\\\///\\\/// It's the ILX SUPER SUMMER R.E.M. POLL OF POLLS RESULTS THREAD \\\///\\\///

The results:

#30: Disturbance at the Heron House
4 votes, 28 points
#29: It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
2 WILDCARD votes, 29 points
#28: Shaking Through
5 votes, 30 points
#27 (tie): Turn You Inside Out
4 votes, 33 points
#27 (tie): World Leader Pretend
4 votes, 33 points
#26 (tie): Leave
6 votes, 38 points
#26 (tie): Ages of You
5 votes, 38 points
#26 (tie): Daysleeper
6 votes, 38 points
#25 (tie): Finest Worksong
6 votes, 43 points
#25 (tie): Life And How To Live It
4 WILDCARD votes, 43 points
#24: Near Wild Heaven
10 votes, 52 points
#23: (don't go back TO) ROCKVILLE)
6 votes, 53 points
#22: Feeling Gravitys Pull
9 votes, 54 points
#21: Perfect Circle
7 votes, 59 points
#20: You Are The Everything
7 votes, 60 points
#19 (tie): E-Bow The Letter
9 votes, 65 points
#19 (tie): What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
9 votes, 65 points
#18: Pretty Persuasion
9 votes, 66 points
#17: Electrolite
9 votes, 72 points
#16: Cuyahoga
9 votes, 74 points
#15: Gardening At Night
9 votes, 78 points
#14 (tie): Moral Kiosk
10 votes, 92 points
#14 (tie): Drive
10 votes, 92 points
#13: Losing My Religion
12 votes, 93 points
#12: These Days
11 votes, 94 points
#11: Nightswimming
11 votes, 95 points
#10: Country Feedback
11 votes, 96 points
#9: Wolves, Lower
10 votes, 97 points
#8: Find the River
11 votes, 99 points
#7: Sitting Still
12 votes, 107 points
#6: Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
12 votes, 112 points
#5: Fall On Me
15 votes, 113 points
#4: So. Central Rain
18 votes, 135 points
#3: Radio Free Europe
15 votes, 138 points
#2: Driver 8
17 votes, 139 points
#1: Harborcoat
15 votes, 150 points

It is kind of hilarious how many of these songs I actually LOVE considering I used to tell everyone I hated REM

Thanks for the summary, Gukbe!

Overall, if it's not exactly the mix CD I'd make to hook a friend on the band, it IS a pretty umimpeachable "best of" list if you're not concerned about getting all the singles and so on. Nice picks, everybody.

No "The One I Love," no credibility. ;)

In a shocking twist, it turns out to be one we don't love.

In hindsight, I do regret the "use the album polls to seed the main poll" approach - - - too many good songs thrown out of contention by the cruel logic of the ILX "one vote per poll" system. But overall, not bad results.

Good point. Maybe you should re-do the poll.

Alas, no showing for my wildcard, my #3 vote, "Letter Never Sent". That's a jam, & basically "essence" of the band, or at least early band: the riff, the moaning, the explosion of drums from verse into chorus. & it's the last of these that's crucial imo about getting the early band: they took choruses really seriously for an "art rock" band; even if they weren't sing-along-able, they resolve tension, let you cut some rug a little differently. You could certainly dance to "Letter Never Sent"; it's almost kicker-danceable! Oh, and the bridge too!

Good list! "Daysleeper" is the only latter-day track & that seems about right (I'd swap "Hope" for it but one is enough). Maybe the list is a little more downtempo than I like to think of the band, but then again my ballot ended up being pretty early-band-centered (I didn't set out that way!) & they were more a dance band then than they'd become circa Fables and onward (when I love them too, but for different reasons).

Best R.E.M. poll I've ever seen and I've seen lots (spent a lot of time browsing rec.music.rem back in the Usenet era.)

Delightful #1. I would never call "Harborcoat" R.E.M.'s BEST song, but pace Euler I think it's the one that best sums up what R.E.M. sounds like, at least between 1982 and 1985.

Yeah, I didn't mean to knock "Harborcoat"; it was my #5. I remember getting Reckoning after having Eponymous, Document and Murmur, and thinking within about 20 seconds that this was the real deal. It's still my favorite REM album.

Although apparently I called it the second-best song on this poll:

#1 (15 pts) Radio Free Europe
#2 (14 pts) Harborcoat
#3 (13 pts) You Are The Everything
#4 (12 pts) Cuyahoga
#5 (11 pts) These Days
#6 (10 pts) Driver 8
#7 (9 pts) Shaking Through
#8 (8 pts) Pretty Persuasion
#9 (7 pts) Moral Kiosk
#10 (6 pts) What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
#11 (5 pts) Finest Worksong
#12 (4 pts) Sitting Still
#13 (3 pts) Disturbance at the HEron House
#14 (2 pts) Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
#15 (1 pts) Perfect Circle

If I were doing this today I'd put Cuyahoga and These Days above it, I think.

I too was reflexively disappointed not to see "The One I Love" on here, but there's only a handful of songs in the top 25 I don't rate higher. Nobody can make us play the hits!

For that matter, their very best big hits -- "Stand" and "Shiny Happy People" -- weren't even nominated.

You show yours, I'll show mine.

