The Replacements-Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash (1981)

 

Artist: The Replacements

Title: Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash

Label: Twin/Tone

Format: LP

Cat #: TTR 8123

Year of Release: 1981 

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1981

Sold Price: $44.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG (some spine wear, shelf wear)

Sell Date: 10/9/20

Discogs Last Sold: 9/3/20 NM/VG+ $50.00

Low: $23.53

Median: $51.46

High: $75.00

Current low price: $36.34 VG+ (media, cover not graded), $40.00 VG+/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 14

Have/Want: 1947/1018

Where Sold: Sunset Beach, CA

Time it took to sell: 3 years

Where and When Bought: Strawberries Worcester MA New $7.99 in mid-1985

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A+

Sad To See It Go?: Yes

A bit disturbing to see my sell price drop below the median.  I'm pretty sure this is not a first press with the blue label--I think there was a white one.  Third times the charm, I had a couple people buy this for I think $54.99 then not pay in the last couple years, so I didn't have to go to storage to retrieve it, it was sitting in my bedroom from the last dropped order awaiting my immediate review.  I did buy Sorry Ma brand new in the mid-80's at local downtown mafia record chain store Strawberries long before it was reissued.  In fact, there was a bit of hubbub about the master tapes being tossed into the river by the band for years before it finally got digitized and released on compact disc.  

My journey with the Replacements started in early 1985 when I found a used cassette of Let It Be for $2.99 at That's Entertainment in Worcester, part of my 2 store record rounds within walking distance from where I grew up.  I rarely bought cassettes, but the price was right.  I read a Rolling Stone review that piqued my interest and I had recently got into "hardcore" which The Replacements were considered part of at the time.  Of course, things were so conservative back then in Worcester that you might find The Cars in a "punk" bin.  By mid 1985 I had to go back and get their other albums and I can't remember if the Stink EP or Sorry Ma were the next ones I bought, they might've even been purchased the same day.  The young Replacements actually made it to Worcester around 1983, but I was much too young for that collegiate paradise and really only truly cared about 60's classic rock, 70's hard rock and 80's mainstream metal in my early teens.

My 14-15 year music taste was rapidly accelerating to the fringe in 1985, where I was discovering independent music, starting with the Let Them Eat Jellybeans comp and New Day Rising in early '85.  By the end of the year I was training to be a DJ on WICN to do overnights, and our rock program director took us the month I started in January '86 to see my first all ages club gig at the Living Room in Providence.   This was back when New England club headliners conservatively went on at midnight on a week night (as opposed to NYC where people didn't leave home til 1am to catch a gig).  Neutral Nations opened, I was on the list and didn't have to pay the $5.00 cover and the show was about 3/4 full even with the SNL appearance a couple days before on the major label Tim tour.  By the time they came back to the Living Room in 1987 everything had changed--the show was $10, uncomfortably sold out and Bob Stinson was gone.  Although I deemed Pleased To Meet Me near perfect upon release,  in hindsight the Slim Dunlop era really was a start of a different, far inferior band. For me,  it was very hard to acknowledge incremental decline with recent idols when I was under 18.  Especially if I missed the boat on peak years while the bands were still active.  I was very fortunate to catch the Replacements right at the tail end of their peak period.

My memory for that 1986 show that stands out in my mind is the 'Mats playing "Customer" from Sorry Ma and some guy in a mohawk slamming in a spacious pit.  Spacious when compared to Ramones or Motorhead gigs I saw later that year in the very same 400 capacity venue that was really a 200 capacity stage area that 500 people would squish into.   I much prefer this mental snapshot to being somewhere in the middle of the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium for their reformation show and getting a "deal" on a $50 ticket outside or paying $50 to see the Don't Tell A Soul tour at the Opera House in 1989 before skipping All Shook Down entirely.  

Like most bands, the first album is in the running as the best.  18 short songs, all perfect.  I may give the nod to Let It Be as their high point in a great 80's run, but Sorry Ma is flawless midwestern rock and roll NOT hardcore NOT punk NOT "alternative" whatever that is.  Peter Buck is nowhere to be found here.  Long hair but not hippie.  Flannel shirts cuz Mpls like New England is cold.  Great leads cuz Bob Stinson was great.  A case of Old Mill and "marijuana comin' out of my ears" bar rock.  To be "lazy, white" in the Reagan years still meant you had to get in the van to get anywhere in life.  Even if you were 12 like Bob's younger brother Tommy.   It might be unsustainable, and Bob didn't survive it, nor ultimately did lyric topic Johnny Thunders.    

Now that I think about it, I think I might prefer Sorry Ma to everything else they ever recorded.  It's close.