I Am Superman

Pageant rounds out with this unlikely little ditty. "Superman" was a 1969 song from little-known English band, The Clique. The story goes that Pete really wanted to do this cover, Michael was not too keen on it, ergo the lead vocals by Mike. I've always liked this song, and it's two chord structure made it one of the first REM songs I ever learned to play on guitar.

But the real mystery about this song has always been the intro - what is that crazy sped up spoken word intro to the song? Well, the crack staff here at This Is Where We Walked did some digging, and we have uncovered the mystery: The sound comes from an old Japanese Godzilla toy with a pull string talking feature. The toy says something loosely translated to: "This is a special news report. Godzilla has been sighted in Tokyo Bay. The attack on it by
the Self-Defense Force has been useless. He is heading towards the city. Aaaaaaaaagh...."

And thus ends our reflections on Life's Rich Pageant.

Swan Swan H

I fell in love with this song, not from Pageant initially, but through watching the live version on Pete Buck's porch in the film Athens: Inside Out. That video sent me on a years long quest to find the ideal front porch to hang out with friends and play music.

This is the quintessential REM tune in many ways: minor key, acoustic guitar driven, Southern themes, cryptic but engaging word pictures.

A personal memory: In college I took an audio production class and my final project was my own version of this song, recorded on an old TEAC 4 track - doubling up tracks, doubling guitars, vocals. I didn't have any percussion available, so I recorded my own dry hands rubbing rhythmically like a shaker. Good times.

Just a Touch

This is an odd little song. It wouldn't crack my top 50 REM song list, but on the other hand, it's always a good listen. It's just plain fun: it's got that out-of-place feel in context to the rest of Pageant, it's got that three chord thrash punk riff, and it's got Michael's wildly abandoned vocals. His singing here sounds like a 25 year old preschooler, and I mean that in a good way - mumbling, howling, stunted nonsense phrases.

Any complaints? Yeah - piano sounds like it was in the studio at the time and they wanted use it. Also seems like a tune that was fun to play and hear live, but little more than a filler piece for the album. But overall a fun song. Vintage REM? Just a touch.

What If We Give It Away

Buried near the end of an album that itself is often buried in REM's discography, is what I feel is one of their purest songs. Best song? Nah, but a simple, pure song. I remember hearing years ago an early version of this tune on a vinyl bootleg. At the time it was an uptempo country ditty called, "Why Don't They Get On Their Way". The shift from a Southern lament to a call to self-sacrifice is part of the purity.

Musically, the verses end with a nice lift that send you right into the airy chorus. Lyrically, it's vintage Stipe: emotional, personal, slightly unaccessible, yet comfortingly familiar. Here's the last verse:

Here's the trailer Tom
A year has come and gone
We're not moving, was it right?
Take the order, sew it on your tie
We couldn't follow, couldn't try.

I Believe

Q: What do you do between the horns of the day?
A: Ponder "Q".

In the same way that folk art uses homey familiar themes, Stipe creates a collage of "sayings" that alone would be invisibly trite, but collected and tweaked here speak of a culture of good intentions and subtle superstitions.

In a way I can't help but see this as a religious song. And not just one that pokes the underbelly of a believer, but one that tries to make sense out of what people put their hope in. In a way the lyrics come across as hearing one side of a heated debate. We hear the side of a persecuted hopeful who pushes forward despite his shirt wearing thin (doubt).

The music is driving. The guitar hook fulcrums on a sus4 shimmy. And the banjo opener is a killer. Isolating it like that was a perfect setting for the folky story to come.

There's so much to say on this song, everyone has their favorite line and interpretation and story, so why don't ya write a comment below.......

1986 interview

the "Let It Be" style quadtich

This is the image on the t-shirt that I got at the Pageant concert. I loved that shirt, but it was way too small. It was fine when I bought it, but my body was in the throes of puberty and I quickly out-grew it. I was so proud of it I considered wearing it as a half-shirt (which is how badly it came to fit). Instead I just kept it in my t-shirt drawer and looked at the photos from time to time. I think I still have it somewhere.

The Flowers of Guatemala

On itunes I have a playlist of mellow REM songs that are nice for driving at night, reading, whatever. This song did not make the cut. Not sure why - it's got all the classic mellow vibe features, just doesn't do much for me. Might be Michael's free-form whiny counter melody. It does have some really nice moments in the third act: Hammond organ (had they used that before this?) that simple but hooky guitar solo, and Bill's cotton candy drums (miss ya, Bill).

Underneath the Bunker

Belmont Mall Studios, Belmont, IN, circa May 1986:

Mills: No, Michael, we're not gonna put that lame ass "Bunker" song on the record!
Stipe: It's not lame, it's scathing social commentary.
Mills: No one can even understand what you're singing through that phone!
Stipe: Your point is?
Mills: I just think it undercuts what we're trying to do on this album.
Stipe: I'll let you sing lead on "Superman".
Mills: Ok.