#1 Sitting Still

#2 Disturbance at the Heron House

#3 WILDCARD Letter Never Sent

#4 Near Wild Heaven
#5 Harborcoat


#6 Drive

#7 Gardening At Night

#8 Leave

#9 So. Central Rain
#10 Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)

#11 Nightswimming 

#12 Driver 8

#13 Turn You Inside Out

#14 What's The Frequency, Kenneth?

#15 Find the River

haha I totally belie myself by having a ballot full of ballads; having recently listened to the whole REM oeuvre in completo, including every single (!), I'd vote differently now.

Just noticed I still have the playlist I made featuring all the nominated songs. It was the only thing I listened to for several days as a racked my brain to come up with a ranked list. Never achieved it.

I had no idea what my ballot was, but I've just managed to find it:

1 So. Central Rain
2 Sitting Still
3 7 chinese brothers (wildcard)
4 Fall On Me
5 Turn You Inside Out
6 (Don't go back to) Rockville
7 Driver 8
8 Cuyahoga
9 The One I Love
10 You Are The Everything
11 Harborcoat
12 Feeling Gravitys Pull
13 Moral Kiosk
14 Orange Crush
15 Drive

I'm assuming 'We Walk' wasn't nominated, because I love that one too.

Harborcoat feels a bit slight for a #1 until that amazing transition into the chorus when the low chord kicks in. I would have found some room for a Monster track or two in my top 10 but that is quite a countdown.

I would have found some room for a Monster track or two in my top 10

^^^^^

Harborcoat! I had no idea it was so well liked. Even though I only voted it #2 I think it's the best #1 there could be.

My ballot is a little sleepy looking back on it:

#1 Nightswimming (15pts)
#2 Harborcoat(14 pts)
#3 Why Not Smile(13 pts) WILDCARD
#4 Daysleeper(12 pts)
#5 Electrolite(11 pts)
#6 These Days(10 pts)
#7 Gardening At Night(9 pts)
#8 Driver 8(8 pts)
#9 Leave(7 pts)
#10 Beat a Drum(6 pts)
#11 Country Feedback(5 pts)
#12 Radio Free Europe(4 pts)
#13 E-bow the Letter(3 pts)
#14 Losing My Religion(2 pts)
#15 Let Me In (1 pts)

btw, for the uninitiated (?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADFJGENj92E

Nice to see Life And How To Live It on the list. It was one of my favorites and it always irked me that a couple reviews at the time specifically called it out as a bad song.

my ballot:

#1 (15 pts) Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
#2 (14 pts) Wolves, Lower
#3 (13 pts) Electrolite
#4 (12 pts) Radio Free Europe
#5 (11 pts) Country Feedback
#6 (10 pts) Sitting Still
#7 (9 pts) Find The River
#8 (8 pts) WILDCARD -- All The Right Friends
#9 (7 pts) Ages Of You
#10 (6 pts) Gardening At Night
#11 (5 pts) Moral Kiosk
#12 (4 pts) Crazy
#13 (3 pts) Near Wild Heaven
#14 (2 pts) Harborcoat
#15 (1 pts) World Leader Pretend

unsurprisingly, early tracks and oddball entries populate my list.

Thanks for doing this Doctor Casino. Is there anyway you could post a full list with everything below 30th place and their points? And how many people voted in this?

There were twenty-five ballots... as for the rest of the entries, I'd actually love to, but I actually can't find the Excel sheet that has all the data! I know it exists at one point, because I compiled the countdown list from it, but the only Excel sheet I can find is definitely incomplete in terms of ballots. So.... oops? Might have been on a flash drive that I lost a couple of moves ago. Sorry, everybody!

#1 (15 pts) Gardening At Night
#2 (14 pts) Sitting Still
#3 (13 pts) Drive
#4 (12 pts) Moral Kiosk
#5 (11 pts) Radio Free Europe
#6 (10 pts) Wolves, Lower
#7 (9 pts) Losing My Religion
#8 (8 pts) Feeling Gravitys Pull
#9 (7 pts) Hope
#10 (6 pts) Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
#11 (5 pts) Country Feedback
#12 (4 pts) E-Bow The Letter
#13 (3 pts) So. Central Rain
#14 (2 pts) Cuyahoga
#15 (1 pts) Shaking Through

thanks for doing this, btw, dr. C! my apologies for complaining about the timing earlier, I was kinda drunk and was being a smartass, but putting all this together is a significant effort and I appreciate what you did. :)

I didn't remember to vote, but would have added another #1 to harborcoat

haha, no worries Z S! Thanks for all your contributions on all the related threads etc.

I didn't vote either but Harborcoat is my favorite REM song so well done guys!

looking back, i'm surprised I didn't have a song from maybe my favorite r.e.m. disc -- fables -- on my ballot.

I didn't remember to vote, but would have added another #1 to harborcoat

― iatee, Friday, September 3, 2010 3:44 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

What he said.

Great to see Sitting Still high up as well. No serious arguments with this poll - good choices folks!

1 Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
2 These Days
3 Strange Currencies
4 Cuyahoga
5 So. Central Rain
6 Try Not To Breath - WILDCARD
7 What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
8 Losing My Religion
9 Country Feedback
10 Perfect Circle
11 Radio Free Europe
12 Fall On Me
13 The One I Love
14 Gardening At Night
15 Near Wild Heaven

Near Wild Heaven made my ballot only bc i couldn't vote for Half A World Away...

i going to listen to these songs in order and see if i appreciate them a bit more.

Still regret not voting in this.

gardening at night
gardening at night
gardening at night
gardening at night