Saint Paul

The cult of Westerberg

by Matt Ashare

I think it was 1990. I know it was the last time I saw the Replacements live. And it was definitely the Orpheum in Boston. And, well, it was disappointing. At the time I shrugged off my relative lack of enthusiasm as the inevitable result of having to sit and watch from a hundred rows back a band I'd seen up close and personal in smaller clubs like the old Living Room in Providence and the Channel in Boston. After all, it was still the Replacements, the greatest American rock-and-roll band fronted by the best American songwriter of the post-punk generation. And, if I'm remembering correctly, they played a great version of "Answering Machine."

More than any other band of their era, the Replacements came to inspire a kind of blind devotion that's hard to quantify, with unkempt singer Paul Westerberg serving as the focal point for a cult of anti-personality. Four clowns on a hopeless mission to change the world. That's how I once described the band to a friend who had no idea what I was talking about. And in retrospect, the Replacements' failure to capitalize on their infamy was a foregone conclusion. Their doomed existence embodied the inevitable failure of all things of quality in Reagan/Bush America. They were a lost cause. And the lost ones really are the best ones. Futility, as Cervantes once pointed out and van Gogh once demonstrated, breeds an irresistible kind of brilliance or, I guess, nothing at all. And, as I now think back on that Orpheum show, eventually that brilliance is apt to fade into something more mundane.

"I was the best thing that never happened," sings the aging Westerberg on one of the catchier tracks that grace his new solo CD, Suicane Gratifaction (Capitol). It's the sort of proudly self depreciating line that's always been a Westerberg specialty. And at first it seems to hit its mark -- you can almost hear a collective murmur of agreement from the dozens of old Replacements fans scattered about the world welling up in its wake. The line brings to mind the snapshot of a young drunk band stumbling on the ladder of success in the 1985 Replacements anti-anthem "Bastards of Young," only now the singer's looking back on that farce as a secret triumph. Except, "Best Thing that Never Happened" isn't really about the Replacements at all. It's a love song of the unrequited variety -- "I was the last thing that you ever wanted/Still the best thing you never had," goes the bridge -- and in its own modestly produced, hummably familiar, pleasantly clever way, it's solid songwriting.

Still, its hard to resist the urge to search for scrapbook memories of the Replacements -- a stray lyric, chord, melody, or vocal inflection to connect with the past -- in a Westerberg solo album. Not counting 1990s' All Shook Down -- a Replacements album in name only -- Suicane Gratifaction is Westerberg's third, but he's still teasing himself and fans of his old band. The hook of "Best Thing" is baited with bittersweet hints at his musical past, and the opening track, the strum & sung "It's a Wonderful Lie," finds the singer wondering, "What am I doing I ain't in my youth?/I'm past my prime or was that just a pose?" But growing up has turned out to be less of a problem for Westerberg than outgrowing the shadows cast by past accomplishments.

The quality debate over Westerberg's solo career continues among the Replacement faithful. Some old fans aren't happy with the number of "mellower" tunes on his solo albums, and they probably won't be pleased by the tinkling piano notes and melancholy cello embellishments that accompany his weathered voice on the new album. Others aren't happy with the people who aren't happy with the number of mellower tunes on his solo albums. Both sides seem to have forgotten that some of Westerberg's greatest Replacements tunes were slow, moody, reflective tracks like "Sixteen Blue," "Unsatisfied," and "Here Come's a Regular." What's changed in his songs isn't the tempo or even the instrumentation so much as the tone. He's grown a little colder, more withdrawn, and seemingly more dispassionate with each new album. It's not a hopeful sign that Suicane Gratifaction ends with two almost impenetrably joyless tunes -- "Actor in the Street" and "Bookmark." But then, being a real Replacements fan has always been about learning to live with little disappointments.