Tommy Stinson

Are you, um, are you gonna be running video too with this or just the, just the audio?

Easy enough to argue that Tommy Stinson made the right decision.

Uh, I, I'll run both, but if, if you don't wanna be on video, that's fine.

Of course, The Replacements haven't really been a growing concern since about the time I moved.

Oh, uh, Cream Magazine.

Well, that's probably enough of an intro.

It's time to let Tommy Stinson-

My, mine's not nearly as impressive as yours.

From their debut EP, followed up by one full-length LP, this was called When Squirrels Play Chicken.

In his first post-replacements band, Bash & Pop, Tommy Stinson channeled Keith Richards for his guitar playing.

By the time he forms the band Perfect, he has rediscovered Dave Davies, Tommy Bolan, and Jimmy Page.

The guitar is crunchier and glam-tastic.

And if you look at the footage of their 1986 performance...

i think it's great rock and roll but apparently lauren michaels thought otherwise and he banned them indefinitely from the tonight from the uh or from saturday night live i guess um which uh i guess holds the same space as the tonight show i don't know what the deal is but anyway they were banned i guess from 30 rock for for many many years but they made a return last night paul westerberg and tommy stinson the only surviving members in the current lineup of the replacements it was a good show and they played well So take a lick and still keep ticking.

It's The Replacements.

This is from the Tim album.

All right, so this week, given that Jim Hanke helped us with one of our categories, I just have two.

As always, the Tommy Stinson Award, of course, named for the great Tommy Stinson of The Replacements.

This award goes to an underrated member of the band or album-making team who quietly helped make it what it is.

This Tommy Stinson Award, probably to no one's surprise, goes to the producer, Jay Robbins.

While it feels a little obvious...

This is the person who helped the band unlock its sound and chemistry on the previous album.

Today, we're diving into how The Replacements' chaotic Saturday Night Live set turned a punk staple into an instant myth and a lifetime ban.

Back in January of '86, The Replacements, Paul Westerberg fronting, Tommy Stinson on bass, Chris Mars on drums, and Slim Dunlap freshly joining on lead guitar, were riding the crest of a career that had moved from Minneapolis underground to national consciousness after Tim and its follow-up, Let It Be.

Their sound, raw and unapologetically unpolished, had caught the eye of Lorne Michaels, who wanted a band that could inject some gritty realness into the otherwise sanitized SNL lineup.

The buzz surrounding their live shows, over twenty-minute rants of angst in the Twin Cities and on tours, was turning into something the mainstream was desperate to catch.

So I'm trying to figure out how to get around that.

Needless to say, um if i was to start a patreon i want you guys to give me help me with some ideas one of those things i thought about is having a level where i would repost old shows that are no longer available like maybe some of my interviews my tommy stinson interview maybe my cj ramon interview Maybe have a level where those that are at that level get some say in the songs that I play or the themes that I have.

I don't know.

If you've got some ideas, please let me know.

Tokyo.

There's old pictures of Tommy Stinson with Rickenbacker.

That's all he played up until Tim.

yeah

Each episode, I talk to a creative person about their work and how their memory affects the stories they tell others, as well as the stories they tell themselves.

Today, I have none other than Tommy Stinson as my guest.

I've always said that my all-time favorite band is my hometown Heroes 3 placements, and Tommy was, of course, the bass player for that band.

He also did a long stint in Guns N' Roses and has put out some great records on his own and with his band Bash N' Pop.

He's one of my rock and roll heroes, and I'm so happy to have him here on the podcast.

Here's how it went.

Tommy Stinson, thank you for joining us on That's How I Remember It.

I'm so pleased.

Yeah, I got a few here.

So the one staple that we do every episode is the Tommy Stinson Award.

Of course, named for the great Tommy Stinson of The Replacements, this award showcases an under-celebrated member of the band or team who helped make this album possible for this era of Jimmy's recordings, where the songs always seem to be floating a few inches off the ground.

Hendrix needed someone who could keep the music in constant motion, but who could also somehow manage to keep themselves out of his considerable gravity pull.

And that person was John Graham Mitchell, a.k.a. Mitch Mitchell.

Even later, after the experience broke up, he took on another amazing drummer named Buddy Miles, but then kind of eventually brought Mitch back into the fold.

Kind of like if you love something, set it free.

And Jimmy would always set Mitch free only to come back together, which to me is the absolute definition of what a Tommy Stinson Award recipient should represent.

see your gospel, I don't hear your tears

After the demise of Bash & Pop, Tommy Stinson formed another band called Perfect.

He was signed to Medium Cool Records, which was owned by Peter Jesperson, the former owner of Twin Tone Records.

It was kind of a side label.