Euphoric Recall: A Half Century as a Music Fan, Producer, DJ, Record Executive, and Tastemaker

by Peter Jesperson, Peter Jesperson

Record executive, producer, band manager, club DJ, booking advisor, record store manager—few people had as deep an impact on the Twin Cities alternative and indie rock scene as Peter Jesperson.


A passionate music fan since his early childhood, Jesperson found his way into Minneapolis's burgeoning music world of the 1970s and followed a path that put him at the center of the scene as it grew and blossomed over the ensuing decades. Beginning with his time working at the legendary Oar Folkjokeopus record store, Jesperson helped shape the tastes of local music fans and foster the Twin Cities as a destination for touring acts from around the globe. He continued to serve as tastemaker as a DJ and booking assistant at Jay's Longhorn bar, the landmark venue that significantly amplified the Twin Cities’ reputation as a mecca for left-of-center artists. In 1977, Jesperson, along with two partners, founded Twin/Tone Records, which over the next 20 years released more than 300 records, including by such groundbreaking local artists as the Replacements, the Suburbs, Soul Asylum, Babes in Toyland, the Jayhawks, and many more. With Twin/Tone, Jesperson further solidified Minnesota’s place on the map as a hotbed of musical creativity and a leader in the indie music world. Just three years after starting Twin/Tone, Jesperson made the discovery that changed his life, and the Minneapolis music world, the Replacements. As A&R man and then full manager, he guided the development of this talented and out-of-control foursome, while taking a break to road-manage an upcoming sensation out of Athens, R.E.M. But as his career was on the rise in the wild ’80s, Jesperson began his own descent into substance abuse, until he overcame his demons and launched a second act in the industry.




In Euphoric Recall, Jesperson speaks frankly about his struggle with drugs and alcohol, and how it nearly derailed his career and his life. Motivated by his love of music, Jesperson rallied to pick up where he left off with Twin/Tone and the Replacements before heading west to begin the next phase of his career in Los Angeles. While working alongside such noteworthy artists as Dwight Yoakam, Kris Kristofferson, Vic Chesnutt, and Steve Earle, Jesperson experienced firsthand the dramatic changes in the music industry of the 1990s. Through it all, he has retained his passion for the industry and the art, and now, after a half-century in the music business, Jesperson shares his insights, anecdotes, and lessons from his unique vantage point.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

361 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2023

Reviews

[Carter Aakhus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had the privilege of meeting Peter a few weeks back at a release party for this and had him sign my copy. He’s led a very interesting life full of great stories and incredible music. In many ways, I think his lifelong music obsession mirrors my own obsession with movies. In fact, a dream project of mine would be to someday make a film or miniseries based on Peter’s experiences in the Minneapolis music scene of the 70s and 80s and becoming the manager of the Replacements. Phenomenal read!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Jesperson has lived every music fan’s dream and kept the records to share it with us. Despite lots of day-to-day minutiae of life in the studio and record contract wheeling and dealing, I was there for it all.

The Mats are in my top three bands, so I hung on every word about them but was also happy to see mentions of names like Steve Almaas from my cow punk days, the Knitters, the Only Ones and Peter Perrett, Delbert McClinton, John Hiatt, Warren Zevon, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam and more. Bonus for me was a ‘70s story about Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers of the Boomtown Rats, my all-time favorites. Not to mention a list of never-heard recommendations like Daniel Romano and 13 Engines to go listen to now that I’ve read the book.

I think what made this book such a fun read and what shone through most was his experiencing it all as a music fan who never took his work for granted and above all else wanted what was best for the artists. I was lucky enough to see him and Tommy Stinson at a book signing/Cowboys in the Campfire show, and he’s still out there being a fan.

[Ed Worteck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all the major replacement biographies and most articles and interviews. Peter Jesperson adds important new facts and stories to the canon. He's also written a memoir that is both an engrossing record of his life and an important history of the American musical and cultural world during the late 20th and early 21 centuries. Jesperson's has lived the life so many music fanatics dreamed about growing up during the 60's. He captures all the highs and lows of realizing his musical dreams.
And, he introduces important information about a wide range of music groups both celebrated and neglected. An excellent book as good as any contemporary music memoir published.

[Peter Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Jesperson is kind of like a midwestern musical Zelig. He founded Twin/Tone Records, discovered and managed The Replacements, briefly tour-managed REM, and was involved with a bunch of other artists like Vic Chestnut, The Drive By Truckers, Kris Kristofferson, and Steve Earle just to name a few. This autobiography covers over 50 years of adventures which amounts to a few lifetimes in the actual music business that it hardly seemed that I had read only about 230 pages when I was finished. Being a Replacements fanatic, I could probably listen to this guy tell stories about them all day long, but that's just a few chapters in this guy's very interesting story.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a fan of college/alternative rock from the early 80s on, or alternative country/Americana from the 2000s on, you've probably listened to artists that Peter Jesperson had a hand in nurturing, promoting, or producing, beginning with The Replacements. Peter has had a major hand in the soundtrack of my life, for which I'm deeply grateful.

This is a terrific account of Peter's life in music, from a Beatles-obsessed teen to his current work advising young artists, with many highs and difficult lows in between. It's a must-read for any fan of the genres I mentioned above.

[Tali · Rating 2 out of 5]

the author says in the epilogue he didn’t want the book to start feeling like an attendance roster with all the name checks. ironically, that is exactly how I felt for 90% of this book. usually I don’t mind a lot of detail if it adds to the anecdotes or the storytelling, and I started out extremely impressed by his memory of music and experiences in childhood but the relentless stream of full names of hundreds of people i don’t know nor have ever heard of pulled me so far out of being interested in what was going on, add in the mishmash timeline and this was painful to get through.

[Andrew Piccone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jesperson plays such an interesting role in the early Replacements lore but the book comes off mostly as him name dropping. He literally tells a story about seeing Mick Jagger backstage from a distance that just annoyed me. The candid retelling of his struggles with substance abuse was a jolt that brought me back in, and overall it’s a solid inside baseball read for a small subset of music fans.

[Stephen Hero · Rating 3 out of 5]

LIFE REDIRECTED IN WAYS UNEXPECTED

My ad agency, Ad Nauseam™, spent the weekend in a recording studio performing *only* backup vocals.

Why only backup vocals? Because we were having trouble getting qualified leads.

[Becky Loader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. So much about the local music scene!

[Brett Oaten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough, but I think Trouble Boys is a far superior read

[Ann]

The Minnesota music scene through the eyes of someone in the thick of it.
A fun read especially because I'm lucky to have met some of the folks mentioned.

[Anthony Vaccaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter is a gem and his type of love for the art of music is far a few between. For any Mats, punk rock, music person

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10