R.E.M. Call It A Day

[Kudzu Guillotine]

To my knowledge, "Feeling Gravity's Pull" was never released as a single. Aside from that, I agree with you as far as Fables and Chronic Town (which is so often overlooked) being at the top of the tier as far as being my favorite albums from them. When Fables first came out it immediately struck me as very dense and nearly impenetrable (particularly following the lyrical parables of Murmur and Reckoning) which only served to endear me to it more.

[Smitty]

REM haven't influenced my life near as much as many of yall, but this saddens me as well - but if the time has passed, then they should be applauded.

[Smitty]

I do sincerely regret never seeing them live.
If (when) a "reunion" happens, it won't be the same.

[oilpiers]

To my knowledge, "Feeling Gravity's Pull" was never released as a single. Aside from that, I agree with you as far as Fables and Chronic Town (which is so often overlooked) being at the top of the tier as far as being my favorite albums from them. When Fables first came out it immediately struck me as very dense and nearly impenetrable (particularly following the lyrical parables of Murmur and Reckoning) which only served to endear me to it more.

It was not a single, but the FM station that played REM around here played that a lot when it came out.

[bold99]

Sad Sad day. One of my favorite bands ever. Grew up on them. I can remember skipping school and going to the record store to get Out of Time. Lot of great memories. I saw them on the Monster tour and it was just an incredible show. There is nothing like those Early R.E.M. albums...and I loved a lot of their later stuff as well.

[bold99]

I jumped off the R.E.M. bandwagon because I truly hated Out of Time and although I have come to appreciate a few of the tracks on that record, I still hate it to this day. I did, however, respect the fact that they followed it up with Automatic For The People which I thought was an excellent album that actually backed off from the ultra commercial path they had been paving since Document. It was too little and too late for me at that point though and I really never listened to much after that. All that being said I never felt, even when they were courting commercialism with a vengeance, that they lost their integrity. I think they believed in what they were doing and you can never dog a band for that.

Linkous mentioned U2, who I loved nearly as much in the early eighties, and conversely I don't think they believed in what they were doing as they turned towards the commercial. I think it was cynical and the very definition of selling out. How anyone could think that Achtung Baby was anything but crass money grabbing is beyond my comprehension. I don't think R.E.M. could have ever made a record so blatantly designed to sell records without any regard to artistic merit.

I have to respectfully disagree with all of this. Achtung Baby is one of my favorite albums of all time. I don't think they made it with any intention other than to make a great album...which they did. Bono has never denied the fact that he wants to hear U2's songs on the radio but to say it was "crass money grabbing" to me is obsurd. After Joshua Tree I don't really think they needed that. U2 and R.E.M. were always about change...making a different album each time out and I think Out Of Time, which is also one of my favorite R.E.M. albums, and Achtung are two perfect examples of that. Bands mixing it up and not getting stuck. Just because what comes out of that is a song like "One" which became ultra popular doesn't take anything away for me. It is a great song on a great album. I could care less about the commercialism factor...if it is good, it is good.

[Clams]

I can't say I ever thought of Acthung Baby as a stab at crass commercialism either. If anything, I thought of it as a reinvention and a pretty crafty one at that.

x2 Achtung Baby has withstood the test of time, too.

As for REM, I came to like them during the Green-Out of Time-Automatic heyday and those are still the records I prefer to listen to. I do understand yall's attraction to the earlier ones, but I don't share it.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Listen I know I'm in the minority when it comes to R.E.M. And U2 and their turn towards the radio friendly, but I've held these opinions for a very long time and stand by them. The complete disappointment I felt towards The Joshua Tree & Out of Time and my absolute revulsion towards Achtung Baby are real feelings and again not likely go change at this late date. And it really is not about the commercialism, it's that I don't care for the songs. Losing My Religion is horrible and grates on my nerves as much as any Journey, Foreigner or Styx song, and the fact that it was by a band that meant so much to me, and had written such amazing songs like Catapult, Wolves Lower, Radio Free Europe and others, was devastating. I understand others vehemently disagree but it's just how I felt then and, for the most part, still feel now.

