Green On Red – Sixteen Ways…. 80’s Underground Mondays

Since I finished the Replacements as far as taking one song off each of their albums… I’m going to put aside Mondays for some 1980s alternative college radio music  for the next few weeks.

I really like the riff underneath this song being framed by the sixties sounding organ.

I’ve read where someone said about this band…it’s alt.country meets the Replacements. In some songs that is true. Some of their songs sound epic and they were reaching for something big…and many times pulled it off.

Green On Red have been described as Desert Rock, Paisley Underground, Alternative Country-Rock, ‘Garage-Country, and ‘Country-Punk. They made their mark in the 80s touring college towns on the circuit with REM, Replacements, and other alternative bands.

Earlier records have the wide-screen psychedelic sound of first-wave desert rock, while later releases tended more towards traditional country rock. They did not pigeon hole themselves into one style.

This song was on the album “Gas Food Lodging” which becomes their biggest seller and will eventually be credited as a forerunner to alt-country/americana. They would be produced by some great producers such as Jim Dickenson, Glyn Johns, and Al Kooper but could not connect with the masses.

They were active between 1979 to 1992 and they reunited in 2005 to 2006. They shared a bill with a lot of different musicians.

The Replacements at The Ritz (06-20-1986) — The Mckenzie TapesThe Drifter - Darren Stanley

Sixteen Ways

16 kids 16 ways
They shot my babies by mistake
I’m all alone on a midnight ride
My 16 kids all have died

Chorus
They ain’t coming back
It’s too late
They shot my babies but
They killed my faith

I haven’t slept in 14 days
Now it’s time to barricade
Myself in these four walls
My 16 kids all are gone

Chorus

I worked so hard for 40 years
I told myself I had nothing to fear
Then one by one they got shot down
The youngest one held a gun to his ear

Chorus

….

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.

26 thoughts on “Green On Red – Sixteen Ways…. 80’s Underground Mondays”

    1. Me also…I think this will be a fun post every Monday…next Monday the band will be more known but I really like these guys.

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  2. There’s an uplifting start to the week! LOL. I actually really like the music…great sound & melody. I’ve heard the name infrequently but don’ t think I’d heard anything by them before. Surprising because based on this song, sound was perfect for college stations , KROQ etc in 80s

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  3. I saw Green On Red live in the early 80s. I think their masterpiece is “Gravity Talks”. It brings together psychedelia, country and rock in a poetic and sometimes raw emotional intensity. The album was innovative in its time.

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    1. I think some of these alt bands had more popularity in certain regions… with the exception of REM, The Replacements, and a few others.

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      2. From reading that Replacement book…it seemed that all of them had the same circuit….Wisconsin and other places being really big. Any college town of course. So many of them played with each other…sharing the bill in many cases. Look on the post and that picture….”Mike Mills presents the best of US underground”…I want to see what that is.

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  8. Great to see Green on Red here. Gas Food Lodging might be my favourite, though Gravity Talks is a close second. Here Come the Snakes is a good one, but it doesn’t have the same interesting textures.

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    1. I dont’ know much about their story…but many of their songs are radio friendly to a degree…they should have been heard more. Gas Food Lodging is the one I’m most familiar with…I’m checking more out.

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      2. I cannot believe how many bands were around at that time…college bands…not counting the UK…I need to check out some early Los Lobos

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