R.E.M. borrows The Replacements’ manager for a little while

Peter Jesperson was working at Oar Folkjokeopus in Minneapolis when one of his distributors gave a hearty thumb’s up to a single by a band from Athens, Georgia. “Radio Free Europe/Sitting Still” by R.E.M. sounded perfect upon first listen. The mysterious and blurred cover art and the garbled singing helpedlead it to becoming a phenomenon at the store, with hundreds of copies flying off the shelves over a couple of months. One thing about R.E.M. was that they definitely didn’t sound like anybody else. 

The band’s first visit to the Twin Cities - the furthest they had thus far gone from home - was on Thanksgiving night 1981. Jesperson, writing about his adventures with R.E.M. in his book Euphoric Recall, and Tommy Stinson of The Replacements went to check it out. The band played an amazing show to about 100 people. When they returned in the spring, the crowd had grown to about 350. At that show, guitarist Peter Buck claimed it was the first time he ever spoke into the mic, uttering “this one goes out to Peter J” before playing the Velvet Underground’s “There She Goes.” R.E.M. - one hard-working band - came back to town a third time that year after the release of their debut EP Chronic Town. 

After following R.E.M. around a bit and seeing them three nights in a row, Jesperson was looking sad when Buck came up to him. Jesperson admitted he was bummed to not be seeing any more of their shows for a while. Buck asked if he could manage their tours for a while in a way that wouldn’t interfere with his work for The Replacements. He couldn’t believe his luck. After a decade working at the record store, he decided, with the ‘Mats’ blessings, that this was a good opportunity. Of course we learn later in the book that Paul Westerberg, whom Jesperson doesn’t always paint in the greatest light, may have held a bit of a long-term grudge about his acceptance of this new role.

Jesperson was paired with Michael Stipe on room assignments and he writes that he really enjoys that time he spent with the soon-to-be-iconic singer. R.E.M. were all-around more civilized than The Replacements, and their entourage slept two people to each hotel room. One of his duties was to get the band paid each night. This became a pretty intimidating proposition for a guy who was still pretty “new to all this” when they hit the part of their tour opening seven dates for The Police in stadiums. R.E.M had one van load of gear compared the The Police’s six semitrailer truck loads. 

All this said, sometimes the band got a little ‘Mats-like. When Jesperson and Buck realized they were out of beer on the drive between Hartford and New York City, they waved down another van in their entourage and got handed beers going 70 miles per hour down the interstate. 

After those big dates, which included Shea Stadium, JFK in Philadelphia, and Six Flags Over Georgia, Buck headed to Minneapolis to record “I Will Dare” with The Replacements. Jesperson has “hazy memories” of Westerberg and Buck wearing eyeliner out around town and enjoying late-night White Castle burgers (a St. Louis tradition as well, I can attest). Not long after that, the band informed Jesperson that they needed someone on a more permanent basis and who was perhaps not so nice. That’s the record business for ya.

Read my first and second articles about this book as well.