R.E.M. Concert Set List from George Washington

R.E.M. Concert Set List from The Gorge Washington

24th May 2008

1. Living Well Is the Best Revenge
2. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
3. These Days
4. Drive
5. Accelerate
6. Auctioneer
7. Man-Sized Wreath
8. Ignoreland
9. Hollow Man
10. Life and How To Live It
11. Houston
12. Losing My Religion
13. Harborcoat
14. The One I Love
15. Final Straw
16. Let Me In
17. Horse To Water
18. Bad Day
19. Walk Unafraid
20. I'm Gonna DJ
21. Orange Crush
22. Supernatural Superserious
23. Man on The Moon

Sauce: REMHQ

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R.E.M. Concert Set List Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl

Here's the R.E.M. Concert Set List for their Hollywood Bowl gig.

29th May 2008

A few oldies and a sweet Circus Envy!


Sauce

More R.E.M. set lists here

Here's a bit of a review

“We’re a really good live band,” R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe said backstage at the Hollywood Bowl yesterday. Not bragging, just laying out the facts. “So even on a bad night, it’s going to be entertaining. And some nights, it’s magical.”
Down the hall, five hours before showtime, guitarist Peter Buck was busy pulling together the band’s set list (one of his longtime jobs in the group). “My job is to mix the new and the old,” Buck said. “All of the new songs are shorter, so we play more songs. It’s like the Ramones.”

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R.E.M. Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week:

"These bands are so fucking lame they make Micheal Stipe look like James Hetfield."

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Mike Mills Interview on Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Sweet Mike Mills interview...

“There is nothing natural about getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” says R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills during a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. “It was an honor. It was humbling.

“But, the next day, it was back to focusing on the record. We knew that the only way we were going to make a really great record was to focus.”

Full I/V

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I've got my spine, I've got my Orange Crush

Ever wondered what the lyric in the mumbled bridge section on R.E.M.'s Orange Crush actually said?

"Hup 2,3,4 / We circle, and we'd circle and we'd circle / To stop and consider / And centred on the pavement / Stacked up, all the trucks jacked up / In slush and orange crush in pocket / And all here in this country / Hell, any country / It's just like heaven here / And I was in a different country / And all then this whirly bird // I had my goggles pulled off / And I knew it all / I knew every back road / And every truck stop.

Orange Crush, was of course from the Green Album.

Here's the full lyric:

Follow me, don't follow me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
Collar me, don't collar me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now its time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me

repeat verse

High on the roof,
Thin the blood,
Another one on the waves tonight,
Comin' in, you're home

Bridge

Repeat verse and chorus

Once again the inspiration for this post was from The Complete R.E.M.

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If you believe they put Peter Buck on the Moon

As the best band in the world, R.E.M., kicks off a a world tour in Vancouver (where the hell is that? Canada?), guitarist Peter Buck chit chats to our man on the street Marsha Lederman about rediscovering the power of recording on the fly (not literally of course, flys dont make good LPs, vinyl does).

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REM Don't Get Bush Wacked

Further to the Green Q Sleeve Note and the reference to political advertising on American Presidential election day, here's one Micheal Stipe did take personally out in a newspaper:

'STIPE SAYS
DON'T GET BUSHWACKED
GET OUT AND VOTE
VOTE SMART -
VOTE DUKAKIS'

Off course George Bush senior duly won the election and Dukakis? Well here's his wiki.

If you believe in like father, like son you can understand why R.E.M. played the Rock the Vote tours with Pearl Jam and The Boss prior to the last election, opposing George Bush Jnr and supporting that other guy that run. What was hiss name again? Kelly something?

Peter Buck was totally unimpressed when Bush Snr won and railed "We're pigs! Americans are pigs! You can quote me on that! And d'you know what? I think I'm gonna be a pig that owns a gun! I'm so fucking furious, I feel like shooting people, George Bush first and then the people who vote for him"

Note to self: Nobody give Peter a gun when he next tours here (NZ).

Quote source: Adventures in Hi-Fi: The Complete R.E.M." by Rob Jovanoic and Tim Abott.

SCheck out the lyrics to Lightning Bolt by Pearl Jam.

