On Bruce Springsteen & Slim Dunlap

On December 20, 2024, Bruce Springsteen called into Jim Rotolo’s show on E Street Radio to talk about many subjects but what particularly piqued my interest was his tribute to Minnesota musician Bob "Slim" Dunlap, who had passed away a few days earlier on December 18th. Bruce had sent over a recording he and the E Street Band had done the previous year of one of Slim’s songs, called “Girlfriend.” 

“Slim Dunlap, who I don’t know if a lot of people are very familiar with, but he was a member of the Replacements. And he was really a unique guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the deepest and truest rock and roll souls I’ve ever heard. He has two fabulous solo albums out that I would tell everyone to run out and get, and this is a song - I’m not sure which record it’s was - Times Like This - I cut it for a covers record that we were just fooling around with and working on in the studio with the band, it’s a song called ‘Girlfriend.’ So in honor of Slim Dunlap’s passing, this is ‘Girlfriend.’”

This development was particularly interesting to me as an enormous Replacements fan and an admirer of "Slim" Dunlap and his work. His given name was Robert, and most people around Minneapolis who actually knew him called him Bob – the "Slim" monicker started around the time he joined the Replacements. Dunlap had the unenviable job of taking the second guitar role when Bob Stinson was fired in 1987, but he was so much more than that.

He was a much-beloved and absolutely legendary Minneapolis singer/songwriter who was an early scene pioneer and an absolute local favorite. More than once you will hear people describe him as "Minneapolis' Keith Richards," and many reviews of his first solo album The Old New Me (Twin/Tone, 1993) bravely go there: "Singing Exile-era Stones melodies in a pleasantly artless voice that could pass for Keith Richards on a good night," wrote Trouser Press.

Without exception, people who knew him or of him just loved him to pieces, and all you have to do is think about what it was like to step into that particular spot on the Replacements’ stage to understand what a truly special individual he had to be. Even people who gave up on the band after Bob Stinson was shown the door were still saying, “Well, at least it’s Slim.” Dunlap worked as a janitor at First Avenue at the same time that Bob Stinson did, and Stinson was the one who told him that he needed to take the job replacing him.

Dunlap played what the songs needed. He wasn't there to be a rock star but could absolutely throw down if the moment called for it. He joined the band after they'd already recorded Pleased to Meet Me without Bob Stinson and then had the unenviable job of playing those songs live, and like some kind of Zen master he managed to be everything the 'Mats needed musically (and interpersonally) and he wasn't so much neutral – compared to Bob Stinson anyone is going to be less volatile – as he was just himself, and that was magically what the situation required. This isn't a Replacements website and I am highly conscious that they are not a favorite of most Springsteen fans so I am avoiding writing a doctoral thesis as to why Dunlap was the absolute best choice for this particular role. Instead, please listen to a live version of "Can't Hardly Wait" from 1989 where you can appreciate his contribution, how he manages to keep things on track musically.

The Current (the great NPR Music affiliate in the Twin Cities) once referred to him as "a Minnesotan Nick Lowe." This footage of him from 2009 showcases his very dry sense of humor.

"This song is another one of them stories that somebody told me, and I sat and listened to this gentleman's story knowing every line was a lyric right there, and the second I got away from him I just ran to a napkin and a pencil and I just started writing down everything this feller had to say."

I'm a big fan of "The Ballad of the Opening Band," a song that any music fan can relate to!

Slim’s passing was as the result of complications following a severe stroke in 2012 which left him bedridden and in need of round-the-clock care. The entire Twin Cities and larger music community rallied around him, with a great series of releases in 2013 called Songs for Slim (that was later compiled into a CD release) featuring both Slim’s music as well as new material from all of his former bandmates. (One of my favorite shirts I wore on the 2013 European tour was from the Songs for Slim project! It featured a large 45 adapter on the front.)

So when I heard Bruce had recorded one of Slim’s songs I immediately wondered if it had been part of the original project but alas, the timing does not align. Of course, if the song was ever released, Dunlap’s family – who have been incredibly candid about how their insurance coverage was insufficient for the type of care he required – would benefit from his songwriter’s royalties. It’s not a small gesture from someone of Bruce’s stature. 

"And we know we can lose it all / but if we still have each other / then girl, that's all there is / you can blow all the rest a kiss / it's times like this when we learn what we really need"

This is not the first time Bruce has referenced Slim Dunlap in some fashion (sorry). During the pandemic, when Bruce was DJ’ing on E Street Radio, Slim got namechecked in two separate episodes of From My Home to Yours. He played “Time Like This” on episode 2, where Bruce declared, “Slim Dunlap, in my opinion, is simply one of the best rock ‘n’ roll songwriters we have. He deserves a much, much larger audience than he’s gathered.” It's a beautiful and catchy little song about love and hanging on. In Episode 19, the theme of which was “Fans and Bands,” he played “Rockin’ Here Tonight,” possibly Dunlap's greatest moment of Stones homage.

