The Replacements Announce Tim: Let It Bleed Edition
Anticipated 4CD/1LP box set will be released on September 22nd
Look me in the eye and tell me that you’re satisfied with the mix of The Replacements’ major label debut Tim after all these years.
Didn’t think so, and neither did the ‘Mats, who always felt like the mix finalized by the album’s producer Tommy Erdelyi (aka Tommy Ramone) never quite lived up to their performances on such all-timers as “Bastards of Young,” “Left of the Dial” and the LP’s low-lit closing ballad “Here Comes A Regular.”
Well at long last, the band’s 1985 fan favorite will be given a new lease on life as part of a new box set entitled Tim: Let It Bleed Edition. The 4CD/1LP deluxe set is built around an incredible new mix of Tim by legendary producer/engineer Ed Stasium (Ramones, Talking Heads) and features a collection of previously unheard tracks (Sons of No One: Rare & Unreleased) along with a classic concert from 1986 at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro the week before the Mats’ notorious appearance on Saturday Night Live that got them banned from NBC.
Stasium, a close friend and longtime production partner of the late Erdelyi (who died in 2014), has fashioned the definitive mix of the 11-track Tim that pairs well with a new and improved mastering of the original Tommy Ramone mix also included here.
“I really loved working on this project,” noted Stasium in the press release announcing the box set. “It’s a great record, and now you can hear even better what’s great about it. But the best thing for me was that, in a funny and really beautiful way, I got to work with my dear friend Tommy Erdelyi once again.”
Even before signing with Sire/Warner Bros. in early 1985, The Replacements – singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Chris Mars and lead guitarist Bob Stinson – began recording new material with their musical/spiritual godfather Alex Chilton that January in their hometown of Minneapolis. They followed up by cutting initial demos with Erdelyi in April, then starting the Tim sessions in earnest that summer. Sons of No One: Rare & Unreleased collects all that material, including illuminating alternate versions of songs like “Can’t Hardly Wait,” “Bastards of Young,” and “Hold My Life” – plus a unique and previously unheard original, “Havin Fun,” written by Tommy Stinson, and sung by Westerberg.
The live disc from the Metro, Not Ready For Prime Time, is a soundboard recording from January 1986 captured by the band’s live mixer, the late Monty Lee Wilkes. The 28-song performance finds the original lineup of the band at its final peak, with incendiary versions of Replacements classics (“Color Me Impressed,” “Answering Machine”), rarely played deep cuts (“Mr. Whirly,” “Go”), as well covers of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Sham 69, plus a rare lead vocal turn from Bob Stinson on The Novas’ Minnesota garage rock classic “The Crusher.”
Presented in a 12 x 12 hardcover book – loaded with dozens of previously unseen photos and boasting new cover art – the set features a detailed history of the Tim era written by Mats archivist Bob Mehr, who produced the box with Rhino’s Jason Jones. Mehr, author of The New York Times bestseller Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements, previously won a Grammy award for his album notes to the band’s 2019 Don’t Tell A Soul box set, Dead Man’s Pop.
“After nearly 40 years, Tim remains a charmed collision of intention and accident, a balance of deliberate anthems and tossed-off gems, of raucous release and refined beauty,” Mehr writes, “and a record that perfectly captures the band’s fraught but always compelling ascent on the ladder of success.”
Tim: Let It Bleed Edition will be released on September 22nd via our friends at Rhino.
Track Listing
CD 1: Tim (Ed Stasium Mix)
Hold My Life
I’ll Buy
Kiss Me On The Bus
Dose Of Thunder
Waitress In The Sky
Swingin Party
Bastards Of Young
Lay It Down Clown
Left Of The Dial
Little Mascara
Here Comes A Regular
CD 2: Tim (2023 Remaster)
Hold My Life
I’ll Buy
Kiss Me On The Bus
Dose Of Thunder
Waitress In The Sky
Swingin Party
Bastards Of Young
Lay It Down Clown
Left Of The Dial
Little Mascara
Here Comes A Regular
CD 3: Sons of No One: Rare & Unreleased
Can’t Hardly Wait (Acoustic Demo)
Nowhere Is My Home (Alternate Mix)*
Can’t Hardly Wait (Electric Demo) [Alternate Mix]*
Left Of The Dial (Alternate Version)*
Nowhere Is My Home (Alternate Version)*
Can’t Hardly Wait (Cello Version)*
Kiss Me On The Bus (Studio Demo)
Little Mascara (Studio Demo)*
Bastards Of Young (Alternate Version)*
Hold My Life (Alternate Version)*
Having Fun*
Waitress In The Sky (Alternate Version)
Can’t Hardly Wait (The “Tim” Version) [Alternate Mix]*
Swingin Party (Alternate Version)*
Here Comes A Regular (Alternate Version)
CD 4: Not Ready For Prime Time
Live at the Cabaret Metro, Chicago, IL, January 11, 1986
Gary’s Got A Boner*
Love You ‘Till Friday*
Bastards Of Young*
Can’t Hardly Wait*
Answering Machine*
Little Mascara*
Color Me Impressed*
Kiss Me On The Bus*
Favorite Thing*
Mr. Whirly*
Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out*
I Will Dare*
Johnny’s Gonna Die*
Dose Of Thunder*
Takin’ A Ride*
Hitchin’ A Ride*
Trouble Boys*
Unsatisfied*
Black Diamond*
Jumpin’ Jack Flash*
Customer*
Borstal Breakout*
Take Me Down To The Hospital*
Kids Don’t Follow*
Nowhere Man*
The Crusher*
I’m In Trouble*
Go*
*Previously Unreleased
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