And so “the year of posting daily” comes to an end. When I
learned that Paul Westerberg, lead singer/songwriter formerly of The Replacements,
was born on this day, I experienced what Jay Farrar might call “a foregone
situation.” I don’t see how I could pass up today’s song as the last song of
the year.
Not that there weren’t others in the running. I considered “Here
Comes a Regular” but it’s too late in the year for that. And more rocking
numbers like “Never Mind” (title of a Replacements’ song before it was the
title of a Nirvana album) would not have been out of place. Then there’s solo
Westerberg, and songs like “It’s a Wonderful Lie,” “Love Untold,” “Hide N
Seekin,” “Things,” are all favorites. Or what about “Attitude,” from the last
Replacements LP?
But, given the theme of ghosts that I’ve touched on more
than a few times, and considering “the end of it all” vibe I’m going for here, “Rock’n’Roll
Ghost” seems the most appropriate. It appears second-to-last on the second-to-last
Replacements LP, Don’t Tell a Soul, the first album with Bob Dunlap taking over
for the ousted Bob Stinson. For many, the loss of Stinson changed the tenor of
The Replacements, as Westerberg led the band toward a more “commercial” sound with less of their former abrasive punk style. Sure, but that’s the way things
were going by the late Eighties in any case. My view, not being that big a fan
of the more shambolic 'Mats, was simply that Westerberg’s songwriting was
improving and to make that apparent required a bit more commitment to the
material. The early 'Mats stuff was cheeky and sloppy and fun, but, y’know, all
things must pass.
And that’s what this song is about. It’s a good tune to
comment on all that because one suspects that it’s Westerberg acknowledging
that he is, himself, a “rock’n’roll ghost”—a mere shade of the ballsy rocker he
once was, about to turn 30 the year this album was released: “I was much too young / Much
too cool for words / Look at me now.” That’s not an old man’s comment, that’s
an older young man’s comment. That’s full of the regret that comes from
realizing that—to the cool dude one once was—one’s current self would not past
muster. “I look into the mirror and I see / A rock’n’roll ghost.”
As someone who turned 30 the year today's song was released, I found
the song commenting on something I was realizing, as I trundled off to grad
school. My days when rock was the brightest beacon in the firmament were coming
to an end. In fact, they’d already ended, mostly, and bands such as The
Replacements were helpful in keeping some of that engagement alive even while,
as here, lamenting its passing.
Well you know / And
you go / When I’m alone I have no cause / To think about the shit we used to
know / Made of snow
That opening sounds starkly beautiful. And, what’s more,
Westerberg isn’t afraid to make it feel
beautiful, to pay witness to that “wan and heartless mood” we know so well. We
might think, if we like, of the opposition of “shit” and “snow,” where the one
is the stuff that, as they say, sticks, and the other is the stuff that melts.
We used to know lots of things, lots of shit. But there’s no cause, no longer
with you, to think about that.
But without that shared material, there’s not much worth
living for, apparently. Well you said “he’s
better off dead.” Possibly. At least, there’s a feeling of getting a
glimpse of what’s called “Death-in-Life,” that state bereft of inspiration and
imaginative sallies and the full tilt not giving a fuck of the true blue
rocker. Limboland.
There’s no one here to
raise a toast / Take me by the hand, man, raise a toast / A rock’n’roll ghost /
To a rock’n’roll ghost. Yup, one ghost toasting another. It’s perhaps too
chastened a song for the night when people like to party as one year becomes
another, but, however good or bad 2014 was or 2015 will be, the song speaks, as
the last Song of the Day, for a quiet, reflective tribute to the ghosts of rock’n’roll
that continue to haunt so many of us. “We don’t know until we’re gone,”
Westerberg says, and maybe he’s right. Maybe knowing what we did while we were
here is for someone to decide after we’re gone. Fine. Finis.
Happy New Year! And, in the words of my favorite line by one
of my favorite ghosts: “Look to see me no more.”
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