A Replacement for The Replacements
September 1, 2003
by Michael Walls

I lost a Replacements CD. Not just any Replacements CD – my favorite Replacements CD – Don’t Tell a Soul.

It happens. You move CDs around, from the house to the car to the office. You loan them out or they simply fall behind the entertainment center or the couch cushions.

After a good-effort search, I determined it was gone. Not really a problem. I’ve had it for nearly 10 years and it was probably worn out from being in continuous rotation all those years. So it was time for a replacement for my Replacements CD anyway.

Ebay is usually my internet tool of choice for purchasing older CDs. I figured I could probably pick it up for $5 or $6 plus shipping.

I had mixed emotions upon seeing a list of about a dozen copies of Don’t Tell a Soul for sale with nobody bidding of them – each priced at $1.

First off, what kind of deaf music listener would sell a Replacements CD? And second – for anything less than $5? It was all I could do to keep myself from buying all copies for sale and handing them out as Christmas gifts to all my tone deaf co-workers and family members.

It seemed like a crime against art, but I went ahead and purchased a random copy of Don’t Tell a Soul from some Ebayer for a buck. After shipping, the total cost ran me about $2.60.

About 7 days later my new used Replacements CD came in the mail. The same day, I was taking a shop-vac to the family minivan and sucked up my original missing Don’t Tell a Soul CD from underneath one of the seats. So now I had two copies of my favorite CD. I promptly stuck the new used CD on my shelf and left my old copy in the car.

(click on picture for a larger image)

A full year went by and one morning recently, I grabbed some CDs off the shelf to restock my truck. I grabbed Don’t Tell a Soul. It was the Ebay version, which I could tell because the jewel case was in good shape and the disc was nice and shiny. Sitting in my truck in the driveway, I opened it up to play it and a photo fell out onto my lap. The white backside had a stamp that read POLAROID with a number on it. When I flipped it over I saw this photo: a picture of Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson holding guns to their heads. Apparently, just goofing around in some sort of studio photo shoot, of which this was probably a Polaroid test print.

I was pretty surprised and realized I had never even opened the CD when I bought it. I did a search through my email and Ebay account to see if I could track down the seller and find out some info about it, but it was too long ago. I doubt the seller even knew it was in there.

I’m sure there’s an interesting story behind the picture, but for now it’s my own Replacements souvenir – that cost me $2.60.

(Michael Walls is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine.)