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Bits and Pieces About Recording REM's Out of Time

Bits and Pieces About Recording Out of Time



One of my fave R.E.M. albums is Out of Time. I think it was the third album I got after Monster (I went backwards getting the back catalog). I knew Shiny Happy People and vaguely knew Losing My Religion. The following year whilst learning to play guitar at university I got Country Feedback down. That is an awesome song.

Anyways here's some bits and pieces of the making and recording of Out of Time.

Some titles that were suggested for it included Imitation Crab Meat, Catt Butt and Trolling for Olives which sounds like a great band name if you ask me. When the band couldn't decide they were pressured by the studio (Warners) for a title - Mike Mills said that were out of time and it stuck.

'Losing My Religion' is a colloquial expression from the South and it means 'fed up'. It reached number 4 on the US charts and was a smash around the world being the first top 20 hit in in the UK Charts since Maggie May by Rod Stewart.

Kate Pierson's favourite song on the album is Me In Honey (she sang 3 songs on the album plus I think the Frettless outtake)

Micheal Stipe recorded Country Feedback in one as a demo which the band kept.

Out of Time knocked off Mariah Carey from the top of the US charts, selling 1.7 million copies in its first two months of release.

Source: Loving Rehashed "Adventures in Hi-Fi: The Complete R.E.M." by Rob Jovanoic and Tim Abott.

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R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote Part Three

R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote Part Three

Several Man on the Moons ago I was in a cafe in Palmerston North as a poor (ha!) student reading the magazises the cafe had - one of which was Q Magazine. Inside was a rip out sleeve note which has the inside commentary on the REM album Green. It's been inside my version of Green since then ....



Green's frustratingly brief sleeve notes mention three session musicians: Jane Scarpantoni of the Hoboken band TIny Lights, described by Litt as "cello player by appointment to the American alternative rock scene"; precissionist Keith LeBlanc whom Litt befriended while hanging out in London with Tackhead; an Memphis steel Guitarist Bucky Baxter. The division of the two LP sides into Air and Metal (a ruse banjaxed by the CD format dates from an acoustic/electric demarcation early in the sessions.

Green was released on November 8, 1988, the day America elected George Bush it's 41st President. There were initial plans to take out huge magazine ads juxtaposing a photo of Democrat candidate Michael Dukakis (whose campaign R.E.M. had supported financially) and the sleeve of Green with the slogan: "There are two things you need to do today". These never materialised.

The political stance of Green was awarded unprecedented scrutiny, and the band members divided in typical style. Stipe, batting more and more for the little man, called it "a very uplifting album". Buck with pithy discursiveness , pointed out that R.E.M.'s embrace of Green issues was fairly inevitable since "the environment is one of the few things we can save in America". Berry, most poignantly of all, announced simply that he and his wife were afraid to have children in the current world climate.

One query, though, popped up time ad again in R.E.M. interviews: why, people wanted to know, was the numeral "4" printed beneath the "R" on "R.E.M." and "Green" on the cover? Stipe cited an essay called Metaphor as a Mistake by one Walker Percy, which argued that human error (mishearing lyrics, misreading words etc)
had a vital role to play in the creative process. In other words, Stipe typing the information for the cover, hit the wrong key, had left the mistake as a valid art statement. That he considered this error as worthy of respect, as say, the lyrics to Orange Crush, spoke volumes about the endlessly thought-provoking, crazily tuneful conundrum that is R.E.M.'s Green.

David Cavanagh

Randomly as, this Greenworks lawn mower doesn't play any music when you mow the lawns with it.

Part One Here

Part Two Here

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R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote Part Two

R.E.M. Green Album Review - The Q Sleevenote Part Three



Several Man on the Moons ago I was in a cafe in Palmerston North as a poor (ha!) student reading the magazines the cafe had - one of which was Q Magazine. Inside was a rip out sleeve note which has the inside commentary on the REM album Green. It's been inside my version of Green since then ....

R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote Part Two (Part One of Green Here)

"A working day gradually took shape," recalls Litt, We'd go in about noon and work through till about dinner. Ideas would be thrown around by the three musicians, and now and again Micheal would say something like, Yeah, play that chord for a while, now play a minor chord, I feel like writting something sad. That's how songs got written. There was a Mexican restuarant next door, which we soon learned served pretty sublime Margaritas."

