Friday, June 13, 2008

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).

1 comment:

Tad said...

I always like this tune becuase it one of the more Byrdsy sounding placements of the 12 string ric. I love the simplicity of the song as a whole but it ramps up into the Bridge and solo in a very mature way. It was never or rarely a 'go-to' song for me, but i think it holds a beautiful place on the record.