If you enjoy the Replacements when they shamble through drunken classic rock covers, then you'll enjoy this show from 1984 which has been around as, "Live & Drunk". This was from a period that yielded many interesting shows that allowed the band to exhibit their inner (and outer) "I don't a shit" attitude. This was also a period when the band was attracting label interest and media attention (including a feature article in the Village Voice in early December) and judging from their frequent appearances in NYC (this was their 4th time they played CBGB's in 1984) they were being showcased in front of prominent people in the "music biz". Some nights it was if they tried their hardest to screw things up with their "circus/spectacle thing", as Chris Mars calls it or maybe they were scared of success and wanted to show they would do things on their terms. No matter the reason, they band signed a major label deal with Sire before they left New York in December 1984.
I know a lot of music purists wouldn't agree, but I never get tired of listening to this CBGB's show for many reasons. The songs almost seamlessly flow from cover to cover, clearly having fun attempting songs they have covered other times during this tour and songs I've never heard them cover before. Many of these songs are familiar from the Shit Hits The Fans tape that was recorded a month previous, but here they actually complete a majority of the songs. Their guitars are out of tune, bum notes are played and words are improvised, but the spirit of what rock is all about; entertaining, playing for the moment and having a good time is all evident. It is impressive they can play this efficiently considering, but their talent still shines through in kind of a weird way. Paul will attempt any song, Bob can solo to anything, Tommy was probably grinning throughout the whole show and Chris does an unbelievable job keeping the beat and he drives the songs forward as if he's reading Paul's mind. The best sequence of songs is from the cover versions of, I Will Follow to September Gurls (tracks 20-25) where they play the music of covers with the lyrics of another song (the songs titles in the brackets). Not only is this brilliant, but the songs actually flow together quite nicely. I think I've only heard one other time they've done that to a song, but this sequence is one of best I've ever heard, from any band. Throughout the set the fans are screaming "play the Replacements" and "no more pussy set", they are clearly not impressed with the all fucking around and at one point Paul says, "It's too late, it's like throwing a line to a drowning man that can't grab on"...nuff said!
I received this tape in a trade back in the early 90's from a guy in Minneapolis who had a good collection of Mats shows. I built much of my early Mats collection from him and I thank him profusely for aiding my Replacements addiction. I was originally turned on to collecting the Replacements from reading an article in a magazine I subscribed to around this time called Tapers Quarterly. There was a three part series on collecting the Replacements, the first part was about live concert recordings (very inspiring!), the second about live video and the third about Outtakes and Rarities. You can read parts II and III at the Skyway site. I'll check through my issues for the first part of the series and forward some of that info later.
What you're hearing is from my 20 year cassette that I transferred to CD maybe 10 years ago. I recently ripped the songs and split the tracks to post here. This is not sourced from the vinyl boot, "Live & Drunk" (picture above) and if you have a (much) better sounding version, please let me know.
Enjoy!!
The Replacements
CBGB's
New York City, NY
December 9, 1984
aka "Live & Drunk"
cassette (from trade)> stand alone CD recorder> audio CD> FreeRip>
WAV> Direct WAV splitter> convert FLAC> rar file
01. Lovelines?
02. Hear You Been To College
03. Easier Said Than Done
04. Color Me Impressed
05. Music Is My Life
06. Jolene
07. Rock, Rock?
08. Walk On The Wild Side
09. Hippy Hippy Shake
10. Can't Get Enough
11. My Generation/Substitute
12. Take Me Down To The Hospital
13. Do It For Money?
14. Iron Man
15. Little GTO
16. The New World
17. Radio Free Europe
18. It's Alright
19. I Got You Babe (cuts)
20. I Will Follow (Kids Don't Follow)
21. Let It Be (Fuck School)
22. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
23. Temptation Eyes (Hey Good Lookin')
24. Last Train To Clarksville(Trouble)
25. September Gurls (Customer)
26. Best Friend's Girl
27. Layla
28. One Of The Boys
29. Take A Letter, Maria
30. Slip Away
31. Green Acres
32. If I Only Had A Brain
33. Gilligan's Island
34. Be My Lover
35. Start Me Up
36. I'll Be There
37. Black Diamond (fades out)
THE REPLACEMENTS- 1984-12-09 CBGB's, NYC, FLAC. rar
wow, i have a lot of replacement shows ( and recorded a couple on cassette) but never saw this one, and the setlist looks absolutely amazing. i must finally give into getting some kind of program to play flac files. can you please recommend a program to play flac?
ReplyDeleteand my token replacements story: the first time i saw them was in dc in 1984, prob the same tour as this one. there were like 25 people in the club. bob stinson was at the bar. i went over and started gushing about how much i loved his band. he didnt say a word, and when i was done there was a pause of about what seemed a minute, and he said "got any coke?"
they opened with alice coopers "billion dollar babies," and played to song in its entirety. it was amazingly powerful. still sends chills down my spine. unfortunately i did not tape that show. have you heard it played on any of your many shows?
According to the (known) Replacements setlists, the show you must have been at where they played Billion Dollar Babies was at Friendship Station in Washington, DC.(1984-09-23) I don't think I have any shows with that song, but I'll check.
ReplyDeleteI play FLAC files through Winamp and if you need to convert the FLAC files to wav, there are free downloads here: http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html
thanks for the story!
Nice! I don't have this show (do now). Can't wait to hear it. Thanks for the post and the background story.
ReplyDeleteWow! I'm lovin' the Replacements shows. I once had this set on vinyl; haven't heard it in years. Thanks for the share! I have seen reference to a soundboard-quality Sept. 1984 show from Ann Arbor. Do you have this or know anything about it? To hear it would make my year.
ReplyDeleteChoice cuts here. The deeper we go into the 21st Century, the more affecting the pure Jungian blast of the Mats becomes.
ReplyDeleteThanx for the post!
Hey Key West, I noticed this guy- http://www.cros.net/chazz/rare/TheReplacements.htm
ReplyDeletehas the master of the Ann Arbor show from 1984. I'm sure if you email and ask nicely he might help you out...
i was at this show. they played under the name gary and the boners, as they were to have their big nyc showcase at irving plaza a few days later. a lot of industry types were there and a lot of the crowd were totally pissed. the mats refused to straighten up and for people geting their first dose they didn't get it. i've got a walkman tape of this somewhere. the next week at irving plaza, they came out and played about as tight as i've ever seen them, just a big roaring throwing down the gauntlet set,the complete opposite of a few days prior. from the ridiculously great to the sublimely great within a week.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Replacements at CBGBs in 1983, possibly in June. They were the last of four or five bands that night and went on around 3am. Hootenanny was still really new and I wasn't completely familiar with every song on it. I didn't recognize Willpower when they played it live - it was MUCH more powerful than on the LP. I would LOVE to get a recording of that set. I don't remember their playing many (or any) covers; I DO remember thinking it was one of the greatest performances I had seen to that point in my life.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for this. I think it's a suburb example of improvisation in rock music, and I love their humor and spirit. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThis recording was made on a cassette that I bought to CBs. I gave it to a staff sound guy that I knew because the board had a place to record the PA mix and I thought that, despite the small odds of it working out, it would be great to have it. He said that that the Replacements' sound guy seemingly ignored the cassette while it recorded the set, and then, when it was all over, he popped it out and dropped it into his shirt pocket. Great to finally have a copy after all! (That's me yelling out "Play your hit, play I Will Follow," the joke being that "I Will Dare" was their most well-known song at the time. It was so great when they actually played, or at least started, "I Will Follow.") It was definitely the Bob Stinson Replacements, despite the picture shown above.
ReplyDelete