Replacements – Hold My Life

There is a reason I like SNL’s first 5 seasons the best, and to me, they never came near that again. Were some of the later seasons just as funny or funnier? Yes, they were, but more rigidly controlled. Why am I bringing this up on a Replacements post? One word…Risk. I like it when actors, comedians, and musicians are on the edge. You know good and well it could break apart at any moment, but somehow they manage to pull it back together at the last minute. Artists who take chances and run the risk of running off the road are exciting. Sometimes a chaos grenade needs to be pitched in to liven things up. No bigger chaos grenade than the Replacements musically. 

One thing that took me a while to learn when I played in various bands, it’s alright to mess up (I don’t mean stupid mental mistakes). As long as you were trying to push the song forward, take chances. I’ve been on stage when a song falls apart. Not a good feeling, but you learn from those things. I noticed the crowd always loved it when you tried different things on the edge.

The crowd was not musicians, but they could feel a car wreck coming, but more often than not, it didn’t come and was pulled back between the lines…but it was the thought of watching a train/car wreck. In other words, the phrase “playing with fire” came into play, but it paid off so many times. After a while, you can control the chaos when you conquer your fear of making mistakes. Then it becomes second nature, and you know how to progress, and the mistakes stop, but the thought/energy doesn’t…so we learned to risk it from time to time. I guess that is why I love the Replacements so much…they perfected that energy. I first learned it from The Who. 

The Replacements are famous for that mentality.  Everything sounds like it could fall apart, and that’s exactly the point. This song is the opening track from the album Tim from 1985. The Replacements had already built a reputation for mixing chaos with something close to truth. It doesn’t ease you in; it drops you right into the middle of the chaos.

The recording came during sessions with producer Tommy Erdelyi, better known as Tommy Ramone. The Ramones drummer pushed the band toward to something tighter, but you can still hear and feel the sharp edges. I always liked the line “Hold my life until I’m ready to use it.” It sounds like a throwaway at first, but it stuck with me. Back then, it sounded like an attitude. Now it sounds more like a question. There’s frustration in it, maybe a sense of being stuck between wanting control and not knowing what to do with it.

This album was their first major label release on Sire Records in 1984. This would be the last album by the original band because Bob Stinson would be kicked out a couple of years later.  Tim was placed 136th on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 137th in a 2012 revised list. The album peaked at #186 on the Billboard Album Chart in 1986.

Hold My Life

Oooo well, well, wellI bought itDown on all foursLet me crawlIf I want ICould dieOh byMy handTime for decisions to be madeCrack up in the sunLose it in the shade

Razzle dazzle razzle drollTime for this one to come homeRazzle dazzle razzle dieTime for this one to come aliveAnd hold my lifeUntil I’m ready to use itHold my lifeBecause I just might lose itBecause I just might lose itBecause I just might lose it

Well, well, wellAnyone could tellClassic aweA lucky shotOoo-leh-doHate ’emSomeday soonFace ’emTime for decisions to be madeCrack up in the sunLose it in the shade

Razzle dazzle razzle drollTime for this one to come homeRazzle dazzle razzle dieTime for this one to come aliveAnd hold my lifeUntil I’m ready to use itHold my lifeBecause I just might lose itBecause I just might lose itBecause I just might lose it

Just my, just my, just myWe might crack up in the sunBut we’ll lose it in the shade

Razzle dazzle razzle drollTime for this one to come homeRazzle dazze razzle dieTime for this one to come aliveAnd hold my lifeUntil I’m ready to use itHold my lifeBecause I just might lose itBecause I just might lose itHold my lifeHold my lifeHold my, hold my, hold my, hold my, hold

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, 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. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

21 thoughts on “Replacements – Hold My Life”

  1. Pingback: Replacements – Hold My Life – MobsterTiger

  5. For those too young to remember, the chorus “Razzle dazzle razzle droll
    Time for this one to come home” comes (with slight alteration) from a cartoon show called “Tooter Turtle”. Tooter was never satisfied with his life and Mr. Wizard would magically transport him to another world where things would always go badly and Tooter had to call on Mr Wizard to rescue him via that magic incantation. The moral imparted by Mr Wizard was always “Be just what you is, not what you is not. Folks what do this has the happiest lot.” (Not far from the lesson Dorothy learns in the Wizard of Oz.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PJIQ6MYJ1Q

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  6. A Ramone tried to get them to tighten up? That’s something! I think it would have been interesting to see what Todd Rundgren would have done with them, but then again, with his personality and theirs, maybe nothing besides assaults would have happened. At least they seemed to have fun!
    Btw, a Happy Easter to you!

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    1. Yea I don’t see them and him at all…hell The Band thought he was too pushy at times…I can only imagine them. They did have fun and produced some exciting music.
      Same to you Dave!

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  7. I never got into the Replacements but I do like their music, but I don’t have any of their albums and they were not played a lot on the radio and I think I read they were repulsed by mainstream radio.

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  9. Great words Max. Neil Young was talking about something similar in his guitar playing. Something about how it was like a car engine running on all cylinders and then it starts to crack up and then get rough. Love this band and song. Two for two on the takes today.

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