International Rock Awards_“What the hell are we doing here?” asked an obviously puzzled but amused Paul Westerberg as the ‘Mats kicked into ‘Talent Show.’ Even the voiceover announcer sounds less than thrilled to have to deal with these ragged rockers, introducing them by saying, “We apologize. Here they are, the Replacements.” Even though ‘Talent Show’ is hardly ‘Dope, Guns and F—ing in the Streets’ material, the network, ABC, still had issues with the song. Apparently they felt the line “feeling good from the pills we took” was considered a bit too much for home viewers and censored it from broadcast. Westerberg, seemingly aware of this, rolls his eyes as he sings the line, knowing that nobody at home is going to hear it. But he’d have the last laugh. At song’s end, instead of singing “It’s too late to turn back, here we go,” as it was recorded, Westerberg snottily sang “It’s too late to take pills here we go.” And he did it over and over, likely pissing off the powers that be who thought they had everything safe and sanitized for the viewing audience. -Dave Swanson (May 31, 1989)
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:52:56 +0000