Everything I do is based on the Replacements

I remember when I bought All Shook Down by the Replacements. It was December 27, 1990. My best friend and I still bought Christmas presents for each other but in the way that you really didn't buy it for them. We went shopping at the record store and we bought each other's cd. I know we could have bought our own. He probably bought a Rush or Queensryche cd. Well, I bought The Mats' disc based on seeing the video for "Merry Go Round" on 120 Minutes and a Rolling Stone magazine review. I listened to it three straight times when I got home. It wasn't quite rock; it wasn't quite country. It was, however, a starkly confessional, solo album (if you read the liner notes which I do right when I get a cd, it was obvious). When "Nobody" played for the third time, I was convinced, hooked, sold, devoted. Here was a guy wearing his heart on his sleeve, not giving a fuck what he sounded like as long as he sounded honest. There probably hasn't been a week that has gone by that I don't listen to The Replacements/Paul Westerberg. There hasn't been a day that's gone by that I haven't listen to music. That's what this blog will be about. How music, and also books and movies, help shape me, move me, helped me, or inspired me.