Good news for Replacements fans – you haven’t heard your last blast of Bob Stinson’s guitar. You get the first volley, “Happy Yet,” today as a digital release, and the rest on April 23 when the Bar None label releases Riches To Rags, a lost album from Minneapolis rockers Bleedings hearts. The album was recorded in 1993, when Stinson joined his roommate Mike Leonard’s band, rehearsing relentlessly with drummer Bob Herbers and bassist Rob Robello.
The story is that Sunshine Dunham of Fiasco Records got tipped to the band’s existence when she saw a write-up in Spin in 1993 (the June issue, but she found it on a rack of free mags at the CMJ Festival in October). The profile of Stinson painted a bleak picture of his life at the time, mentioning that every other member of The Replacements was releasing an album that year, and that Stinson was “killing time in the Bleeding Hearts, a youthfully Stones-y bar band.”
Dunham seems not to have agreed with the assessment that Stinson was just killing time with Bleeding Hearts, because she tracked the band down to record them. Riches To Rags is the result. In the liner notes, Bob Mehr calls it “the final piece to the puzzle of Bob Stinson’s musical career. I have only heard this first digital single, but if it’s representative of the album, it’s going to be a joyful shambles. “Happy Yet” comes out of the gate riffing and has an obvious kinship with the Replacements in terms of its happy-go-unlucky attitude, overdriven guitar crunch, and charge and stutter beat.
Bleeding Hearts recorded one album together before imploding, and the album was shelved. The band eventually dissolved, Leonard joined Magnolias, and that was that. Apparently, you could hear that and three other tracks on the band’s MySpace in 2010, which is still up, but I was unable to play any of the music there. Now you’ll be able to hear it for yourself on a special blood-red vinyl release for Record Store Day. Keep tabs on it through the Record Store Day site or Bar None Records.
The lyrics (as I hear them, I’m a little fuzzy on the last lines of verses two and three):
Happy Yet Where were you when? Where are you now? Are you sleeping on someone’s couch? Where were you when, I needed a friend? You didn’t even pay the rent. Am I happy yet? I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. I’m not happy yet. I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. You’re older than your years, Cried too many tears, And no one even cares. You sold my records for beer, Now I can’t livin’ here. I just give up on it. Am I happy yet? I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. I’m not happy yet. I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. I’m so broken down. Can’t buy the clown. The circus ain’t even in town. Am I happy yet? I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. I’m not happy yet. I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. Now everything I got is falling apart I see you at the liquor store, it just breaks my heart And even though I tried to forget about the past I can’t find my KISS records I just got to laugh and… Am I happy yet? I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. I’m not happy yet. I’m as happy as I’m gonna get. Am I happy yet? Happy, yeah I’m not happy yet. Happy.