Remembering 2024’s Music Losses: Slim Dunlap

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This is another example of a December “sudden change” in the list. As I said, I don’t like having a list of obituaries, let alone having to bump someone for someone else. Of course, that’s all part of life, and my goal is to celebrate the music they gave us. Here’s the next person on the list. Slim Dunlap The replacement Replacement! Slim Dunlap joined the Replacements in 1987 after the recording of Pleased to Meet Me, after original guitarist Bob Stinson left (either due to his substance abuse problems or “creative differences” in the band, depending on who you talk to and what day of the week it is). Dunlap was only with the band for the Pleased to Meet Me tour and the final two albums before the band split. Dunlap was more of a Keith Richards type in music styles (while Stinson mimicked Richards’ substance ingestion), so he would go from hot blues to almost country. That turned a lot of the fans who had grown up with the Replacements as a punk band off. They broke up at the right time, and front man Paul Westerberg went on to a solo career. Dunlap had a solo career as well; however, it wasn’t as well-documented in commercial realms as Westerberg’s. (Understandable, I guess, because he was the “replacement Replacement” and Westerberg was the front man for the band.) That doesn’t mean he didn’t have fans: Bruce Springsteen did a cover of one of Dunlap’s songs. In 2012 Dunlap suffered a debilitating stroke. The complications from that stroke ended his life on December 18. The Replacements have been nominated for the Hall of Fame, but they’ll never make it. They were too raw and raucous for such a thing. Slim Dunlap Born Robert Bruce Dunlap, August 14, 1951, Plainview, Minnesota Died December 18, 2024, Minneapolis, Minnesota (complications of a stroke) (age 73) Dunlap with the Replacements with “I’ll Be You”: