MY SUMMER WITH R.E.M.

When R.E.M. amicably decided to conclude their 31 year musical odyssey, I was not prepared in any conceivable way for how their disbanding would effect me.

Now this is not to say that I was ever a rabid R.E.M. fan. I wasn't. While I have been attentive to the band's journey throughout the entirety of their career, my emotions concerning the have run the gamut from appreciation, irritation, curiosity, fascination, rapturous love, crushing disappointment, vehement rejection, the fullest of embraces and now that they are gone, I was forced to re-evaluate their entire discography and history and I now realize and understand just how original, innovative and idiosyncratic of a band they actually were. With their magical alchemy and musical amalgam of enigmatic folk songs, pastoral acoustic pop, bubblegum hits, explosively heartfelt political statements, experimental and expansive alternative rock, sidesteps into country, soul and funk merged alongside layers of guitars and soaring harmony vocals, R.E.M. crafted a sound that was distinctly Southern and at times nostalgic, while also existing as a sound of its own universe and often ahead of the curve.

Drummer Bill Berry, Guitar hero Peter Buck, Bassist/Vocalist/Multi-instrumentalist Mike Mills and the inimitable Michael Stipe, one of the most charismatic frontmen to ever grace rock and roll, as the collective of R.E.M. truly sounded like no one other than themselves, and even more importantly, there's not a band, before or since, that really ever sounded like them.

This Spring for Record Store Day, R.E.M. released a jewel from their extensive unreleased archives for all of you vinyl obsessive out there. "Unplugged 1991/2001 The Complete Sessions" (released April 19, 2014) is a quadruple set collecting the band's full performances from their appearances on the classic MTV television program, and including 11 performances which had been previously unreleased. Now I have to say that I did not make this purchase on that special day not solely due to what I would have imagined to have been the hefty cost, but also due to a certain beloved yet mischievous four legged, furry feline that once ate through the speaker wire of my stereo many years ago, making listening to my vinyl collection impossible.So, I waited for the CD release a short time afterwards.

What struck me immediately upon the first listen to the album was skilled of a live band R.E.M. actually was, not solely from the actual performances themselves but from how beautifully they constructed their sets and crafted a show as their song selections and arrangements were absolutely impeccable.

The 1991 performance hails from the period where the band's presence was about to blast wide open into the masses upon the release of "Out Of Time" (released March 12, 1991), which of course contained the gargantuan hit single "Losing My Religion." The 2001 set finds R.E.M. late in their history with a career spanning set that includes then new selections from their album "Reveal" (released May 15, 2001). What I found to be very interesting is how the 1991 set finds the band almost filled with a nervous excitement, as if they are realizing that their fortunes are soon to exceed their dreams. With the 2001 set, it is clear that you are hearing a band of richly seasoned performers, executing their show with a slick elegance, the kind of which only arrives after having performed thousands upon thousands of concerts...and furthermore, Michael Stipe's singing is exceedingly lovely.

Listening to the "Unplugged" album quickly inspired me to go back into my collection to listen to some R.E.M. albums again as I have not really listened to any of them in quite a lengthy amount of time. What I initially thought would be a casual re-acquaintance with perhaps one or two albums, has transformed itself into a full Summer during which the predominant artist from month to month has been R.E.M. (something I think would be abundantly clear to you if you have read the July monthly WSPC playlist).

It's funny, but R.E.M. is a band that I have often felt to be more...autumnal, their overall sound perfectly designed for the sight of falling leaves, and the feeling that arrives from chilly late September mornings and the slowly fading sunlight that arrives earlier and earlier as Fall deepens. But for this year, R.E.M. has firmly found its way into being the full sound of the season as I am experiencing the band as I never have before, even as I have also taken to watching their music videos and have also begun reading a biography, R.E.M.: Perfect Circle by Tony Fletcher. Now, I focus solely on the music, this wonderful music which continues to reveal itself to me. And to think how so much of it initially passed me by.

