Frogtoon Music

Sixteen Blue by The Replacements

Artist Biography For The Replacements

The Replacements Were An Alternative Rock Group That Formed In Minneapolis Minnesota In 1979. The Band Originally Started Off As A Hardcore Punk Outfit But Began To Incorporate Folk And Power Pop Influences In Their Sound. They Become One Of The Leaders Of The Early Alt-Folk Set And One Of The Flagship Bands Of The American Post-Punk Scene In The 80s Being A Major Influence On 90s Indie Rock As Well. The Band's Best Known Lineup Consisted Of Paul Westerberg Vocals Guitar Bob Stinson Guitar Tommy Stinson Bass And Chris Mars Drums . They Were Infamous For Their Abrasive Hard Drinking Lifestyles And Their Ragged Stage Performances Notorious For Coming To Some Shows Too Drunk To Play Very Well At All. Sometimes They Just Performed Entire Sets Of Covers Their Picks Showing Their Debt To 70s Hard Rock Outfits. The Sound Of This Band Showed Off What Their Many Fans Saw As The Very Best Of Independent Rock N' Roll. More Than Possibly Any Other Band Since The Rolling Stones And The The Ramones The Replacements Embodied The Spirit Of Rock From Their Raucous Performances Drug Addictions Charismatic And Romantic Frontman And Wild Sometimes Basic And Sometimes Powerfully Confessional Songs. At Any Given Time Almost Any List Of 'The Best Rock Albums Of All Time' Will Include Either The Album 'Let It Be' Or 'Tim' Sometimes Both. Their Sound Started Off As A Classic Rock Influenced Shade Of Punk Mutating To A Melodic Hardcore Sound Reminiscent Of Local Buddies Hüsker Dü. They Also Progressed Into A Relatively Straightforward But Heartfelt Rock Style With A Number Of Highly Soulful Ballads From The Heart Of Westerberg To Round Out The Mix. The Band Broke Up In 1991. Bob Stinson Who Was Fired From The Band In 1986 And Was Subsequently Replaced By Slim Dunlap Died In 1995. Westerberg And Mars Both Have Solo Careers And Tommy Stinson Formed Several Bands Like Perfect And Bash And Pop And Now Plays Bass For Guns And Roses And Soul Asylum. In 2012 Paul Westerberg And Tommy Stinson Reformed The Replacements And Recorded An EP "Songs For Slim" As A Benefit For Former Member Slim Dunlap Who Had Suffered A Stroke. The Band Played Their First Show Since 1991 On August 24 2013 At RiotFest In Toronto And Has Since Played At Several Festivals Since. The Band Also Currently Includes Josh Freese On Drums And Dave Minehan On Guitar. The Band Played Its Final Show In June 2015.

Frogtoon Music - Song Info: Sixteen Blue

"Sixteen Blue" Is A Song Of Teenage Confusion Awkwardness Boredom And Anxiety. Basically It's An Accurate Portrayal Of The Teenage Experience. The Unromanticized Take On The Subject Would Have Been Easy For Songwriter And Replacements Frontman Paul Westerberg Who Was 25 When He Wrote It And Still Had His Ear Close To The Ground Of That World. The Replacements Fanbase Were Largely Teens And Replacements Bassist Tommy Stinson Was 16 When This Song Was Recorded. As We Become Entrenched In Adulthood We Tend To Idealize Youth And Forget What A Mess Of Uncertainty And Confusion Those Years Actually Are A Time When We Try To Assert Our Individuality While Feeling Painfully Uncertain Of Who We Even Are To Begin With. We're Trying To Adopt Our Expected Roles While Letting Go Of The Old Ones We'd Just Gotten Comfortable With. It's A Tenuous Time Of Transition.
"Sixteen Blue" Captures The Awkward Pride Of It All. “Brag About Things You Don't Understand
A Girl And A Woman A Boy And A Man
Everything Is Sexually Vague
Now You're Wondering To Yourself
That You Might Be Gay” The Way That The Verse Jumps Erratically From Idea To Idea Sums Up The Herky Jerky 16-Year-Old Mind Perfectly.
Let It Be Is The Album On Which Westerberg's Songwriting Took A Quantum Leap Forward In Skill And Maturity. We Can See That In This Song. Westerberg Enjoys Shoveling Snow Because It Reminds Him That He's Just A Guy Not A Rock Star When All Is Said Is Done. His Insistence On Staying Humble And Grounded In Reality Comes Through In The Clarity Of Observation In "Sixteen Blue." Online Rumors Float Around That This Song Is About Replacements Bassist Tommy Stinson Best Known To Modern Music Fans For His 1998-2014 Guns N' Roses Run Who Helped Form The Replacements When He Was 12 Years Old. The Rumor Is Understandable Because Stinson Is The Subject Of Other Replacements Songs And Because He Would Have Been 16 At The Recording Of "Sixteen Blue." While Nothing Can Be Written Off Definitively About The Rumor There Aren't Any Sources To Confirm It And It Doesn't Add Up Outside The Fact That Stinson Happened To Be 16. The Song Sounds Much More The Story Of A Typical 16-Year-Old Male Not One Who Started Living The Rock-And-Roll Lifestyle At 12 And Never Knew Anything Else After That. Writing For The Boston Phoenix September 21 1990 Journalist Tim Riley Called This "the Greatest Ode To The Dignity Of Adolescent Inferiority Since 'Every Picture Tells A Story.'"

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