Do You Remember The First Time? #2: The Replacements - Sixteen Blue

The Replacements did more than their fair share of jerking around on and off stage as well as on record, but they nonetheless had an innate ability to write a song that really connected with disaffected teens in a more earnest way than the likes of Nirvana et al ever could or would some 5-10 years later. Singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg's sensitive side is something which came through more and more with each Replacements release, but even as early as Johnny's Gonna Die from 1981 debut Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash!, Westerberg had a way with an affecting lyric.

The Replacements song that I adore above all others is Sixteen Blue from their undisputed classic album, 1984's Let It Be, a song about the sexual confusion and frustration which comes with being a teenager. To be truthful, it's a song I didn't listen to until I was 24, so I can't claim to be the song's target market, but such is the song's power, it almost makes me want to be sixteen again, just so I can connect with it that more resonantly. I love the way Westerberg takes on the role of a kind of sympathetic older sibling who puts his arm round you as the rest of the world seems to be mocking you ("You're looking funny/you ain't laughing are you?"). He's lived through it all, and throughout the song it's like you're confiding in him; "Your age is the hardest age/everything drags and drags" he tells you. The problem faced by the pained teen of Sixteen Blue isn't even as simple as getting the girl; "A girl and a man/a boy and a man/everything's sexually vague/now you're wondering to yourself if you might be gay". Nonetheless, there's a sweet naivety to the song ("You don't understand anything sexual") that no longer quite rings true in a time when teenage pregnancies seem to be ever on the rise.

The song  closes with Westerberg howling as the late, great  Bob Stinson delivers one of his most soaring guitar solos. Along with Unsatisfied (which, as the title suggests, is the Replacements' own  anthem of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction proportions) and Answering Machine (whose line "how can I say I miss you to an answering machine?" depicts the breakdown of one-to-one communication before the days of social networking), Sixteen Blue forms the heart of Let It Be, one which beats just as hard and heavy as it did in 1984.

Listen to Sixteen Blue by The Replacements for a limited time on the Hear The Secret player!