Somehow, someway, the musical story of R.E.M. can easily be divided into three distinct eras: the early, formative years on the I.R.S. label, the initial juggernaut five album winning streak on Warner Brothers and the more turbulent final Warner Brothers years, which also produced five studio albums, after drummer Bill Berry's departure and retirement from the music scene altogether.

Now I have to say that I was really with R.E.M. from the very beginning thanks to Chicago's WXRT-FM, obscure and long defunct music television programs that aired on pay TV as well as from some friends, especially one who first loaned me a copy of "Fables Of The Reconstruction" (released June 10, 1985) back in high school. While not one of my favorite bands by a long shot, R.E.M. did initially captivate me with their sound of mysteriously mumbled yet harmonic vocals augmented by driving rhythms and Peter Buck's hypnotically dreamy guitars, which, as I listen back to their earliest material, amazes me because the band appears to be fully formed sonically from the jump. Songs like their now classic singles "Radio Free Europe," "Talk About The Passion," "Driver 8," "Can't Get There From Here," "Don't Go Back To Rockville" and album tracks like "Feeling Gravity's Pull," "Pretty Persuasion," and the elegant "Perfect Circle" were all winners in my book, but for some reason, they were still a band that kept me a bit at arms length. Or at least, that was the distance at which I kept them. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

 

This Summer, I found myself digging out copies of the band's fourth and fifth albums, respectively, "Lifes Rich Pageant" (released July 28, 1986) and "Document" (released September 1, 1987), the very album I actually featured on my very first WLHA college radio show in September '87, not because I was a major fan (I still wasn't) but mostly because I was somewhat familiar with it as I was just getting my DJ feet wet and needed to play something while I got myself situated with the archaic technology in front of me.

Despite my love of 1970s prog rock, concept albums, the complicated jigsaw time signatures of jazz/rock fusion music as well as all of the left-of-center English/European bands and I adored, R.E.M. often left me scratching my head as they felt to be as impenetrable as they were accessible. And to that end, there always seemed to be some sense of musical snobbishness that carried itself with the band, whether by design or not. R.E.M. was not a band that anyone had to defend, as I had felt the need to defend the value of say Genesis or Rush to my peers. R.E.M. seemed to be the band for music critics and journalists to be sure but also for kids deemed "cool enough" to understand them. And when faced with that perception, I tended to turn my back to them regardless of what the actual music was. I never really gave them a fair shake.

Listening to these albums now in 2014, I am struck by how glistening they actually are. How after their three initial and purposefully enigmatic albums, "Lifes Rich Pageant" was the first album in their discography that was designed to make a connection with a larger audience. It seems fitting now that the first track (on an album where the mistaken track listing has proudly never been corrected) is the rousing "Begin The Begin," on which Michael Stipe, through clearer vocals and crisp production, sings "Let's begin again," the song sounds as if it is a message of intent for all of the music to follow, not just on this particular album but for the music of their future. Where tracks like "The Flowers Of Guatemala" and the superbly haunting "Cuyahoga" once confounded me, I have now embraced them tremendously, their messages now meaningful in ways they never had been before. And songs like "I Believe," the raucous "These Days" and the shattering "Fall On Me" are just flat out towering.

If "Lifes Rich Pageant" was an album designed to make a connection, then "Document" is the album designed to make their full audiences engaged (just as Stipe sings on the opening "Finest Worksong") with the larger world as well as with the band. It is an album that sounds like a call to awareness, action and activism during the days of Iran Contra. Granted, the overall breathless urgency of the album, which features no less than "Exhuming McCarthy," "Disturbance At The Heron House," "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" plus the anti-love song "The One I Love," has connected with me for quite some time but to listen to these two albums together, it was great to hear the progression, to hear how the music from one album informed the album next to arrive.

