If Only You Were Lonely

There's been a lot of hullabaloo - rightfully so - about the 40th anniversary of The Replacements' fantastic debut album Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Kept off the album at the time was Westerberg's country-soaked classic If Only You Were Lonely, the b-side to I'm in Trouble that started out with him being too embarrassed to show the rest of the band. VIA HERE:

At first Paul resisted, but clearly “If Only You Were Lonely” was too good to ignore, even though — as an acoustic country song — it was miles away from anything else they’d yet recorded. That said, it was even more of a harbinger of the future than “Johnny’s Gonna Die,” as it introduced the concept of acoustic guitars and Paul-only songs. It’s also a fucking hilarious, heartbreaking song.

According to Twin/Tone founder Peter Jesperson in the liner notes of the Rhino reissue, he wanted to use one of Paul’s pretty solo songs — that Paul wasn’t even showing to the band — as the b-side to the planned single of “I’m In Trouble.”

But by the time I discovered them in 1985 or so, the song was already uber-beloved by Replacements fans, so i never had any problem with it myself.And by the time of their "reunion", it was a full-on sing-along (whether it helps the song or not in this case 😬).