When it comes to rock n' roll, sometimes the truth is important and sometimes it isn't. Some of the myths which circulate through the annals of rock history are just as important to the survival of the music as the facts of the matter – if not more so – because they are the flavor which spurs imagination and so perpetuate the legacy of the band. The stories that fans tell about their favorite groups – the oral history – is often rich and told with love and, even if every single event outlined isn't one hundred per cent true, they're recounted so vividly and with such passion that it's hard to not at least want to believe every word; most oral histories are lush, warm and inviting, and very much a labor of love to complete for fans. The true color and shape of that affection comes through brilliantly on Color Me Obsessed – a film about The Replacements which kindly concedes that it is “The potentially true story of the last best band” before it even starts – and that's enough to get the imaginations of fans whirring excitedly right away; those words state pretty clearly that this film won't be a dry recollection, it will be fantastic and likely truer and more definitive an account than anyone would like to admit.
A cast of dozens of personalities ranging from the famous (like Robert Christgau, Jim DeRogatis, George Wendt, members of Husker Du, the Goo Goo Dolls and Dave Foley) to the perfectly infamous (Legs McNeil, for example, as well as Jack Rabid, Tom Arnold and The Decemberists' Colin Meloy) line up right from the very beginning of Color Me Obsessed to carefully try and recount their memories of The 'Mats and how their history fell together, from their earliest beginnings (when Paul Westerberg hid in the bushes outside of the Stinson home every day to hear Chris Mars, Tommy Stinson and Bob Stinson rehearse) through the the highs of Let It Be and Tim and into the breakdown which surrounded All Shook Down, and then goes a little further for the dogged fans and touches on the importance of 14 Songs [Westerberg's first solo album] to boot. Some of the biggest fans of the band may balk and say that no film could hope to be so ambitious as to cover all that ground and never inadvertently misstep along the way, but, in watching, the surprising thing is how coherently it comes together, in spite of the number of hands helping to stir the soup. Along the way through, little stories come up about how the girls used to chase little Tommy around on tour and how one of the most important creative pillars in The Replacements was actually Bob Stinson manifest and, because those points are presented by both supporters of the band as well as those intimately familiar with the bandmembers (one of the stories about how the girls used to love Tommy and pursue him on tour is tour by one of the girls who chased him), none of it seems dubious or far-fetched. In fact, those little points brought up help to make the DVD feel like a definitive account. That definitive vibe is further driven by the fact that everything about the film is for its subject; no one has any self-serving ideas in mind, every story is told to serve the band's legacy in a very heartfelt way.
That heartfelt and true-feeling delivery endures to the bitter end of Color Me Obsessed, which is actually pretty astounding. There was every opportunity for the picture to begin spinning irredeemably out of control after talk turns to All Shook Down and the breakup which followed it, but Color Me Obsessed holds together very nicely as it continues past the end of the band and into a discussion of Westerberg's first solo album, 14 Songs, and then gracefully fades out. The tightness of the production holds into a perfect ending as those who contributed to this oral history begin to flounder on the question of what The Replacements meant to them and why the appeal of the band's music has endured the way it has. At that, every single contributor to this oral history finds himself without words, and that is exactly how it should be somehow; there shouldn't be any easy words because everything about The Replacements spoke to the hearts of listeners – not their heads – and while that fact guarantees that there is no easy conclusion to be reached in this documentary, that doesn't mean that how it ends isn't satisfying. That's the best way to define this film: Color Me Obsessed is difficult but satisfying, and no one who ever called themselves a fan of The Replacements should miss it.
Artist:
www.whatwerewethinkingfilms.com/colormeobsessed/
www.paulwesterberg.com/
DVD:
Color Me Obsessed is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