Hyena

Not my favorite track on Pageant. Not a bad tune, kind of a throw back to early 80s live REM. The intro and ramp up of the song always bugged me - the piano sounds like mid-80s Bruce Springsteen. And then there's the lyrics... "the only thing to fear is fearlessness". C'mon, Michael. That sounds like a junior high valedictorian speech.

I do like the counter melody stuff Mike does on the chorus. And they end it unresolved, the the 2nd of the root I think. That's kinda fun.

Cuyahoga

I know I'm gonna sound like I'm gushing again (there really are songs I don't like) but these first four tracks just happen to be great tunes! Cuyhoga is about the river in Ohio so polluted it caught on fire on more than one occasion. The old joke is, you don't drown in the Cuyahoga, you decay.

But it's also a song about youth, about longing, and about hope for stronger times ahead. This is where we walked, hunted, danced, and sang. This tune makes solid use of a bridge - you know how sometimes bridges seem like they're an afterthought? This bridge soars, and adds a poignancy to the song. And you gotta dig the tambourine.

Fall On Me

First few times I heard this song, I knew there was something that it was attempting to say. I guess this was one of the first "political" songs I had heard that wasn't overtly preachy, but used beauty and imagery and urgency to present a point. Musically, it's a classic example of Pete's jangly up-and-down guitar style.

And a bonus: Bill Berry contributes to the backing vocal! It's a subtle part of the last few choruses: "It's gonna fall".

Playlist Interruption

While Garrett is going track by track through Pageant, I thought I'd throw in some more general commentary on R.E.M.'s greatest album. Life's Rich Pageant is pure. As far as their approach to the recording of the album it lands perfectly between the cleverly mixed Murmur and the understated simplicity of Reckoning. Pageant is a rock record that is beautifully stylized while remaining messy in all the right ways. Stipe's vocals are buried in just the right way. This was before he got cheeky, throwing around punch lines like "...and I feel fine". It was just before he realized that he could use his voice as a means to an end. Up through Pageant, the lyrics didn't matter in and of themselves. The words were to be deciphered and toyed with and to be no more meaningful than a guitar riff. This was the beauty of R.E.M. The mystery made the songs new with each listen.

These Days

This is a truly great song, it's got all the elements coming together: Pete's driving guitar never takes center stage, but fills the tune with sonic goodness. Bill's drums - just great drumming, and solid production. The chorus has one of my favorite bass lines, and I really like Mike's backing vocals. This is a pretty early example of Michael's growing confidence in his voice, he never let's up and then reaches this great crescendo: "All of a sudden these days...".

Keep in mind, this is 1986! Top hit for that year? "That's What Friends Are For".

By the way, I always thought the first line was "I'm not beating off, you are". Turns out I was wrong.

Begin the Begin, part 2

In 1986 I was a senior in high school. Late in the first semester my good friend's sister died in an accident. He turned inward after that, dealing with loss privately. But one thing he opened up with as part of the grieving process was music. He gave me a mix tape (remember those!) with an odd collection of indie stuff. One of the more mainstream songs in his somewhat hang-dog playlist was from this up can coming foursome from Athens, GA. They were no novices, having just released their fourth studio album, but they were fairly new to me at the time.

In you grew up in the Bay Area you listened to Live 105. I recall a couple older REM tunes from those days, "Radio Free Europe" for one. But the song on this friend's tape grabbed me and started me on a long journey. Fittingly, it was called "Begin the Begin".

That quick opening riff, built on a simple scale in D suddenly and jarringly lands a half step below where it should, on a C#. From there we're off and running, building a progression on the "wrong" chord. Michael Stipe seems to agree that something's not quite right: "I can't even ryhme". But we were good with that, right? We were 17. People we knew were actually dying. Music could really mean something. We didn't want tidy pop songs with cute rhymes. We wanted something different, something to reform and enlighten - like Martin Luther zen...

Begin the Begin, part 1

Yesterday, I purchased by first REM album in over ten years. Accelerate shines in some really nice moments, and seems to be what it's hailed as - a return of the band in a lot of ways. More than the actual tunes, the process of popping the disc into the deck and listening with new ears took me back to what I recall as a pretty good times. Probably like you, I grew up with the soundtrack of REM both in the background as well as the foreground of my younger years. And probably like you, I moved on to different music, different priorities. Every now and then, like dropping an email to an old college friend, I'd check in to see what they were doing. Soon thereafter, I'd be reminded why I moved on...

But maybe there's a place for REMiniscing (I know, get used to it). Maybe it might be fun to look back on what we connected to with these songs and that era. Maybe it will just be a colossal waste of time, that's a certain possibility! But regardless, I started this little blog to offer up some thoughts, and invite some reflections on REM, good, bad, and ugly. My plan is to go by album, and not necessarily chronologically. We can get nitty-gritty into musicology, lyrics, and production, or feel free to inject some personal history and thoughts. I'll start next time where one should: "Begin the Begin" from Life's Rich Pageant.