Trouble Boys

Last night, I finally finished Bob Mehr's Trouble Boys, his excellent and incredibly detailed biography of the Replacements.

First of all, I always knew the Replacements were NOT saints, but I had no idea the extent of their bad boy mayhem. Bob Stinson, Tommy Stinson, Paul Westerberg, and Chris Mars all drank like fish. In fact, it seems that for about a decade, they subsisted almost exclusively on alcohol. It's a goddamned miracle that they--with the exception of Bob Stinson--are still alive, based on the abuse their bodies--specifically their livers--have taken over the years.

In addition to their prolific booze consumption, they routinely trashed tour buses, hotel rooms, and had little respect for any kind of authority figure. The book is littered with examples of self-destructive behavior. I'm not complaining, though. The book is highly entertaining, and the band's hijinks left me either laughing or simply thinking, "What the fuck?! They actually DID that?!"

Mixed among the laughs are stories of sadness. And this leads me to Bob Stinson. The man had about the most horrific childhood imaginable. He was shuttled from home to home, and badly mistreated by his biological father and stepfather. The miracle is that he found the guitar, and music provided salvation for him. Mehr relates a story of an insightful social worker--Stinson was in almost constant trouble with substance abuse and bad behavior leading him to spend lots of time in juvenile facilities--who recognized that music was the one creative outlet that young Bob had. The social worker recommended that Bob's musical interest be encouraged. Though he never was able to shake substance abuse, and in fact may have suffered from bipolar disorder, it's not melodramatic to say that music saved his life. Despite the fact he died at the young age of 35, if Stinson hadn't had music, his life could have been cut short much earlier than that.

Bob didn't just find salvation in music, but he provided a livelihood (and a career) for his half-brother Tommy by making the kid take up the bass.

The book isn't simply about bad behavior and wild escapades. Mehr delves deeply into the Replacements' music and Paul Westerberg's songwriting. Though I've been a fan of the band since the mid-1980s, I didn't know much about the creation of their songs and albums. Thanks to Mehr's great research and experience as a music critic, we get wonderful behind-the-scenes views of all the band's LPs.

As any Replacements fan knows, the band's live shows were notorious. Depending on the night, their shows could either be the greatest performances anyone had ever seen, or colossal train wrecks. (Though the train wrecks became less frequent after Bob Stinson was replaced by Slim Dunlap and the band became a tad more dependable). Mehr provides insight into exactly what went into whether the Replacements were dialed in, or headed to disaster.

I need to cut this little review short, so I'll just close by saying if you're a fan of the Replacements, you need to read this book. And if I'm up to it, I'll add more to this review later.