Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

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Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

Folks I'm sorry for the tardiness of this AotW. Also this one is a little different, it's the story of my short yet meaningful obsession with R.E.M.

January 1983, it was the beginning of spring semester at Eastern Illinois University. I was out with friends at a bar who's name escapes me when I heard R.E.M. for the first time. It was Radio Free Europe (Hib Tone version) and my mind was blown. What the hell was this I was hearing? Who the hell sang like THAT? I had already discovered some new music from the UK, like the Clash, The Jam and others but this was new and distinctly American. I struck up a conversation with the DJ who decided he was going to educate me on all things R.E.M. By the next morning I had a copy of the debut EP, Chronic Town, and I was hooked.

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R.E.M. were new, fresh and to me seemed to have sprung up from whole cloth. Never had I heard the like. Now of course I know their roots lay in the Velvet Underground, The Byrds, Big Star and others, but at the time I thought these were all new sounds. Michael Stipe didn't have a voice, he had an instrument where the voice should be and while I couldn't understand just what the hell he was singing it sure sounded like the truth to me. Then there was that guitar, Peter Buck played like no one else I had heard and along with Bill Berry and Mike Mills the soundscape they made was at once completely foreign and yet comfortable as an old shoe.

As time went on I devoured Chronic Town listening to it several times a day. Wolves Lower, Gardening at night and particularly 1,000,000 seemed to burn themselves onto my soul. Then came April and the release of Murmur which was both more of the same magic and yet a quantum leap in terms of song writing.

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Reckoning was next and it was nearly as good as Murmur. By this time I had already discovered many new young bands but, along with The Replacements, R.E.M. were my favorites. I dreamed what kind of wonderful place Athens, GA must be to spawn music like this. I planned a pilgrimage but never made it. Later I almost moved there (in 1993) but actually never made it down until 2009 for the DBT homecoming shows. Anyway, I digress. Reckoning was another solid album Harbourcoat & Pretty Persuasion were my favorites but there wasn't a track that I didn't love. By this point you almost understand what Stipe was singing, but still not quite. Still certain phrases caught in my brain.



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The last album in my runaway love affair with R.E.M. came out in June, 1985. I was home from school more often than not, gigging with my band and Fables Of The Reconstruction was the constant soundtrack of the summer. This was a bit of a departure for the band but it still sounded good to these ears. Gone was Mitch Easter who had produced the first two albums and the EP and in was Joe Boyd who had worked primarily with folk artists. Peter Buck's jangly guitar was diminished with this one as well and strings were heard on some tracks. Still this was classic R.E.M. and, maybe even more than before, the South oozed from every track, or maybe it just seemed that way to this Yankee.



Sadly Fables was to be the last of my obsession, but I'm not sure there's been a better run in the history of rock. These three albums (and one EP) were a creative high water mark any band would feel fortunate to achieve. I like Life's Rich Pageant but Stipe was beginning to enunciate and his lyric writing was beginning to be exposed. Buck was also changing and while the songs still could be good, I was less enamored. Document continued the decline and Green, IMHO, was just too commercial despite having a few nice tracks. By the time of Out Of Time R.E.M. were dead to me. Sad but true.

Still though I'll never forget how they opened my ears, my mind and sent my down a road to American music that I'm still on. If the Mats were the gateway to my aggression, R.E.M. were the doorway to new sounds and new thoughts. Like your first love, you never forget.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by dogstar »

Tequila Cowboy wrote:Still though I'll never forget how they opened my ears, my mind and sent my down a road to American music that I'm still on. If the Mats were the gateway to my aggression, R.E.M. were the doorway to new sounds and new thoughts. Like your first love, you never forget.


That's how I feel too. REM were the band that made me fall in love with music. They opened the door to everything else; at the time The Replacements, Husker Du, Rain Parade, Long Ryders, the Db's, Lets Active.

Some of my friends at University saw the show they did in London at the time of Reckoning and came back raving about them. They then played the gig at the end of my first year of university, along with Green on Red, and Jonathan Richman, which was the first part of the Reconstruction tour. And that was it.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Zip City »

Very interesting post.

I was introduced to R.E.M. via "Green", and have a different experience with the early stuff. Having started listening when the band had already reached a fuller sound, I found that working backwards to the early stuff to be less rewarding (as those songs are far "simpler" and, to my ear, less interesting than the mid-career stuff).

My fandom sits firmly in the Life's Rich Pageant-Document-Green segment of their career. Out of Time has some amazing songs, and some horrible songs. Automatic for the People has a few fantastic tracks, but mostly bores me. I gave up after that.


