The Replacements – Skyway

I’ve been listening to the Replacement recently after I read a post on them by Aphoristical. I listened to them quite a bit in the eighties but lost touch at the end of the decade…

This song is on the band’s 1987 album Pleased To Meet Me. The band was formed in band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1979. Skyways are one of Minneapolis’s signature features. They are second-story pedestrian bridges between buildings that are called skywalks or skybridges.

The album peaked at #131 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1987. It’s a gorgeous song…

Paul Westerberg: It’s our own little private song for Minneapolis. They’re basically the sidewalks above the streets, because it’s too cold in the winter to walk, and the businesses, y’know, feel they won’t get people to come downtown. It’s like you can walk for miles and not ever go outside. You can walk around the whole city through the skyway system. And it’s generally the people who are shoppers and [who] work. And so this song was sort of written from the point of a guy who’s like myself who — I don’t go up in the skyways, y’know. [laughs] What do I have to do up there? I never go shopping or anything. So I sit down there and watch the people walk by. 

Skyway

You take the skyway, high above the busy little one-way
In my stupid hat and gloves, at night I lie awake
Wonderin’ if I’ll sleep
Wonderin’ if we’ll meet out in the street

But you take the skyway
It don’t move at all like a subway
It’s got bums when it’s cold like any other place
It’s warm up inside
Sittin’ down and waitin’ for a ride
Beneath the skyway

Oh, then one day, I saw you walkin’ down that little one-way
Where, the place I’d catch my ride most everyday
There wasn’t a damn thing I could do or say
Up in the skyway

Skyway
Skyway (sky away)

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

24 thoughts on “The Replacements – Skyway”

  1. That is my favorite Replacements album- I always have thought of “Skyway” and “Can’t Hardly Wait” which end the album- as kind of one song- although I know they are two separate songs- they just seem to flow together well.

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      1. LOL! God forbid you have a diesel. My across-the-street neighbor in TX had a huge Ford Excursion with a diesel. No colder than TX gets, he had to have a heater for that thing or it wouldn’t turn over.

        There is actually more than one screw loose.

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      2. Not for me in the cold….no way at all. It’s just too damn cold up there. My old boss offerered me a Network Admin job 12 years ago…he worked there for a while but it went out of business….so cold and without a job.

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  3. I had “Pleased To Meet Me” on tape in the 80s. That sounded very adventurous, moody, punky noise, sometimes melodic and thoughtful. The whole album sounds like it was played from the gut.

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  5. A nice song. I’ve heard of The Replacements, but am not very familiar with their music. I hate to admit this, but until a few years ago, I was mainly a singles guy. If an artist or band did not have a hit song on the charts or get airplay on mainstream radio between 1960 and up to around 2013, I just wasn’t aware of their music. I’m still playing catch-up, and I no longer listen to mainstream radio either.

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    1. I found out about them through friends…that was about the only way in the 80s unless you listened to college or alternative stations.
      At one time if I liked the single would go get the album like I did with the Kinks, Moody Blues, etc…I haven’t done that in a long time though. I’m catching up also.

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    1. No problem…I’m glad you eased me back into listening. He could really be both.

      This song is beautiful…it has… to me anyway…the same feel of Darling Be Home Soon by the Lovin’ Spoonful…probably just me.

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    1. Yes I am…. that post of Graham’s reawaken my love of their music. One of those bands that I just stopped for some reason listening to.

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  8. Pingback: The Replacements – Can’t Hardly Wait – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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