Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements

The Replacements were Paul Westerberg, Bob Stinson, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars. All from Minneapolis. Author Bob Mehr spent 10 years working on the book that tells their entire story. Mehr immerses you in their world, allowing the reader to be a fly on the wall in their wild journey through the Midwest and beyond.Bob and Tommy Stinson were half brothers who grew up in a climate of abuse and alcoholism. On the path to juvenile delinquency, they found purpose in music. Paul Westerberg came from a more stable background, finding music to be salve for the repression of the Midwest. Tommy was only 13 when he started playing bass for the band, his brother Bob was the unpredictable lead guitarist. Westerberg wrote his own material and honed a charismatic stage presence, confrontational, but never boring. Chris Mars was the drummer, always a bit more restrained than his band mates (except when he sometimes appeared as his crazed alter ego Pappy the Clown).The Replacements emerged out of punk and their early performance style was anarchic, but their influences were far more varied than most punk bands, something that made it difficult to put them in a box. It's as if the Beatles began their recording career during the Hamburg days. Above all, alcohol fueled their stage presence. Some nights they were brilliant, other nights they could barely stand as they played.Always a critical darling, the Replacements never managed to hit the massive popularity that always seemed to be within their reach. While all their albums are excellent their string of records from 1983-1987 included Hootenanny, Let it Be, Tim, and, Pleased to Meet Me all represent the best of 1980s alternative rock. They refused to make videos until the end of their run and had habit of sabotaging themselves at key moments. A 1986 appearance on Saturday Night Live was marred by their drunken backstage behavior, trashing dressing rooms and saying the "F" word during their performance. In 1988 they opened for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and failed to connect with stadium crowds so they began to parody Petty who they found to be a bore (Petty made 250 grand a show, while the Mats made a mere fraction of that amount)The band prided themselves on being great when they felt like it. If crowds were indifferent they got confrontational. Melancholy also followed the band, in 1986 they forced Bob out of the band due to his erratic behavior, replacing him with Slim Dunlap who proved a more calming presence. Bob passed away in 1995. The book opens with a heartbreaking account of his funeral, a scene that haunts the entire book.The later albums were more polished and somewhat overproduced, made with the intention of recording a hit, the closest they came was the perfect power pop of "Achin' to Be." Things came apart slowly as they came to terms with their addictions and moved on. Many familiar faces make an appearance. REM is set up as their rival, the more successful counterpart of the 1980s alternative scene. Devoted fans included Tom Waits (their drunken adventures with Waits are another highlight) and Bob Dylan. They found a kindred soul in Alex Chilton, member of the legendary band Big Star, who served as a mentor to the Mats. Rumor had it their fellow Minnesotan Prince sometimes sneaked into their shows.Trouble Boys is a hardscrabble tale of Midwest guys who went for it all and almost made it. Beautiful loser tales have an undeniable glory and luster and this book has it. Mehr never gets judgmental about their reckless and often dangerous behavior, it's miracle they all survived. But in between all the debauchery are genuine moments of humanity, desperation, and existential foolishness. And great music.

Sometimes biographical books can be written so well you really enjoy them even if you don't care about the person or persons being written about. "Trouble Boys" is undoubtedly one of the best researched and well written biographical books in recent memory, and while it can be a bit exaggerating at times, especially about the supposed fame and impact of this band, there is still the argument to be made that the Replacements were very unique. I do beg to differ that they were alternative pioneers, same as I do with any post-punk and hardcore bands, including Husker Du, Soul Asylum, the roster of SST bands, and a few others that were much more the spirit of real rock and roll in an age of synthesizers and hair metal. No, alternative was much weaker, homogenized and strictly for commercial purposes, hence the incredible mediocrity of so many of them. If nothing else, The Replacements were not mediocre in any sense of the word. Besides their early punk inspired salvos that made up the first handful of albums, they were one of the most self destructive, childish, naive and ill behaved brats to ever be in a band, on stage or in a helpless van or touring bus together. Substance abuse, especially alcohol was rampant and the tales of incredible amounts of booze they ingested would have killed most people sooner than later. Add a truly mentally ill lead guitarist in Bob Stinson, who was horribly abused as a boy and suffered greatly from it, culminating in every kind of abuse imaginable and several trips in and out of institutions, a very young teenager on bass, a nihilistic lead singer/guitarist front man and a drummer who usually behaved a little better, and you had a band that confounded itself, managers who tried to deal with them, labels, and other music biz people by shooting themselves in the proverbial feet whenever an influential person or persons showed up to watch them live by playing as horrible as possible and behaving even worse in off stage antics. The potential for greater glory alongside friends like REM was there - the energy though was focused in every possibly wrong way you could think of. By the release of "Let It Be", considered by many the ultimate Replacement album where Paul Westerberg truly matured at least artistically into a very good songwriter, with songs like "I Will Dare" and "Sixteen Blue", the pressures of signing with a major label started appearing, and "Tim", the major label debut on Sire is the other indispensable album, and probably about half of the followup "Pleased to Meet Me", especially "I Can't Wait", proved to be the great shot that never quite got out of the gun barrel, as personal problems, addictions and just plain horrible behavior hung around their necks as they could not achieve the balance between raw talent and vulgar lifestyles. Of course most bands were and are not squeaky clean, and the book offers a lot of insight from the band members, the original line-up and um, replacement players. It has horrible tragedy, recklessness and hopefully redemption all wrapped up in one very good book. They will never achieve the status of the megabands sales wise, but their influence still rings out today. For those interested in the band and the time period, it's a very good read.

An exhaustive (at times long-winded), but interesting, though at times repetitive (yes we know how much they drink), of the most talented self-destructive band ever..they put the Velvets to shame. Nevertheless, the music shines through to this day...Can't Hardly Wait till they reunite again for a show in Toronto, or at the very least Paul alone.

Been waiting for many years, 20+??, to find something like this & for Husker Du. Definitely worth the wait

Probably one of the best music book !

One of the best rock bios I have read. On par with Guralnick and Gordon. If you are a 'Mats fan (or you just like a good read), pick this one up.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll remember some feckin fantastic music! I’ve spent the past few days playing ‘May’s and Westerberg reliving those times