The Replacements are the band that I was referring to yesterday. They were the best band of the eighties for several reasons, but at the top of the list is how they kept the spirit of rock and roll alive in a musically desolate decade. (And yes, I know that I wrote yesterday how I'm going to try to write only positive things and so on, but I had to live through it, OK?) Anyway, I recently read a very interesting book about the 'Mats (short for Placemats, a nickname for the band - it sort of sounds the same, I guess) called The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History (2007) by Jim Walsh, that was written in a very compelling way. Walsh allows the band's story to be told from numerous viewpoints - friends, family, fellow musicians, etc. - and their recollections and thoughts combine to give a sense of how important a story it is. They were a great band, but there is always a sense of ironic detachment in their work, and maybe they were even more interesting because of it. For example, often the central message they conveyed was that they shouldn't be taken seriously, but of course the self-knowledge and intellect that was always apparent underneath the nonchalant wildness said the opposite. I'll be writing more on them tomorrow, but in the meantime you might want to check out one of their "anti-videos": Search The Replacements "Bastards of Young" in YouTube or The Replacements "The Ledge" video in Google.

With the benefit of hindsight, it seems pretty clear that the worst decade in rock history was the eighties. In fact, I've been trying to avoid the subject, because, as I hope you've noticed, I was very much influenced by something Auden once wrote and I've been trying to apply it to this blog. It was something along the lines of there being so much good work that goes unnoticed or unappreciated, that there isn't (or shouldn't be) enough time to write about the things one doesn't like. He was writing about poetry at the time, but I think it's fair to apply the concept to music as well. OK, that being said, I'm going to stay positive about the eighties, and tomorrow I'm going to write about the decade's best band.

I just re-read some of the things that I wrote about the New York Dolls in June, and while most of it is OK, I think I was a little unclear in regard to their musicianship. Their playing, even now, is hard to describe. It contains a lot of energy, and a lot of blues and fifties-rock knowledge, but it's made up of jagged edges. Of course, smoothness was the last thing they were trying for - like many great artists they were interested in shaking an audience up, and they did it really well. Famously, they were proclaimed the best and the worst new group of 1973 by a Creem magazine poll. They were polarizing, in other words, just like their offspring, punk rock, would be a few years later. But it was clear to me, then and now, which side was right. The late, great Frankie Venom (frontman for Teenage Head) put it succinctly: "If you don't like the Dolls, you're not hip." Amen.

If there's a song that captures all of their qualities, it has to be "Personality Crisis", the first track from New York Dolls (1973) - where Johansen's opening seemed to foreshadow the reaction of the world: "Waaaaaaoo/ Yeah, yeah, yeah / Oh no no no no, no no no no/ Ow"

That says it all.

The entrance and opening number of a rock concert is often the most memorable part of the show. I've seen a lot of good ones, but the best by a mile was the Ramones at La Ronde, the island amusement park in Montreal, in the summer of 1991. Because of La Ronde's location (there is a large but contained body of water behind the stage) the band took the opportunity to make a unique and dramatic appearance - by boat. And there they stood, at the bow, never moving, like an album cover, as they slowly made their way toward the crowd that had gone down to the railings to meet them. They looked like rock and roll vikings. No, check that - they were rock and roll vikings. As soon as the gangplank touched down, they went tearing through the hysterical fans - with leather jackets, guitars, and drumsticks - onto the stage, where Dee Dee let loose the immortal words that bring forth rock and roll: "ONE TWO THREE FOUR!!!"

And this was just one of how many unforgettable moments these guys provided. Looking at their career from this vantage point, they seem very philosophically sophisticated - much more than they were given credit for at the time - because they managed to keep in mind that rock and roll is supposed to be fun. Even when they weren't having any themselves - according to the film, End of the Century: The Story of The Ramones (2003), they toured primarily by van and the two principal members, Johnny and Joey, didn't speak for seventeen years (!) - they made sure their audience did.

Johnny Ramone was once asked about his playing in a somewhat patronizing way by an interviewer from a rock mag. His reply was something along the lines of this: "I'd like to see one of the fancy guitar players strum as hard and fast as I do, for as long as I do." So great. So right. No one has ever played the guitar like Johnny Ramone. The excitement that he (and his band, of course) created is still being felt. His playing got to the essence of rock and roll at a time when it was badly needed. How many fancy guitarists have done that? (Suggested viewing: Search The Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop Live Studio Hamburg in YouTube. More on The Ramones tomorrow.)

Loaded (1970) was the fourth and final studio album by the Velvet Underground (until VU and Another View, both of which consist of material recorded before the Loaded sessions, were released in 1985 and 1986 respectively). Like the first three, it's a surprise. The sound of the album is more conventional, due largely to a more conventional rhythm section - Doug Yule had replaced John Cale on bass, and Maureen Tucker was on pregnancy leave. The album's title came from Reed, who correctly felt that the album was "loaded with hits". "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" are both among the greatest rock songs, and "Head Held High" is up there too, in my opinion. There are several examples of the kind of melancholy that it seem like only The Velvets can portray, as well: "New Age", "I Found a Reason", "Sweet Nuthin'" and "Who Loves the Sun" are all beautiful heart-breakers.

Loaded also contains several references to doo-wop, the form of fifties rhythm and blues that uses vocals as instrumentation, which was where Reed's rock interest began. It brought to mind a great line in "Down at the Arcade" from New Sensations, his brilliant 1984 solo album: "It's rooted in the fifties, but its heart's in 1984". Substitute 1984 for whatever year you're living in at the moment and you have a pretty good description of this timeless band.

The Velvet Underground (1969), the group's third album, was a big departure from their previous work. John Cale had left the band at this point, and no time was wasted in getting his replacement, Doug Yule, into the game: he sings the opening track, the majestic "Candy Says", the song that sets the stage for the rest of the album. It incorporates themes and images concerned with loneliness, disappointment, moral decision-making and transcendence. The chord progression is both very unusual and very natural (not an easy combination to achieve): D/ F# minor/ F major/ B7/ E minor/ A7/ D/ A. The F major chord, which occurs between "...says" and "I've come to hate my body" provides a highly chromatic moment that gives the melody a strong feeling of direction - which continues throughout the song. The sound of the album, which also takes its cue from the first track, is completely counter to White Light/White Heat. Here, the band was looking for beauty - and they found it. The lyrics, the melodies, the playing, the instrumentation (which features a lot of acoustic guitar) and above all, the honesty - beautiful is the only word for it. It is without question one of the greatest rock albums ever made, and it never entered Billboard's Top 200. (As was written on a sticker on one of Joe Strummer's guitars: "Ignore Alien Orders".)