REM: Classic or dud?

That song exploder episode is lovely. Would be nice if those interviews were part of a longer piece?

i don't think this is new info, so even if you don't believe them, this is what they've said they thought about it for ages[]

Sure, the story just doesn’t really make sense – “We fought the label hard to make this the lead single, b/c we thought it was a weird little song that wouldn’t likely connect with people.” It would be interesting to hear a different take on the scenario, after all these years. NBD though.

In a Dutch tv-interview for the "Part Lies..." release, Stipe said that LMR was meant as the lead-up to "Shiny Happy People", which Warner Brothers thought was the hit-single of the album.

It was the bigger hit in the UK so Warners weren't completely wrong

Co-signing the love for the song explorer episode on Losing My Religion and esp. Bill Berry. Loved his reaction to hearing the handclaps in the playback of a rough mix/demo and then in the actual song, something he could not recall at all and was flabbergasted to hear

^^^^ that moment was an absolute delight

paired well with stipe having to be handed the lyrics in order to remember them out of context

& getting dewy-eyed as he slowly read through them, or was that when he listened to his isolated vocals, idk I may be misremembering

I too had no idea there were handclaps in that song.

This article has a little backstory on the episode's "mini reunion":

“R.E.M.’s team said, ‘We don’t ask Bill to do very much because this is not something he likes to do, not something he’s comfortable with. We think this is going to be special so we’ve asked him, and if he says yes could you please be, could you just be cool?’” Hirway recalls.

“They were like, ‘If you screw this up, you’re going to make things difficult for us for a long, long time.’ And our ask was not only for us to do an interview but also if he would play his drum part of ‘Losing My Religion’ so we could film it and have him talk about it. It changes the way someone talks about a song when they actually have it in their muscles again and they perform it. And he did… he was game for all of it. He actually played drums for us on camera.”

is it possible that bill berry is actually cool with most things but the REM team is overprotective and paranoid?

(i understand the context of his leaving the band and all of the PR bullshit behind)

as an Athens guy the same age as Michael, it made me really happy to see them as they are now ... they appear to be more invested in their friendship than in their past success and look suspiciously like people who have figured out how to live

xp Berry is not as big a hermit as that quote implies; he's been working a lot recently with Love Tractor

It's still surprising to me considering how close these guys remain that they haven't recorded an album on the sly, w/o the pressure of touring or doing any press or anything. Just hang w/ Bill for a few weeks and everybody goes back to their corners... They'd make a zillion bucks.

As with many REM songs, I hadn't truly considered the meaning of the lyrics before watching this. I have them memorized backwards and forwards and I *like* them, but they've always seemed somewhat impressionistic and stream of consciousness. Hearing Stipe contextualize them just snapped this song into focus - something I never would have thought possible, 29 years later.

Berry is not as big a hermit as that quote implies; he's been working a lot recently with Love Tractor

― Brad C.,

Certainly his scenes in the film show him loving tractors.

but not in a pervy way

Hearing Stipe contextualize them just snapped this song into focus

Whereas I found Stipe's read of the lyrics to be totally unconvincing! I don't know what it means, but not that.

The best part of the episode was the unexpected appearance of Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Bowie during the "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" film footage.

Yeah, I had never heard of that connection (so now there's a throughline from the Sakamoto piece -> "Losing My Religion" -> "thank u, next"!)

my favorite part was when they played the isolated backing vocals to stipe and he said "is that mike and bill? fuck. they're so good." otm

Awww, these guys are so great. This makes me wish there was a full length history of REM doc.

I like how Peter Buck is so in awe of Bill Berry's drumming. He is a massively underrated drummer.

He's kind of one of the great rock band drummers. More than once I've seen him seem to mess up a show, but his grooves and beats are really idiosyncratic and original.

He's never flashy, but he adds that bounce that's the x-factor in their music.

Yeah, his accelerations into choruses make those choruses explode. I love that so much.

Listening to Green today, I was struck by something I never consciously noticed before (but which may not be true?) -- namely, Bill's drumming has more "swing" on that album than any other R.E.M. album.

Am I "OTT" (on the tractor), or have I fallen off?

I think there's that swing lurking in all of his playing, but maybe gets lost in the jittery faster tempos of the earlier albums.

just watched the song exploder thing, really well done and man is it cool to see bill play that drum part for a few seconds.

xp Yeah - he was by no means ever a stiff drummer, but I think he has a feel in the rockers on Green that's not present even in the "funky" songs toward the end of Document. You can really hear it in "Pop Song '89," "Orange Crush," "Turn You Inside-Out," etc.

watching the Song Exploder now ... awesome stuff ... i welled up at parts.

listening to Stipe's unaccompanied vocal - and watching him listen to it - really highlighted how incredible his performance is

this is gonna throw me into a major R.E.M. kick

I have for sure been re-immersing myself for the first time in a while... CT, Murmur, Reckoning, LRP, Green, Monster - all sounding great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoUWmZo_t1s&ab_channel=MaxRomero

I think Niimi's "Murmur" book pointed out something that I'd never noticed, which is that Berry definitely was listening to (sorta label mate) Stewart Copeland, and I think that's where some of that swing came from. It's certainly where the ride cymbal accents come from on tons of the band's music, even "Losing My Religion," I think.

heard Nightswimming on the radio Sunday and goddamn if that song doesn't kill me every time

xp yeah "Laughing" could be a Copeland drum part

heard Nightswimming on the radio Sunday and goddamn if that song doesn't kill me every time

heard that one over the weekend too and yeah, what an amazing song. wild that REM at the time was like the biggest band in the world, making this beautiful, vulnerable, weird music.

This version of Nightswimming slays...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVT0S0j7F9Y

Interesting points about Bill, thanks. I was listening to Chronic Town today, and realized that “Stumble” basically has a disco-rock drum part.

The biggest similarity between Copeland and Berry is the relationship between hi hat and snare, at least in the Chronic Town/Murmur era

Another thing Berry does is hitting the snare and a rack tom together on the 4 after the snare on 2 or sometimes both on 2 and 4

"The One I Love" is a pretty Copeland-y part, especially the ride work.

yeah, that was just lovely xxxxpost ... thanks for posting

Enjoying version of Finest Worksong on this covers compilation - https://godisinthetvzine.bandcamp.com/album/a-carnival-of-sorts-an-r-e-m-covers-compilation

^Just came across this via another source. Never heard of a single one of the 40 bands, but looks like it's R.E.M.-approved:

"All of these renditions are noteworthy— enthusiastic thumbs up!
So proud that younger groups got what we were goin' for. Thanks"

— Bill Berry

“Tell em its cool. I'm in the studio"

— Peter Buck

"I’m listening now, and I’m blown away by the energy and voices that
are coming through this project—what an honor!"

— Michael Stipe

Purchased the comp. Only on track 2 - it's a great, sloppy take on one of my favorite songs ("Get Up").

The Darling Buds
18 August at 03:03 ·
“Younger groups”...*Darling Buds stare awkwardly down at their feet*

The lyrix of "End of the World" seem to be rewritten for the current moment (which is a great move)

"Moral Kiosk" is awesome

Ah - there's a 2nd cover of "End of the World" which retains the original lyrics, but has a great sound

This thing seems grebt! Thanks for the tip!

Why do I find the Peter Buck quote hilarious? “Yeah yeah I’m sure it’s great. I’m in the bathroom.”

Yes, exactly.