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Brad Kyle's avatar

Nice, Kevin! I tried so hard, back in the day, to be SO in on The Replacements & even Paul solo, but just couldn't...despite all my friends back then guaranteeing I'd love them, and they'd be right up my alley, etc! Not to mention the band's influences all pointed to me likely loving 'em, and all the rock scribes of the day screeching their praises (some of them, now here on Substack...Wayne Robins, Christgau, maybe another one or two)!

Your mention of Cobain makes me think that maybe Paul and his 'Placements were Nirvana before they could be. A lot of parallels, I think, between the drive and angst of Paul and Curt. And, I believe they had similar musical influences. And, for the record (to everyone painting on random walls), while Paul may be A god, Todd is, and always has been, God!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Todd Rundgren?

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Brad Kyle's avatar

There's another?!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALNP2TtIi3Y

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Lol. What was I thinking?! That was a great track! A new band for me as well. You've likely seen this, but it's a great version of "Can We Still Be Friends?" with Daryl Hall:

https://youtu.be/jTc2kG4Aea4

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Brad Kyle's avatar

Thanks for that add! I hadn't heard the Daryl/Todd duet in a while! Both grew up in Philly suburbs (Todd, Upper Darby).

The whole "Todd is God" thing actually started in the '70s, shortly after his '72 "Something/Anything" release. Longtime rock scribe (and fellow 'Stacker), Wayne Robins (whom I used to read voraciously back in the day!) can attest to that! The 'net is littered with documentation to that eternal assertion, but start here: https://relix.com/articles/detail/todd-is-still-god/

Feel free to follow that up with my blatherings about Todd's 2 ballplaying sons, and bumping into him in a Houston bar in '78, confronted with the moral dilemma of whether or not to tell him what Sylvain told me about his production efforts 5 years previous ("Into the Doll House with Todd")! It took WAY too long for Todd to be inducted into the R'n'HOF!

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CJ Kaplan's avatar

The Replacements hit right when I got to college. And if there was ever a prototypical college band it was Westerberg's group. Funny enough, I became more of a fan when college was solidly in the rearview mirror. I don't know if you've heard this, but Paul and Juliana Hatfield did a little side project called The i Don't Cares a few years back. The album (called Wild Stab) is hit or miss, but this song is a standout. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4geuUkZzzig

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

This is 100% new to me. Holy crap, that was a great song! Thank you for sharing it!

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