Album: The Old New Me
Year: 1993
. . .
The other thing that the Replacements had in common with the Beatles (besides the Beatles stealing an album title from them) is that shortly after their breakup, Paul, Tommy, Slim and Chris all released solo albums. Which, looking back, is kinda weird, give that much of the Replacements reputation at the time rested on the songwriting of Paul Westerberg. That said, each of the solo albums contained individual tracks good enough that you could imagine a killer Replacements album being assembled from them.
Which I did, of course. Back when I wrote about Paul Westerberg’s “Knockin’ On Mine,” I came up with World Class Fad, the final Replacements album, featuring songs from all four of them, one of the key ones being Slim Dunlap’s “Rockin’ Here Tonight.”
Starting with a big ole blast of big Keef-like guitar chords, “Rockin’ Here Tonight” was the first track from Dunlap’s solo debut, The Old New Me, which the liner notes claim Westerberg contributed to, though they don’t say what exactly, so let’s just assume this was one of the tracks, because who’s gonna tell me I’m wrong?
In any event, “Rockin’ Here Tonight” is a slow burn from start to finish, even when the drums kick in, the song doesn’t ever speed up, getting by more on mood than anything else, riding on its call-and-response chorus.
We’re talking rockin’ here tonight
(Talking rockin’) here tonight
Nothing shorter will do
(Talking rockin’) here tonight
Aren’t you?
And so yeah, if they’re talkin rockin’ more so than, you know actually rockin’, it’s OK: it’s obviously a choice never to speed it up or kick out the jams, because it’s more about about the threat of rockin’ than anything else. Because you know that Slim Dunlap could do that any old time.
And if, in 1987, Slim Dunlap kept the Replacements going by not being Bob Stinson — whether or not this was a good thing will be forever debated by fans — 25 years later, he was the catalyst for their reunion, as he suffered a stroke that spurred the Replacements — and a bunch of other musicians, as well — to release the Songs For Slim series to raise money for his medical care. It’s over eight years later, and he’s still alive, though when Paul & Tommy decided to go back on the road again, he wasn’t quite ready to do that, of course.
“Rockin’ Here Tonight”
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