EDIT: also interesting that you stopped liking the songs when you could start understanding the lyrics. On the one hand, maybe his lyrics aren't that good. On the other, simply not understanding bad lyrics doesn't make them any better.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Slipkid42 »

My buddy Larry (from Rockville, MD), turned me on to R.E.M. in the mid-80's. Apparently, Don't Go Back To Rockville was a cult classic in his old hometown. I liked 'em a lot, esp. Fall On Me. I saw them @ the old Capital Centre circa 1990 & they were very good.
I do agree w/you, TC, that they tailed off badly (in fact, kinda even sold out); but I do agree w/Zip that some of their later commercial stuff is pretty damn catchy. I always have liked Orange Crush & Finest Worksong. Near Wild Heaven seemed like an effort to get back to an earlier sound. It is a very pleasant song. Man On The Moon is pop as can be, but still I like it.
The reason R.E.M. is in the R & R Hall of Fame is because of the success of their 90's music, but the reason they BELONG there is the quality of their 80's stuff.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by scotto »

Nice write up. This is still my favorite period of R.E.M.
I was working in a record store back in the '80s when Chronic Town came out and it blew everyone away. I saw R.E.M. at a few-hundred-seat club in KC in 1982. If a bomb had gone off that night it would have taken out every record store clerk, art student, and rock geek from the greater KC area.
Their impact on rock/pop in the early '80s was huge.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

I can't say R.E.M. has ever sold out. I honestly don't see them ever sitting down trying to figure out how to write a song that would gain them more listeners. Of course, that also depends upon how you look at the whole "selling out" thing to start with, which has to be one of the most cliched aspects of the music business (not to mention discussion boards). I also think a thread solely devoted to only one portion of their career does them a tremendous disservice. I say that even as a fan that prefers the I.R.S. time period over all.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by dime in the gutter »

trail blazing, gateway music. big in my music fandom development. those early years/albums were near perfect.
out of the box band making really cool, smart, rock and roll records that sounded like nothing before.


new adventures is damn fine also.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by beantownbubba »

One of the most interesting bands out there, precisely because of the arguments, or arguments in waiting, hinted at in many of the above posts. I don't think there's much question that there early period was their greatest, but it always saddens me when early fans dismiss the "middle period" stuff (I just don't know how rock fans can't like most of Automatic for the People, for example) and even the last few albums have pretty much all had at least a couple of worthy tracks, sometimes more.

Zip, you've hit on one of the great ironies/mysteries of rock n roll, because i think it's been proven time and again that bad lyrics if sung indecipherably enough in just the right way can be great. "Louie, Louie" is, i suppose, the starting point.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

For anyone interested, Stipe is currently doing an interview with The New York Times that you can watch online here.

This interview with Interview magazine was also published online today. For someone that was so guarded back in the 80s he's extremely forthcoming here.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Zip City »

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:I can't say R.E.M. has ever sold out. I honestly don't see them ever sitting down trying to figure out how to write a song that would gain them more listeners. Of course, that also depends upon how you look at the whole "selling out" thing to start with, which has to be one of the most cliched aspects of the music business (not to mention discussion boards). I also think a thread solely devoted to only one portion of their career does them a tremendous disservice. I say that even as a fan that prefers the I.R.S. time period over all.


I agree. The fact that people latched onto "Stand" or "It's the End of the World...." was probably completely unexpected by the band. Those songs were definitely not written to put the band on the radio
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

Kudzu Guillotine wrote: I also think a thread solely devoted to only one portion of their career does them a tremendous disservice.


Not trying to do them a disservice. I wanted to write an AotW that spoke to the R.E.M. that inspired me and that was the period that did that. I can't speak to them much after that as I lost interest and haven't listened to new music from them since before Out of Time heard a single track since Monster. I don't think they sold out or anything like that, they just stopped making music I enjoyed. There's no crime in that and, while I probably went fifteen years without listening to them at all, I've recently gone back to this period and these albums and rediscovered what I loved about them. I don't go a week without listening to Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning or Fables these days.

Zip City wrote:also interesting that you stopped liking the songs when you could start understanding the lyrics. On the one hand, maybe his lyrics aren't that good. On the other, simply not understanding bad lyrics doesn't make them any better.


I thought of Stipe's voice/lyrics as an instrument in those days, it wasn't what he was saying it was the emotion and atmosphere that he was invoking that mattered. Individual phrases meant something without caring if the lyric as a whole worked. Once he started enunciating that magic, to me, was gone for the most part.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by sactochris »

As a teenager growing up In the early 80's R.E.M. meant everything to me.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by zoid »

Had a tape with Murmur on one side and Reckoning on the other that stayed in my tape deck for 2 years. Back in 83-90 they could do no wrong in my book...

