? Since Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? (hereafter DYKWITIW?) contains no B-sides or other rarities -- beyond the two "new" 'Mats tracks, the engaging-but-slight "Message to the Boys" and "Pool and Dive" -- it's fair to assume this comp is for the kids.
As a Warner Music imprint, Rhino may not have wanted to weight this latest collection too heavily in favor of the Twin-Tone material. (Sire/Reprise's 1997 compilation All For Nothing/Nothing For All included no Twin-Tone tracks at all, and so provided a grievously incomplete summary of the band's work. On the other hand, the second disc, containing B-sides and other rarities, was worth the cost of the whole thing.) So the final score: eight (8) from the Twin-Tone years; ten (10) from the Sire/Reprise albums; two (2) new 'Mats tracks. As someone who got his introduction to the band in 1984 with Let It Be (and then promptly bought the first three Twin-Tone records -- Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash; Stink EP; and Hootenanny), I'll always be partial to the TT releases.
At 65 minutes, DYKWITIW? is a little light on the 1980-84 records: Rhino could have included "Johnny's Gonna Die" from Sorry Ma, and both "Androgynous" and "Sixteen Blue" from Let It Be. If the idea is to let younger fans know why the Replacements were one of the great indie/alternative bands of the '80's, it would have made sense to cull all the best tracks from the albums that made their reputation before they made the jump to Sire/Reprise. And while Paul Westerberg's songwriting was always the weapon that set the band apart from the other entrants in the "hard, fast, loud" competition, it might have been nice -- if only to show the extent to which Westerberg and Co. were indebted to 1970's AM and FM radio for their sound -- to incorporate the band's approach to covers. (Notable contenders: Kiss's "Black Diamond," T.Rex's "20th Century Boy," and the Grass Roots's "Temptation Eyes," the latter of which is available on several "unauthorized" releases.) But obviously, a single-disc collection couldn't accommodate every aspect of the band's work.
So maybe the Replacements, even with a relatively manageable recorded output, are just too big to be summarized in a single compact disc. A better solution, although more expensive for all involved, would be a double-disc collection, with the best of the Twin-Tone years (including rarities like "If Only You Were Lonely," "Nowhere Is My Home," and the early version of "Can't Hardly Wait") on the first disc, and the Sire/Reprise material on the second (make sure to save space for their cover of the Only Ones's "Another Girl, Another Planet").
Overall, DYKWITIW? gets 3 1/2 stars. It's a reasonable, if not terribly generous, collection of the Replacements' best tracks, and provides a decent introduction to a band whose reputation has taken an unfortunate nosedive in the last decade or so (probably due to all the mediocre Paul Westerberg solo albums, but that's another rant for another review). If you're a 40-something for whom the 'Mats were an important part of your college and post-college years, and you want to do that precocious teen or college-age kid a favor, get him a copy of Let It Be, followed by Sorry Ma and Tim.
Description of Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? - The Best of the Replacements
The ragged and glorious alt-rock of The Replacements made them one of the greatest and most iconic American bands of the 1980s, and inspired countless groups to come. Fronted by lead singer, pianist/guitarist, and principal songwriter Paul Westerberg, these heroes of post-punk/pre-grunge rock 'n' roll fused garage band greatness with powerful pop beauty. Fueled by both thrashing energy and a lyrical and emotive sonic flow, The Replacements' kamikaze live shows and richly textured albums made them music legends.Chronicling The Replacements' gloriously tempestuous decade on a single disc ostensibly seems akin to reading Cliff's Notes for the New Testament: No sooner do you grow fond of the protagonist than they've nailed him up. And if that comparison sounds a tad sacrilegious, perhaps you underestimate the Mats' hallowed place in modern rock history--and the hearts of their ardent fans. Yet somehow even this condensed format focuses the songs of Paul Westerberg and playing of bandmates Bob and Tommy Stinson and drummer Chris Mars into a dramatic arc that can't be denied. The initial tracks of this 20-track collection display a band joyously besotted by nascent punk thrash, yet one not so different from the scores of similar bands tearing up local clubs in the '80s.
But by the time of Hootenanny's "Color Me Impressed" and "Within Your Reach," something magical was clearly happening within Westerberg's songwriting and the band at large, even if it was largely inspired by terminal boredom, perpetual discontent, no small amount of alcohol--and an indifference to success that was one of their greatest charms. Within two years they'd produce one of the decade's--and perhaps rock history's--most compelling albums with Let It Be and the indie movement's first grassroots anthem in "Unsatisfied." They followed it up with Tim, a collection where Westerberg seemed able to conjure similar generational marching orders ("Here Comes a Regular," "Bastards of Young," "Left of the Dial") with preternatural ease; enraptured rock critics probably thought harder about his music than he ever did. Though highlighted by such gems as "Alex Chilton," "Skyway" and such pop-smart swan songs as "I'll Be You" and "Merry Go Round," the Mats' third act dissolved into the expected, if equally star-crossed solo career for Westerberg and the tragic death of Bob Stinson, events which can't help but cast a melancholy shadow over the unexpectedly gritty new old stock recordings "Message to the Boys" and "Pool & Dive." --Jerry McCulley
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