Medialoper

Chasing the long tail of new media

Jim Connelly

Certain Songs #1714: R.E.M. – “Begin The Begin”

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Album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Year: 1986

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File Under Mythology

And of course they changed it up again. This time, in search of a balance between their college radio roots and the success that a band this great utterly deserved, they traded Joe Boyd for Don Gehman, whose amazing drum sound was at the core of cheesy rock guy John Cougar’s transformation into heartland rock superstar John Mellencamp.

The result was Lifes Rich Pageant, a record that I initially liked more than I loved. And I think that was because the difference between the greatest songs and the rest of the songs was greater, and the sound was so clean and pristine, there wasn’t any mystery to try to solve with the songs I wasn’t initially into.

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Certain Songs #1713: R.E.M. – “Bad Day (PSA)”

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Demo, 1986

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File Under PSA

It was late June, 1992. I was in London. London, England, that is, hanging out with Tim, who was showing me all of his favorite record stores, including one in Camden Town that sold bootlegs.

Now, of course, R.E.M. bootlegs started appearing in the mid-1980s, encouraged by the band themselves, who instinctively understood that live recordings, outtakes and other ephemera weren’t bad for them, but rather, good for them. Hardcore fans weren’t going to buy the next R.E.M. album just because they had a live recording that happened to included early versions of those songs. So R.E.M. allowed their shows to be recorded, both for the radio and otherwise, and even said in interviews that they themselves bought R.E.M. bootlegs.

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Certain Songs #1712: R.E.M. – “Good Advices”

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Album: Fables of the Reconstruction of the Fables
Year: 1985

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Because it wasn’t played at the soundcheck we recorded like “Old Man Kensey” and “Driver 8,” were you’d have to go looking for it to discover that the earliest-known version of “Good Advices” was played at the Star Palace show in Fresno in June, 1984. And while the crowd-sourced setlists for the 1985 Warnors appearance are woefully incomplete, history does record that they played it the next night, at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, a show which — humblebrag alert! — Kassia & I drove up for. Because you could just drive a 500 mile round trip to see a show back then.

I don’t recall the “Good Advices” from that show, but I do recall that they did their take of Television’s “See No Evil” with Michael Stipe shouting “once upon a time there was the greatest band in the world” as Peter Buck started the still-awesome riff.

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Certain Songs #1711: R.E.M. – “Kohoutek”

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Album: Fables of the Reconstruction of the Fables
Year: 1985

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File Under Gone

The comet is coming!!!

It was 1973, and I was still crazy for all things having to do with OUTER SPACE, and a comet called Kohoutek was supposed to totally light up the skies for my eleventh Christmas. And I was totally into it, especially since I knew I had to wait all the way until 1986 to see Halley’s Comet. 1986! That might as well be 2020!!

Except, of course, it was a total and complete bust. Fuck you, Kohoutek!!!

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Certain Songs #1710: R.E.M. – “Cant Get There From Here”

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Album: Fables of the Reconstruction of the Fables
Year: 1985

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The making of Fables of the Reconstruction of the Fables was notoriously difficult. Away from their comfort zone for the first time, and somewhat unprepared for the damp London winter, they kind of took a dim view of it at first, only coming to realize its strengths when they were able to disassociate the songs themselves from the experience of making them.

That said, it’s kinda ironic that from those sessions was born one of the long-running tropes of their career, the silly/funny song, arriving full-bore in the album’s first single, “Cant Get There From Here.”

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Certain Songs #1709: R.E.M. – “Life and How To Live It”

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Album: Fables of the Reconstruction of the Fables
Year: 1985

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File Under Carpenter

“Live and How To Live It” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.

For sure, it’s the greatest song I’ve ever seen them play live, the absolute highlight of the second time I saw them; at the Warnors Theatre in Fresno on July 19, 1985.

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Certain Songs #1708: R.E.M. – Feeling Gravitys Pull

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Album: Fables of the Reconstruction of The Fables
Year: 1985

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File Under Gravity

It was just different, you know? For one thing, after two albums with one-word titles, here comes this one which almost sounded like it could be a concept album, like maybe a southern rock opera about the post civil war period. Which you would had to take on faith, because you still wouldn’t be able to understand the words.

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Certain Songs #1707: R.E.M. – “Driver 8”

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Album: Fables of the Reconstruction of the Fables
Year: 1985

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File Under Destination

“Driver 8” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.

The summer of 1984 was the summer of R.E.M. Not only was there the concert at the Star Palace in mid-June, but they also became a go-to band on MTV. Obviously, not so much the videos for “so. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)” or “Radio Free Europe“, but rather appearances on some of the long-form TV shows MTV was trying to develop as antidotes to their ongoing onslaught of music videos.

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Certain Songs #1706: R.E.M. – “Voice of Harold”

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B-side, 1984

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File Under Revelaires

What came first, “7 chineSe bros.” or “Voice of Harold?” On the face of it, it’s an absurd question, of course: “Voice of Harold” was basically Michael Stipe singing the liner notes of a gospel album over already-recorded backing track of “7 chineSe bros.,” so there you go.

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