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Archives for January 2020

Certain Songs #1720: R.E.M. – “Finest Worksong”

January 6, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Document
Year: 1987

. . .

File Under Rearrange

In Major League Baseball, there is the concept of the “walk year,” the final year that a player has on a contract prior to becoming a free agent. As a player, what you want in that situation is to have a great year, because it will obviously increase your value on the market.

In 1987, R.E.M. was facing the equivalent of their walk year: the last album on their original contract with I.R.S. records, and while every record they’d made sold better than the previous one, they were still seen primarily as a critics band. Not so much after Document, which landed them their first Rolling Stone cover (a thing I’d been predicting since Reckoning), their first major hit single, and their first platinum record: the equivalent of a .312/.442/.563 slash line in their walk year.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1720: R.E.M. – “Finest Worksong”

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Document, Finest Worksong, R.E.M.

Certain Songs #1719: R.E.M. – “Superman”

January 4, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Year: 1986

. . .

File Under Pathway

From their very beginnings as an Athens, GA, party band, R.E.M. incorporated covers in their act. Obviously, it was always good to play songs that people were familiar with, and on the other hand, it also connected them to their roots, some obvious and some surprising.

For the most part, the covers were usually relegated to b-sides, and ran the gamut from the expected (the Velvets and their fellow Athenians, Pylon) to the unexpected (fuck yeah, Aerosmith!), and in fact they recorded covers throughout their career, though eventually they stopped being even b-sides and were limited to the Christmas fan club singles.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1719: R.E.M. – “Superman”

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M., Superman

Certain Songs #1718: R.E.M. – “Just A Touch”

January 3, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Life’s Rich Pageant
Year: 1986

. . .

File Under Whoo-hoo-hooo!

The fifth time I saw R.E.M. was supposed to be once again at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on September 26, 1986, but it got totally short-circuited by a rainstorm that was powerful enough for the band to walk onstage and cancel the show before it started. Unlike the first time I’d gone out of town to see R.E.M., this was a full-blown roadtrip — many people in many cars — we retreated to a cheap-ass hotel and everybody got blind drunk, before heading back to Fresno the next day. Though I do seem to recall that was the night someone I’d previously seen as kind of a nemesis became a lifelong friend.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1718: R.E.M. – “Just A Touch”

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Just a Touch, Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M.

Certain Songs #1717: R.E.M. – “I Believe”

January 2, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Year: 1986

. . .

“I Believe” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.

At the very least, it let me do a thing on KFSR where I would play it back-to-back with the Buzzcocks “I Believe,” which is also one of the greatest songs ever put to wax, though it’s completely different.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1717: R.E.M. – “I Believe”

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: I Believe, Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M.

Certain Songs #1716: R.E.M. – “Fall On Me”

January 1, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Year: 1986

. . .

“Fall On Me” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.

It might be Michael Stipe’s, too: during the introduction of “Fall on Me” for their first MTV Unplugged performance in 1991, he said just that.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1716: R.E.M. – “Fall On Me”

Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Fall On Me, Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M.

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2394: Soundgarden – “No Attention”
  • Certain Songs #2393: Soundgarden – “Burden in My Hand”
  • Certain Songs #2392: Soundgarden – “Blow Up The Outside World”
  • Certain Songs #2391: Soundgarden – “Ty Cobb”
  • Certain Songs #2390: Soundgarden – “Kickstand”

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