album review:the replacements-don't tell a soul (reissue) also, the worst thing i've ever written

i gonna preface this by saying this is the best album title of all time. THAT'S what i want on my tombstone. ferget all that other shit.

so, i'm gonna say i'm 18 or 19. you know me, this isn't a stretch. i'm gonna say it's jan. or feb. i'm gonna put myself in jeans and a t-shirt. i'm gonna be coming home from work with a little buzz. these were the tru-value days (look at us all we're nervous wrecks), so you know what i mean. beers in the cooler. dead soldiers scattered across a cooler floor. the war is over! and we have...decidedly...lost...
so, i'm putting myself in my room. and i feel like i always feel. like i've always felt, like something might happen. something bad. so i need to prepare.

why don't you put a book upon our heads
and put some pistols in our hands
count 20 paces, at dawn
come 20 questions we'll get wrong

i'm gonna make myself a melancholy young thing. sad beyond my years. but it's an act. it's ok, it's alright, nothings really wrong. i'm gonna have myself drinking something strong but cheap (i'm gonna say this is when things were getting bad, y'know, when patterns developed), say wild turkey. i don't know if i've ever really sipped wild turkey, but, hey, this is all fiction. even what you're doing now!

we're too weak to stand
and too meek to stray

i'm having myself put this album on. on this fictional night, even tho' it's never been my favorite 'mats album. but it's good, true, it just sounds like it may be responsible for the goo goo dolls. and that's unforgivable. i'm gonna make this album responsible for the goo goo dolls.
but 'achin' to be'. sigh. us non-purists long for these westerberg moments. and, really, kids, do listen to this song now. when the guitar chimes in on 'she dances....' well, that's as good as it gets.
but back to make believe.

i've been achin' for years

i'm gonna say this album is like falling in love. it's so nervous in spots! i remember there was this cashier i liked at tru-value. robin. i went to a movie with her once. i cannot remember what it was for the life of me. but since this is fiction i'm gonna say that robin williams was in it. i think someone said i look like robin williams once. or was it robbie williams? probly robin. i won't flatter myself.
jesus, i'm having a hard time focusing.
the album is like falling in love. it's sad, nervous, and filled with self doubt. isn't that love?
i'm gonna say it's love. what the fuck do i know?
but it's the tension. the nervousness (to repeat a theme), the danger. is it danger when you put yourself there? what the fuck am i talking about?

they play with your head
but they never stroke your hair

i always liked that line. i'm gonna say my hair has been stroked by a few women. i'm gonna say i have enjoyed it. i'm gonna say the 19 me had never had his hair stroked. i'm gonna say on this night he needed it. does he say 'let me out' at the tail end of that line? i think he does. i think that's scary.
so i had me drinking cheap booze, in jeans and a t. and sad. is that it? was that my life? is that my life? have i become 19 again? then why all these gray hairs?
so, falling in love, and how this album is like it. remember, i said it's like falling in love, not what it's like after you fall in love. that part usually sucks.
it's hard and it's sad and it's exhilarating.

if it's just a game, then i'll break down just in case

i'm getting nowhere here. i'm gonna have myself getting nowhere. alone in my room calling people up and getting no answers.

falling in love for the first time, my my my
falling in love for the hundredth millionth time

and then 'darling one' will play.
(we'll skip rock and roll ghost cuz that's not like falling in love. tha't more like real life)
and 'darling one' will play.
and play.
i'm gonna have that play in my head for the rest of my life.
few things are perfect. people aren't. love isn't. but ideas are. ideas of love are. and for some of you folks, these ideas may become real.
i'm gonna have these ideas remain a dream. i'm gonna have it be better that way.

i call your name, darling one

you can read words and you can hear words. i prefer to hear words. i'm gonna have me prefer to hear words. they are better that way. i'm gonna have them mean more that way.

your time has come... your time has come.....