So next week Rhino unleashes the first wave of its grand refurbishment of the Replacements catalog, spanning the Twin/Tone years, and thus including Stink, Hootenanny, and Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. But the crown jewel of this haul is obviously 1984's masterpiece Let It Be, and this seems like a fine occasion to remind yourself that the crown jewel of Let It Be is "Androgynous." Sure, disaffected teens of a certain era might've flocked to "Sixteen Blue" or "Answering Machine" or (most probably) "Unsatisfied," but I maintain that this tune remains Paul Westerberg's finest hour, a sweet and spikey ode to ludicrous '80s fashions and the gender confusion they could engender.

(Essay question: Compare and contrast Paul's "He might be a father/But he sure ain't no dad" with Kurt Cobain's famous lament "I tried hard to have a father/But instead I had a dad.")

See Rhino.com for the expanding tracklists, bells & whistles, etc., and look for phase II, the Sire years, later this year.

Tags:

fuck a blog, the replacements