Another song that doesn't sound like any of their others. . . until you get to Automatic
― a (waterface), Thursday, 11 November 2021 15:35 (two years ago) link
I think Mills is the key to both songs—his playing anchors “Perfect Circle” and gives it weight; and “Camera” is this static, mysterious ballad that somehow turns into a country song, thanks to his bassline in the chorus.
― juristic person (morrisp), Thursday, 11 November 2021 15:46 (two years ago) link
Michael Stipe needs to hear “doot doot”
― just staying (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 November 2021 15:50 (two years ago) link
isn't Berry on Perfect Circle piano, too, on the album? there's like two pianos? I think I read that. It's his song for sure
― a (waterface), Thursday, 11 November 2021 15:54 (two years ago) link
You Are The Everything is a later example of this mood, and I think Berry also had a hand in it
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:03 (two years ago) link
“Camera” is the most effective 3rd-Velvet-Underground-album pastiche ever.
this is a great observation, had never thought of this
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:12 (two years ago) link
Luna is the best at appropriating the VU sound, imo. REM would be ranked 3rd for me out of Luna, YLT and REM for successful VU pastiches.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:13 (two years ago) link
In addition to his duties as a drummer, Berry contributed occasional guitar, bass, mandolin, vocals, keyboards and piano on studio tracks. In concert, he sometimes performed on bass, and supplied regular backing vocals. Berry also made notable songwriting contributions, particularly for "Everybody Hurts" and "Man on the Moon", both from Automatic for the People. Other Berry songs included "Perfect Circle", "Driver 8", "Cant Get There from Here" and "I Took Your Name". The song "Leave" was also written by Berry for R.E.M.'s album New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), which was his last album with the band.
bill berry: one of the best songwriters of his era imo!
― just staying (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:35 (two years ago) link
That’s funny, because Peter Buck once said that thing about being able to write “Driver 8” in his sleep.
― juristic person (morrisp), Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:39 (two years ago) link
most rem songs were written in a dream [citation needed]
― just staying (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:51 (two years ago) link
maybe he was throwing shade at Berry xpost
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 November 2021 16:55 (two years ago) link
Somebody's not goin' all the way to Reno...― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, November 10, 2021 8:44 PM
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, November 10, 2021 8:44 PM
i stand by my initial post because: that song is so forgettable, i thought you were referring to the fact that i used to live in reno.
really confused for a moment there. like, "what does that have to do with it????"
― the beginning of the end of discourse. (Austin), Thursday, 11 November 2021 17:13 (two years ago) link
"The Outsider" is REM's worst song by two country miles.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 11 November 2021 17:26 (two years ago) link
poor Tip.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 November 2021 17:27 (two years ago) link
I've given every album a good, thorough try, but at least for the post-Berry material, I can't even remember how a lot of those awful songs actually sound. Like I have no idea how the choruses or melodies to "The Outsider" go - the only thing I do recall from that same album are the two tracks I saved for my reference compilation covering the post-Berry years.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 11 November 2021 18:04 (two years ago) link
Maybe because Buck was asleep when Berry did the bulk of it?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 11 November 2021 18:17 (two years ago) link
take a break, peter buck
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Thursday, 11 November 2021 18:23 (two years ago) link
I figure he meant it was really easy for him to pull out those secret agent man type riffs
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 11 November 2021 19:01 (two years ago) link
I wasn't super into REM so didn't listen to any early records in their entirety til long after they came out, so I had no idea that 'Camera' was an REM song because I thought it was a Pavement song.
I also never knew 'Strange' was a Wire song until I heard Pink Flag years after hearing Document.
Following this pattern there's probably something I think is a Wire song but is actually a cover.
― joygoat, Thursday, 11 November 2021 19:54 (two years ago) link
Pavement’s take on “Camera” is the only R.E.M. cover I truly love & think “measures up.”
― juristic person (morrisp), Thursday, 11 November 2021 20:20 (two years ago) link
karl since you are jamming "these days" today i just wanna drop this red hot lifes rich pageant tour date here. I've come to especially love listening to shows from the lrp tour and this is an awesome example:
https://archive.org/details/10-shaking-through
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 11 November 2021 20:55 (two years ago) link
i've been listening since you posted that! 32 fucking songs, amazing! this is like right in my prime era of my favorite songs by them, where they're playing a mix of stuff all the way from their debut all the way up to the songs they had just released on LRP. there's no song i wouldn't like them to play
― just staying (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 November 2021 22:03 (two years ago) link
ok sorry not 32 songs - there are 32 tracks on the recording and some of them are the intro, stage banter, stuff like that
― just staying (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 November 2021 22:04 (two years ago) link
still, it's just an amazing setlist
Yeah exactly it’s just the right stage in their repertoire and temperament for them to be touring small stadiums with long ass set lists
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 11 November 2021 22:04 (two years ago) link
There’s also a post on Archive called Pageantry that combines a bunch of 1986 bootlegs including much of this one Anyway “These Days”, “Flowers” and “I Believe” are so good live
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 11 November 2021 22:06 (two years ago) link
didn't realize they already had "The One I Love" worked out at this point
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 11 November 2021 22:15 (two years ago) link
Yeah and the way they do the FIRE bit is interestingly different, more screamy?
