Far from Paisley Park: a Replacements Map of Minneapolis

Rock is dead. Many of today’s headliner bands made their first music decades ago. Like The Replacements. The ‘mats [1] produced seven seminal albums between 1979 and 1991. They were resurrected in 2012. And are currently in the middle of a transatlantic tour, to the delight of fortysomethings in Chicago, DC, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and London, among other cities.

This map was made in celebration of an earlier Replacements show. It’s a fittingly nostalgic tribute to the paradoxical phenomenon of a youth rebellion entering its dotage [2]. The map takes a trip down memory lane, in this case located in Minneapolis.

In pop geography, Minnesota’s metropolis is synonymous with Paisley Park, Prince’s psychedelic utopia [3]. But the Twin Cities also famously were the stomping grounds of Paul Westerberg c.s.

Take the Harmony Building on 200 N. Third Street (#5 on this map), the site of a 1982 Replacements concert broken up by the police. The interruption was later used as the opening for Stink, an EP released the same year. Many fans will be able to repeat the message verbatim:

“Hello… this is the Minneapolis police… the party is over […] If you, if you all just grab your stuff and leave, there won’t be any hassle. The party’s been closed. The party is over with; grab your stuff and go, and nobody goes to jail!”

Other venues played by The Replacements include the Walker Art Center (#2), First Avenue (#3), The Longhorn (#7), the Cabooze (#8), Duffy’s (#13), and the Sons of Norway (#16).

The detailed legend to this beautiful map lists a number of rock anecdotes connected to these places: how the line “We are the sons of nowhere” in the song “Bastards of Young” may have been inspired by the name of that last venue, for example. Or how Bobby Stinson once played a whole set at Duffy’s wearing a London Fog raincoat and his guitar, and nothing else. Also marked on the map is the Bob Stinson Memorial Bench (#15) near Lake of the Isles — the guitarist died in 1995.

Further sites of pilgrimage for ‘mats fans include the original HQ for Twin/Tone Records (#1), the label that put out all the early Replacements stuff; Blackberry Way Studios (#6), where they recorded much of it; Oar Folkjokeopus (#10), the record store where the band used to hang out (now Treehouse Records); and the apartment of Peter Jesperson (#11) owner of the aforementioned record store and founder of Twin/Tone.

Rather atypical for the otherwise music-soaked tour are Incarnation School (#17), the Catholic school attended by singer Westerberg, and Butler Square (#4), where he worked as a janitor for a Republican senator in his pre-Replacements days.

But the jewel in the crown is the old Stinson House on Bryant Avenue (#9), which has a special place in Replacements mythology. Several special places, in fact. On his walk home from work, Westerberg first heard his future band mates — then still called Dog’s Breath — play music, and hid in the bushes to hear them finish their set of covers of Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and Yes. The early Replacements rehearsed in the basement. And the cover picture of Let it Be (theirs, not the Beatles’) was taken of the band sitting on the roof of this house.

Dead or not, rock deserves great maps like these (and so does Minneapolis). Find it in its entirety here on the Tumblr page of its creator, the artist Kevin Cannon (check out the rest of his page for more great maps). The “lyrics” to the map were provided by Pat Ganley, and were mostly based on All Over But the Shouting, Jim Walsh’s book about The Replacements.

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Strange Maps #711

[1] Slur the word “Replacements” (easily done after drinking a few beers) and it sounds like “placemats”, hence their nickname.

[2] “Rock music: the sound of old stones” (Peter Ackroyd: The Plato Papers)

[3] After Prince’s eponymous 1985 single: “Admission is easy, just say U / Believe and come 2 this / Place in your heart / Paisley Park is in your heart”. Later also the name of Prince’s record label and recording studio, completed in 1988, in Chanhassen, southwest of Minneapolis.