Lifes Rich Pageant

My favorite R.E.M. album, Lifes Rich Pageant(1), was released 40 years ago this summer, though my favorite song remains Driver 8 from their prior album, Fables of the Reconstruction.  The band hailed from the same place as the B-52s, Athens, Georgia.  Over its long recording career, R.E.M. had two distinct styles; songs on which you could not understand Michael Stipe's lyrics and those on which you could (Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts are good examples of the latter).  THC much preferred the former earlier style.  R.E.M. were at their best when they featured jangling guitars,  strong melodies, and Stipe's mumbling vocals buried into the mix. I find a lot of later REM either dreary or just too much.

Burying the vocals in the mix dominated the early R.E.M. records in the 1980s.  It didn't mean that the listener couldn't make out any words in the murk.  Indeed, words and even phrases could be interpreted but there were always passages when you simply could not make out what they were saying.  And, back then, there was no internet to quickly search out the lyrics.  It also ensured that you often had no idea what the song was about, which in some cases may have been for the better.  Lifes Rich Pageant is a transitional record in which Stipe's vocals occasionally emerge above the mix.

Here's one of the best cuts from the album, These Days, and you should also listen to Fall On Me, Cuyahoga, Hyena, and Swan Swan H. 

 

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(1)  Yes, I know it should be Life's but that how it appears on the cover of the album. 

Unintelligible R.E.M.

R.E.M. hailed from the same place as the B-52s, Athens, Georgia.  The band had two distinct styles; songs on which you could not understand Michael Stipe's lyrics and those on which you could (Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts are good examples of the latter).  THC much preferred the former style.  R.E.M. were at their best when they featured jangling guitars, good melodies and Stipe's mumbling vocals buried into the mix.

Burying the vocals in the mix dominated the early R.E.M. records in the 1980s.  It didn't mean that the listener couldn't make out any words in the murk.  Indeed, words and even phrases could be interpreted but there were always passages when you simply could not make out what they were saying.  And, back then, there was no internet to quickly search out lyrics.  It also ensured that you often had no idea what the song was about, which in some cases may have been for the better.

This is Hyena from Life's Rich Pageant (1986).  Have fun with the lyrics.

And from the same album, These Days.

One of their earliest tunes, Pretty Persuasion from Reckoning (1984).

My personal favorite, Driver 8 from Fables Of The Reconstruction (1985) which does have a partially intelligible lyric:

The walls are built up, stone by stone,
The fields divided one by one

I saw a treehouse on the outskirts of the farm
The power lines have floaters so the airplanes won't get snagged

Let's Play Twister, Let's Play Risk

Man On The Moon by REM

Nice video, particularly the last part.

And here's Andy Kaufman from the first show of the first season of Saturday Night Live.

Time I Spent Some Time Alone

I was going to post this video tomorrow to explain why the world didn't end today but then I thought "what if NASA's wrong"?While we're in an apocalyptic mood let's listen to some music!

"It's time I spent some time alone"

- It's The End Of The World As We Know It:  R.E.M.

"Any man left on the Rio Grande is the king of the world as far as I know"

- King Of The World:  Steely Dan