Green

Certain Songs #1728: R.E.M. – “(Untitled)”

January 16, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under ” “

There was a lot of change in the air when Green came out on Election Day, 1988.

While it was, sadly, a foregone conclusion as to who our next President would be, it was going to be the end of the Reagan years, which had to be a good thing. The awful summer of 1988 finally ended, which was also a good thing. Even better, I started playing music with some of the people who I’m still playing music with, and — of course, because there was a new R.E.M. album — started a relationship that lasted until just before Out of Time came out, my longest one yet!

Certain Songs #1727: R.E.M. – “I Remember California”

January 15, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under History

Some of you might have noticed that I skipped “Stand,” the massive hit single from Green with the silly lyrics and sillier video, and which proved that the success of “The One I Love” wasn’t a fluke: “Stand” is fine. “Stand” is fun. Yay, “Stand!”

OK. Good. Glad to get that out of the way.

Certain Songs #1726: R.E.M. – “World Leader Pretend”

January 14, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under Freedom

While it was never released as a single, “World Leader Pretend” is a very important song in the R.E.M. canon for a couple of different reasons. For one thing, it’s the first set of lyrics that Michael Stipe was comfortable with printing on an album sleeve. This felt like a huge deal at the time, putting the spotlight on “World Leader Pretend” in the same way that Led Zeppelin had put the spotlight on “Stairway To Heaven” 17 years previously.

Certain Songs #1725: R.E.M. – “Get Up”

January 13, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green
Year: 1988

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File Under Dreams

And then, as their final act of a decade where they made more great music than any other artist, R.E.M. released their major label debut on Election Day, 1988. And it was kind of a disappointment.

Not in a major-label sellout kind of way — not with R.E.M. — but rather in a somewhat failed transition album sort of way. Green started strong and it ended strong, but in the middle — from “The Wrong Child” through “Hairshirt” — it failed to connect to me. And as you can imagine, I tried.