I got in on The Replacements at the very end of their career. I had heard about them, but hadn't really taken time to listen to them. I saw the album, All Shook Down in the cut outs at the record store and decided to give them a chance. I was not disappointed.
These were the days before the internet. It was in the early 1990's when I bought their LP. This was before Wikipedia provided instant information on bands and musicians. This was before Youtube. I couldn't go listen to a few The Replacements songs to check them out. I couldn't go to Spotify or Pandora or Last FM. I had to either find a fan of the band and go to their place and give them a listen, or borrow their albums or cassettes.
If I had been able to, I might have gotten into this band much earlier. The Replacements, under the leadership of songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist, Paul Westerberg, are considered the godfathers of alternative rock. I've never really been sure if I understood what the genre actually is. Alternative rock almost seems to be the umbrella under which any form of rock fits, when it doesn't fit. Misfit Rock might be another way to talk about alternative rock. What's ironic is that alternative rock has become mainstream, so it no longer is misfit or alternative. Go figure.
The Replacements were a Minneapolis based band who started out very punk rock oriented.They were notorious for performing drunk and or stoned. This was a garage band that built a strong Midwestern following and eventually signed with a major label. Even though rock historians give The Replacements a vaulted place as being major league influential, they never really achieved commercial success.
The album All Shook Down had more success than most of the band's releases. Interestingly the album was recorded using hired studio musicians under the direction of Paul Westerberg. The band broke up not long afterwards. Even still, the album was nominated by the Grammy Awards as the best alternative music album.
Merry Go Round was an instant personal favorite for me. I love the song. It hit #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks charts for four consecutive weeks. When I think of The Replacements, Merry Go Round is the song I think of.
Give it a look see. http://youtu.be/uac_KQn9Q-M
Merry Go Round
Songwriter: Paul Westerberg
And they watched you wear
The clothes they claimed that they bought
They brought you down
To watch the merry-go around
In fall, you knew how much it cost
A trouble doll around your neck when you lost
You wouldn't make a sound
But I could hear your little heart pound
And I watched your feet slip off the ground
Merry go round in dreams
Writes 'em down, it seems
When she sleeps, she's free
Merry go round in dreams
You wake to another day and find
The wind's blow'in out of key with your sky
Only you can see
And the rain dancin' in the night
Everybody stands around in daylight
Merry go round in dreams
Writes 'em down, it seems
When she sleeps, she's free
Merry go round in dreams
And everybody thinks she's sick
She's got two worlds she can pick
And she's sad
Hush is the only word you know
And I stopped listening long ago
They ignored me with a smile
You as a child
But the trouble doll hears your heart pound
And your feet say goodbye to the ground
Merry go round in dreams
Writes 'em down. it seems
When she sleeps, she's free
Merry go round in dreams
Merry go round in dreams
Merry go round in me
Merry go round
Round and round in me
Merry go round
Round and round in me
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The lyrics are somewhat sad and just vague enough that you can read all kinds of stuff into them. That's what's great about art. The lyrics serve up images and pieces which we try to put together into a coherent portrait. Our interpretation is actually a mirror image of ourselves.
Some think of this song as a tribute to the childhood of Paul Westerberg and his sister Mary. They grew up with little means and when other kids were getting new clothes each fall, they were wearing hand me downs and stuff from Goodwill or garage sales.
The first line takes us right into a child's life at home. "A 'hush' was the first word you were taught." That says a lot about the kind of parents this kid had. They raised their kids under the belief that children are meant to be seen, but not heard. Hushing them is a gag order. I'll assume the singer feels the pain of not being invited to share his thoughts.
The parents who shush you also lie to you, when they claim they bought you new clothes, when they are truly hand me downs given to them from others. Perhaps they didn't have the means and their pride would not allow them to be honest with their little ones. A childhood remembrance is of trips to the park to watch a merry go round, to ride upon it and enjoy your feet flying off the ground.
