No matter how many colorful words are written about the greatness of the Replacements, they will always remain perpetually underrated. That's because their excellence can scarcely be measured, as the Minneapolis band managed to craft some of the greatest songs of the 1980s, helped define one of the most critical underground movements in music history and generally push buttons and envelopes for the duration of their existence. He was forced out of the group in 1986, and the rest of the band splintered in 1991, but all hope of reconciliation ended on this day in 1995 when founding member and lead guitarist Bob Stinson passed away at his home in Minneapolis.
Stinson, a formidable six-string player, formed the band (originally called Dogbreath) with drummer Chris Mars and his younger brother Tommy on bass (Tommy was only 11 years old when he first started playing in a band with Bob). The trio jammed on '70s rock staples without a singer before meeting Paul Westerberg, who joined the group as a singer and second guitarist. A power struggle began almost immediately, as while the three core members of the group were mostly into partying, Westerberg was an organized taskmaster who demanded focus.
That pull between two poles is evident on the early Replacements recordings. Their 1981 debut Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash is a sloppy masterpiece, full of raw energy and kinetic playing barely held together by Westerberg's evolving sense of melody. Eventually, Bob Stinson's freewheeling guitar playing and manic approach to production was tempered by Westerberg, and the subsequent Replacements recordings became more stately and refined. By the time the group signed to a major label and released 1985's Tim, the band had become one of the finest underground pop concoctions of all time.
But things came to a head in 1986. Around the time the group started recording the demos for 1987's Pleased to Meet Me, Bob Stinson either left on his own due to the ever-widening creative rift between himself and Westerberg, or he was dismissed from the band because of a drug and alcohol problem. Undaunted, Bob Stinson formed a short-lived band called Model Prisoner and then a longer-term outfit called Static Taxi. Neither band gained much attention or success outside of the immediately Minneapolis area, and Static Taxi were broken up by 1991. Bob then joined the ever-rotating lineup of a band called Shotgun Rationale before playing briefly in a group called Dog 994 and ending his musical life with the Bleeding Hearts.
Bob Stinson was a beloved founder of one of the most important bands to ever plug in an amp and trash a stage, and his musical legacy has been undersold a bit because the most successful and recognizable Replacements songs (notably "Can't Hardly Wait") were recorded without him. Still, the early Replacements albums are all excellent, and the energy and beauty captured in songs like "Bastards of Young" has rarely been repeated since.
