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Lifes Rich Pageant

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.

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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.

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

Certain Songs #1715: R.E.M. – “These Days”

December 30, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Year: 1986

. . .

File Under Three

Just in case you were wondering if the big sound of “Begin The Begin” was an anomaly instead of a harbinger all doubts were erased about two seconds after it ended, as a 75 ton snare hit introduced “These Days,” the most unhinged rocker that R.E.M. had yet put to plastic (and yet not even the most unhinged rocker on Lifes Rich Pageant, but we’ll get there in a few days).

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

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

December 28, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Year: 1986

. . .

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.

[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1714: R.E.M. – “Begin The Begin”

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

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2580: Supertramp – “Even in the Quietest Moments”
  • Certain Songs #2579: Supertramp – “Bloody Well Right”
  • Certain Songs #2578: Supergrass – “Sun Hits The Sky”
  • Certain Songs #2577: Supergrass – “Alright”
  • Certain Songs #2576: Superchunk – “If You’re Not Dark”

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