Earlier this week, I came across Stereogum’s Drive XV, a tribute to R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People. I’m a little bit late to the party, but it’s a wonderful tribute to a classic album. Listening to it reminded me that it’s probably been too long since I last listened to R.E.M., which is a damn shame.
Many moons ago, I wrote about how I’ve listened to Pearl Jam for pretty much my entire life. R.E.M. is the only other band to have such a long-term presence. Like any R.E.M. fan my age, I got into them through the big singles from Out Of Time. I taped that album from a friend, I think, which led me to tape Green and Document from another friend’s older sister.* And here I am, 17 years later, still in love.
Here’s a few songs that might not necessarily be the very very best, but that were and have been important to me ever since they were released. “Nightswimming” has always been, without a doubt, my very favorite or theirs. Until Interpol came along and sang “NYC”, I’d always considered it the most beautiful song ever written. (Now they’re tied.) “Belong” is a little unusual, but those soaring vocal bits give me the shivers every time. And, although “Orange Crush” is probably my favorite off Green now, it didn’t get any better than “Stand” back when R.E.M. first came into my life.
R.E.M. – Nightswimming
R.E.M. – Belong
R.E.M. – Stand
* Yup, killing the music industry even back then. In case any big execs are reading along, let me explain exactly how much money I stole from R.E.M. / the big bosses by taping those those three albums back in the early ’90s. Shortly after, I bought Automatic For The People on cassette (it was yellow, remember? That was cool.) and then Monster on CD. I eventually replaced my tapes with legal, overpriced CDs, plus a few more. aDawgg and I paid not-so-small ticket prices to see them live in 2003 and both bought not-so-cheap t-shirts. The entire staff of 100b saw them again on a lovely summer night in 2005. Because I’m a big dorky fangirl, I bought another t-shirt. I will eventually fill up the missing spots in my CD collection and will always jump at the chance to see them live. So, yeah – that illegal copying sure did some serious damage, huh?
(Doh. Mp3 links now working.)
Have you heard R.E.M.’s version of “NYC”?
I’ve heard of it, but never actually heard it. Just the thought of R.E.M. doing “NYC” gives me the chills (in the best way possible, of course). I’ll have to look around and see if I can find it – thanks for reminding me!