The Replacements: “Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus” (Live)
It’s nice when things I dig merge with each other, like peanut butter and chocolate or broad shoulders and loose morals. In this case, it’s one of my most-loved bands covering my all-time number one fave, when a young Paul Westerberg and the brothers Stinson rip through Robyn Hitchcock’s twang-tastic “Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus”.
The ‘Mats repeatedly named Hitchcock’s late ’70s outfit The Soft Boys as an influence and even approached Robyn to produce one of their albums, an offer that he declined because he was “quite a heavy drinker” at the time1 and was worried that his booze consumption would “put them off”, which is perhaps the most hilarious idea ever.2
Anyway, this track comes from a 1984 concert in Oklahoma City—widely circulated on cassette as The Shit Hits the Fans—and the set list is comprised of 19 cover songs and five originals. “Ye Sleeping Knights…” had just been released on Hitchcock’s I Often Dream of Trains album and it’s pretty cool to hear Westerberg belt it, in between sloppy versions of “Takin’ Care of Business” and “Saturday Night Special”.3
1 Hitchcock told this story on the radio last month in an interview with Minneapolis DJ Mary Lucia, who just happens to be Paul Westerberg’s youngest sister.
2 This narrowly edges my previous Most Hilarious Idea, which is watching a raccoon tie on his tiny black mask before going out for a night of dumpster rummaging. Seriously. Think about it.
3 They also do a ragged version of R.E.M.’s “Radio Free Europe”.
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