The flexibility about who played what, possibly fueled by margaritas - meant that Peter Buck played Mandolin and Mike Accordion on You Are The Everything, Bill Berry Mandolin on The Wrong Child; and for a truly rhythm-free finale, Peter Buck played the lopsided drum pattern on Untitled.

As a card-carry FX apologist, Litt suggested the military cacophony on Orange Crush and the introductory crickets on You Are The Everything. The peculiar chining section midway though Get Up was inspired by a Bill Berry deam in which he heard 12 music boxes playing in sync. "Not 11, he explained, Not 13." Six music boxes were duly purchased, and double tracked by Litt. Berry still wasn't satisfied, so another six were located and added.

Stipe's lyrics meanwhile, where proving his most ambitious yet. He was writing in the first person - something he once said he would never do. - albiet with the provison that the narrative voice tenderd to blur from song to song. The Wrong Child was inspired by a newspaper story of a chronic burns victim braving the outdoors for the first time. Orange Crush was a surreal acci=ount of the bombing of Vietnam (Stipe's father, it later transpired, flew planes during the war). Hairshit, for its part, appeared to be narrated by a dog. All are easily interpreted as anthems for the downtrodden, the unconculted, the easily hurt, the hopefull.

Continue through to Part Three of R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote (last one!)

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R.E.M. Concert Set List from Deer Park Lake, Burnaby, Vancouver, Canada

R.E.M. Concert Set List from Deer Park Lake, Burnaby, Vancouver, Canada

Friday, May 23 2008

The show is part of the warm up for the world tour. If you look closely it's mostly Accelerate, a welcome few hits from Automatic and some crazy old school songs like West of the Fields and Gardening At Night. Pretty sweet set list I reckon.

1. Living Well’s the Best Revenge
2. What’s the Frequency
3. Ignoreland (Michael Stipe claimed they were playing live for the
first time. It's from Automatic.)
4. Second Guessing
5. Gardening at Night
6. Man-Sized Wreath
7. Disturbance at the Heron House
8. Hollow Man
9. Accelerate
10. West of the Fields
11. Houston
12. Electrolite

13. Losing My Religion
14. Time After Time
15. Let Me In - acoustic version
16. Final Straw
17. The One I Love
18. Country Feedback
19. Bad Day
20. Walk Unafraid
21. Horse to Water

Encore

E1. Supernatural Superserious
E2. Sweetness Follows
E3. Get Up
E4. I’m Gonna DJ
E5. Man on the Moon

Source: Jim Harrison Blog

Here's a review

Update: Here's a photo of the actual set list from the concert

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Another Accelerate Airation (is that even a word?)

It's a remarkable thing when a band as big as R.E.M. can admit they're wrong. And even more remarkable when they can embrace the challenge of setting things right.

Such was the score when the seminal rock trio set about tackling their latest disc, the hard-driving "Accelerate," on the heels of their dismal and poorly received 13th album, Around the Sun.

While critics panned the 2004 release for being bland, it prompted R.E.M. to examine their modus operandi and decide on a radical new direction. The next disc would be faster, shorter and louder.

Metallica Death Magnetic Lyrics

"We deliberately set boundaries for how long we were going to be in the studio, and say: 'Look, it's got to be finished by this date,"' bassist Mike Mills said in a recent interview from Los Angeles.

"Certainly on the last record, on Around the Sun we tried to do too much. We tried to make a greatest hits record, and then go on tour, and then come back and finish a record. So the lesson we learned was: you need to focus on making the record and leave all those other distractions behind."

The change in tack resulted in a roaring disc of 10 cuts, clocking in at less than 35 minutes.

Early on, it was decided that fans would play a large role in shaping the new sound, with band members Mills, singer Michael Stipe and guitarist Peter Buck inviting several thousand people to a series of live concerts in Dublin under the auspices of a "working rehearsal."

Metallica Death Magnetic Lyrics

Songs were unfinished and those who couldn't attend in person could watch online. Mills says the move gave them valuable input.

Full Article Here by the Barntford Expositor...

