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Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg wrote this song about a love interest who wasn't always there to answer his calls.
The book Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements explains that the love interest lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Westerberg lived in Minneapolis and was touring most the time, so their relationship was long distance. He often got her answering machine when he called on the telephone, a common thing in pre-cellphone 1984.
"I'm not a modern person," Westerberg says in Trouble Boys. "Technology irritates me."
After performing this song live, Westerberg often shouted out area codes. It was usually 313 for the Ann Arbor woman, but sometimes New York's 212 or some others.
Westerberg considers this one of his best songs. It was one of his favorites to play live.
Westerberg recorded this song solo, playing guitar and percussion. He started freezing out his bandmates starting with the Let It Be album, which created friction between him and Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson. After playing on the next album, Tim, Stinson was out of the band for good.
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