The dynamic that made the band great also tore them apart, as this biography superbly documents.
An in-depth biography of a beloved, exasperating band that never quite made it.
Early on in this impressively researched and well-rendered biography, Commercial Appeal music critic Mehr describes how the Replacements became “ ‘legends’ without ever really becoming stars” and then proceeds to show how the qualities that made them legendary prevented them from achieving the success that fans thought they deserved. Frontman Paul Westerberg may well have been the greatest rock songwriter of his generation, the equal of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, and others who would follow his punk-pop lead to far greater glory. And the rest of the band was never simply the rest of the band but musical misfits who contributed to the chemical equation that resulted in brilliant performances one night and absolute disasters the next. Guitarist Bob Stinson, abused and neglected as a child, was the initial leader, recruiting his younger brother, Tommy, not even in his teens when he became the bassist. Drummer Chris Mars was the band’s initial songwriter and creative force, but he was increasingly marginalized as Westerberg joined and asserted himself (Mars, also an artist, now sells his paintings for thousands of dollars). Add lethal doses of alcohol, increasing quantities of drugs, and the rebellious irresponsibility fueled by both, and you’ve got an explosion waiting to happen—which it did, frequently, as the band fought with managers, record labels, and producers and sabotaged promotional efforts with journalists and radio stations. As a straightforward, ramshackle rock ’n’ roll band, they never quite fit with either the punk rock that inspired them or the so-called “alternative rock” that would enjoy such success in their wake. “We were five years ahead of our time, we were ten years behind,” said Westerberg, who never achieved expected success as a solo artist. A recent reunion effort featuring Paul and Tommy brought them their biggest paydays but fell apart because of familiar tensions.
The dynamic that made the band great also tore them apart, as this biography superbly documents.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-306-81879-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
PROFILES
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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