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R.E.M. Setlists March 2008

R.E.M. SET LISTS FOR MARCH 2008

8 March 2008 - Langerado Music Festival, Big Cypress Indian Reservation, Florida
other acts performing: Matisyahu, Thievery Corporation, Ben Folds, Citizen Cope, Arrested Development, State Radio
set: What's The Frequency, Kenneth? / Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Bad Day / Drive / Hollow Man / So. Central Rain / Fall On Me / Imitation Of Life / Man-Sized Wreath / Begin The Begin / Orange Crush / Accelerate / Electrolite / Houston / Losing My Religion / Horse To Water / Walk Unafraid / The One I Love
encore: Supernatural Superserious / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / I'm Gonna DJ / Man On The Moon

12 March 2008 - Stubb's Bar-B-Q Bar, SXSW Festival, Austin, TX
set: Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Man-Sized Wreath / Second Guessing / Drive / Hollow Man / Animal / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Mr Richards / Fall On Me / The Great Beyond / Houston / Electrolite / Accelerate / Until The Day Is Done / Final Straw / Bad Day / Horse To Water / Walk Unafraid
encore: Supernatural Superserious / Imitation Of Life / I'm Gonna DJ / Man On The Moon

13 March 2008 - Austin City Limits, Austin, TX
set: Living Well Is the Best Revenge / Man-Sized Wreath / Drive / So. Central Rain / Accelerate / Fall On Me / Hollow Man / Electrolite / Houston / Supernatural Superserious (1st Take) / Bad Day / Final Straw / Losing My Religion / I'm Gonna DJ / Horse To Water / Walk Unafraid
encore: Imitation Of Life / Supernatural Superserious (2nd Take) / Until The Day Is Done / Man On The Moon

18 March 2008 - Rolling Stone, Milan, Italy
set: Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Man-Sized Wreath / Drive / Second Guessing / Accelerate / Animal / Hollow Man / Electrolite / Houston / Supernatural Superserious / Bad Day / Final Straw / The Great Beyond / Losing My Religion / I'm Gonna DJ / Horse To Water
encore: Imitation Of Life / Until The Day Is Done / Man On The Moon

20 March 2008 - Taratata TV show, Paris, France
set: Supernatural Superserious / Hollow Man / Losing My Religion / Interview

21 March 2008 - Canal+, Paris France
set: Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Accelerate / Drive / What's The Frequency, Kenneth? / Man-Sized Wreath / Animal / Hollow Man / Electrolite / Houston / Supernatural Superserious / Final Straw / The Great Beyond / Losing My Religion / I'm Gonna DJ / Walk Unafraid / Horse To Water
encore: What's The Frequency, Kenneth? (2nd take) / Man-Sized Wreath (2nd take) / Until The Day Is Done / Man On The Moon

24 March 2008 - Royal Albert Hall, London, England
set: Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Accelerate / Drive / Man-Sized Wreath / Electrolite / Houston / Hollow Man / Supernatural Superserious / Final Straw / Losing My Religion / The Great Beyond / I'm Gonna DJ / Horse To Water
encore: Imitation Of Life / Until The Day Is Done / Man On The Moon

26 March 2008 - Apple Store, Regent Street, London, England
set: Bad Day / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Supernatural Superserious / Fall On Me / Man-Sized Wreath / Hollow Man / West Of The Fields / Houston / Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Man On The Moon / I'm Gonna DJ / Walk Unafraid / Horse To Water
notes: The setlist listed 'Losing My Religion or Man on The Moon', and the fans present got to vote for which one to be played (the loudest cheer would win)


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R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote Part One

R.E.M. Green Album - The Q Magazine Sleevenote Part One


Many Man on the Moons ago I was in a cafe in Palmerston North as a long haired student reading the magazines - one of which was Q Magazine. Inside was a rip out sleeve note which has the inside commentary on the REM album Green. It's been inside my copy of Green since then...

R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote Part One

When R.E.M. reconvened after the 1987 Christmas break for the songwriting sessions for their sixth album, they immediately did the unexpected. Mike Mills, the bassist, headed straight for the accordion. Guitarist Peter Buck and drummer Billy Berry squabbled over mandolins. The amps were ignored. Buck's Rickenbacker gathered dust to one side.

R.E.M.'s increasing infatuation with acoustic instruments was to have a crucial effect on the album. They even discussed making it totally acoustic., a reaction to '87's comparatively high-octane Document L.P. Micheal Stipe's lyrics had veered on Document from the acerbically political (Disturbances at the Heron House) to the subliminally nasty (The One I Love) to the downright seething (Exhuming McCarthy), all the while boosting R.E.M.'s metamorphosis from a band that mumbled into a band that cared. As America entered it's election year, Stipe in particular was pushing for an album that reflected hope rather than cynicism.

