When people talk of influential '80s bands, they're usually talking Beastie Boys, R.E.M., U2, Talking Heads, Public Enemy, The Smiths... but, there was another.

Led by the perpetually ornery individualist Paul Westerberg, the Replacements (aka, the 'Mats) influenced indie music (at the time usually called "college rock") as much as any band out there. They were alternative before alternative had a label, which is probably why they never cracked the Top 40. It was fitting that Westerberg appeared on the soundtrack for the film Singles (with "Dyslexic Heart") because that film presaged the '90s boom of indie/alternative music, and that music was strongly influenced by the 'Mats' sound. Westerberg created a sweet spot between rawness and sweetness, combining the punk philosophy of emotional sincerity with pop music's preference for emotions other than rage.

The 'Mats' sales success was done in by their notorious excess and unpredictability as much as anything else. They were so unruly that label executives didn't want to deal with them, venues didn't want to showcase them, and bigger acts didn't want to risk using them as openers. All of this was mythologized and romanticized, but by Westerberg's own admission, it was mostly driven by anxiety.

In looking back over Westerberg's legacy, we see a complex, often self-contradictory man who wasn't built to go with the flow. Something in him is simply compelled to resist and to fight - a rebel without a cause or a rebel without a clue, depending on how you want to frame it. It's the kind of reflexive combativeness that's likely to make a person difficult to deal with and to hold them back. It's also a requirement for someone to be a trailblazing pioneer who still has people talking about him 40 years later. You simply don't find yourself writing Fact or Fictions for milquetoast folks who get by toeing the line.

So, let's have at this one. See if you can tell which of these Replacements statements are real, and which we fabricated.