Let it Be, the 1984 Alt. Rock Masterpiece from The Replacements

In the US during the first half of the eighties, an “alternative” rock genre from the mid-West came along, via the college radio/underground scene. The band that managed to become the most talked of in this “alternative” scene was Minneapolis group The Replacements, not only for their influential music but also for their frustrating inability to break through to widespread commercial success (years later, Westerberg claimed they just didn’t try as hard as they could have).

Their penchant for drunken stage performances was perhaps a contributor in their lack of so-called deserved fame. Their 1984 album Let it Be served as their artistic breakthrough and perhaps was the zenith of their wild, youthful angst energy. Lead singer, rhythm guitarist and songwriter Paul Westerberg had joined the band in 1979 when it was drummer Chris Mars with brothers Bob (lead guitar) and Tommy (just twelve years old, on bass) in their garage. The young band started off like drunken juvenile delinquent followers of the Ramones with break-neck, brief songs on their independent 1981 debut, Sorry Ma Forgot to Take Out the Trash.

With 1982’s LP Stink, they expanded on the aggressive punk rock. The 1983 mini LP Hootenany showed a songwriter’s craft burning inside Westerberg, evidenced by the spare and tender “Within Your Reach,” complete with synthesizer and drum machine. Their last release on the indie label Twin/Tone, Let it Be was perhaps the last album that truly blended their punk roots with their change toward more sedate rock/pop. It is often thought that Bob Stinson was hesitant toward the more structured artistic muse Westerberg was pursuing. Nonetheless, Stinson’s spiralling and out of control drug and alcohol problems were the reason given for his dismissal in 1986 (he would die from these excesses in 1995).

After this, much of the hard edge was weaned out of the group. But this LP was a landmark that deserved a better fate, thus accurately reflecting the group’s history. The “stoopid” goofy sort of punk here does not come off as throwaway as much as it comes off as inspired mayhem. Let it Be (so named because the band, possibly inebriated as usual, apparently decided to name their next LP after the first song they heard when they turned on the radio one day – that tune was the Beatles’ “Let it Be”… thank goodness it wasn’t Frank Zappa’s “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” or something) sparkles with masterful confessional song-writing and arguably the greatest beer-soaked garage rock you’ll ever want to hear.

The album never even charted but was enthusiastically received by critics. The production is a bit thin at times, but it’s a production that works well for such a wild vibe. Kicking off the album is another sign of Westerberg’s increasing skill as a writer, the country-ish power pop of “I Will Dare”. Featuring augmentations to The Replacements’ usual sound like mandolins and a lead guitar cameo from R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, it is the perfect invigorating lead track. “Favourite Thing” is a catchy punk pop number that finds Westerberg singing from the vantage point of another emotionally angstful young male. All this sung out in a nicotine-rasped voice not unlike Kurt Cobain’s, only with more outrage and confidence and less utter despair.

Their old love of thrash punk surfaces with the chaotic “We’re Coming Out.” Here, the now well-practiced style of the boozy rocker is given a few esoteric touches as the song breaks into a funky middle section of piano and finger snaps before launching into a cacophony of frenetic speed again. All the while, “We’re coming out!” is screamed continually by Westerberg, as if he’s about to be done in by Freddy or Jason.

Another classic Replacements tongue-in-cheek tale of youthful mischief comes with the story of a freaky trip to the hospital in “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out,” distinguished by the guitar work of Bob Stinson. Even as the weakest track on the album, it has its worthwhile charms. It usually gets classified, alongside the barroom bluesy rock of “Gary’s Got a Boner,” as filler. Well okay, then their “filler” never sounded so great, before or after this LP. The most unique tune on Let it Be is the gorgeous piano ballad “Androgynous”, with Westerberg’s expressive vocals singing about gender confusion. The song is so wearily touching and effective in its almost slapdash, one-take fashion that you forget about the strange subject matter in the lyrics. Demonstrating their garage roots, they also launch into a sizzling cover of Kiss’s “Black Diamond”.

One of the top five Replacements songs, and arguably the best here, is the relentless “Unsatisfied”, which doesn’t even bother building up the dynamics, opting instead for a constant peak of angst and longing. Westerberg’s throaty vocal performance is a captivating one as he hollers “Look me in the eyes and tell me / That I’m satisfied!” over and over. “Unsatisfied” is The Replacements at their best and is likely the definitive composition from Let it Be. There also may not be any more effective passage of instrumental music from The Replacements than is heard in the first two minutes of guitar riffing on “Seen Your Video,” which builds up to a brash conclusion of Westerberg decrying the vapidity of the music video on MTV (“Seen your video… Your phony rock & roll… We don’t wanna know!”).

The most tender and soft moment comes on the teenage anthem “Sixteen Blue,” a song without truly catchy hooks or sequences but one that is more than the sum of its parts. Asserting that “your age is the hardest age” Westerberg chronicles the difficulties of being a teenager in a song that demonstrates better than any other on this album what a special songwriter Westerberg is and was. Very few songwriters in rock have ever known how to tap into the psychological strain of adolescence and early adulthood. For this, Westerberg is like the people’s champion of singer-songwriters. His later, matured work has seen him age gracefully, yet not quite retain his old vibrancy. Glory can be fleeting, alas. “Sixteen Blue” is still as emotionally raw as any piece of 1980s underground alternative rock.

The final song, “Answering Machine,” works on this level too. Though the song sounds as if the engineer/producer were also drunk (talk about a distant echo-y mix), it is a simple but fitting conclusion featuring just Westerberg’s vocals and chunky rhythmic guitar. He laments a strained love relationship being disconnected (no pun intended) by the impersonality of having to leave a message on an answering machine. Songwriters kill for biting lines such as “How do you say I’m okay? / How do you say I love you?…How do you say goodnight / To an answer machine.” To clear up the matter, rather distracting phone-operator sound effects are tossed in and Westerberg spews “I HATE your answering machine”.

Let it Be was a strong statement by The Replacements that proved they deserved more than their lot in the rock world. They would never get it of course, but this album is their strongest entry into the field of rock. As such, it is arguably among the top ten albums released in the 1980s.