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BASTARDS OF YOUNG Lyrics
Artist: The Replacements
Album: Tim
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, there'll ain't no beer tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons
Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no word (war?) to name us
The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons
Young...take it, it's yours...
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Comments/Interpretations
uh one of the best songs of all time. there is no question about that.
one of the greatest songs ever if not the greatest.....
I love!1 the line when it says how the ones love us least are the ones we'll die to please!
I love the line "The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest"
if you like this song listen to the rainman suite version of it. better than the replacements version.
imitation can never out do the original
I was taking a walk today ~ trying to clear my head and I stopped dead in my step - the stanza that I've heard numerous times before just rang out so true and pure:
The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them.
It put things into perspective for me today. I need to work it out and certainly MOVE ON!
Thankful.
Truman - But a cover isn't always going to try and be a replication of the original. It's usually a reinterpretation which is an entirely different story. An obvious obvious example is Hallelujah. Boring original version written and performed by Leonard Cohen which was then transformed by Jeff Buckley.
what i always thought ...
'elvis in the ground, we're waitin on beer tonight'
'one hell of a function'
'we got no war to name us'
one of the greatest albums of all time, here comes a regular was the first song i learned to play and sing on the guitar at the same time ... all these reissues take me back to my college daze, kinda forgot what great discs were 'tim'-'all shook down'. long live the 'mats!
The replacements are certainly another level. How I would have loved to have seen them live. This song kicks ass.
its you got no word to name us
Listen to the Superdrag version too on "Greetings from Tennessee" the best cover of this song.
i always thought it was "we got no war to name us", and always was impressed by that idea: the baby boom, the greatest generation, etc. and then...what are we? we weren't part of anything. no have nothing to represent us. we represent nothing, etc. thus, the orphan/"bastard" tie-in...
Against Me! also does a pretty ripping cover of this song as well.
I saw them in 1989 (90?) in Philadelphia at the Tower Theater. They were so drunk and raucous...Tommy fell off the stage...ha! ha! ha!
whoa! and it is the intro song on the movie 'Adventureland' and you feel it all over again!
It's War to name us
No, it's war to MAIM us.
rainman suite's version sounds like a bad green day trying their best to copy the song to the T. reinterpretation? Balderdash!
It sort of sums up the whole human love/hate experience for a lot of us I think - remarkable insight
I also listened to the rainman suite cover version. It's a karaoke version. I always have to laugh when kids stumble upon an older band through a cover version by an upstart band, say the newer version blows the older one away, and don't see the irony of their opinions. Why is the song being covered in the first place?
Like people who think DJs are 'talented'.
It's "wait on the sons of no one." Westerberg just confirmed it an interview with SPIN.
To quote the Hold Steady - "Everyone's a critic, and most people are DJ's". Replacements are the last great rock'n roll band - period. They were self destructive to a fault; but that's also part of their allure I think. RIP Bob.
Is it not 'Warrant to name us'?
either way, word or war, it's still the best first song on an album ever
Was this song supposed to give me an erection?
Billy-
In this case it does try to be a replica.
@ David - Hold my life is the first song! though this is the first song on the 2nd side, ill give you that.
This album changed my whole outlook on music...The Replacements most certainly were one of the last great Rock n Roll bands...i really like what the Hold Steady are doing. Craig Finn reminds me somewhat of Westerberg, but indeed there will never be another Replacements or Westerberg...also everyone who digs this band should read that book about them "all over but the shouting: an oral history of the replacements" some of the stories are damn hilarious...
It's war brother, promise!
Its "wait on the sons of no one" not "we are the sons of no one"
I agree that this is definately one of the best songs ever. And probably also the most badass outro ever!
No offense, but if you think Leonard Cohen's version of Hallelujah is "boring" and inferior to the commercialized Buckley version, you are beyond hope.
BEST SONG EVER!!!!!! :) <3
Adam - Totally agree with you about Hallelujah. Cohen is one of the greatest writers and performers ever - no question.
This song, however, is also fucking great, despite the face that nobody can agree on the actual lyrics.
Paul Westerberg probably changed it every time he played it anyway!
I went to HS with these guys:
It's got no WAR to name us.
Being an long time mats fan, I was fortunate enouugh to experince them live 3 times in the 80s each time leaving me more of a fan....they embodied the spirit of rock and roll only with such human emotion that no one else seemed to capture....reckless, fucked up and emo before emo was cool...fondest memory If I only had a beer to the tune of if I only had a brain, love the mats and they summed up a decade of my life!
It's probably NOT what he sings, but I've always heard the lyric as:
Elvis in the ground, and we're up here tonight
I heard it as "Elvis and the colonel are waiting on me tonight"
It's "clean your babied wound", not "clean your baby womb".
It's ward, not word or war.
what's with the "beats pickin' cotton" line? just seems out of context.
I thought it was "Elvis in the ground, no way no beer tonight." i.e., there's no way we're not drinking tonight.
I think it is "we got no wars to maim us"
It's "We've got no war to name us" because my father was the singer of this band and he has all the lyrics written down and I found them one day.
Zach, your Father WAS the singer of this band?
Paul Westerberg IS the singer of this band. His son is called Johnny. Is that you?
It's not ward, war, or word. It's "They've got no one to name us" as in there's no parent to claim us or name us because we are the sons of no one. "Ward" and "war" make no sense, but "word" is the most nonsensical option as there is a word to name them right in the chorus and title.
It is actually "they've got no war to name us" referring to my warless generation. That is, until I saw them twice in early 1991 (several months before they broke up) and Paul sang "they've got the Gulf War to name us" which was a pretty cool and topical lyric to add in.
The lyric is actually, "wait on the sons of no one." Westerberg stated in an interview.