The Replacements’ acclaimed 1984 album Let It Be will reissued as an expanded deluxe collection on October 24. The reissue will be available as a three-CD set and a four-LP vinyl package containing a bonus 10-inch vinyl EP.
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Both collections featured a remastered version of the original album, 14 rare live, studio, and home-demo recordings from the band’s Let It Be era, and a previously unreleased 28-song performance recorded in March 1984 at the Chicago club Cubby Bear.
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The bonus EP features six unreleased live performances from a February 1984 concert at the Trenton, New Jersey, punk club City Gardens.
Let It Be, The Replacements’ third album, was released in October 1984. The 11-track collection found the Minneapolis band slightly softening their sound, as frontman Paul Westerberg continued to hone his songwriting with more depth and nuance. The album included such enduring Replacements tunes as “I Will Dare,” “Unsatisfied,” and “Androgynous.” R.E.M.’s Peter Buck contributed a guitar solo to “I Will Dare.”
A previously unreleased alternate version of “Androgynous,” featuring a different vocal take and the full piano intro originally recorded for the song, has been released as an advance digital track. A companion visualizer video for the tune has debuted at The Replacements’ YouTube channel. The clip features stop-motion animated photos of the band’s four members crossing a street in a nod to the cover of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album.
Let It Be co-producer Peter Jesperson said of the track, “The alternate vocal we discovered on the multitrack tape of ‘Androgynous’ is one of the most exciting things in this expanded Let It Be. While it’s clearly not a ‘master’ vocal, the emotion Paul puts into it gives me goosebumps every time.”
More About the Let It Be Reissue
The reissue’s “Rarities” disc features 14 tracks, seven of which are previously unreleased. It also includes newly remastered versions of six tracks that appeared on the expanded edition of Let It Be that was released in 2008.
Among the unreleased tracks is a full-length version of “Unsatisfied,” a home demo of “Answering Machine,” and alternate versions of Gary’s Got a Boner,” “Favorite Thing,” and the previously mentioned “Androgynous.”
The live performance at Cubby Bear, titled Goodnight! Go Home!, was sourced from an audience tape and newly remastered. It includes renditions of the not-yet-released-at-the-time “I Will Dare” and “Unsatisfied.” It also features early Replacements gems like “Color Me Impressed” and “Takin’ a Ride,” and covers of The Beach Boys’ “Help Me Rhonda” and Bad Company’s and “Can’t Get Enough.”
The Live at City Gardens EP features a version of “Unsatisfied,” a cover of T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” and a rare performance of the 1982 Replacements tune “You’re Gonna Get Married.” The latter tune was a birthday request from Jesperson, who was The Replacement’s manager and the co-founder of the band’s label, Twin-Tone Records, in addition to being Let It Be’s co-producer. Peter also produced the new Let It Be reissue.
Let It Be (Deluxe Edition) can be pre-ordered now. Special bundles pairing the three-CD set and the vinyl collection with a Replacements T-shirt can be purchased exclusively at Rhino.com. The reissue also will be available via digital formats.
Let It Be (Deluxe Edition) Three-CD Track List:
Disc One: 2025 Remaster
- “I Will Dare”
- “Favorite Thing”
- “We’re Comin’ Out”
- “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”
- “Androgynous”
- “Black Diamond”
- “Unsatisfied”
- “Seen Your Video”
- “Gary’s Got a Boner”
- “Sixteen Blue”
- “Answering Machine”
Disc Two: Rarities
- “Gary’s Got a Boner” (Alternate Version)*
- “Favorite Thing” (Alternate Version)*
- “Perfectly Lethal”
- “Temptation Eyes”
- “Who’s Gonna Take Us Alive”*
- “Heartbeat, It’s a Lovebeat”
- “Answering Machine” (Home Demo #1)
- “Answering Machine” (Home Demo #2)*
- “Street Girl” (Takes 1 and 2)*
- “Sixteen Blue” (Alternate Version)
- “Unsatisfied” (Full Length Version)*
- “Androgynous” (Alternate Version)*
- “20th Century Boy”
- “Hey Good Lookin’” (Live)
Disc Three: Goodnight! Go Home! – Live at Cubby Bear, Chicago, IL, (March 1984)
- “Can’t Hardly Wait”*
- “Left in the Dark”*
- “Unsatisfied”*
- “I Will Dare”*
- “Favorite Thing”*
- “Kids Don’t Follow”*
- “Run It”*
- “Color Me Impressed”*
- “Hayday”*
- “Nowhere Is My Home”*
- “Love You Till Friday”*
- “Help Me Rhonda/G.T.O.”*
- “Takin’ a Ride”*
- “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”*
- “Gary’s Got a Boner”*
- “Johnny’s Gonna Die”*
- “Can’t Get Enough”*
- “I’m in Trouble”*
- “Don’t Ask Why”*
- “Take Me Down to the Hospital”*
- “Shiftless When Idle”*
- “Mr. Whirly”*
- “Hitchin’ a Ride”*
- “Black Diamond”*
- “20th Century Boy”*
- “Go”*
- “Gimme Noise”*
- “White and Lazy”*
Live at City Gardens 1984 10” Vinyl EP Track List:
Side A
- “I Will Dare”*
- “Hayday”*
- “20th Century Boy”*
Side B
- “You’re Getting Married”*
- “God Damn Job”*
- “Color Me Impressed”*
* = previously unreleased.
(Courtesy of Rhino)
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