Sixteen Blue - The Replacements

Sixteen Blue - The Replacements

4:25

Let It Be, 1984

Written by Paul Westerberg

A ragged, yet tender ballad about the difficulties of adolescence.  "Your age is the hardest age / Everything drags and drags / You're looking funny / You ain't laughing, are you?"  A later, nearly inaudible, line about the youth of the song wondering if he might be gay has most listeners thinking it's about bassist Tommy Stinson, the young one of the bunch.  I don't know anything about any of the Mats' personal lives, so this is news to me and I don't know how it relates, if at all.  The meandering drums and guitar lines keep with the theme of being lost and uncertain.  It's one of those Replacements songs that manages to sound both tossed-off and utterly sincere.

Waitress In the Sky - The Replacements

Waitress In the Sky - The Replacements

2:02

Tim, 1985

Written by Paul Westerberg

In college I knew several people who were heavily into the Replacements.  I never saw the charm at the time, although I did listen to some Westerberg albums on repeat.  This song is from the point of view of a nasty, entitled airline passenger who thinks of the poor hardworking stewardess as "nothing but a waitress in the sky," comparing her derisively to a janitor.   Clearly Westerberg intends the narrator to be the bad guy, but I bet a lot of people have grossly misunderstood the song and identified with the flier.  "Uppity women amirite?!"