My introduction to this week's tune came via the cassette tape (CDs were still considered too expensive to open for store use) of this week's album we had open for instore play in 1989 back in my Camelot Music days. As is often the case with a Replacements song, it was love at first listen. Oddly enough, this one comes back to me every few years and I play it again and again for weeks on end. Last time was at the tail end of the pandemic, which means I'm just about due for another....
Thus far, I've written about two of the Replacements songs (first and second), an album, and a single by their lead singer Paul Westerberg. As neither the band nor Westerberg has done much of anything since my last post covering them, the only thing left in my bio paragraph is to once again lament that the Replacements are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (though they were nominated for the class of 2014). Come on people--get with it (as if the Hall of Fame committee gives a fuck what I think...)!
"Talent Show" was not released as a single from their 1989 LP, the rather secretively entitled Don't Tell a Soul. The album peaked at #57 on the Billboard 200 and was the highest charting album of their career.
Fun Fact: Don't Tell a Soul is the only Replacements album to yield a single that hit the Billboard charts--"I'll Be You" reached #51 on the Billboard Hot 100.
While doing my half-assed research, I came across a piece that claimed "Talent Show" was a dig at their recording label...and in all my years of writing Friday Night Jukebox posts I'm not sure I've ever read a song synopsis that missed the mark more than that one. The song is what it is--an ode to bands just starting out (like most assuredly the Replacements) and the gigs they play to get their dreams off the ground. It captures the fear and the excitement and courage it takes to throw oneself on the stage and sing and play your hearts out in the hopes that the audience likes your art. Featuring their trademark jangly guitars, another stunning vocal from Paul Westerberg (the Rock and Roll Gods graced his vocal cords with the nectar necessary to sing balls out rock and roll), and some explosive drumming, the song is a joyous ride through a band's beginning. I honestly cannot do this song justice--just another wonderful tribute to the wonders of making music.
Lyric Sheet: "Well, we got our guitars and we got thumb picks/And we go on after some lip-synch chicks/We're feelin' good from the pills we took/Oh, baby, don't gimme that look..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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