Westerberg Heston & Tim, Oh My

A while back HERE I wrote about the complete bullshit that has become Replacements mythology, the whole "Paul yelled fuck on live tv and enraged Lorne Michaels" shit:

This has always been laughable to me - much like the Janet Jackson titty moment from Super Bowl whatever, the moment is only barely perceptible when the video is slowed down and absolute attention is paid to it. I still don't believe Lorne Michaels caught it and really thought it was so terrible; I've always assumed the incident was overblown in the name of Replacements mythology...Besides, it was only seven years later that Westerberg played the show solo, so what the hell anyways?

I'm pleased to see that under the gaze of the new Tim box (boxed?) set, others are being revealed as thinking the same:

The best SNL music performance ever at that point, by a mile, and still one of the best ever, four punks banging out “Bastards of Young” and “Kiss Me on the Bus” in their Seventies nerd-wear. A glorious life-affirming racket that makes you want to jump off the couch and tell all your friends or create your own art or just dance around and play air guitar. But when people talk about it now (even the ex-Replacements) all they remember is how it hurt Lorne Michaels’ feelings, which couldn’t be less the point. If you haven’t actually seen it, go ahead and watch. I guarantee you will not spend a moment thinking about how Lorne felt.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “isn't today Charlton Heston's 100th birthday? And even if we assume that as the president of the NRA he was probably a fucking piece of shit, isn't it a good enough reason to post him introducing Paul Westerberg as a solo act on SNL, doing the one cool thing you've ever wondered why more bands on the show don't do??"

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did:

It’s always driven me nuts whenever bands go on Saturday Night Live to play their big “hit", and then play the crappy plaintive ballad on Side 2 nobody cares about for their second song of the night. I mean you’re on SNL, this is a national audience, why not show your best? 

The only person I’ve ever seen do this is Paul Westerberg, who after playing whatever song he needed to on his first solo album said "fuck it” and for his second song played the Replacements’ classic Can't Hardly Wait, which even included a laugh break about Burt Reynolds. THAT's rock & roll, people.