The Jayhawks and The Replacements

Two Midwest Darlings Tread the Same Musical Ground In Different Ways

May 18, 2009

Though one was a reformed punk band who fell back in their love for Bad Company and one was a bar band who never gave up on Bad Company, The 'Hawks and The 'Mats are kin.

If there was ever a Minnesota band that summed up the Midwest and its idiosyncratic, bored, middle-class, lovelorn ways, it was the Replacements.

Paul Westerberg's lyrics were ten times angstier and ten years earlier than any Nirvana or Pearl Jam tune, and the music was dirty, drunk, sloppy, and – most importantly – urgent. For anyone in the grainbelt who's ever eaten a dinner of fingernails and cigarettes while waiting for that girl to call back, there was a bunch of great songs (and, admittedly, some bad ones) ready to be binged on.

The 'Hawks and the 'Mats to be kindred spirits. Both bands cut their teeth playing the First Avenue club in Minneapolis in the 80's, going unnoticed by most everyone outside of their region. Neither band made it particularly big, yet both have at least one album that's considered a classic (Hollywood Town Hall and Let It Be, respectively, are constantly name-checked by people who've heard them). And both bands wrote exclusively about those same Midwest traits: idiosyncrasy, boredom, work, and being unhappily in love.

Excluding the last sentence there, the listed similarities are pretty surface. Tons of bands played First Avenue. It was even in Purple Rain. And dozens of Minneapolis bands never made it big: start at Arcwelder and see how long it takes to get to the Wallets. Albums like Half Dead and Dynamite, Cunning Stunts, and Zen Arcade are almost unknown outside of music circles and name-dropping grabs for credentials. It can't all be Bob Dylan and Prince in the Twin Cities.

While the Replacements were the kings of the mid-west attributes mentioned, they had a tendency to be abrasive, self-indulgent, and downright stupid sometimes. Even when they did get shots at hitting it big, they blew it by making dumb videos, being drunk jerks to the wrong people, and just being a little past their prime by the time everyone was ready for them.

It's understandable that the 'Mats didn't make it. Their wrong moves are obvious: recording Tim poorly, wearing Tom Petty's wife's clothes on SNL, too many bad ballads, too much drinking, etc. If they were the kings, then the Jayhawks were the charming princes: more adorable, more affable, and overall better than the power above them.

And that's why it's so hard to swallow the Jayhawks' lack of success. They weren't harsh or self-indulgent. Everything from the vocal harmonies to the guitar solos are beautiful and there to serve the song.

Gary Louris and Mark Olson were a songwriting duo whose voices blended together in a familiar, but new and exciting way. The songs were 3-5 minute pop tunes with tasteful everything: smooth without being smooove. Where the Replacements would take a left turn and experiment with a lounge song or horns (to varying degrees of success), the Jayhawks would hammer in on their point, making endlessly listenable bar-band rock that hit all the same nerves.

The Jayhawks toured with Tom Petty and had a minor hit with the song "Blue,” but other than that they've been somewhat obscure. Kind of shocking, really. It's not that they're the best band ever (certainly they're the best bar-band ever, as sacrilegious this may sound to all CCR fans), though that's certainly arguable. It's not even that they weren't in the right place in the right time. The Jayhawks made timeless music even more than the Beatles or Led Zeppelin or Nirvana, who were tied to the 60's, the 70's, and the 90's, respectively. There's no way to tie a bit of twang, rocked out folk, and heavenly voices to any era.

Despite threads that see them rising around the late-80s/early-90s alternative-country scene, the Jayhawks are a great rock and roll band and nothing more. It's part of their charm. The odd thing is that with the subpar music out there today and out there when the 'Hawks were still releasing music is compared to the compact, country-tinged, rocking pop that the Jayhawks bring to the table, there shouldn't be any snags on their rise to success. They do everything that any "legit" band in the top 40 (and any top 40 ever) does, only with finesse and passion.

The Difference Between the 'Mats and the 'Hawks

Though kindred in spirit, there remains a big difference between the idiosyncratic rambling from the drunk, rash moron or the honorable, romantic dork, the boredom as seen from a St. Paul gutter or the Minneapolis skyline, the middle-class work of a band who might stumble through their set (brilliantly, but stumbling nonetheless) or an honest and hardworking band in a bar, and a belligerent lush who had a penchant for a genius couplet here and there or the lovelorn words of a poet with craft.

The copyright of the article The Jayhawks and The Replacements in Rock Music is owned by Ryan Werner. Permission to republish The Jayhawks and The Replacements in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.