During the vacation R.E.M. had signed a million dollar deal with Warner Bros. This tended to crop up in early interviews now, Buck inevitably smirking that they had needed "a truck" to carry home their gargantuan advance. Stipe - despite telling friends he'd signed to Warners "because of Bugs Bunny" - was plotting his own, somehow more intellectual riposte. Soon into the recording sessions he informed the others that the title of the album would be the triparte pun Green: environmentally friendly; pertaining to the filthy dollar; naive or innocent. All at once, simultaneously.

R.E.M. entered Memphis' Ardent Studios in May '88 with only a few songs worked out, the first time they had gone in to make an album with less than 20 ready.

"We booked 11 weeks," recalls co-producer, Scott Litt, "which is an incredibly long time. They were very aware of the importance of the album, its being the first one for Warners and everything. They particularly wanted to get away from songs like The One I Love - that really kind of really direct, in your face guitar-bass-drums approach. I guess Stand which we knew right away would be a single, was the only song we approached like that. Otherwise they were happy to take the time to experiment."

Somewhere along the line, the original acoustic-only idea fell by the way side. You Are the Everything had made it through the songwriting slalom, as had a prototype of Hairshirt, which existed only as a favourite chord change of Peter Buck's played on a mandolin. Orange Crush and Pop Song '89 had been debuted on the Work Tour (The latter in notably more sinister form), as had a song called Title, which was demo'd but eventually omitted from the finished album.

Continue through to Part Two of R.E.M. Green - The Q Sleevenote

Part 3 of the Green Album discussion can be found here

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REMurmur's REM Greatest Hits

I've been writing a lot about R.E.M.'s greatest hits album, In Time, recently. I've noted the arguments about including All the Right Friends on it. I would go even so far as to say there should be arguments about Animal and At My Most Beautiful. And while I'm on it, why The Fly (lyrics) was not on U2's second best of in place of ..... Gone. That was an absence more notable than waking up without the ability to spell U2.

So here's my take at a "Modern Era Best of R.E.M." - No surprises here! I've limited it to 15 songs only. The links take you to the liner notes by Peter Buck that were included on the In Time release

13. Stand
14. Orange Crush
15. Losing My Religion16. Shiny Happy People
17. Drive
18. Man On The Moon
19. Everybody Hurts
21. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
22. Bang & Blame
23. Strange Currencies
23. E-Bow The Letter
26. The Great Beyond
27. Imitation Of Life
28. Leaving New York
29. Supernatural Superserious

What would your modern era REM best of include?

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Everybody Hurts - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

Everybody Hurts - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

Everybody Hurts from the R.E.M. album, Automatic for the People

"This song doesn't really belong to us any more; it belongs to everbody who ever got solace from it. The reason that the lyrics are so atypically straightforward is because it was aimed at teenagers. I've never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the idea that high school is a portal to hell seems pretty realistic to me. It's hard for everyone.
Musically Bill Berry originated the chord changes, and after a couple of weeks after arrangement hell, we settled on an Otis Redding type vibe. Thanks Steve Cropper"
-
Steve Cropper wrote Otis Reddings' Sitting on the Dock of the Bay'.


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All the Right Friends - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

All the Right Friends - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

All the Right Friends from the Vanilla Sky Soundtrack

This is by far the oldest song on this set. It was written in 1979 by Micheal and me before we had even met Bill and Mike. We played it at every show until about 1982. I don't know why we never recorded it; maybe we thought it was kind of juvenile.

Twenty years later, when asked to contribute a song to the Vanilla Sky soundtrack with about eight days notice, it no longer seemed quite so naive. We recorded it in three hours prior to a show in Seattle, and quite consciously tried to record it as we would have in 1982.
-

The movie sucked! See the original instead - Open Your Eyes (English translation)

Maybe they should have done a song about Darth Vader and his family issues..

Leave a Comment Bill Berry REM drummer, liner notes In Time, michael stipe, mike mills, Peter Buck REM guitarist

In Time - liner notes to R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits

I've taken the time to write out the liner notes that R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck wrote to accompany the booklet that came with the special edition of R.E.M.'s greatest hits album, In Time. If you can't see the forrest for the trees, the album's title is a reference to Out of Time from which several of the songs are taken from.

