Paul Westerberg

Certain Songs #1477: Paul Westerberg – “Kentucky Risin'”

March 10, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: 49:00 of Your ~~Time~~ Life
Year: 2008

The only thing I know for sure about “Kentucky Risin'” is that it might not even be called “Kentucky Risin'”. And as a matter of fact, with the exception of the cover songs — you could say that about everything else on 49:00 of Your ~~Time~~ Life.

That’s because when Paul released it in late July, 2008, he just stuck the whole thing up there as a big 43:55 file (nope, 49:00 is not 49 minutes long) (unless you combine it with the “5:05” single), and let the rest of us sort it out. Because of the amount of music and the price point, only two platforms — Amazon & Tunecore — even bothered to put it out.

Certain Songs #1476: Paul Westerberg – “Who You Gonna Marry?”

March 9, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: 49:00 of Your ~~Time~~ Life
Year: 2008

After the 2002-2004 onslaught of music from Paul Westerberg, things got relatively quiet for awhile. At least in terms of releasing new music. But he still kinda stayed in the public eye. In 2005, there was Besterberg, a kinda sorta best-of that spanned his solo career to date (which had 8 Certain Songs out of 20), and in 2006, that was followed by an absolutely dynamite Replacements best-of called Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was (which will have 16 Certain Songs out of 20 when I get there next year) that actually featured two new Replacements songs, both which sounded like Paul solo songs that Tommy happened to play on.

That was followed by the soundtrack Open Season, which featured a handful of good-not-great songs that were fine. But still no new music in the vein that he’d tapped just a few years previously. And when news came out in 2006 that he’d fucked up his left hand with a screwdriver while trying to get wax out of a candle and had to relearn guitar.

Certain Songs #1475: Paul Westerberg – “Breathe Some New Life”

March 8, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Folker
Year: 2004

In an interview with future biographer Bob Mehr, Paul Westerberg said that he intentionally intended Folker to flow together in a way that none of his other records ever had, and boy did he succeed.

That said, the ongoing musical and thematic consistency of Folker meant that it was slightly more difficult to pick out individual tracks as standouts, a thing that was much easier on Come Feel Me Tremble when he followed the coulda-been-rockabilly “Knockin’ Em Back” with the fuzzed out “Pine Box” with the acoustic “Meet Me Down The Alley.”

Certain Songs #1474: Paul Westerberg – “Lookin’ Up In Heaven”

March 7, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Folker
Year: 2004

“Hey, what about Dead Man Shake?” That’s a question that I’m sure some Paul Westerberg fans might be asking, as they’ve noticed I’ve skipped from Come Feel Me Tremble to Folker.

It’s a good question, and for the uninitiated, Dead Man Shake was released at the same time as Come Feel Me Tremble, but it had two concepts. One, it was released as Grandpaboy, which is fine, and two, the concept was blues-rock, which wasn’t. The result was an album filled with the kind of songs that would never make any of my mixtapes, compilation CDs or best-of playlists, though I did like the John Prine cover.

Certain Songs #1473: Paul Westerberg – “Hillbilly Junk”

March 6, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Come Feel Me Tremble
Year: 2003

Because of the lo-fi sound as well as the seemingly tossed-off nature of the songs from Paul Westerberg’s basement tapes period, you might not notice just how much work he put into a lot of the songs.

After all, it wasn’t like he had a whole band down there with him, which meant that even a darkly funny Chuck Berry knockoff like “Hillbilly Junk” had to be thought through, especially when you realize just how many instruments were on the damn thing.

Certain Songs #1472: Paul Westerberg – “Crackle & Drag (Original Take)”

March 5, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Come Feel Me Tremble
Year: 2003

After the relative sonic unity of Stereo / Mono, or even the major label albums, Come Feel Me Tremble was a bit of a hodgepodge, alternating fuzzed-out ravers like the 6:00 “Pine Box” with lush, acoustic songs like “Meet Me Down in The Alley.”

It was like Paul couldn’t quite figure out in which direction he wanted to go in, so decided “both!” And yeah, this has always been part and parcel of his music, but on no record since Hootenanny! was it so all over the map.

Certain Songs #1471: Paul Westerberg – “My Daydream”

March 4, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Come Feel Me Tremble
Year: 2003

From 2002-2004, Paul Westerberg turned into Robert Pollard for a time, releasing five albums worth of material that was ridiculously tuneful as well as totally lo-fi. For his fans, who had been dealing with a relative dearth of overthought material during the major label days, this sudden glut of knocked-right-out music was both overwhelming and overjoyous.

And in the middle of it all was the Come Feel Me Tremble project: a DVD that alternated live performances from his solo tour — including “Unsatisfied” from the Amoeba show I went to! — with new songs from the Come Feel Me Tremble album.

Certain Songs #1470: Paul Westerberg – “Call That Gone?”

March 3, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stereo
Year: 2002

The final song on Stereo — absent a hidden track Flesh For Lulu cover — was probably the most fleshed-out song on the whole record, at least musically.

Not only was there a full-out band sound — electric & acoustic guitars, bass, drums and percussion — there was also even horns lurking in the background as well, while Paul Westerberg address a lover who isn’t leaving nearly as fast as he would prefer.

Certain Songs #1469: Paul Westerberg – “Got You Down”

March 2, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stereo
Year: 2002

As documented in the now out-of-print DVD Come Feel Me Tremble, Paul supported Stereo/Mono with a solo tour of clubs, theaters and record stories. And so it happened that in late April, 2002. Tim, Kirk, Kassia & I saw Paul play at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, U.S.A.

That was actually one of my first concert experiences as a brand-new native of Los Angeles, and I remember mostly that it was thrilling to see him do a mix of incredibly recent songs, covers and even a couple of ‘mats songs.

Certain Songs #1468: Paul Westerberg – “The Only Lie Worth Telling”

March 1, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stereo
Year: 2002

One of the ironies of Stereo — which was, as per the cover, “Recorded in Realistic Stereo” — as compared to its companion piece, Mono, was that it was a relatively sparse record which probably would have sounded just fine recorded in mono, since many of the songs were just Paul Westerberg’s guitar and vocals. Yes, there were overdubs, and even drums on a couple tracks. That said, the songs on Stereo were fully dependent on his melodies, lyrics and vocals, because Stereo didn’t bring the rock hardly at all.

Which is why it was such a triumph: while Paul had written some of the greatest ballads I’ve ever heard, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear a whole record’s worth, but Stereo proved my fears wrong, as a song like “The Only Lie Worth Telling” stood up with his greatest tearjerkers.