#100 (of 365) "Left of the Dial" The Replacements

Well here it is. At long last.The top 100 songs in history, according to me. And what better song to kick it off than this 1985 masterpiece from The Replacements, off their major-label debut Tim, which was named the #4 album by Alternative Press for the decade spanning 1985-1995, when alternative rock was in its heyday, spurred by the massive success of Nirvana and Pearl Jam to take over mainstream radio, and someone like me, in a boring suburb in southern New Jersey, could discover a band that got its start in underground clubs and college radio -- things that were at the time foreign to me. Left of the Dial is a reference to college radio of course, and in another life, I would have gone to a cooler college with a better music scene, like somewhere in NYC, or you know Stevens Institute in Hoboken, which I never even considered even though they offered me a scholarship (of course Hoboken in the 90s was very far from the Hoboken of today, except I could have gone to Maxwell's every night). Long story short, this is a song that's kind of the story of my later life, and I wish I had known the band earlier (I did discover them in 1989, so not that long after this).

​Read about your band in some local page
Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name
Sweet Georgia breezes, safe, cool and warm
I headed up north, you headed north
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
Weary voice that's laughin', on the radio once
We sounded drunk, never made it on
Passin' through and it's late, the station started to fade
Picked another one up in the very next state
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
On and on and on and on and...
Pretty girl keep growin' up, playin' make-up, wearin' guitar
Growin' old in a bar, ya grow old in a bar
Headed out to San Francisco, definitely not L.A.
Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name
And if I don't see ya, in a long, long while
I'll try to find you
Left of the dial 

"Left of the Dial" - The Replacements // Tim (1985)