Blast from the Past

This doesn't refer to the terrible film starring Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone, but rather a particular favourite band of mine, the Replacements.

I've had a rare evening in by myself, accompanied by my good friends red wine, chicken and potatoes. Lately I've been revisiting the Replacements' back catalogue, particularly the song 'Left Of The Dial'. It's somewhat of a paean to the US indie scene of the mid-80's, mixed in with Paul Westerberg's trademark songs of loss and regret. The title refers to the college radio scene where the more 'alternative' stations were (hopefully still are) located in the upper register of FM frequencies, and the act of turning the tuning dial to left to reach them. The song is allegedly about a particular female from another 80's indie band that Westerberg had a 'thing' with whilst playing the college circuit, and during the long drives between shows he would often try and find stations that could have possibly been playing her songs at any given time. The final lyric from this song is particularly poignant -

'And if I don't see ya, in a long, long while

I'll try to find you
Left of the dial'

It's a song that bands like the Gaslight Anthem have admitted that had it never been committed to tape, their current existence may not be so. But anyway, I thought I'd share it as it's one of my favourite songs, possibly even in my top ten of all time. Listen and enjoy, and please excuse the visuals. Not quite sure what that's about.