The third time might still pack a lot of charm for the Replacements' 1987 album "Pleased to Meet Me," which will get an even grander deluxe reissue from Rhino/Warner Bros. Records in October than the one churned out in 2008.
Announced Thursday via Rolling Stone, the new 3-CD, 1-LP version of the beloved record features a remastered version of the original album along with dozens of outtakes -- including 29 tracks never before released.
Among the "new" stuff are seven tracks that were the band's last recordings with late guitarist Bob Stinson before he was fired. Those come from sessions at Blackberry Way Studio in Dinkytown over the summer of 1986 and include early versions of "Alex Chilton," "I.O.U.," "Valentine" and "Red Red Wine" as well as the non-album tracks "Birthday Gal" and "Election Day."
Seven other newly unearthed demo tracks in the collection feature the Replacements as a trio working on versions of "Shooting Dirty Pool" and the outtakes "Kick It In" and "Even If It's Cheap" – the latter of which features the opening line that gave the record its title: "Pleased to meet me / The pleasure's all yours."
The one vinyl LP in the set (180-gram) features newly issued "rough mixes" of the band's often physically rough tracks in Memphis. It features most of the songs that made the cut on the original album, also including "Skyway" and "Can't Hardly Wait." These early versions were mixed by John Hampton, the engineer who worked with the album's legendary producer Jim Dickinson at Ardent Studios.
As with "Dead Man's Pop" – Rhino's expanded redux of the 1989 album "Don't Tell a Soul" – the "Pleased to Meet Me" box set also features a booklet with photos and a history of the album written by Bob Mehr, the Memphis-based author of "Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements."
Pre-order options (which start at $65) and the full track list are up now via the Rhino Records website.