[Clams]

The complete disappointment I felt towards The Joshua Tree & Out of Time and my absolute revulsion towards Achtung Baby are real feelings and again not likely go change at this late date. And it really is not about the commercialism, it's that I don't care for the songs. Losing My Religion is horrible and grates on my nerves as much as any Journey, Foreigner or Styx song,

"Complete disappointment... absolute revulsion..." Strong words, TC. Belongs in the blasphemy thread! Re Joshua Tree, I don't see how you can hate that one if you liked the first three U2 records. It wasn't a departure at all and in fact just the opposite - it kind of capped the progression of their early years (IMO). I can see how someone might not like Achtung Baby though. It's got a very different sound from all prior U2. I happen to like it, but I can see where others might not. Which leads us to George Wallace, er, to Out of Time. Other than the fact that Out of Time was a huge commercial success and breakthrough that led to arena shows etc, I don't see why all you early hard-core REM fans hate it. To my ears, even some of their early songs had hooks and pop melodies. Other than the huge success and recognition, was Out of Time really such a departure for them? Not to my ears. As I think about it, Out of Time is to REM like Born in the USA is to Bruce - villified and maligned by the "true" fans but in fact full of great songs and not really all that different from what they had been doing up to that point. My $.02. Carry on.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Losing My Religion is horrible and grates on my nerves as much as any Journey, Foreigner or Styx song, and the fact that it was by a band that meant so much to me, and had written such amazing songs like Catapult, Wolves Lower, Radio Free Europe and others, was devastating.

If anything, "Losing My Religion" encapsulates all that was great about R.E.M. into one song, the yearning, the return of "Mumbles", the folk-rock side of the band. The fact that it was played to death worldwide on radio and on video music channels caused lots of people to become burned out on it. To me, it's still one of their crowning achievements.

The complete disappointment I felt towards The Joshua Tree & Out of Time and my absolute revulsion towards Achtung Baby are real feelings and again not likely go change at this late date. And it really is not about the commercialism, it's that I don't care for the songs. Losing My Religion is horrible and grates on my nerves as much as any Journey, Foreigner or Styx song,

"Complete disappointment... absolute revulsion..." Strong words, TC. Belongs in the blasphemy thread! Re Joshua Tree, I don't see how you can hate that one if you liked the first three U2 records. It wasn't a departure at all and in fact just the opposite - it kind of capped the progression of their early years (IMO). I can see how someone might not like Achtung Baby though. It's got a very different sound from all prior U2. I happen to like it, but I can see where others might not. Which leads us to George Wallace, er, to Out of Time. Other than the fact that Out of Time was a huge commercial success and breakthrough that led to arena shows etc, I don't see why all you early hard-core REM fans hate it. To my ears, even some of their early songs had hooks and pop melodies. Other than the huge success and recognition, was Out of Time really such a departure for them? Not to my ears. As I think about it, Out of Time is to REM like Born in the USA is to Bruce - villified and maligned by the "true" fans but in fact full of great songs and not really all that different from what they had been doing up to that point. My $.02. Carry on.

I consider myself a "hardcore" R.E.M. fan but I don't hate Out of Time however, it does seem to be one of the albums that others found not to be to their liking when it was originally released. I have one friend that was a also a fan since the beginning but he felt they began to slip around that time and he started to lose interest in them only to come back onboard with the release of Automatic For the People. Someone I encountered on the Murmurs message board said he refused to buy it at the time because he felt it was too representative of the "bourgeois" mindset since it was a million seller. Pretty fucking stupid reason not to buy an album if you ask me. I never thought it was a bad record. As you mentioned it has a lot of the touchstones that always made R.E.M. great. At their very core they were always a folk-rock band and that side of their sound is primarily the focus of Out of Time. I can't count the number of reviews that used the words "folk" or "baroque" to describe it when it first came out.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

R.E.M. R.I.P.: Thank You for Running It Into the Ground by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone

RollingStone.com has also posted a photo gallery of R.E.M. through the years.

[dogstar]

Love this quote from the Rolling Stone article

Break R.E.M.'s career into "Eighties" and "Nineties" halves, and you've got two of the best bands that ever existed.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Evidently Pearl Jam covered "It Happened Today" (a track from Collapse Into Now that Vedder contributed vocals to) in concert last night. Hopefully some footage and/or audio will surface of it.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Pearl Jam covers "It Happened Today" (about Vic Chesnutt) on 9.21.11. from Collapse Into Now, a song Vedder contributed backing vocals for on the record.

[sactochris]

R.E.M. R.I.P.: Thank You for Running It Into the Ground by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone

RollingStone.com has also posted a photo gallery of R.E.M. through the years.