Each link below will take you to the page which contains Peter Buck's commentary, and a little of my own. There's also the odd lyric, chords or video. I learnt some cool things doing this - enjoy!

In Time, R.E.M. Greatest Hits

1. Man on the Moon
2. Great Beyond, The
3. Bad Day
4. What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
5. All the Way to Reno
6. Losing My Religion
7. E-Bow the Letter
8. Orange Crush
9. Imitation of Life
10. Daysleeper
11. Animal
12. Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
13. Stand
14. Electrolite
15. All the Right Friends
16. Everybody Hurts
17. At My Most Beautiful
18. Nightswimming

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Nightswimming- A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

Nightswimming- A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

Nightswimming from the R.E.M. album Automatic for the People

"Nightswimming is the only we've ever written where the words came first during the mixing stage of Out of Time, Micheal came to us with a complete set of lyrics amd suggested that we might want to put them to music. Being competitive bastards that we are, Mike and I started auditioning chord changs and tunes for Micheal. The two tunes of mine that Micheal rejected eventually became Drive and Try Not to Breathe. Mike had a piano instrumental that he played to Micheal. He listened once, nodded his head to hear it again, and on the second pass he sang the the lyrics. It was Nightswimming, exactly like the record we would record a year later. I was standing in the corner dumbfounded."

-

When I saw R.E.M. play in New Plymouth a few years back there was a big lake the separated the band and the audience. It was a cold rainy night but a few souls dived in. As R.E.M. played Nightswimming everyone in the water went nuts. Micheal Stipe said they only played the song because opeing act The Checks had begged them to play it. Lucky us.

Here's a comment from R.E.M. blog Popsongs that explains it better !

And here's a youtube of the two Mikes doing Nightswimming on Live with Jools Holland (a popular British show where bands showcase their songs, with Jools often joining in on the piano).

Extra for experts: Nightswimming lyrics

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday

Nightswimming, remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
Could not describe nightswimming

You, I thought I knew you
You, I cannot judge
You, I thought you knew me,
This one laughing quietly underneath my breath
Nightswimming

The photograph reflects,
Every streetlight a reminder
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night, deserves a quiet night

-

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At my most beautiful - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

At my most beautiful - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

At My Most Beautiful from the R.E.M. album Up

"Obviously, this is our tribute to the Beach Boys. Mike told me that when he and Bill lived in Macon, they would cruise the city, singing along with a Beach Biys eight-track. He said it really stretched their upper ranges. Until the day Bill quit, they could still hit those notes.

I'm not sire that Micheal even knows that the Beach Boys have an unreleased album called Smile, but he went along with the feel of the track, knowing that Mike and I are big fans.

The bass part on this is probably my favourite line that Mike has ever come up with. When we play it live, I play bass. I feel like such a pro, up on stage playing this super cool part. "

-

Brian Wilson eventually did release Smile - and toured it.

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A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Electrolite

Electrolite - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck

Electrolite, From the R.E.M. album, New Adventures in Hi Fi

"I love this song. The track was recorded somewhere in Arizon on the 1995 tour at soundcheck and finished in Seattle in 1996. It's probably the least melodramtic pre-millennial folk-blues end of the century, good-bye song ever written. It might also be the only one but whatever.

My only complaint? When we play this song live, I get saddled with the god damned banjo. The thing that weighs ninety pounds and has strings made of the same stuff thye use on cheese slicers. Talk about suffering for your art! Well, it may not exactly be art, and I don;t really suffer, but I'm sure you get the drift.

-

I just think Electrolite's piano melody is simply one of the best that Mike Mills has come up. I am also surprised that Powerade has never thought to use it in a commercial....

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A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite

A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite

Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Automatic for the People Album

"We included this song on Automatic in order to break the prevailing mood of the album. Given that the record dealt with mortality, the passage of time, suicide and family, we felt that a light spot was needed. In retrospect, the consenus amongst the band is that this might be a little too lightweight"

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Yes, it might be light weight song but if so why, is it on the In Time Album? Surely there are better singles waiting to be added? Drive for instance? Strange Currencies?


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Leave a Comment liner notes In Time, Peter Buck REM guitarist