T A B L E__T A L K

What's become of noisy electric guitars and pounding drums? Is scary rock 'n' roll dead? Join the requiem in the Music section of Table Talk.

- - - - - - - -

R E C E N T L Y

Lucinda Williams
Live at the Fillmore
San Francisco
(10/28/97)

Various Artists
Everybody Wants Some
Cherrydisc/Roadrunner
David Lee Roth
The Best
Rhino
(10/27/97)

Edwyn Collins
I'm Not Following you
Setanta/Epic
(10/24/97)

Everclear
So Much for
the Afterglow
Capitol
(10/23/97)

Paul Paray
Joan of Arc Mass
Reference Recordings
(10/22/97)

BROWSE THE
MUSIC ARCHIVES

- - - - - - - -

V O W E L L

Sound Salvation
By Sarah Vowell
True blue tributes
(09/19/97)

- - - - - - - -

F E A T U R E

Almost Heaven:
John Denver 1943-1997
Dawn Eden remembers the man whose music left no room for cynicism (10/14/97)

___The replacements
______________[ -- ALL FOR NOTHING --> REPRISE -- ]_BY JOE HEIM

As the liner notes on "All for Nothing" jokingly admit, the two-disc retrospective "isn't a greatest hits disc because, well, there weren't really any hits." It's also true that the new collection is far from comprehensive. For one thing, no songs from the band's first four albums -- "Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash," "The Replacements Stink," "Hootenanny" and "Let It Be" -- are included. The problem, of course, is one of rights and ownership, the first four albums having been released on the Twin Tone label and the latter four on Sire.

By drawing only from "Tim," "Pleased to Meet Me," "Don't Tell a Soul" and "All Shook Down," the compilation highlights the group's waning years and omits most of the contributions made by guitarist Bob Stinson. The brilliant yet troubled musician (he died from a heroin overdose in 1995) was kicked out of the band shortly after "Tim" was released and replaced by Slim Dunlap.

While admittedly limited in scope, "All for Nothing" does succeed in capturing the band's fundamentally Generation X-like qualities -- its essential lostness, unhappy-go-unlucky sense of humor and gritty desperation.

Perhaps no other songwriter from the '80s matched Paul Westerberg's ability to distill and express the dismal expectations of his peers. When, on "Bastards of Young," he sang "God, what a mess/on the ladder of success/where you take one step and miss the whole first rung," he voiced the fears and frustrations of a legion of young fans already pessimistic about the possibilities awaiting them.

Like "Bastards of Young," many of the songs included on "All for Nothing's" first disc are wrought with longing and an uprooted sadness. On songs like "Here Comes A Regular," "Skyway" and "Achin' to Be," Westerberg's wounds are raw, and he makes no effort to cover them up. The entire disc is suffused with darkness and an aching loneliness.

While the first disc serves as a strong introduction for the uninitiated, it is the much looser second disc -- subtitled "Nothing for All" -- that most of the band's core fans will want to get their hands on. Filled with unreleased songs, B-sides and outtakes, it is an essential addition to any Replacements collection. Songs range from send-ups ("Like a Rolling Pin") to silliness ("All He Wants to Do Is Fish") to drunken blues rockers ("Election Day"). Occasionally brilliant, often sloppy, and sometimes both, the songs remind the listener of some of the band's best moments.

"All for Nothing's" only letdown, then, is the omission of songs from the band's earlier period. The Replacements were, after all, one of the '80s' most important and influential bands. Unfortunately, this collection provides only half the reason why.
Oct. 29, 1997