The One I Love

Are you a well-respected, but commercially unviable eighties alternative band? Follow these four EZ steps, and you will craft a crossover song with radio-friendly appeal!

How to write a hit rock song:

1. Establish a clean, hooky guitar riff.
2. Don't veer too far from a I IV V progression (if minor key, give nice relative major lift in there somewhere).
3. Follow a basic structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, verse chorus.
4. Write lyrics that youth will embrace as lovelorn romance, and adults will appreciate as bitter loss of love.

See also WITH OR WITHOUT YOU and EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE.

It's the End of the Wolrd As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

It's a little unnerving to even offer any thoughts on this tune because it is probably the single most referenced and utilized song in the REM catalog. When your song is in "Independence Day", is played after the Red Sox win the Series, and is banned on Clear Channel stations after 9/11, you know you're big time.

What I will say, however, is that for all its novelty and over exposure, "End of the World" is very much part of conversation that is Document. Politically, it's aiming for the bleachers, but all the while oozing whimsy.

I don't know if the band has ever released the definitive lyrics, but a quick search online shows some pretty rangy discrepancies: Is it look at that low playing or low plane? Is it don't get caught in foreign tower or Warren Tower? Is it the other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide? or ...I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide?

Strange

Here we have a rarity - a cover tune on an REM studio album. "Strange" was originally recorded by British punkers, Wire. I think - and someone correct me - the only other cover on a studio release up to this point in the catalog was "Superman". But those fans who know the broader catalog of bootlegs, live shows, EPs, and such will recognize the band's efforts to be themselves fans and caretakers of music.

This tune at the not-quite-midsection of Document is well chosen. It powers through in a fun but raw break from the slightly heavy earlier tunes. Lyrically, it fits in well, making a statement that suits the vibe of the album: There's something going on that's not quite right.

Anyone else hear a similar take on the guitar solo here and on "The One I Love"?

Disturbance at the Heron House

I realize I've been maybe a bit nit-picky with the overt political messages in Document thus far. But here, four cuts in, they get it right. "Disturbance" is a great tune on a few different levels, but upfront, it's a spot-on political song about smaller voices being hushed and displaced. As recently as last year, Stipe suggested that the song reflects his take on Animal Farm, "an uprising dismissed by the powers that be." The protest is decidedly meek without losing strength.

Matched with this self-aware lyric is essential late-IRS era REM: Bills drums are arena big, Pete's guitar is both riffy and crunchy, Mike's bass is melodic, and the usual whiny nature of his vocals (with Michael doing double duty harmonizing with himself) actually serves the nature of the song well.

All that and it uses "monkeys" three times in one line.

Exhuming McCarthy

For those REM fans who bemoan the fact that Michael's lyrics are so murky and hard to discern, here's a song for you. This ditty spits out words, and slaps you about the face with them a few times. But they're kind of a jumbled mess - and not in the clever, tongue-in-cheek way of "It's the End of the World...", but in the this-is-scathing-Reagan-era-commentary-but-we-don't-really-have-a-point kind of way.

Which is a shame, because underneath the singing is a solid tune that marks a great departure for the guys. Not since "Can't Get There From Here" has REM offered up something so rich in Motown tradition. Don't buy it? Listen again, try to tune out Mike and Michael. Now listen to "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by the Temptations. It's all there: baritone sax, congas, bouncy bass line, tambourine. But no, that all gets overpowered by snarky leftist rhetoric. No sense of decency...

Welcome to the Occupation

Not a huge fan of this tune. It's overtly political - which is fine, it just comes across fairly heavy-handed. Although, famously, Michael eased off a bit from his original lyric: "Hang your freedom fighter", which Bill thought was a bit over the top. Some of the other lines (Propagate confusion... Annotated history) sound like Michael is reading from his poly-sci text. This becomes common place on "Document".

Musically, it's one from the REM-minor key-song generator. You can practically sing along to "Maps and Legends". Again, not a bad thing, it's just not a stand-out song. There is one nice little unexpected movement when the whole gang shifts to the second of the minor root (Fmaj7 from Em) for the bridge. It's quick, but I'll take what I can get.

The Finest Worksong

Document starts with a bit of a jot. "The Finest Worksong" is a big song, it exudes confidence and scale. It has a metallic churn of a factory - the drums going BOOM BOOM SPLAT, like a hammer and anvil, the guitar a gear box relentlessly cranking out a noisy chord. And if there's any doubt where this tune is going Comrade Stipe delievers the first blow on behalf of the proletariat:
The time to rise has been engaged

In all this, it's one of REM's most literal songs, and I suppose that's why it's never been a clear fan favorite. But it's still a capable rocker, a sure-fire crowd pleaser at the big area concerts. And as if it weren't big enough, someone had the keen idea to throw a horn section in for an alternate mix. Nuance and subtext? Not here, my good man.

But tucked inside this cheese ball is a haunting little lyric:
What we want, and what need,
Has been confused.

Quite.

Document

While it's true that much music we all listened to in our formative years creates some kind of neurological connection to particular memories, this is no more true in my life than with REM's fifth studio release, Document. As I've noted earlier, I became a fan of the guys in 1986 - between Pageant and Document (thus the so far haphazard order of the commentary in this blog). Therefore, Document was the first REM album I remember anticipating, reading the buzz on it before the release, hearing the first single ("The One I Love") some weeks before the album came out, wondering what harbinger of mysterious new tunes it preceded.

In the fall of 1987, I was a freshman in college. Document became the sonic landscape of that time - "Finest Worksong" reminds me of my roommate who hated my music and REM posters, "Lightnin' Hopkins" reminds me of studying on a Saturday, and "The One I Love" reminds me of my high school girlfriend on the other end of the state. These unremarkable single experiences of an eighteen-year-old form the remarkable whole of what it was like to be away from home for the first time, leaning into adulthood.

For the band it was likewise a transition. Document marks the first time REM was embraced by the mainstream (first Top 10, first platinum). It was also their first partnership with producer Scott Litt, a relationship that would be carried through six albums and ten years. And, though we didn't know it at the time, it was their last album with IRS. To some fans these things mark the beginning of the end, but I feel that to be an unfair assessment. Document shows both teeth and affable maturity. What other band's novelty song has as much staying power as "It's the End of the World As We Know It"? Where else can one find a political song as poppy and fun as "Exhuming McCarthy"?

Document is probably not REM's best album or most important album, but for this fan, it's their most evocative.