Hold My Life

The "razzle dazzle drazzle drone..." bit is actually from a cartoon from the 60's called Tooter Turtle, where this turtle was always coming up to this lizard wizard and wishing to do something adventurous (like say, visit the moon or be a lumberjack); of course, every time he'd screw something up, and the wizard would have to bail him out by saying "Razzle, dazzle, drazzle, drone, time for this one to come home". I think putting that reference there means that in real life when life doesn't turn out the way you hoped there's no way to go back to how things were.

I agree with both the previous posts. Instead of the "young optimist", excited and anxiously awaiting what unfolds in his life, the lyrics present almost a young paranoia of doing everything you can to get the most out of your life and live minute by minute. However, it seems as though the narrator is almost too unnerved or confused to make any lasting decisions about his/her life so he/she asks someone to "hold it" or put it on hold.

I am pretty sure he was writing a song about Razzle from Hanoi Rocks. Yes I see he was obviously using that reference from the 60s cartoon, but who's to say he's not doing both.
What I always think of is Razzle going out of the picture, as he was a placeholder in the music industry then these guys waiting in the wings and getting famous. So Razzle could be said to be holding the life for them. He goes home to god, and now they come alive to fill the vacancy. Probably just imagining things. But I am sure the Razzle death made plenty of headlines though not ones I was likely to see as an 11 year old. But Paul not so much. I'm sure he was kept apprized of something like that in his Skyway cafe.

One of my favorite songs ever.

Feeling the pressure to get the most out of your life, and wilting under it.

The Dreezle,etc line has been used a few times on Mystery Science Theater 3000, also out of Minnesota. This song perfectly captures the overwhelming feeling of impendingadulthood and, I daresay, maturity. Sort of a post modern My Generation.

This is also one of my fave songs ever.

I always thought this was about being young and careless, when you don't know what you want to do when you grow up. But you're young and you like to have fun, and sometimes that could mean living close to the edge and doing some things that put your life in danger. But you know that someday you will decide what you want to do, and hope you're still around for it.

I'm pretty sure the fourth line was meant to be "If I want...I could die..." but it was changed to "dye" with the delayed "oh....my hair" so as not to seem like it was advocating suicide. After all, he does keep saying "hold my life because I just might lose it" throughout the song, which I suppose makes it okay because then it has a double meaning. Anyway, this song reminds me of these lines from an Emily Dickinson poem:

“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - In Corners - till a Day The Owner passed - identified - And carried Me away -”

And those lines refer to someone whose life is on hold until one day that person is summoned by God. Back in the '80s I never would have guessed that the Replacements were talking about being called by God, but I'm finding that more and more songs that used to seem cryptic to me make sense in some kind of spiritual or apocalyptic context.

I always thought of this an yet another one of Westerberg's "struggling with success" songs. "Tim" was the Replacements first album with a major label. While it wasn't a done deal, mainstream commercial success was a real possibility. The only problem was the The Replacements were the product of a culture which regarded mainstream commercial success as a sellout; an abandonment of their punk roots. So it was "time for decisions to be made". Go mainstream "crack up in the sun" or wither away in obscurity "lose it in the shade"?