Rhino / Wea
2006
Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?
About This Album
Great as the Replacements were, it's a little difficult to recommend one of their great albums as an introduction to the band. Sure, it's easy to see Let It Be as a masterwork of the '80s underground, capturing the group's ragged humor and heart, but it doesn't quite illustrate the depth of Paul Westerberg's songwriting the way Tim did, even if that record wasn't as ferocious as Let It Be, nor did it have the slick diversity of Pleased to Meet Me -- and none of the three had the raw, raucous kick of the 'Mats' first three albums (they also didn't have the desperate-for-a-hit vibe of Don't Tell a Soul or the sadly beautiful hangover of All Shook Down, but that's another matter entirely). It could be argued that any of those three would be effective intros, but the Replacements truly needed a compilation. Of course, they already got one in 1997, when Reprise issued All for Nothing/Nothing for All, containing one disc of hits and one of rarities, but due to legalities, it had nothing from the band's Twin/Tone work, which meant it had nothing at all from anything before Tim -- a severe handicap for a career overview to overcome. Released nearly a decade later, Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements trumps its predecessor for the mere fact that it does contain cuts from Twin/Tone -- eight of them, in fact, sampling from Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, Stink, and Hootenanny in addition to three selections from Let It Be.
Track List (try tracks 1,18,19 and 20)

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