| The Shit Hits the Fans | |
| Type: | live |
| Artist: | The Replacements |
| Cover: | The Shit Hits the Fans.jpg |
| Released: | January 25, 1985 |
| Recorded: | November 11, 1984 |
| Label: | Twin/Tone |
| Prev Title: | Tim |
| Prev Year: | 1985 |
| Next Title: | Boink |
| Next Year: | 1986 |
The Shit Hits the Fans is a Twin/Tone Records (TTR 8443) cassette-only live album by The Replacements which was released January 25, 1985. It was recorded live at The Bowery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on November 11, 1984. The cassette J-Card cover art is by Chris Mars. According to the Twin/Tone website, 10,000 copies were produced, of which 9,276 sold immediately. The rest were given away as promotional copies.[1]
Roscoe Shoemaker, manager and DJ at The Bowery asked Paul Westerberg, if he minded if he recorded the show, to which Westerberg replied, "Why? We suck."[2] Shoemaker hung two microphones from the front of the deejay booth and recorded the show, which was performed in front of approximately 30 patrons (in a venue with a maximum capacity of 1,200 people). Without Shoemaker's knowledge, the tape was removed before the end of the show by soundman Bill Mack, who then gave the tape to the band.[3] Despite Shoemaker having previously asked Westerberg for permission to record the show, both the label and the band denoted it a bootleg, writing in the liner notes, "Anyhoo...what you've got here is most of a live show. Our roadie pulled it out of some enterprising young gent's tape recorder toward the end of the night. (Drop us a line, buddy, there's $3.95 in it for you!)".[4]
Of the twenty-four songs on the album only five songs are actually written by the band. The remaining nineteen are cover versions of songs by other artists, some of which were requested by the small audience. This includes the song "Merry-Go-Round" which was a track from Mötley Crüe's debut album Too Fast for Love, not the similarly named song which would open the Replacements' final studio album All Shook Down.[5] The audio dropout heard during "Hear You Been to College" is caused by Paul Westerberg who accidentally pressed the record button on a Walkman while listening back to the master copy. If you listen closely he can be heard saying "Stop, 's' enough".
The Bowery was demolished on March 22, 2007.
In 2015, Rolling Stone included it on their list of the 50 Greatest Live Albums of all time.[6]