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DIAL
February 18, 2022
On the dial, dialing it in,
scanning the mugs,
reading their dials,
automatic re-dial
And "Left of the Dial"
But for me, that was always
"the bottom of dial": I wasn't much into
the low frequency ghetto of the being left-wing in
FM dial, inhabited by college radio those days, and I
stations and non-profits. would've argued that it
wasn't a key feature of
the scene--
I listened to the Replacements song "Left of
the Dial" again recently, this time focusing This was a cultural
on the lyrics sheet-- revolution, not so much
a political one. The
This is one of those songs I've heard *many* attempts at moving
times, there was a time in the late-80s when left-wing politics to
I would've named "The Replacements" as-- if not the center of punk have
my "favorite band" the band that I was always rung false to me,
listening to, the music I was getting into. an attempt at co-opting
a movement to push your
I don't think I'd every really thought much own agenda-- not much
about the lyrics to this song, which strike better than, say,
me as-- but I struggle to pick the right "Christian Rock".
superlative without overdoing it. Let's work
on that one.
The lyrics themselves do a remarkable job of
saying *just enough* without overdoing anything. And *man* I would like
They sketch-in what needs to be said without to be able to write
hammering away at it. like that...
I don't know that I'd call it *deep* exactly--
though I wouldn't argue if you went with that:
there could be some depths there for you, The sound itself is
somewhere in the words and the tone of voice, remarkable for the
and the interplay with the music, *year* it came out--
you might feel a stab down into your core, did they invent 90s
maybe without exactly being able to say why. "grunge" back in
the mid-80s?
This is a song that works with a foreground
and a background, and different people pick
one or the other as the key thing the song
is about.
The background is the world of alternative,
underground rock of the post-punk decade, Maybe I could expound
with kids trying to be edgy and risk-taking more about that world
and non-conformist and somehow make a living than I have: now that
at it without selling out. it's faded to next to
nothing, there may be
The foreground is a guy thinking about a some things worth
woman at a distance. She might be an saying about it.
ex-girlfriend, or she might be someone who
was not-quite a girlfriend-- after all, those
can weigh on your mind as much or more than
the exes. Maybe he'd like to get together
with her again or maybe not, but he's thinks
about her, wonders what she's doing-- he
wants to hear her name.
My impression from the song lyrics
was that this was two people who'd
grown up together in Georgia, but Really, the word is this was
then went their separate ways-- about Lynn Blakey, who toured
separate, *but parallel* ways, going with "Let's Active" circa 1983,
off and doing similar things as they but didn't stay with them.
both move through the underground Westerberg knew her in Georgia,
music scene. though he was from Minneapolis.
"Left of the Dial" is a song
from the 1985 release "Tim".
Quoting from
some version of I'm starting with: https://genius.com/The-replacements-left-of-the-dial-lyrics
the lyrics...
But editing them as I like, and changing
some words to the ones I remember.
Read about your band, in some local page
Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name
Sweet Georgia breezes, Safe, cool and warm
I headed up north; You headed north
On and on and on and on / What side are you on?
On and on and on and on / It's sad moving on.
Pretty girl keep growing up, playing make-up, wearing guitar
Growing old in a bar. You grow old in a bar.
Headed out to San Francisco. Definitely not L.A
And if I don't see you in, a long, long while
I'll try to find you, left of the dial
Left of the dial
The music keeps you moving on, a band on tour,
a wayward punk trying another music scene.
Everywhere you go you check the "left of the dial":
a place to find something new and familiar.
There's a sense that the music is important--
"Which side are you on?"
Though there's a fear that it's a trap:
"You grow old in a bar."
And the needs of the music can interfere with
the personal: they might have stayed together
if not for the need to play apart. Throughout this song, the
personal and the cultural
"It's sad moving on." are intermixed.
Quoting someone else discussing this song:
https://medialoper.com/certain-songs-1875-the-replacements-left-of-the-dial/
"Here’s the thing about being a college radio DJ in the
1980s: I felt connected to something bigger. Something
potentially world-changing. It’s hard to explain, but a
whole universe of bands were held together by nothing more
than fanzines, apartment couches, alt-weeklies and college
radio. But nothing less than, too. We had the sincerity
and certainty of youth that all of these bands were better
than most of what was being played on the commercial rock
stations, and that we had a mission to get their music out
to other people who would appreciate that."
That's pretty good, and true enough, but there's something
missing there. What was the music *about* really?
What did we expect from it, what were we really trying to do?
As for the proper word to describe this song, let's
reach into my bag of labels for "resonant".
It resonates with your own experience, with your own
history, with a time and a place where you were
aiming low but reaching as high as you could,
and hoping to strike hard and deep.
Back to the verse:
Pretty girl keep growing up, playing make-up, wearing guitar
Growing old in a bar. You grow old in a bar.
This is (or can be) a pretty hard
hitting transition, from growing I get the sense that Westerberg
up to growing old-- was getting over alcohol at this
point ("Here Comes a Regular").
There's perhaps a problem with
these lines being a bit too "The Replacements" had a rep as
condescending... erratic, drunken wildmen, but he
was watching his lead guitarist--
Condescention of course is Bob Stinson-- lose it, and ended
something of a tradition in up throwing him out of the band
rock, certainly since the in '86. Bob Stinson died in '91.
60s when the young radicals
weren't shy of calling out
the Older Generation,
sometimes with some justice--
Also fairly common in rock is
condescention toward women--
often with much less justice--
and unfortunately it's not
unusual in Replacements songs
(e.g. "Waitress in the SKy").
This is a pretty good example of
it: "playing make-up, wearing What I think is funny here
guitar"-- when Lynn Blakey was though, is the words are
invited to tour as a guitarist *also* a bit confusing, the
it's unlikely it was just because lyrics here are a little hard
she looked good posing with one-- to remember-- I think it's an
as far as I can tell (e.g. from example of Westerberg turning
"Oh OK" videos from around then) phrases around to try to be
she could play. clever-- I bet the line he
originally wrote was:
wearing makeup, playing guitar
If I'm right, that dismissive
phrase "wearing a guitar" was
an artificat of this "reverse
the cliches" impulse of his,
it could be he was more
interested in the idea of
"playing makeup".
That one is common enough to
call a syndrome: guys going
for the pretty girls, then
criticizing them for the work
they put in on it.
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