Replacements – Color Me Impressed

***I have posted my 10 favorite covers of Beatle songs at Keith’s site nostaligicitalian ***

This song was off of the 1983 album Hootenanny. This was their third release and second album. The album was all over the place style wise but it works.

For the album cover they found a  1963 Crestview Records folk sample album and changed the type.

The original                                      The Replacements Hootenanny

Hootenanny (1962, Vinyl) - DiscogsHootenanny (The Replacements album) - Wikipedia

What first caught my ear was the unorthodox solo that Bob Stinson played. You can hear the feedback from the guitar before he starts it.

The band never sold many records but they influenced many musicians and as it turns out movie makers.

Daniel Waters wrote the black comedy “Heathers” movie in 1989. He was such a fan of their music that Waters peppered his script with Replacements references…from the school being Westerburg High (the spelling of Paul’s surname was changed at the urging of a film exec who felt that the name Westerberg seemed “a little too Jewish” for a Midwestern high school) to male lead J.D. (Christian Slater) and one of the Heathers saying, “Color me impressed.”

He also wanted to use a Replacements song in the credits but there was no money to buy the rights.

Paul Westerberg about Hootenanny: “You could hear me more or less trying to find my voice, or trying to find out where I fit in…a way of trying to fuse what I had been listening to growing up into what was happening at the time.”

Color Me Impressed

Everybody at your party
They all look depressed
Everybody dressin’ funny
Color me impressed

Stayin’ out late tonight
Won’t be gettin’ any sleep
Givin’ out their word
Because that’s all that they won’t keep

Put the party on the mirror
Oh shit, pass the bill to Chris
Intoxicated lover ending our french kiss

Can you stand me on my feet?
Can you stand me on my feet?

(Everybody)

Everybody at your party
They don’t look depressed
And everybody’s dressin’ funny
Color me impressed

Color me impressed
Color me impressed
Color me impressed
Color me impressed
I call it out

…

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.

25 thoughts on “Replacements – Color Me Impressed”

    1. Yea so what did I do after I wrote it and found out? I watched that movie for the first time since the early nineties…yea it’s just as dark as I remembered.

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      1. I was having a look for it on the streaming services!

        I haven’t watched it in a long time, but it was a real favourite on account of it being dark (and starring Winona). I think the last time I watched it was about 20 years ago…

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      2. Oh yes Winona…it was nice seeing her in this again. It’s worth seeking out. I have the DVD of it from a sale a long time ago.

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      3. I don’t know why I never picked up the DVD. Most of the movies I had on VHS were eventually ‘upgraded’ long ago, but Heathers seems to have been missed. I’ll definitely need to rectify that.

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      4. I’m not sure where you can stream it. Yea the first thing I do is turn a DVD into a media file and stream it from my computer to my tv…easier to get to!

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  3. Cool trivia… I saw ‘Heathers’ back in the day but didn’t like it too well, but now I can’t remember much of it either way. Winona was quite watchable in the day so maybe it’s worth a re-viewing. Like the Ramones, the Replacements had the rawness that would be influencing a new generation of musicians but I guess by and large were too unpolished for the mainstream

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    1. This was right before the big albums came out…some after this album had chances…them and REM were about in the same place at this point…in their careers. Both were about to be signed to a big record company.

      It’s black black comedy…very dark. Back then I watched it and I couldn’t believe it….not as shocking now BUT after what has happened at schools…not so unbelievable now.

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    1. First time I saw this movie…I couldn’t believe the black humor…but when I saw Slater I thought of a young Jack Nicholson right away.

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    1. Yes she was and she tracked him down…I have a strange fondness for Treatment Bound…I reisisted picking that one….I do like Within Your Reach also.

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      2. Yes it is… you can see some development on this one compared to Stink but yea they go to another league with Let It Be.

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  7. Thats the key in what you wrote Max. They never sold any records but they influenced a lot of musicians. Magazines like Cream loved these guys as that is where I first read/heard about them.

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    1. Man they shot themselves in the foot so much. Imagine 4 Keith Moons…it’s not that simple but they were also all afraid of success. Their material coming up after this album was awesome…good enough for some hits.

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