In an interview Dunlap did with podcaster/blogger/Replacements diehard Scott Hudson, Dunlap discussed this very aspect of his work. "That guitar signature, that's kind of rapidly becoming the mark of 60's rock and roll. The guitar isn't the dominant instrument that it once was," he said. "It doesn't serve the same purpose anymore. It has a different role in modern music, and that's where I've kind of consciously drawn the line. I try to as much as I can stick to rhythmn guitar based stuff. So there will always be a connection, but that's a connection I'm proud of." I pulled that quote because I think it's part of what Springsteen also hears in Dunlap's work.

Finally, Bruce also featured Dunlap's “Hate This Town” as part of the Devils and Dust pre-show tape. (Listen, I know the impact of that is hit or miss because there’s always a volume issue to contend with in a noisy house before a show starts, but for the artists, it isn't a minor gesture.) 

Bruce has been banging this particular drum for a long time, as he is wont to do with musicians who he feels are under-sung and under-appreciated. When he spoke with the venerable Ann Powers at NPR in 2014 he said, “I'm gonna plug some people here because I love their records…Slim Dunlap is fantastic. He was a part of The Replacements and he made two fabulous rock records that were just really, deeply soulful and beautiful…I don't know what his health condition is at the moment but I know some folks were cutting some things of his. I hope I get a chance to cut one of his songs...check out the two Slim Dunlap records because they're just so beautiful, they're just beautiful rock 'n' roll records. I found them to be deeply touching and emotional.” 

I am sure it seems reasonable for Springsteen to hope that mentioning these artists will cause his fans to go out there and check them out based on the Boss’ recommendation*. I’m not even talking about his most visible gestures of support, like (for example, not a complete list) Joe Grushecky or Alejandro Escovedo or Marah or Jesse Malin in the early days (not that he’s not still supporting Jesse), but artists with less visibility. He’s always championed bands like Rank & File or the Del Fuegos or the True Believers (an early, and awesome, Alejandro Escovedo band) over the years – if there’s a playlist somewhere, you can almost always find indie or alternative or at least lesser-known bands who play the kinds of guitar-based, lyrically sharp, traditional-sounding rock and roll songs that he himself favors. 

Bruce has said, many times over the years, that it’s only because of luck and grace that he was elevated when others who had as much talent as he did were not, local legends that for whatever reason could not break through nationally. I don’t always agree with him about the potential of all of the bands he champions, but I have always appreciated his willingness to share the spotlight. 

In Born to Run, when talking about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and his appearances in the early years to induct Dylan and Orbison, he says, “I knew my talents and I knew I worked hard, but THESE, THESE WERE THE GODS, and I was, well, one hardworking guitar man. I carried the journeyman in me for better or for worse, a commonness, and I always would.” 

The specificity of the term “commonness” always stood out to me. I wouldn’t say that the Replacements were “common,” but given that more than half of the band worked as janitors at some point, it probably applies in the way Bruce is using it in that quote. As someone who is a huge fan of both acts, I can absolutely see why they would be interesting to him – but also could have been equally potentially repulsive in their self-destructive tendencies (although that reaction would not have been unique to him specifically). Bruce Springsteen was not talking about the Replacements in the 1980s, and most Bruce Springsteen fans were not listening to the Replacements in the 1980s. (And, to be fair, vice versa!)

But Slim Dunlap is definitely the kind of guy I think Bruce would have liked to get a beer with, and I appreciate that he’s still thinking about musicians who haven’t had the opportunity to travel what he’s called “the big road.” Dunlap was a lifer – he made music because he had to, and that's a quality Bruce has repeatedly recognized.

And it's important to acknowledge that Slim Dunlap was beloved and awesome before Bruce Springsteen mentioned him and he'd still be beloved and awesome even if he never had. But in the spirit of the original gesture, I hope that you check out some of Dunlap's music, either solo or during his time in the Replacements. My deepest condolences to his friends and family and may he travel well.

Most of Slim's records are out of print, so you need to ask at your local record store or try on Discogs or eBay. There's also a 1997 live album (Thank you, Dancers) on Bandcamp – remember that Bandcamp Friday (where all proceeds from sales on the site go directly to the artists) is the first Friday of every month, and that's tomorrow.

*The trend of certain shows by these name-checked artists from then on being full of old white guys in Bruce shirts waiting impatiently for the encore is not his fault.