24 Comments
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A Day For Clouds's avatar

Wonderful writing about a nearly perfect record side. Thanks to all who participated in this!!

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

Thanks! All 11 writers knocked it outta the park. "Nearly perfect..." is doing a lot of heavy lifting here... 🤘🤣

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A Day For Clouds's avatar

I've probably listened to Tim side B more than any other single side of a record. But the Let it Bleed version is superior in every way, imo....hence the "nearly".....also, I'm a bit pedantic 😁

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

Fair enough!

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E. Maksu's avatar

Thanks for this. I was in my second year of med school when Tim was released. Read a review in Creem and bought it. First time I ever heard the Replacements. I knew right away they were something special. Helped me get through that year. Thanks.

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

Thanks for stopping by. Seems like that's a common story for certain kinds of '80s music lovers. I'm guessing a lot of other Mats fans here can relate.

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Tim M.'s avatar

Love it; listening again to my mix with Tim, Pleased to Meet Me, and surrounding outtakes/outcasts. A few small thoughts from these: Westerberg’s short essay on the Faces in their Five Guys Walk into a Bar box set helped cement my love of that band. And I’d quibble that Skyway is his greatest ballad. Last, I fell for the new mixes.

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

Thanks! Interesting thoughts all around. I'm deep enough into Mats fandom that I don't think I've ever considered "Regular" and "Skyway" in the same thought. They feel like different kinds of songs to me somehow, while obviously both being ballads.

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Tim M.'s avatar

I don’t think I’d put them together, either, but I’d never considered the question before. :) I agree with you, and it connects well with your thoughts on their preternatural ability to play with genres. Skyway is like Chris Bell teleported from Memphis to a Minneapolis winter.

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

Beautifully put!

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Chris Bro's avatar

I need to find that essay. Thank you

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Chris Bro's avatar

Found it! Holy balls that was brilliant. On so many levels.

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

Share the link to spread the joy?

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A Day For Clouds's avatar

Hot damn!

Thank you for sharing that.

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A Day For Clouds's avatar

I cannot get over this:

"Try as I might to have made the 'Mats in their image, we were just too damn angry. Faces-that's my band. They had fun. Humor. Stewart bellows in velvet. Jones pounds and thumps. Wood explodes almost in time. Lane grins then confesses, plays low. McLagan boogies, tinkles, and drinks. One of a kind they were. They make The Beatles sound like The Fleetwoods."

Mercy, that's great writing.

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

“Jones pounds and thumps.”

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Chris Bro's avatar

Thank you for inviting me! Loved side a and the others on side b. What a brilliant band. What a brilliant album. Happy Friday and here’s to a brilliant weekend

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

Stoked you could join the (swingin) party! Great write up about a legendary track.

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Chris Bro's avatar

Too kind. Thank you again.

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Justin Steiner's avatar

Another great collection of writing. The 3-song run to close the album is my favorite 3-song stretch of their career.

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

It's a tremendous 3-song run at the tail end of an extraordinary 11-song run.

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David Allen Jones's avatar

"Clown" always sounded more like Aerosmith to me than the Faces.

Hard to edge out "Bastards" and "Left of the Dial" but I gotta go with "Here Comes A Regular". That's a once-in-a-lifetime song right there.

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S.W. Lauden's avatar

“Regular” is one that’s often imitated, but never replicated.

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