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Pick n Mix »

I couldn't agree more with the sentiments of the original post. I actually saw REM in 83ish, I think it was, and for a while there they were THE band in my life. I was so excited when they got signed to a major, and I rushed to get Green on its release. I listened to it and was horrified. Looking back, I was overly harsh, really, but it was the beginning of the end. I still half-heartedly listen to their stuff, hoping against hope for one that'll cheer me up (Dylan fans, I'm sure, have that same emotion) but I fear it's not to be.

The writing on the wall, for both my relationship at the time and for my love of the band, was that 'our song' when I got engaged was 'It's the End of the World...'

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by emandrisdad »

I also saw REM for the first time back in 83. I was pretty much a metal fan back then but I always had an open mind so I went along with a friend of mine. Needless to say I loved it. I don't find there more recent stuff to be nearly as bad as many others here but to each their own. I loved seeing the clip from
Passaic in 84. I was at that show. It was taped for broadcast on MTV as a show called Influences if my memory serves me correctly. The show was opened by some older guys that supposedly influenced REM. Roger McGuinn was one that I could see that it made sense. Richie Havens was another and I still don't quite get that choice even after all these years. There were a few others as well that night but I don't really remember them. Anyway, well done and that vid was a nice trip down memory lane.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Different people have different times and reasons for when they think R.E.M. "sold out". I still don't know what that means, particularly in relation to R.E.M. Were they supposed to stay on I.R.S. forever? Personally, I love Green and recently revisited it over the weekend. Some of my favorite tracks are "You Are the Everything", "Hairshirt", "World Leader Pretend", "Orange Crush" and the untitled last track. As much as I love the I.R.S. era stuff, if they had stayed with that jangly style they would have grown even more bored with it and so would their audience. For anyone that's not a fan of current R.E.M. I strongly suggest checking out the Live at the Olympia album where they're breaking in new material (from what would become Accelerate) alongside rarely played classics such as "Kohoteuk". I also have to say I've been enjoying their latest album Collapse Into Now far more than I ever expected. If they do choose to go out with this one it will be a wise choice because it'll be the sound of R.E.M. going out on a high note. If this is it, I do hope they will at least tour one more time, preferably with Bill Berry in tow.


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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Zip City »




Peter Buck produced some tracks on the new The Decemberists album. "Calamity Song" sounds very inspired by early R.E.M. to me.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Zip City wrote:Peter Buck produced some tracks on the new The Decemberists album. "Calamity Song" sounds very inspired by early R.E.M. to me.


It is. I heard some interview with Colin Meloy the other day where he said that even though "Down By the Water" already sounds nearly identical to "The One I Love" they changed part of it anyway. From everything I've read about The King Is Dead, the allusions to R.E.M. throughout the record were definitely intentional. I've seen at least one R.E.M. fan say they were trying to "rip-off" R.E.M. with this album. That person obviously doesn't get the homage part of the project.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Zip City »

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:
Zip City wrote:Peter Buck produced some tracks on the new The Decemberists album. "Calamity Song" sounds very inspired by early R.E.M. to me.


It is. I heard some interview with Colin Meloy the other day where he said that even though "Down By the Water" already sounds nearly identical to "The One I Love" they changed part of it anyway. From everything I've read about The King Is Dead, the allusions to R.E.M. throughout the record were definitely intentional. I've seen at least one R.E.M. fan say they were trying to "rip-off" R.E.M. with this album. That person obviously doesn't get the homage part of the project.


Everything Colin Meloy writes is thematic in some way or another. And not all the tracks sound like R.E.M.

Also, it would be pretty hard to "rip off" R.E.M. when Peter Buck is producing the songs.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Zip City wrote:
Kudzu Guillotine wrote:
Zip City wrote:Peter Buck produced some tracks on the new The Decemberists album. "Calamity Song" sounds very inspired by early R.E.M. to me.


It is. I heard some interview with Colin Meloy the other day where he said that even though "Down By the Water" already sounds nearly identical to "The One I Love" they changed part of it anyway. From everything I've read about The King Is Dead, the allusions to R.E.M. throughout the record were definitely intentional. I've seen at least one R.E.M. fan say they were trying to "rip-off" R.E.M. with this album. That person obviously doesn't get the homage part of the project.


Everything Colin Meloy writes is thematic in some way or another. And not all the tracks sound like R.E.M.


I realize that, I was referring to the songs that actually bare some sort of resemblance to R.E.M. Nearly every bit of press I've read in relation to the album have included statements saying the songs that bring R.E.M. to mind were intentionally meant to do so.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Zip City »

Right, I've read the same. It's easy to pick out which tracks were Buck produced. Meloy did a pretty amazing job paying homage to R.E.M. while still keeping The Decemberists' sound
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Pick n Mix »

Incidentally, The Baseball Project (of which Buck's a member), released their second album at the start of the new season. Might not be *quite* as good as the first, although 'Chin Music' is a great little singalong, but worth listening to.

