The Replacements

Valentine

Photo: Hipstercrite.com

Good Morning!

Today we’re listening to “Valentine” by The Replacements

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There was a wall in downtown Portland Oregon where someone had painted “Paul Westerberg is God.” Anytime my friends and I were down there, we’d see it, laugh, and make the sort of inside jokes funny only to us. He didn’t seem God-like, though he was certainly the epitome of cool in our eyes.

Instead, he seemed relatable. Minneapolis might have been a world away—not for nothing, Portland is only slightly less further away from the Twin Cities than the Bahamas are— but you could imagine running into him at a show or on the block.

On the other hand, mere mortals don’t normally write lyrics like this:

If you were a pill
I'd take a handful at my will
And I'd knock you back with somethin' sweet and strong

Pleased To Meet Me is packed with gems like this. The record that gave us “Alex Chilton” and “Can’t Hardly Wait.” Both are well deserving of the spotlight they’ve received over the years. But “Valentine” might be my favorite. It’s earnest and, well, relatable.

For what it’s worth, no one ever bothered to take the graffiti down- it stayed up for years. Maybe there was something to it after all.

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More:

Pleased to Meet Me, like nearly everything in Westerberg’s oeuvre, is about not fitting in, about square pegs surrounded by nothing but round holes. What distinguishes Westerberg from the misfits populating his songs is his uncanny ability to speak for the tongue-tied, articulating their aspirations and insecurities with intuitive sensitivity, boozy whimsy and straight street talk — leavened with a little poetic license.

Read the full record review here.

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Listen

“Valentine” by The Replacements| Pleased To Meet Me, 1987

Click the record to listen on your platform of choice.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this track!

Thanks for being here,

Kevin—

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