My Gen X Playlist: Achin To Be – The Replacements

Not to long ago we wrote about our involvement in the community. WordPress hasn’t allowed me enough time to step outside and do anything more. So I’ll just provide a link here and pick a good song. Dealer’s choice today.

I’ve always like The Replacements’ Achin To Be. This song was released in 1989 and probably one of my favorites from the band. The problem is when I searched for the backstory or interesting facts, I came up empty. I even found a site that listed the Top 10 Replacement songs. Surely something would show up there. Nope. I finally found something interesting about the song.

The Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha named the song “Achin’ to Be” to his “mixtape for dreamers,” commenting, “This is great, because he’s talking about a would-be artist who’s trying to do bigger stuff. And it sounds like someone everyone knows. Like he or she is an artist, but nobody really takes them seriously. So he’s talking about her. She danced alone in nightclubs. She’s a poet, she’s an artist, she’s like a movie, but at the end of the song, he’s like, ‘I’m like that, too. I’ve been aching for a while and I’m aching to be.’ The narrator reveals himself, like, ‘I’m just like her and I don’t have the courage to go up to her.’ Maybe I read too much into it. [Laughs.] But that’s how it reads to me.”

– Wikipedia

The song is about a would be artist that nobody takes seriously. Sounds similar to how I’m treating the would be prompt today. But that’s how it reads to me.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Well she's kind of like an artist
Sittin' on the floor
Never finishes, she abandons
Never shows a soul

And she's kind of like a movie
Everyone rushes to see
And no one understands it
Sittin' in their seats

She opens her mouth to speak and
What comes out's a mystery
Thought about, not understood
She's achin' to be

Well she dances alone in nightclubs
Every other day of the week
People look right through her
Baby doll, check your cheek

And she's kind of like a poet
Who finds it hard to speak
Poems come so slowly
Like the colors down a sheet

She opens her mouth to speak and
What comes out's a mystery
Thought about, not understood
She's achin' to be

I've been achin' for a while now, friend
I've been achin' hard for years

Well she's kind of like an artist
Who uses paints no more
You never show me what you're doing
Never show a soul

Well, I saw one of your pictures
There was nothin' that I could see
If no one's on your canvas
Well, I'm achin' to be

She closes her mouth to speak and
Closes her eyes to see
Thought about an' only loved
She's achin' to be
Just like me