I was nearing the end of my very first semester as a Freshman in college, December 3, 1987 to be exact, when Rolling Stone magazine anointed R.E.M. as "America's Best Band." This, I have to say was the beginning of my vehement rejection of R.E.M., basically for no other reason than their ubiquity. While this was certainly not the band's fault, I just felt as if the media and radio stations were going out of their way to force this band down my throat, much like how I felt the airwaves and print mediums were doing the same with U2 at the exact same time as they were riding the massive wave of "The Joshua Tree" (released March 9, 1987) and would soon be followed by their concert movie "Rattle And Hum" (1988) from Director Phil Joanau.

Also, R.E.M.'s ubiquity was more than confirmed by their signing to the Warner Brothers label, a career move that I ridiculously ranted against from some falsely purist pose. Regardless, I was so sick and tired of hearing about or even from this band and there was nothing I could do about it at the time because R.E.M. was truly everywhere as their success climbed through the stratosphere. Yet, over time, I slowly and grudgingly began to warm to R.E.M., as if the music itself was informing me that even I, at my most entrenched, could not deny music this powerful.

 

 

Now in 2014, I have come to realize and firmly understand that R.E.M. during this second phase of their story was a band on FIRE!!! The first five albums they released during their tenure with Warner Brothers represents a creative streak that most bands would kill for and many other bands never, ever quite attain. Their musical growth and reach was as meteoric as it was unbelievably prolific (much like their label-mate Prince), thus making their ascension so rightfully justifiable as they succeeded upon their own terms and with a ferocious creativity unlike many of their peers.   

Last month, I spoke of my new feelings towards "Green" (released November 8, 1988), and now, I wish to share my feelings towards the four subsequent releases...

"OUT OF TIME" (released March 12, 1991): This album was released as I was nearing the end of my college career and typically at the time, I paid it very little attention...sort of. My curiosity was always apparent, even when I was rejecting them but my was enforced by the constant presence of "Losing My Religion," a truly gorgeous song about the pitfalls of a romantic crush that, for me, was undone by the media's perception that this was the first song to ever use a mandolin and that MTV seemed to think was the only music video ever filmed.

But as I listened to the album this Summer, I now see that "Out Of Time" was as advertised, R.E.M.'s idiosyncratic pastiche of 1960's pop in 1991 that leaned more towards the pastoral or sugary breezes of Chad and Jeremy, The Association and The Monkees yet their experimentation clearly aligned them with the likes of The Beatles. "Radio Song," featuring the extraordinary vocals of Boogie Down Production's KRS-ONE, carried a groove you would hear on something performed by Booker T And The MGs. But it is through tracks like "Texarkana," "Near Wild Heaven," the instrumental "Endgame" and even the unfairly maligned "Shiny Happy People," that the band constantly brings joyousness to the proceedings, even when the songs contain melancholy hearts and souls. Only the truly enigmatic "Country Feedback," a longtime fan favorite, emerges as something that feels as if it is from another world...and compellingly so

"AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE" (released October 5, 1992): This album was hit with monstrously high praise upon its release and as before, I rejected it all as it just felt to just be a part of the release strategy for any new R.E.M. album. Also, the ballad "Everybody Hurts" became even more ubiquitous than "Losing My Religion" to the point that it wasn't until the band's break-up that I recognized what a richly beautiful song, largely written by Bill Berry, it really is. But even so, I remember walking down State Street and being beckoned into B-Side records to the strains of the dreamy "Star Me Kitten," a song that to my ears sounded like absolutely nothing the band had done before.

Since then, I have deeply recognized that this album is possibly R.E.M.'s finest hour as its collection of hymns and meditations upon mortality and loss cut to the bone with elegance and passionate commitment to making every single note shimmer and shine through the dark cloud themes and concepts. When the surprising news of my Grandfather's passing reached me, I instinctively reached for this album as solace.

"MONSTER" (released September 26, 1994): 1994. Another year, another R.E.M. album, another round of ubiquitous praise. Yawn. But this time, my resistance was weakening as the band's full on glam rock and roll album, with its more overtly sexualized textures and themes and fueled by Peter Buck's rainbow blasted guitar heroics eventually won me over and remains a favorite.

"NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI" (released September 9, 1996): Since "Monster" had swayed me, I actually purchased this album shortly after its release and mostly, fueled by the stunning "E-Bow The Letter." It did confound me a bit but since then, this release has become my favorite R.E.M. album as it feels as if it is the culmination of the first five Warner Brothers albums and it somehow even pushes further.

Opening with the funky Ennio Morricone influenced "How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us" and continuing onwards with more thunderous glam rock ("The Wake Up Bomb," "Departure," "Undertow"), more folk driven material ("New Test Leper"), power ballads ("Be Mine"), instrumentals ("Zither"), seven minute behemoths (the outstanding "Leave") and even more, "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" capped one incredible run as well as provided a fitting swan song for Bill Berry who retired from music afterwards. This entire Summer, I have listened, re-listened and re-listened to them all, discovering all that I had missed initially, the sounds phasing into the season and my spirit seamlessly.

Once R.E.M. became a trio and they faced more scrutiny and even indifference for their final five studio albums, oddly enough, that was the time I embraced the band the tightest and then found myself in the position of having to defend them despite their immense and unmovable legacy.

 

I really believe that "Up" (released October 26, 1998) was the only album the band could have possibly made after Berry's departure and they were essentially figuring out how to drive a car with three wheels instead of four. The follow up album "Reveal" (released May 14, 2001) is possibly the finest album in their late period. It is an album of Summer itself, a languid, glowing Summer where the band's melodies, harmonics and acoustic merged with electronic textures were just so very beautiful to behold.

Tracks like "The Lifting," "She Just Wants To Be" and "Imitation Of Life" stand out and as proudly as anything they had recorded in the past. But "I've Been High," "I'll Take The Rain," "Beat A Drum" and "Beachball," to my ears, are some of the finest, richest songs they had ever made. And Michael Stipe's singing reached tremendous new peaks as well. I felt at the time that if R.E.M. had decided to just be a studio band for the remainder of its existence, then this album showed how they could achieve that goal.

While R.E.M. did indeed return to the stage for more extremely well received live performances, even I was struggling to defend their studio work once they arrived with the maligned "Around The Sun" (released October 5, 2004), an album, which song-for-song is not bad or terrible but when you place all of those songs together they make for an album that barely has enough energy to spin in the CD player. These songs are just so fussed with, so overly produced, so hermetically sealed that the life is just sucked right out of them. It was as if the band was still trying to figure out how to drive that three wheeled car. and it showed painfully, making it the one album that I have not revisited this Summer.

 

What I have revisited are the band's final two studio albums, "Accelerate" (released March 31, 2008) and "Collapse Into Now" (released March 7, 2011), a one-two punch of briskly performed, tightly written selections that re-confirm the band's greatness and ability to create relevant, vital music even in the last laps of their journey.

My Summer with R.E.M. has been a completely unexpected one, especially due to its longevity as I have found myself not feeling the need to advance onwards to different bands and artists so intensively. It is not as if I haven't been listening to any other albums, as evidenced by what was displayed in the "Now Playing In The Savage Jukebox" feature for the previous month and what will be featured for this month. But, R.E.M. has been the band where every time I think that I just may be finished with this exploration and re-acquaintance, and I think that I may be ready to return all of the albums back to their rightful place in the WSPC studio archives, I find myself unable to return them just quite yet, feeling as if I have to hear them some more, even deeper and all over again.

That is the measure of the greatest music. The kind of music that one can dive into, like the deepest water, and emerge fully refreshed, reinvigorated, sated and transformed. Sometimes great music takes time to be recognized and appreciated as well. And that is indeed the music of R.E.M. for me, for even when I was confused and even rejected it, R.E.M. was always there, patiently waiting for me.

Thank you for waiting. Thank you.