Andrea Myers at City Pages shares the thoughts that flitted through her head the first time she listened to 49:00.
There seems to be a bit of confusion in blogland about what exactly happened to 49:00 and what 5:05 is (er, make that a lot of confusion). Heather at I am Fuel, You are Friends explains it all clearly and succinctly.
I think someone linked the B+ AV Club reviews in the comments. If you missed it, well, here it is again.
Owl & Bear has a solo acoustic Paul Westerberg set from 1982 available for you to download. Anyone know anything about this show? Or where this might have come from?
The Rocky Mountain News gives a good run-down of alternate means of distribution for musicians and includes a good bit about Our Man Paul’s 49:00 kerfuffle.
I think people that call 5:05 the “missing” song are extremely off base. I don’t pretend to know why 49:00 clocked in at 43:55 (I’m sure Paul had his reasons) but 5:05 is obviously an answer song to having 49:00 pulled.
What’s intriguing is how he incorporates the notion of the “missing” minutes into this new song: it means he is acutely aware of the feedback of his fanbase, which in a way dispels all that “Paul is computer illiterate” hoopla. Maybe his wife or son turns the computer on and/or navigates for him, but there is no way he would’ve slyly and cleverly acknowledged the petty “controversy” without knowing about it.
He wrote and recorded 5:05, it clocked in at 4 minutes and change, and he fleshed it out (to the desired time) with that beginning. Crafty bastard!
Amen! I think you sum it up nicely. And I never thought about the whole computer illiterate/response to the hooha connection.
If the solo show linked above is the show I’m thinking of, it’s real interesting for an off hand comment Paul makes…
Paul introduces Treatment Bound as, “the Ballad of the Replacements. A band that fired me not long ago. Why you wonder? Got me.”
Wondering, indeed.
is it really from 1982?
Yeah, ’82 (as far as we know).
I just checked & this IS the show. The recording 1st surfaced at the tail end of the “Unintentionally” (home demos) boot.
Wanna say I read something about this show, somewhere, but alas is escapes me now…
Walsh’s book maybe?
Could be. I’m really too lazy to get up off the La-Z-Grrl and walk the 3 feet to the bookshelf and look.
That is hike.
Where ever it was, & whatever is said, it didn’t answer many questions, but it did confirm that Paul played an early (& only) solo gig.
I know. I’m really fucking lazy today. It’s noon, I’m still in sweaty workout clothes and haven’t eaten any lunch though I am starving and I only had like 4 hours of sleep last night.
I’ll make ya lunch, if ya mow my yard. Cocktails included.
I actually really like mowing the lawn. It’s like vacuuming, instant gratification. If I had a yard bigger than a postage stamp, I’d totally be a lawn nazi.
This line from the Andrea Myers 49:00 review is guffaw worthy: “He is singing out of tune, and it’s sort of unbearable.”
Sweetheart, it’s only rock-n-roll & he likes it.
‘This line from the Andrea Myers 49:00 review is guffaw worthy: “He is singing out of tune, and it’s sort of unbearable.”’
Ha! I saw that, too – made me wheeze.
Hey, this is my first comment, but I’ve been keeping tabs since I randomly found out about 49 (the day it was supposed to come out, June 49th) and snapped it up. The comments here are freaking me out, like you’re all reading my mind.
Okay, I don’t have anything to say, except – Jodi – great job. And I like the witty reparte. And, aw.. Crackers.
Crackers to you too! I think we’ve determined that is a good thing, right?
Yes. Although I s’pose it could be multi-meaninged, like ‘aloha’.
I like that, it leaves it up to the reader to determine the proper context. Crackers!
…or badass tattoo.
I have a copy of that 82 show and a little background info. Its from a high school gymnasium where Soul Asylum was gonna play, or Pirner solo maybe, and Paul was the opening act.
The end.
I have the tape and dates, ill dig it up.
Im moving to a shiny new house, and in the process found 2 original copies of the SHTF cassettes and covers, a sealed Im in Trouble, a boink on vinyl sealed, a boink on cassette, and some horrifc shots a friend took of me and paul by their bus. It was like xmas.
I just heard Glenn Campbell singing Sadly Beautiful. I dont know what I think. Its not Paul.
Crackers!
Its a duet at the end and has some interesting chorus instramentation.
I actually dig the Glen Campbell thing. But that’s because he was my mom’s all time fave, and Our Man Paul is my all-time fave. you know?
Crackers?
Crackers.
No, I was asking if you cared for any…
Oh yes, please. After sandwiches and m&ms, crackers are my favorite food.
I never realized that “crackers” was the most versatile word in the entire English language. Thank you , https://paulwesterberg.net/wordpress, thank you very much.
We live to serve. Our favorite Paul Westerberg song is Crackers & Drag.
This place is crackers.
All of ya, crackers.
So, how does one convert a flac file to something I can store on my ipod? I can play it on winamp, but stuck on the conversion thing.
You crackers can keep your crackers…
…”for some fun & money & some crackerjack” *belches* is what I’m talkin’ about, yo.
Color Me Cracker.
I’m not sure if Jodi’s comment above “(er, make that a lot of confusion)” is a slight or simply an affirmation of my thoughts on the “missing 5:05” idea, but I’d be curious to know what people think. It seems odd that Westerberg would offer a track that exactly clocked in at a time that completes 49:00 if it wasn’t intentional, but I haven’t seen much speculation about motives.
I meant no slight at all (I save most of my insults and slights for people I know). I called it “missing” too. I think RJ’s comment way up at the top #1 there is pretty spot on.
Of course 5:05 was intentional. And of course the front was backloaded to reach that time. Just listen to the lyrics…
there is no mystery…it is a very straightforward messge.
I mean c’mon (c’mon, c’mon) CRACKERS!!!!!
My favorite Mats bootleg….
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y51/misterblasty/pritz.jpg
hahaha
” Dee Dee Says:
August 13th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
So, how does one convert a flac file to something I can store on my ipod? I can play it on winamp, but stuck on the conversion thing.”
This page will show you how to do this using Winamp and ITunes:
http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/08/14/how-to-convert-flac-files-to-mp3-using-windows/
Good luck!
“Im moving to a shiny new house, and in the process found 2 original copies of the SHTF cassettes and covers, a sealed Im in Trouble, a boink on vinyl sealed, a boink on cassette”
So that’s where I left them!
Jaytaco, just send them back to me and I won’t charge you for renting them all these years. Thanks for taking good care of them!
500 new visitors at Owl&Bear yesterday! A big welcome Westy fans.
Hope you find more interesting things at the site.
Cheers!
Cool!
That’s good man, keep it going.