The two songs The Replacements wrote in response to a U2 hit
Songwriting inspiration comes in many forms, often derived from emotions of love, joy, or heartbreak. However, anger is often the driving emotion behind an artist’s work within the world of punk and alternative rock. In many cases, that anger is directed towards authority or the establishment, but in the case of groups like The Replacements, their anger was often directed towards other musicians. Throughout their discography, a disdain for Irish rockers U2 provided continued songwriting inspiration for frontman Paul Westerberg.
Westerberg is far from being the only person who has had issues with Bono and the gang over the years. From the time the band forced their Songs of Innocence album onto everybody’s iTunes account without consent to Bono’s bizarre yet adamant belief that the IRA was targeting him, the Dublin group has done very little to endear themselves to widespread audiences. Interestingly, U2 and The Replacements both formed during the late-1970s in the wake of the punk revolution, but that is where their similarities stop.
During U2’s first tour of the USA, promoting the 1980 album Boy, Westerberg went along to see the group perform at Uncle Sam’s nightclub in Minneapolis to see what all the fuss was about. Unsurprisingly, the alt-rock progenitor was less than impressed by U2’s offerings, taking particular umbrage with the track ‘I Will Follow’. The Replacements’ songwriter interpreted Bono’s track to be about the ignorance of youth and how young people would blindly follow any cause presented to them,
In reality, the Irish songwriter penned ‘I Will Follow’ about his late mother and her impact on him as a person. Westerberg, with no way of knowing the true inspiration behind the U2 track, quickly set about writing a response to what he viewed as Bono’s ignorant take on the power of youth. In fact, The Replacements felt so strongly about their annoyance at U2 that the band ended up crafting two separate tracks in response to ‘I Will Follow’.
The first response song came with the band’s 1982 EP Stink, which featured the song ‘Kid’s Don’t Follow’. Westerberg does not drown his feelings in ambiguity during the song, declaring the independence and rebellion of America’s youth in the spirit of punk rock, directly opposing the message – or rather, the interpreted message – of U2.
Clearly, that U2 gig in Minneapolis stuck in the mind of The Replacements’ songwriter for quite a while. Years later, in 1984, the band released the single ‘I Will Dare’, featuring Peter Buck of R.E.M. fame. “How young are you? How old am I?” Westerberg questions in the song, again referencing U2’s naive take on adolescence. Not only did the song challenge the complacency of Bono’s songwriting, it also provided a rallying punk cry for America’s youth to question authority.
Notably, ‘I Will Dare’ quickly became one of The Replacements’ defining anthems, encapsulating their shift from punk and hardcore to a sound more akin to later styles of alternative rock. In turn, the song was hugely influential in the development of that distinctive alt-rock sound that would go on to define the independent scene of late 1980s America. Not bad for a song that started out life as a way for the songwriter to express his dislike of U2.
Although Westerberg’s criticism of Bono and the band was rooted in a misunderstanding, the songs that this misunderstanding produced helped to establish The Replacements among the most influential alternative rock outfits of the 1980s. If the singer had the power to look up or talk to Bono about the meaning behind ‘I Will Follow’, the music world might have lost out on some incredibly influential anthems.
