Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements

[DieselDaisy]

It was a patchy decade for Presley. I love the Country album; probably Elvis's last great album. Unfortunatly it was virtually impossible to get Presley in the studio during this period so they - Parker - would just cobble together inferior live albums. An American Triilogy, that is recorded live. I think Moody Blue was the last great studio single; that was, 1975/6 I believe so we are talking quite late. So yes, there were some good material but also some real shit. Compare this to 1954-58 where virtually every song is a masterpiece. I have the RCA boxsets from the early 90s by the way. I love wading through them and finding lost Presley gems, stuff like Lonesome Cowboy and the truly weird, Crawfish.

[The Real McCoy]

Prince did a residency in Vegas.

[The Linguini Occurrence]

JUST ANNOUNCED:

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will host a special film screening of the Replacements documentary, Color Me Obsessed

Wednesday, December 12 at 6:30 p.m.

(Foster Theater)

The screening will be followed by an interview with director Gorman Bechard. The interview will be conducted by Director of Education Jason Hanley.

[dalsh327]

You are ignoring the point. Vegas however thanks you for this sterling defence. But you are still ignoring the point.

No i'm not, there's something wrong with Tommy Stinson for:

First: Playing other peoples songs, totally addressed

Second: doing it in Vegas because there's something fundamentally wrong with Vegas and it's audiences

Anything else?

It is not Vegas per se but the 'Vegas Residency'. You seem to know your music/musical history so surely you are aware of the association of 'Vegas Residencies' and 'Wash-Out'. There is an image conjured-up, rightly or wrongly, of a jump-suited Presley playing big-band variants of his greatest hits to, yes, housewives (sorry to use that highly inflammatory word!). Immediately when you say 'Vegas', this is the image. (And then Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Tom Jones, The Osmonds, etc, naturally fall in line).

Vegas Residencies went rock n' roll with Motley Crue you might say? This doesn't change the word association. And it is a negative association as there is a sense of, the artist being peripheral to the gambling house. And this is in fact the truth of the situation as the Casinos book them and offload cheap tickets onto punters (Consequentially you get a lot of casuals and tourist types). It is inherently a 'nostalgia market'. Now nostalgia can be good in doses but when you go to Vegas you usually have already relinquished your creativity and are there solely for the cash. (In fairness to Presley though, he still occasionally recorded and still produ ced the odd hit, e.g. Moody Blue.). In Vegas you are there to deliver the hits to casuals like a 'good boy.'Someone like Neil Young wouldn't touch the thing. The whole enterprise is cash-induced and quite, quite far from that 'rock n' roll'/punk rock spirit.

Now Stinson, for choosing to accompany Rose and co. buys into the enterprise. The association of, 'Vegas wash-out', will attach itself. Stinson's contemporaries will naturally wonder why he is playing Guns N' Roses's greatest-hits in a Vegas Residency. Some of his fans might wonder why he is doing this (though obviously not you). It is a blot on a career.

Just like we cannot remember Presley solely for 1954-8 - as much as we would like to. We have to acknowledge 1969-77 (even though the first year or two in Vegas wasn't that bad).

Casinos have some of the best sound systems. Should bands also not play venues because they're named after cell phone companies and it comes off as the band advertising product?

I think the only thing about casinos is that it's targeting an older audience, but you also see older artists tour campuses and clubs you'd see up and coming bands in. Kenny Rogers and Tom Jones were playing to a younger audience when I saw where they were playing. I mean, Kenny Rogers did Bonnaroo, Tom Jones has done the clubs and festivals, same with Dolly Parton. They want the younger faces, not a bunch of barely alive geezers on oxygen tanks.

Back in the day, you had an older crowd going to see shows in Vegas, now it's party central.

Neil Young's played MGM Grand AND The Joint. He also went there as a keynote speaker for an auto trade show.

[luciusfunk]

I've loved the Mats since I bought the reissue of Tim at Hastings about four years ago.

[Guest Len B'stard]

This docs out in America, anyway seen it? I been chompin' at the bit to get it but they ain't releasin' it over here til next year, the fucking cunts.

Anyone seen it yet, came out this Monday gone, in America-land that is

[luciusfunk]

I haven't seen it yet. I'm having trouble finding a torrent.

[Chinaski]

Len et al in case you never caught up with it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yY2q3mF5Tk0

[Guest Len B'stard]

God bless ur soul, Chinaski

[Guest Len B'stard]

What a fucking fantastic doc, 5 stars! That was fuckin' great! Favorite bit, how Tommy quit High School, walks into the Principals office with a boombox, blasted him with Fuck School, gave him the finger and left, what a fucking champion

Some of those guys were fuckin' intense. What about that speccy twat with the beard going on about "i loved them, i lived with my family on a farm and they were my whole life, i used to have pretend relationships with them and ask Tommy for advice" Uhhh...sorry, hows that again?

And that oriental lady talking about bullying and all that was a bit much. And that other girl, that slightly meaty looking one on the couch, going on about "those songs are about not being accepted...but then wanting to be accepted...but then not but ultimately wanting to be accepted" uhh...were they? No one told me I thought they were about not giving a fuck.

And the Tupac mention about Bob Stinson taking a shit in an ice bucket

Fantastic documentary, more than i could've ever dreamt for and believe me, in 15 years of being a Replacements fan, aside from owning the albums, i've not come across one shred of decent docu or media about em so this was a fucking godsend...some of those fans are/were some serious fuckin' humanity though, like creepy.

I thought they were just a great rock n roll band with an amazing spirit, some of the best i've ever heard, some of these guys were a little Miser for my comfort though. What an amazing thing though, to put it on youtube for free!

Edited January 11, 2013 by sugaraylen

[Chinaski]

I was really surprised to find it perfect on youtube like that. I had always assumed it would end up being one of those things I'd stumble across in ten years and go 'oh yeah I always meant to watch this'.

It took me a while to realise there wasn't live footage/music in it. That's a pretty good reflection on how well made it was. I thought it might have ended up being a bunch of people going on about how they should have been the biggest band ever or something, like these things can sometimes end up, so it was good they didn't ignore the obvious i.e all the stupid shit that went on.

Yeah the beardy guy was definitely a bit much.

[Guest Len B'stard]

I just thought it was SOOO fucking fantastic and quite an eye opener in a sense that...i mean, i know there's an audience out there for this band, they're pretty seminal but...you know you really get an idea for it when you see these people really talk about what they think/felt about The Mats, and Jesus, look at the record sales!!! Those things, even now, have sold like nothing. I had no idea it was that...marginal. Sorry Ma I Forgot to Take Out the Trash, which i think is one of the greatest albums of all time sold absolutely fuck all.

I been waiting for this docu for years though, quite literally years from the first whisper of its production to following it's progress and premiere in Florida at the Gasparillia Film Festival, was waiting for it to come out and here you show up Chinaski, thank you so much again man for posting the link and that

The way that guy describes Customer, about it being about class struggle and love and...all these things all at once and how it'd take like...more words to explain what it's about than there are lyrics to it, it's such perfect lyricism in that way i was like "yes...yes...YES!", someone somewhere on this planet gets it, i typed near enough exactly the same thing on this forum a whiles back whilst trying to explain the genius of these fuckin' guys.

And yeah, to all the people on here for whom i've been trying to explain Tommy Stinson fuckin' credentials for years, watch this fuckin' doc

Thanks again Chinaski!

[MB.]

Chinaski thanks for posting! Really cool documentary, loved it!