My Top 1000 Songs #236: Unsatisfied

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

So much of the Replacements' 1984 album Let It Be (and its 1985 follow-up Tim) was absolutely revelatory to me as a college student immersing myself into the world of indie rock that had largely evaded me back in high school. In the former's "Unsatisfied," I could hear an alternative universe recreation of the classic rock canon. If the Stones' "Satisfaction," some two decades prior, had been one generation's definitive statement of existential angst, then this was mine. 

Paul Westerberg moves beyond the band's punk roots for a ballad that was almost (mainstream) radio-ready, more jangle than thrash, deriving the passion and anger instead from the sparse but sufficient lyrics and anguished vocal delivery. "Look me in the eye and tell me that I'm satisfied. Are you satisfied?"

Nope.

Live in 1986 (audio only):

Paul & Tommy reunion tour performance:

I love the Tashaki Miyaki dream pop cover: