In late 1979, when the Replacements first got together, they started out as many bands do—playing cover tunes in the basement. They worked up songs by Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, the Who, the Ramones, Slade, the Kinks, and others, including Dave Edmunds. They rehearsed several times a week, and it was during one practice session, after finishing up a particularly inspired rendering of the Edmunds rocker “Trouble Boys”—a number the troubled members of the Replacements could collectively related to—the foursome realized that they had something.
The moment is chronicled in Bob Mehr’s indispensable biography of the group, Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements (2016).
During one weeknight rehearsal, as they tore through a version of Dave Edmunds’s “Trouble Boys,” they took the song’s twanging rhythm and gave it a screaming thrust. “There’s trouble boys all around me,” howled [Paul] Westerberg as he and Bob [Stinson] traded lead and rhythm back and forth, while Chris [Mars] and Tommy [Stinson] battered away at the beat.
When the last note rang out and the song was over, there was silence. Looking at one another, they realized, as Paul would recall, “that we had fallen in together.”
Though “Trouble Boys” was a pivotal song for the Replacements and was played live numerous times by the original lineup, it hasn’t appeared on a Replacements release. That’s about to change, as a live version has been included on Rhino Records’ pending 40th anniversary deluxe edition of the band’s dazzling debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Out October 22nd, the four-CD/one-LP box set features a whopping 67 previously unreleased tracks (!!!) among the very generous 100, in total. Among the formerly unissued are studio demos, outtakes, alternate takes and mixes, and basements recordings. There’s a sprightly new live album that was captured for a radio broadcast, though only part of the show aired. Given the impudent title of Unsuitable for Airplay – The Lost KFAI Concert: Live at the 7th St Entry, Minneapolis, MN, 1/23/81, the disc contains otherwise unissued originals and covers (“Trouble Boys” among them), as well as songs that would later turn up on their debut LP. The punk-inspired Sorry Ma has been freshly remastered, while the vinyl, christened Deliberate Noise – The Alternate Sorry Ma, replicates the original running order, replacing the album versions with a selection of the demos and alternates. A most-excellent twelve-by-twelve hardcover book, with rarely seen photos and liner notes by Trouble Boys author Bob Mehr, is also included. Overall, this is a truly superb set and an absolute must-have for ‘Mats fans. Order your copy through Rhino’s online store or via Amazon.
Rhino’s exclusive web bundle has a reproduction of the self-deprecating flyer from the 7th St Entry gig, a repressing of their first single, and more goodies. Get all the details here.
Dangerous Minds is pleased as punch to present the premiere of the fiery live rendition of “Trouble Boys” from the Unsuitable for Airplay CD on the deluxe edition of Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash.
Two other songs from the show are streaming online: Sorry Ma opener, “Takin A Ride” and the album’s ballad—concerning the notorious Johnny Thunders—“Johnny’s Gonna Die,” that then segues into a cover of the Heartbreakers’ “All by Myself.”
Rhino has put out three new Sorry Ma videos, including an animated work for the snarling “Shutup.”
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Replacements battle their producer in stormy first attempt to record ‘Don’t Tell a Soul’
Legendary live Replacements recording finally sees the light of day (a DM premiere)
Get it on: The Replacements cover glam rock king Marc Bolan on legendary 80s bootleg