“It's a Wonderful Lie”, Paul Westerburg

This way: It's a Wonderful Lie

Paul Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for The Replacements. Following the breakup of The Replacements, Westerberg launched a solo career that saw him release three albums on two major record labels.

Following the release of his third solo album, Westerberg has been mostly releasing music that he has self-produced and recorded in his basement home studio.[3] He has also released two albums and an EP under the pseudonym Grandpaboy. In 2017, Westerberg released songs on SoundCloud as User 964848511 and on Bandcamp as Dry Wood Garage.[4][5][6]

In the late 1970s, Westerberg was working as a janitor for U.S. Senator David Durenberger, and one day while walking home from work, he heard a band practicing Yes's "Roundabout" in a basement. He talked his way into the band by convincing the singer that the other band members — Bob Stinson, Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson — were going to fire the singer. The singer quit, and Westerberg joined the group. The band was originally called The Impediments, and they played their first gig in the basement of a church, playing to members of a nearby halfway house who did not appreciate their drunken shenanigans. They soon changed their name to The Replacements after several venues declined to advertise the band under their original name. 

The Replacements began performing in the Twin Cities punk scene, showcasing Westerberg's songs in a classic rock–friendly punk style. The band made three albums and an EP for local label Twin/Tone before signing to Sire Records in 1985. They made four albums for Sire, each with a different lineup.

Westerberg's first solo releases were two songs, "Waiting for Somebody" and "Dyslexic Heart", for the soundtrack to the 1992 Cameron Crowe film Singles, for which he is also credited with composing and performing the score. The following year, Reprise Records released his first solo album, 14 Songs. Even though The Replacements had been banned for life from Saturday Night Live after a notoriously chaotic 1986 performance, Westerberg was invited back in 1993 as a solo artist while touring in support of the album. Ironically, one of his two featured songs on SNL was the Replacements tune "Can't Hardly Wait."

During the interim between solo albums, Westerberg's songs appeared on Melrose Place ("A Star Is Bored") and Friends (his cover of Jonathan Edwards' "Sunshine" and "Stain Yer Blood") television soundtracks, in 1994 and 1995 respectively.

Westerberg co-wrote the song "Backlash" with Joan Jett for her 1991 album Notorious and played guitar with her on the song's video. He also recorded a duet with Jett ("Let's Do It") for the Tank Girl soundtrack (1994).

[Spotify] It's a Wonderful Lie