"They brought you down" may serve as a double entendre. It means her parents took the little girl down to the park to watch the merry go round, but it also means the parents brought her down emotionally. The merry go round is a metaphor, for those troubling thoughts that we keep going over in our head and hearts. Unresolved pain, anger, sadness, and fears can keep us going round and round in circles, spinning to their twisted melodies inside us.
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| Trouble Dolls (aka worry dolls) from Guatemala |
The little girl was aware enough of her parents' posing, and lying to her, that she told her troubles to a trouble doll. The tradition of the trouble doll goes back to the Mayan people of Guatemala. A small fabric doll is fashioned and given to their children. They can whisper their worries and troubles to the doll and place the doll under their pillow. In the morning the doll has taken their worries away.
Westerberg uses the trouble doll image to speak about his compassionate concern for the little girl and her internal pain that she has carried for years. She wears her childhood pain into her adulthood like a doll around her neck hanging in a pouch. She has grown silent and isolated, but the singer knows she hurts. He can "hear her little heart pound."
The picture of depression, a popular form of spiritual torment and mental illness in our modern world, is a haunting one. The girl is only free of it when she sleeps. And even in her dreams sometimes she thinks of things she must write down, perhaps in a diary. Do these things help her cope, or do they continue her torment?
I can't help but think of the adult girl with her feet off the ground as another double meaning. As we spin on a merry go round our feet fly outward off the ground with the centrifugal force. But what if Westerberg is singing about a girl who hanged herself in despair? Hanging from her noose, her feet are off the ground and her body is spinning ever so slowly. (I've seen too many murder mysteries!)
It's not too far fetched when you consider the pain this girl carries. She feels alienated from her surroundings. The wind is out of key with her sky. She feel alienated from others. They stand in daylight, while she feels like she is under the dark clouds of a rainy night. Everybody knows there's something wrong with her. She has to choose, whether she will continue to live in this world with the depression and pain she faces daily, the merry go round of emotions and troubling thoughts, or the world of eternal sleep. If sleep is the only time she is free, perhaps eternal sleep looks most inviting.
The singer admits he's not like her. She continues to mourn silently obeying old voices that tell her to "hush." He's moved on and stopped listening to gag orders. Perhaps something happened to her that required secrecy. Three to four women out of every ten are sexually molested before the age of 18. Secrecy is what keeps the child under the power of their perpetrator.
One last thought on the image of feet going off the ground. Westerberg was familiar with drug abuse. He could be implying the feeling of getting high from drugs. That euphoric sensation, that comes from pill popping and grass toking, or shooting up, relieves the tortured soul for a brief period. If she can deaden her senses she can escape from this painful place, this accursed ground, and fly away in the ether. Like the merry go round, she isn't going anywhere, but in circles. It's only part of an addictive cycle spinning round and round.
What does my faith have to say about the merry go round? I've been there. I've lived with severe depression. I know the plague of troubling thoughts, from which there seems no escape. I did consider suicide at one time. And I was slowly trying to kill myself with drugs and alcohol. I was one of the fortunate ones who survived. I found a way out through my faith in God to heal me.
Jesus met a man tortured by demons. He lived in the tombs among the dead. He cut himself with stones. He was not able to be bound. He broke the chains and rain naked and screeching in the night. (Mk 5:1-5) This man met Jesus and screamed at him.
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. (Mk 5:6-10)Jesus cast the demons out of the man and they possessed a herd of pigs, which promptly ran into the lake and drowned. The formerly possessed man was now sane, in his right mind, fully clothed and sitting at the feet of Jesus.
This story resonates with me. I've felt crazy like the man described in the story. I've felt that out of control. Jesus helped me name my demons, just as he did them man in the story. Jesus told me to claim His power, just as he exerted his power to exorcise the man's demons. And Jesus tamed my visceral rage, just as he tamed the man. I like thinking of myself, like that man, fully clothed in Christ, in my right mind, which is the mind of Christ, and sitting at the feet of Jesus. In that place I feel such gratitude. In that place I feel free.
Lord, You are the Son of the Most High God. You are God on earth. You are God in me. Continue to set us free from the merry go round of troubles and worries and persistent pains, that we might get off the merry go round and choose the abundant life. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.
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