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 11 November 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link
i was wondering, listening to it, whether he was making of a wry reference to the idea of shouting FIRE! in a crowded theater. the way he screams it is different, almost more like that
― just staying (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 November 2021 22:42 (two years ago) link
This thread sent me back listening to their stuff in the second half of the 80s. I was never a super fan but really liked Life’s Rich Pageant, Document (which I had together on a cassette someone made for me) and most of Green. Listening back, tho, it was so refreshing to hear someone espouse lefty politics that not only drops terms like McCarthyism and realpolitik but actually seems to understand them. I’m not saying Document or Life’s Rich Pageant are Chomsky or anything. Some of this was just the 80s – I mean, it was fashionable to crap on Reagan and, as a friend pointed out, Sting was name-checking Nabokov in his singles. But it really struck me how used to knee jerk liberalism we’ve become and how well read and thoughtful Michael Stipe seemed to be by contrast. I mean, their whole orientation just completely distinct than anything I’ve heard in forever – but also not *so* nakedly political and intellectual that it becomes a chore to listen to. They’re still a fun band. I also still completely adore “Pop Song 89,” which remains such a fabulous contrast and super sly updating of Jim Morrison’s “Hello, I Love You” come-on:
HelloI saw youI know you I knew youI think I can remember your name. Hello I’m sorry I lost myselfI think I thought you were someone elseShould we talk about the weather?Should we talk about the government?
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 11 November 2021 23:02 (two years ago) link
I know it shows my hand as a former teen REM obsessive, but it is Lifes Rich Pageant. There is no apostrophe denoting possession.
― I'm a sovereign jizz citizen (the table is the table), Thursday, 11 November 2021 23:17 (two years ago) link
For ten points—which movie did they take the phrase from? (I actually don’t remember offhand)
― juristic person (morrisp), Thursday, 11 November 2021 23:30 (two years ago) link
Pink panther
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 11 November 2021 23:35 (two years ago) link
In that 9-27-1986 show, the extended sub set from Fables, stretching from “can’t get there” through “life and how to live it”, with “pretty persuasion” dropped in the middle, is just preposterously good
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 11 November 2021 23:36 (two years ago) link
Yeah I also didn't know "The One I Love" was already around in Fall 86, and it's really different! I mean, it's exactly the same song, but with a completely different vibe.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 12 November 2021 04:51 (two years ago) link
based solely on their Richard Thompson cover of “Wall of Death” on the NAiHF reissue I’m pretty convinced Stipe could’ve gone the Darius Rucker country route post REM.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Friday, 12 November 2021 05:00 (two years ago) link
Country Stipe:
https://onesnladay.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/11-12-1994_1.04.32.11.jpg
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 12 November 2021 16:26 (two years ago) link
Is that Gumby on his head?
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 November 2021 16:30 (two years ago) link
It's Jay Mohr
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 12 November 2021 16:34 (two years ago) link
Gumby in...Gumby in...Gumby into town
Talk about the passion
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 12 November 2021 17:19 (two years ago) link
Ha, excellent!
― Exploding Plastic Bertrand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 November 2021 17:31 (two years ago) link
I don't know what this is (obviously a bootleg; what was the broadcast?), but it just appeared in my streaming service queue... it's pretty good!
― fancy like applebeez (morrisp), Monday, 22 November 2021 21:36 (two years ago) link
popped up on my Spotify too. Very odd. I wonder if it's unauthorized and going to get taken down? Somehow slipped through whatever their process is? But excited to listen to it tonight!
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, 22 November 2021 21:41 (two years ago) link
seem like it should be pretty easy to narrow down when that was broadcast/recorded
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Monday, 22 November 2021 21:56 (two years ago) link
Some kind of TV program, they say pretty early on.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 22 November 2021 22:14 (two years ago) link
And "Driver 8" is a new song so...
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 22 November 2021 22:19 (two years ago) link
sometime in 1984, although can't find set list that matches the sequencing
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 22 November 2021 22:24 (two years ago) link
Could be a compilation of a couple of broadcasts
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Monday, 22 November 2021 22:30 (two years ago) link
Yep
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 22 November 2021 22:33 (two years ago) link
Possibly this?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvhQqQ-AYgIA recording of the show was broadcast nationally on US radio in late ‘84 or early ‘85.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 22 November 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link