It’s Paul Westerberg’s birthday today.
My brother Brendan is the Westerberg Fan, and I will always associate The Replacements with my brother, whose fandom began in high school and continued unabated until this day. I posted all of my brothers’ music essays here on my site – because they were consigned to oblivion on his old blog, and I thought they were all just too good to lie there hidden. Many of the pieces have to do with the Replacements and/or Paul Westerberg in his solo career. Brendan wrote about albums and he wrote about seeing The Replacements and/or Paul Westerberg solo in concert. Being a Replacements fan is a certain kind of fandom. It’s its own thing. This is so much the case that an entire documentary was created about being a Replacements fan, and Brendan was interviewed for it (the director tripped over one of Brendan’s pieces and reached out!) Heres the trailer for Color Me Obsessed:
Brendan describes his fandom – and why he is such a fan – so beautifully and his enthusiasm is catching. So here are the pieces he wrote. Enjoy!
50 Best Albums, #38. The Replacements, Let It Be
50 Best Albums, #31. Paul Westerberg, Suicaine Gratifaction
Warsaw, Pt. 2: How He Became Paul
The Legendary Boy In The Rafters
Time Operator/Answering Machine: Westerberg and Walker
“It’s fun, but the fun is where it always was. I mean, it’s still fun to strap on my Les Paul in the basement and turn up the Marshall amp. I’m still 15. I still enjoy that as much as I ever did.” — Paul Westerberg
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Without a doubt, my favorite songwriter and performer.
I keep hoping he’ll pop up out of his rabbit hole and put out some new material. Bob Mehr, on his book tour for ‘Trouble Boys’ (have you read it? It’s fantastic), said he suspected we’d see a lot more of Paul soon, as he’d been a stay at home dad for years, and his son had reached college age. Everything I’ve read about him, though, suggests he has little self-motivation, needs someone to give a little push (from Peter Jesperson in the Mats days to Juliana Hatfield with The I Don’t Cares album) to get him out there. On top of that, his bad back makes touring a challenge.
Part of me hopes he knows how much he means to people, but with what I know of his mental health struggles, I imagine the thought of it is difficult for him to process.
I came to his work too late to see him live solo. He was supposed to play Nashville once in the early to mid-aughts, but the tour was cut short after he jammed his hand with a screwdriver trying to clean some wax out of a candle.
I did get to see one of The Replacements reunion shows, one of the best concert experiences of my life. My fandom is so huge, I have no idea how objective my feelings about it were, but he did seem to be in good spirts that day.
I saw The Replacements at the 9:30 Club in DC sometime in the mid 80s. They were drunk as skunks and not interested in playing a typical set. They switched instruments with each other and played mostly covers. Highlights included Vanity Fare’s “Hitchin’ a Ride” and Golden Earrings’ ‘Radar Love”. Shambolic, but memorable.
Happy New Year, Sheila. LOVE Paul Westerberg.
Sharing a video that I shot when The Replacements performed in LA back in 2015. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZVLIFgaGSQ&t=38s
Jimmy!! That clip! God, you could feel the excitement – the buildup!! thank you so much for sharing.
Happy New Year to you and yours!
After I commented on your Bluesky post this morning, I left a similar comment in another thread, and somebody replied that a friend of theirs recently spotted him in a suburban Minneapolis Old Navy. Maybe it’s silly of me to read anything into that, but I’m choosing to take it as a sign that he’s doing well.
Jim – hi! I know my brother shares what you call your protective feeling over Westerberg, and a general hope that he is doing well.
Reading the tea leaves, I think Westerberg in an Old Navy sounds good!