Left Of The Dial

Lynn Blakey was Paul's girlfriend, muse & my roommate in Athens, Ga in early 80's. She played guitar, touring with her friends Mitch Easter, Faye Hunter & Sarah Romweber in Let's Active. She came to Athens to play w/ Oh OK (Linda Hopper, Lynda Stipe & David Pierce). Paul stayed at our house when The Replacements played Athens. Sometimes nuts, always interesting. I wrote for a music mag, Tasty World. Never made a dime, but had tons of fun & have some great stories from those crazy, magical years in Athens.

paul fell in love with some girl in a band who was touring at the same time the replacements were. and hes saying his only contact with her is left of the dial which is college radio. thats the only place he knows shell be. cuz her song gets played on there. hes just talking about the different states where the college radio plays her music

"Left of the Dial" is a reference to college radio at the time if any of you don't get the reference. On the old radio format the stations on the left side of stations were normally the college radio stations and so forth.

the chorus is on and on and on and on, which side are you on - referring to how low frequency stations (like college stations) play the best music and are on the left side of the dial

I read that he wrote this song after he heard an interview on college radio with said girl.

Yeah, it was one of the girls from Let's Active, which explains the line about the "sweet Georgia breezes."

I agree that the source of the song is as it is said above. To me this would be a great song to put on during a road trip. Just listening to it driving past farms, through cities, etc.

I thought Let's Active was based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I had interpreted in the Georgia reference to identify REM as the band. The the pretty girl reference never made sense to me until I read the other comments.

I think Let's Active had some connections to REM, as did the Replacements. Westerberg may have met the girl in Georgia or something.

i remember someone telling me that the girl in the song was in the band "Oh Ok" an Athens, GA band.