Artist:The Replacements
Song:I'll Be You
Album:Don't You Know Who You Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements
The Replacements were successful in punk and early alt rock in the 80s. But they wanted commercial success so they signed with a major label. They had some success but ultimately it didn't work out and they split up. The Replacements are from Minneapolis. Guitarist Bob Stinson gave his brother Tommy Stinson a bass guitar to give him something to do. Chris Mars was brought in to play drums. They called themselves Dogbreath. Paul Westerberg heard the band while he was walking home from work. He was invited to join. It's unlikely that Dogbreath would have survived without Westerberg. He made himself lead singer and wrote all the songs. He convinced the others to take music more seriously. A demo was given to Twin/Tone Records owner Peter Jesperson. The Replacements recorded three albums for Twin/Tone. And though the albums were critically acclaimed, their success was limited because Twin/Tone didn't have the money to promote them. And the band was touring but were unable to recoup expenses. So they signed with much larger Sire Records distributed by Warner Bros. Sire owner Seymour Stein brought in Tommy Ramone of The Ramones to produce the 1985 album Tim. The Replacements appeared on the Jan. 18, 1986 edition of Saturday Night Live. Of course this was a big opportunity. But they screwed it up by drinking backstage and delivering a profanity laced live performance. Drug and alcohol abuse was an ongoing problem. Bob Stinson was fired and replaced by Slim Dunlap. Stinson didn't like Westerberg's more commercial music. I'll Be You is from the 1989 album Don't Tell a Soul. It did well on the alternative rock chart mostly because MTV was playing the video in heavy rotation. It was their most successful album to date. But there was still conflict in The Replacements about musical direction. And after Westerberg recorded the 1990 album All Shook Down with session musicians, the band split up. This comp is a good intro to their music. It's available as a digital download. Westerberg went on to a successful solo career. The Replacements reunited to tour in 2013 and they released an EP of new music. They split up for good in 2015. Westerberg was unhappy with the EP. Here's the video for I'll Be You by The Replacements.
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