The Shit Hits The Fans...The Replacements!

The origins of when I started my hobby of recording concerts can be dated back to a newsletter/magazine subscription that I received in the early 90's to a publication called Tapers Quarterly. I searched some boxes and piles of crap in my room to see if I could find an issue to photograph, but I can't find them, though I saw them a few years ago and I set them aside when we were cleaning our basement. Tapers Quarterly was a magazine that featured articles and discussion about concert taping and the the community of tape trading. Of particular interest was a three-part series that focused on collecting recordings by the Minneapolis band, the Replacements. The author Charles Ford discussed their live audio recordings, live video and rarities/outtakes and the uniqueness of a Replacements concert that I had only heard about. The Replacements were the ultimate live experience, especially in the early days, totally unpredictable, loose set lists, lots of covers and a drunken good time. Not every show was crazy, they could also play it straight and tight, but no two Replacement's shows were alike. I was fascinated and started to buy and trade tapes from tapers from across North America (before the Internet, there was good old fashioned snail mail), trying to collect as many Replacements shows as possible. I received a goldmine of shows from a guy in Minneapolis (thanks Dan!), that really soothed my craving and even today if I see I show i don't have, I gotta get it. This obsession with collecting the Replacements has branched off to other bands and I can't tell you how many tapes and CD's I have of concert recordings, but the Replacements have a special place in my collecting heart.

The legend of The Shit Hits The Fans recording can be read about here. Basically it was a tape that was "confiscated" from a fan's cassette recorder by the Replacements sound man at a show in Oklahoma city in 1984. It was a very limited cassette-only release (10,000?) by the Mats' label at the time, Twin Tone. The show is classic Mats where they attempt to play many covers (a few of their own songs as well) with not too much success, usually giving up after a verse or two. There are better sounding and more amusing bootlegs out there, but something about this recording really captures the fearless, "we don't give a crap" attitude that I love about the Replacements. The sound quality is decent, but this is one of those "love it or hate it" things where I would recommend this for (hard-core) fan's of the band. Newbies should start at their studio albums first, Let It Be and Tim and then have a listen to TSHTF. You'll be shaking your head wondering why they're butchering a bunch of crappy covers by Tom Petty, Bad Company and Led Zeppelin, when instead they could be playing their own amazing material.
Love it!

THE REPLACEMENTS
The Bowery
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
November 11, 1984
The Shit Hits The Fans (released 1985)

1. "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (LLoyd Price)
2. "Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus" (Robyn Hitchcock)
3. "Lovelines" (Westerberg/Stinson/Stinson/Mars)
4. "I'll Be There" (Berry Gordy, Jr./Bob West/Hal Davis/Willie Hutch)
5. "Sixteen Blue" (Westerberg)
6. "Can't Hardly Wait" (Westerberg)
7. "I Will Dare" (Westerberg)
8. "Hear You Been to College" (Westerberg/Stinson/Stinson/Mars)
9. "Saturday Night Special" (Ed King/Ronnie Van Zant)
10. "Iron Man" (Butler/Iommi/Osbourne/Ward)
11. "Misty Mountain Hop" (Page/Plant/Jones)
12. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant)
13. "Can't Get Enough" (Mick Ralphs)
14. "Jailbreak" (Phil Lynott)
15. "Breakdown" (Tom Petty)
16. "No More the Moon Shines on Lorena" (Alvin Pleasant Carter)
17. "Merry Go Round" (Nikki Sixx)
18. "Left in the Dark" (Ken Draznik)
19. "Takin' Care of Business" (Randy Bachman)
20. "I Will Follow" (Hewson/Evans/Clayton/Mullen)
21. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (Jagger/Richards)
22. "Radio Free Europe" (Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)
23. "The New World" (Cervenka/Nommensen Duchac)
24. "Let It Be" (Lennon/McCartney).

Download: REPLACEMENTS- Shit Hits The Fans. rar
the link should now be working again (Aug/11). I've reupped the file. Let me know if there are still problems.