Fucking brilliant, just like almost everything than comes from Sheffield's pen.

[oilpiers]

Radio is so bad in California that I actually listen to Mark and Brian on my way to work. They usually piss me off, but the only alternative is formula radio or NPR, which I can't listen to all the time. Yesterday M&B were talking about R.E.M. These guys have been in rock oriented radio for over 30 years. They are in their early to mid 50's, just like the members of R.E.M. They speak about them like they are some exotic cult offshoot band they do not understand. Mark even admitted he has never even listened to an album of theirs. Yet they get exited about a new Journey album, I shit you not. How can one work in LA radio for 30 years and still have the musical knowledge of a 15 year old in 1980? The only possible upside is they are doing a act and pretending to be stupid.

[Clams]

R.E.M. R.I.P.: Thank You for Running It Into the Ground by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone

RollingStone.com has also posted a photo gallery of R.E.M. through the years.

Fucking brilliant, just like almost everything than comes from Sheffield's pen.

x2. Love Sheffield's stuff.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Radio is so bad in California that I actually listen to Mark and Brian on my way to work. They usually piss me off, but the only alternative is formula radio or NPR, which I can't listen to all the time. Yesterday M&B were talking about R.E.M. These guys have been in rock oriented radio for over 30 years. They are in their early to mid 50's, just like the members of R.E.M. They speak about them like they are some exotic cult offshoot band they do not understand. Mark even admitted he has never even listened to an album of theirs. Yet they get exited about a new Journey album, I shit you not. How can one work in LA radio for 30 years and still have the musical knowledge of a 15 year old in 1980? The only possible upside is they are doing a act and pretending to be stupid.

I have no idea but I credit album radio (specifically, WQDR out of Raleigh) for turning me onto R.E.M. Sure, Murmur was one of those "critic's darlings" albums but it was actually hearing "Laughing" for the first time that made me a fan. A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them that, they say it had to be "Radio Free Europe". Well, it wasn't. Album radio played deep cuts so it made complete sense that the first song I ever heard by R.E.M. was "Laughing". In the years since WQDR's demise (they switched to a country format in 1984) I still manage to keep up with what some of the former disc jockeys are doing these days. One of them, "Bob the Blade", ended up at a station I worked for a while in New Bern (WSFL). Bob used to host a show called Premieres on WQDR's successor, WRDU (which also went country a few years ago) where he played a lot of what was considered "cutting edge" music at the time. So, when I was reading his WSFL blog about his favorite music, I thought it would be filled with lots of cool artists. WRONG. It was brimming with lots of "classic rock" bullshit that's 20-30 years old. I'm not sure if that was an effort on his part to stay true to the format of WSFL or if it was heartfelt. I also like a lot of the music I grew up on but I'm not one of those people that's stuck in the 70s. I was rather disappointed as his show was the place I heard bands like the Alarm and R.E.M.'s "Voice of Harold" for the first time. I guess his music taste stagnated somewhere along the line.

[oilpiers]

Radio is so bad in California that I actually listen to Mark and Brian on my way to work. They usually piss me off, but the only alternative is formula radio or NPR, which I can't listen to all the time. Yesterday M&B were talking about R.E.M. These guys have been in rock oriented radio for over 30 years. They are in their early to mid 50's, just like the members of R.E.M. They speak about them like they are some exotic cult offshoot band they do not understand. Mark even admitted he has never even listened to an album of theirs. Yet they get exited about a new Journey album, I shit you not. How can one work in LA radio for 30 years and still have the musical knowledge of a 15 year old in 1980? The only possible upside is they are doing a act and pretending to be stupid.

I have no idea but I credit album radio (specifically, WQDR out of Raleigh) for turning me onto R.E.M. Sure, Murmur was one of those "critic's darlings" albums but it was actually hearing "Laughing" for the first time that made me a fan. A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them that, they say it had to be "Radio Free Europe". Well, it wasn't. Album radio played deep cuts so it made complete sense that the first song I ever heard by R.E.M. was "Laughing". In the years since WQDR's demise (they switched to a country format in 1984) I still manage to keep up with what some of the former disc jockeys are doing these days. One of them, "Bob the Blade", ended up a station I worked for a while in New Bern (WSFL). Bob used to host a show called Premieres on WQDR's successor, WRDU (which also went country a few years ago) where he played a lot of what was considered "cutting edge" music at the time. So, when I was reading his WSFL blog about his favorite music, I thought it would be filled with lots of cool artists. WRONG. It was brimming with lots of "classic rock" bullshit that's 20-30 years old. I'm not sure if that was an effort on his part to stay true to the format of WSFL or if it was heartfelt. I also like a lot of the music I grew up on but I'm not one of those people that's stuck in the 70s. I was rather disappointed as his show was the place I heard bands like the Alarm and R.E.M.'s "Voice of Harold" for the first time. I guess his music taste stagnated somewhere along the line.