I'd embed a vid, but haven't quite worked out how to yet...

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Pick n Mix wrote:I'd embed a vid, but haven't quite worked out how to yet...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFIqe0oUWdk

1) Delete everything but the portion of the URL that's bolded above.
2) Highlight it, then click the "youtube" button.
3) Click Submit.

On the McCaughey tip here's a link to a new interview with him from KZME.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

Zip City wrote:


Peter Buck produced some tracks on the new The Decemberists album. "Calamity Song" sounds very inspired by early R.E.M. to me.


I've never heard one note of the Decemberists before this song but I'd say this track is more than just "inspired" it's near imitation. I do kind of like it though.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Tequila Cowboy wrote:
Zip City wrote:


Peter Buck produced some tracks on the new The Decemberists album. "Calamity Song" sounds very inspired by early R.E.M. to me.


I've never heard one note of the Decemberists before this song but I'd say this track is more than just "inspired" it's near imitation. I do kind of like it though.


Maybe that's what the poster on the R.E.M. messageboard (Murmurs) meant but to me it doesn't sound like any specific R.E.M. song so it's hard for me to call it a "rip-off". Not to mention the presence of Peter Buck on guitar. If anything, it sounds like it could be an outtake from the Reckoning (or Murmur) era. I consider that high praise, not a criticism. I've seen Robyn Hitchcock with the Venus 3 (Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck and Bill Rieflin) backing him a couple of times now and several of his songs sound nearly identical to R.E.M. (for obvious reasons) but I never once thought of any of them as "imitations".

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Smitty »

E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Image

In commemoration of Murmur turning 30 today, the Slicing Up Eyeballs site has posted a collection of early demos that were cut for the album plus a few special treats.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

I've heard of the Long Players from Nashville before but this is the first time I've ever heard (or watched) one of their performances. The clip below showcases snippets of when they did Murmur on March 23rd of last year. Performers include Don Dixon (who co-produced Murmur and Reckoning, he was also a member of NC band Arrogance), Jamie Hoover (the Spongetones), Bobby Bare, Jr., Tommy Womack (Gov't Cheese) and others. The band includes Bill Lloyd, best known as a member of the country duo Foster & Lloyd, a band that was part of what Steve Earle has referred to as "the Great Roots Rock Credibility Scare of the Late 1980's". Following the snippets from the Murmur performance, the Long Players (along with their special guests) dip into the R.E.M. catalog to do a variety of numbers from throughout their career.



This is the only full length performance I've been able to track down, Don Dixon doing "Pilgrimage":



*Edited to add that these segments were filmed by Steve Boyle, the man behind the ongoing Return To Comboland project in which he documents, through old and new footage, the rise of the North Carolina music scene over the years via bands like Arrogance, Let's Active, the dB's, Nantucket, PKM and others. This album, along with Mondo Montage and More Mondo, were part of my introduction to the local music scene back in late 70's and early 80's. For me, it began with artists such as Nantucket, Glass Moon, Mike Cross, Brice Street and the Super Grit Cowboy band but little did I know, they were only the tip of the iceberg.

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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Gaetzi »

Two years late on the thread but that Decemberists song sounds exactly like a sped up 'Talk about the Passion' The guitar riff is almost identical and the pounding drum beat is also right out of the Bill Berry playbook. But it's a cool tune, I dig it.

R.E.M. was the first band I really got passionate about, give or take 7th grade for me (1987?) They were THE band up until 11th grade when I started getting more into punk rock. Anyway, I've since recollected all the early stuff (through Green) and have fallen in love with it all over again. Reckoning is the one I listen to most. Peter Buck's jangly Bryd's style guitar picking is brilliant, I love it.
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Re: Artist of the Week 5/3/2011- R.E.M. 1982-1985

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

This is the first footage to surface from R.E.M.'s reunion with Bill Berry from 2005:


The ultimate wedding band, here's R.E.M. with Bill Berry celebrating their guitar tech DeWitt Burton's wedding with an impromptu performance, including 1986's 'Begin The Begin' in October 2005


Meanwhile, last night in Portland, Oregon, on the occasion of Peter Buck's wedding, they reunited for the first time since disbanding in September 2011. Caption for the second photo courtesy of the R.E.M. Timeline page on FB.

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Image
'I've Got You Babe'

As you may already know by now, Our favourite guitar supremo Peter Buck got married yesterday to Chloe in Portland, & all 4 members (including Bill) were on hand to enjoy the festivities!!

We at The Timeline had known about this amazing event for a wee while but kept quiet out of respect to Peter, but would like to extend our heartiest wishes to Peter & Chloe & wish them all the best & happiness for the future!!

Keep tuned in for more info from the wedding reception!

And here's the coolest wedding band on the planet crooning away....

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