Today we look at the other half of the songs R.E.M. would pen and perform in their first few months together. Those very early gigs often contained quite a few covers, but gradually more original material was written and made it into the live sets. By the end of the year, most of the band's set consisted of originals.
On 4th October, they played a second consecutive night at local venue Tyrone's OC, a place where they would become increasingly familiar over the next 12 months. Among the set that night were songs that were played during their very first set at St. Mary's Church in April, a few newer tunes and a sprinkling of covers. Observers of the band's earliest shows note the vast improvement of the performances over a very short period. By October, just six months since their debut, they were altogether tighter and slicker. They remained fast and furious - they didn't do slow songs in those days - and occasionally a little ramshackle, but the seeds were beginning to sprout.
Today's selection of tunes is taken from that Tyrone's show and features 8 more of their very earliest songs, including four they played at their first show - I Can Only Give You Everything, Action, Schéhérazade and Lisa Says. The other four include two songs that would become among their most loved numbers over the next few years.
The quality of this recording is significantly better than the cassette-sourced stuff I posted on Friday, so I haven't had to tinker much with it at all. I've attempted to remove the audience sound (with mixed results), and I've cropped the beginning of Schéhérazade during which Stipe is heard shouting greetings to audience members. There's still one left in - to someone called Kathleen - which I was unable to edit out. Finally, the original tape drops out at the end of Gardening At Night and I have no other material available to attempt a reconstruction, so I've faded it out.
That aside, it's still a fascinating document of where R.E.M. were at the time. There were very vague shades of what was to come, but in general, they were an extremely energetic garage rock band yet to hone the skills that would make them the biggest band on the planet by the end of the decade. Today's artwork features two more shots taken at R.E.M.'s very first show - Peter Buck on the front and Mike Mills on the back.
This is something I planned and wrote last year but held back for an appropriate time. As it's Easter - a time associated with rebirth and new beginnings - it's as good a time as any. I suppose you could consider this post a sort of prequel to this one in which we looked at a totally hypothetical pre-'Murmur' debut album. This time though, we're going back even further...
During R.E.M.'s very earliest months in 1980, they wrote a whole host of songs. Most of them were never recorded, and many were long-forgotten by the time they recorded the 'Chronic Town' EP in 1981/2. It was the recording of that record that was my reference point for my pre-'Murmur' project, using songs that were a solid part of the band's live set around that time. However, it did mean a heap of earlier songs didn't get a look in - and that's where I'm coming from with this post.
I've decided to pull together all (or, at least, most) of the earliest self-penned songs R.E.M. performed in their first six months together. One or two of them became rather well known among those who bought their records. The others - well unless you're an uber-fan who seeks out obscure bootlegs from the band's embryonic phase, you won't have heard them before.
I've taken two of the earliest-known recordings of R.E.M. (maybe even THE earliest-known recordings) to provide an almost definitive guide to the band's very first songs. It's in two parts. Today, what is believed to be the earliest recording of the band. In July 1980, the band entered Jackson Street Rehearsal Studios in Athens to practice material for upcoming shows in Atlanta and North Carolina. A tape recorder was present. Eight songs were captured and later surfaced as the very first R.E.M. bootleg, a cassette called 'Slurred'. It's often noted that this recording was made at Wuxtry's, the record shop where Peter Buck worked, on 6th June, but while they did play there on that date, no recordings (if any exist) have ever made it into circulation. It's now widely accepted that this is the Jackson Street rehearsal.
Seven of these songs were performed at that first gig, with Just A Touch making its debut at their second show a fortnight later at the Kaffee Klub, the same day they decided to call themselves R.E.M. (after, fortunately, discarding other suggestions like Negro Eyes, Slut Bank, Africans In Bondage and Cans Of Piss!)
As you might expect, the sound quality isn't exactly top-notch, but I've had a little go at improving things. The opening track Dangerous Times is one of my favourites from the era but is incomplete on the tape - the first line is missing - so I've tried to "fix" it. The opening line is "These are dangerous times", which also happens to be the third line, so a little copy & paste puts that right. The opening snare hit has been added from an early live show at Tyrone's (which we'll get to in a day or two...), so it now sounds whole again, though be warned it is rather rough!. Otherwise, everything is as it appears on that tape, just with less hiss and a tad more oomph.
