REM: Classic or dud?

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.

Mike Mills broods in silent fury.

Ha!

Enjoying the comp but this cover of "So. Central Rain" is goofy as hell

https://pitchfork.com/news/rem-announce-25th-anniversary-reissue-of-new-adventures-in-hi-fi/

i hadn't heard the alternate version of "Leave" before. it's a pretty incredible vocal performance. listening to the john carpenter-like alternate version, you can hear how they were still searching for the right setting for it.

"Moral Kiosk" is awesome

― Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Sunday, August 22, 2021 3:39 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just hit this and YES

This compilation looks quite good.

I suppose technically The Darling Buds are about c.5 years younger as a band than R.E.M.

The Darling Buds track on this really sounds like Darling Buds

So after doing a little research it appears the real original 1981 Hib-Tone release of “Radio Free Europe” that apparently was so bad that Peter Buck smashed a copy of the single on his wall was actually a “Johnny Hibbert” mix and every subsequent release of the Hib-Tone single (including Eponymous, the …And I Feel Fine compilation, and that recent 40th anniversary Hib-Tone release) was a different mix overseen by Mitch Easter. I’ve been listening to the wrong version all my life! Has anybody heard the real original version and is it so bad?

Where did you see that about the remix?

I dunno, one of those Steve Hoffman forums.

After a successful show opening for The Police, R.E.M. intended to record material for a demo tape. The group traveled to Drive-In Studios in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to record some songs with producer Mitch Easter, who was a member of the band Let's Active.[5] The band recorded "Radio Free Europe", "Sitting Still", and the instrumental song "White Tornado", which were placed on a promotional cassette tape. The band sent out 400 copies, one of which was received by Atlanta law student Jonny Hibbert.[7] Hibbert offered to release "Radio Free Europe" and "Sitting Still" as a one-off 7" vinyl single with the understanding that he would own the publishing rights for both songs; the band agreed to his terms.[8] However, Hibbert felt the recording was unsatisfactory, and oversaw a remix. Easter said he found the presence of Hibbert "distracting" and added, "He came into my studio and it was like, now the big city guy is going to do it right. We mixed the song for about 12 hours and really, there wasn't enough equipment to warrant more than 45 minutes."[7] The final mastering of the song disappointed the band. Guitarist Peter Buck, who described the recording years later as "muddy and hi-end", expressed his displeasure by breaking a copy of the finished single and nailing it to his wall. However, Buck admitted that "there's something to be said for the original sort of murky feeling for [the original recording]".[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe_(song)

I read that too, but it doesn’t specifically say they remixed it for later releases? Makes sense, I guess.

Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be a video on YouTube of someone playing the original single (there is one that has a fake animation like that, but the audio seems to be ripped from Eponymous).