I was turned on to REM by Robert Hilburn of the LA times, and Rolling Stone, both praising Murmer as album of the year. I purchased it, agreed 100%, and had only one friend interested in listening to them. We saw the Reckoning Tour in a crowd of about 200. Stipe used to give 30 seconds of eye contact making one feel very strange.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I grew up in rural eastern North Carolina so fellow R.E.M. fans were extremely scarce and my fandom made me stick out like a sore thumb. Thank goodness for the supreme taste of the programmers of WQDR and a very strong radio signal.

[beantownbubba]

R.E.M. R.I.P.: Thank You for Running It Into the Ground by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone

RollingStone.com has also posted a photo gallery of R.E.M. through the years.

Fucking brilliant, just like almost everything than comes from Sheffield's pen.

I meant to say that.

[sactochris]

R.E.M. R.I.P.: Thank You for Running It Into the Ground by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone

RollingStone.com has also posted a photo gallery of R.E.M. through the years.

Fucking brilliant, just like almost everything than comes from Sheffield's pen.

x2. Love Sheffield's stuff.

Him and Klosterman both are just amazing. It's always an enjoyable read with those two.

[oilpiers]

I grew up in rural eastern North Carolina so fellow R.E.M. fans were extremely scarce and my fandom made me stick out like a sore thumb. Thank goodness for the supreme taste of the programmers of WQDR and a very strong radio signal.

Weren't the first 2 records made in NC?I could look it up, but that is cheating. Isn't Mitch Easter or Don Dixon from Smoke town? Winston Salem.

[Slipkid42]

I agree with TC that both U2 & R.E.M. consciously steered their music in a commercial direction. I disagree with TC that thier music was shitty thereafter.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I grew up in rural eastern North Carolina so fellow R.E.M. fans were extremely scarce and my fandom made me stick out like a sore thumb. Thank goodness for the supreme taste of the programmers of WQDR and a very strong radio signal.

Weren't the first 2 records made in NC?I could look it up, but that is cheating. Isn't Mitch Easter or Don Dixon from Smoke town? Winston Salem.

Chronic Town, Murmur and Reckoning were all recorded in NC. I believe Chronic Town was done at Mitch's Drive-In Studio in Kernersville while the first two full length records were done at Reflection Sound Studios in Charlotte. I believe Dixon originally hails from Conway, SC. Correct on Mitch, he's from Winston-Salem.

[Smitty]

[oilpiers]

Smitty!!! After 1/3 of the first song I know this is one of the single most underground videos I wished for. I saw them relatively early, 1984 when no one I knew had heard of them, but this is so friggen at the very beginning of their recording career I never expected this. Thank You Very Much.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Smitty!!! After 1/3 of the first song I know this is one of the single most underground videos I wished for. I saw them relatively early, 1984 when no one I knew had heard of them, but this is so friggen at the very beginning of their recording career I never expected this. Thank You Very Much.

Folks had been aware that this show had been filmed for years but only a precious few had ever seen it. A few years back some R.E.M. fans pooled their funds together to purchase the original footage. Thankfully, they also decided to share it with the world (or at least the U.S.) by posting it on the YouTubes. Their set at the African Relief benefit concert at Meredith College in Raleigh (that also included sets from the Connells, Rick Rock (aka Parthenon Huxley), Don Dixon and others) in 1985 was also filmed. It can also be found on YouTube but it's split into individual one song segments. Sadly, it sounds like there's a lot of slapback from Berry's drums but you'll forget about it (or get used to it) after 3 or 4 songs. This one is pretty significant to me as it was probably my second opportunity (as far as I was aware of back then) of seeing R.E.M. for the first time. The other being their show at Memorial Auditorium (also in Raleigh) with the Minutemen in '83.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

David Fricke of Rolling Stone talks to Mike Mills about R.E.M. disbanding after 31 years:

Exclusive: Mike Mills on Why R.E.M. Are Calling It Quits