Album: Dead Man’s Pop
Year: 1989
. . .
You’re life’s a joke so tell me, ain’t it?
Sometimes a live version of a song that you’re lukewarm on can reveal its hidden treasures.
On Don’t Tell a Soul, “Anywhere’s Better Than Here” was a weird beast, a song with a great beginning — that scream! — and a great ending, but not a whole lot in between, as it lurched around without ever settling down.
Maybe that was the mix, maybe it was the performance, as even the Dead Man’s Pop version failed to revive it for me.
Of course, by that time, I’d been listening to the live version for three decades, so it probably never even had a chance. Said live version, of course, was featured on the promo-only Inconcerated — about which, more tomorrow — and totally changed my mind about the song.
Maybe it was the live energy, maybe it was the just the two guitars and three vocalists (check Tommy’s screams in the last verse), or maybe they had figured out how to put it across — listen to how Paul’s and Slim’s guitars play off of each other — but a song that was just fine suddenly became a song I loved, especially the call-and-response chorus.
Anywhere is better than
(Anywhere is better than)
Anywhere is better than
(Anywhere is better than)
Anywhere is better than
(Anywhere is better than)
Anywherrrrrrrrrrrre!
Is better than here
I love the sneakily winding hook that Slim plays throughout the chorus, and I also love how Paul is confident enough on the second chorus to lay out and let the audience gleefully shout “Is better than here!”
Of course, that could just be laziness on Paul’s part, too. Either way, the whole thing is just fantastic, giving a whole new dimension to the song.
“Anywhere is Better Than Here (Milwaukee, 1989)”
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See also: REM, Man In The Moon