“FOREVER ON THE BRINK,” was a phrase that summed up The Replacements, the 1980s indie-rock band from Minneapolis that wrote incomparable songs but never achieved mainstream success. That line, from “Someone Take the Wheel” on the band’s last studio album, 1990’s All Shook Down, can be taken several ways, and they’d all be correct: The Replacements were forever on the brink of stardom but also teetered constantly on the edge of breaking up, of losing their minds, of overdosing on drugs and alcohol, of dying.
For his excellent book Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements (Da Capo Press), author Bob Mehr spent more than a decade researching the band’s almost-rise and definitive fall. Anchored by direct quotes from Paul Westerberg, The Replacements’ singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist—and from bassist Tommy Stinson, among hundreds of other sources—the book recounts the experiences of a band plagued by bad timing, bad luck and deliberate self-sabotage.
From punk songs on the early Replacements records Sorry Ma: Forgot to Take Out the Trash and Stink to power pop and mournful ballads on the band’s later albums Pleased to Meet Me, Don’t Tell a Soul, and All Shook Down, Westerberg delivered hooks and clever, ironic lyrics that expressed an underdog’s longing, rebellion and self-doubt.
With its spirited—if not always technically accomplished—playing, the band brought to life songs like “I Will Dare,” “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “Waitress in the Sky”; the rockers “Left of the Dial,” “Bastards of Young,” “I.O.U.,” “The Ledge,” “Alex Chilton,” “I’ll Be You,” “Talent Show,” “Merry Go Round” and “Bent Out of Shape”; the jazzy lounge numbers “Swingin Party” and “Nightclub Jitters”; and plaintive, acoustic-guitar ballads like “Here Comes a Regular,” “Skyway” and “Sadly Beautiful.”
The Replacements were infamous for their boorish behavior and the unpredictability of their live shows, which veered from brilliant bursts to drunken debacles. Audiences came to Replacements concerts hoping to witness chaos as much as enjoy the music. The band consumed massive quantities of booze and cocaine and seemed determined to prevent their own success by spitting in the faces of everyone who ever tried to help them—managers, record labels, radio stations, TV shows like Saturday Night Live, even fans.
Lead guitarist Bob Stinson, Tommy’s older half-brother, had been abused as a child and carried his psychological scars into adulthood. He resented Westerberg’s prominence in the band. Bob’s erratic behavior and addictions weren’t much worse than those of his bandmates, but The Replacements fired him before recording their 1987 album Pleased to Meet Me. Bob Stinson was replaced by fellow Minneapolis guitarist Bob “Slim” Dunlap, who would record and tour with the band until they broke up—and fell apart—onstage during an afternoon performance in Chicago’s Grant Park on the Fourth of July, 1991. By then, original drummer Chris Mars had already quit the group in disgust. After years of abusing his body with liquor, cocaine and heroin, Bob Stinson died in 1995, at the age of 35.