So here's "Side One" of 'Dangerous Times: the genesis of R.E.M.' presented as a single continuous MP3 as if ripped straight from vinyl. The artwork includes shots of Michael Stipe and Bill Berry at the debut St. Mary's show. Side two will follow on Easter Sunday...
Despite being a non-smoking, non-drinking, good-eating, mask-wearing, triple-vaxxed, generally fit and healthy dude, I somehow succumbed to 'The Vid' last week and have been isolating ever since. Yes, isolation is no longer mandatory; yes, the great British public thinks Covid is all over; but if I've managed to pick it up from somewhere (and lord only knows where), I'm not going to be responsible for spreading it like your average cretin. I work for the NHS, for gawd's sake.
Thankfully, I've not been terribly ill, a couple rough days but the rest just like a normal mild cold, albeit one that won't shift. For some reason, I've tested positive for 9 days straight, but that can happen apparently, even if I'm not infectious any more. By the time you read this, I should be out of isolation. Thank god - it's been quite boring being stuck in one room. MrsRobster probably wishes the garden shed wasn't so full of stuff as it would have been far better for her if I could have spent my isolation period out there!
Even though I've been working from home throughout the period, I've managed to find time to catch up on some stuff on Netflix. I also came across an old gem I've seen many times before but couldn't resist watching it again when I felt quite low at the seemingly never-ending run of positive LFTs I kept getting.
I can't remember how old I was when I first saw Tommy, but I was probably in my late teens. I loved it instantly. It's so audaciously over-the-top, exactly as a rock opera should be. Ken Russell was the perfect person for it, even though he hated rock music. I won't waffle on about it much as I'm sure all my readers know the story, but ever since I watched it again the other night, the songs have been floating in and out of my head like crazy.
This one was, apparently, the first seed of the story. While The Who were supporting The Doors on tour, Pete Townshend witnessed a girl in the crowd get injured when someone threw a chair. Jim Morrison apparently cleaned her wounds himself! So the story of Sally Simpson became the first song of what would ultimately become the greatest rock opera of all time.
It's a bit longer than the original album version from 1969, and some of the words were changed for the benefit of the movie (e.g. the Rolls Royce is blue in the original, black in the movie).
So many great stories have been told around the making of Tommy - hardly surprising when you consider the cast - and while some may well have been embellished, exaggerated or completely made up, they only add to the greatness of the thing.
And while we're on the subject of Tommy and greatness...
The final series of Peaky Blinders has just aired, very possibly one of the the top 5 TV shows the BBC has ever produced. I'm not going to give any spoilers or anything, but want to mention that, as in season 5, the wonderful Anna Calvi was largely responsible for the musical score and some of the songs that featured. If you've ever seen the show, you'll know it has an incredible soundtrack, and latter seasons have featured specially recorded songs as artists have flocked to be a part of it.
Calvi is about to release a 4-track EP of songs she recorded for season 6, entitled, rather appropriately, 'Tommy'. As well as her cover of the theme tune - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' Red Right Hand - she also offers a take on Bob Dylan's All The Tired Horses, plus two new songs, including this. Inspired by a traditional American spiritual recorded by numerous artists, including the late, great Johnny Cash, Ain't No Grave sums up both Calvi's unerring knack of composing dark, atmospheric mini-masterpieces, and the ominous moods of Tommy Shelby's life.
Brilliant stuff.
For the record, the blog is not making a proper comeback, but I do have a special Easter treat for you next weekend, especially if you're a fan of early R.E.M. Stay tuned...
PARQUET COURTS - 'Sympathy For Life' Another act that eluded me for way too long, at least until I heard Walking At A Downtown Pace played on 6 Music. A variety of sounds permeate the NYC band's eighth album, but it's largely influenced by frontman Andrew Brown's newfound love of dance music and nightclubs. And while their familiar post-punk sound still finds its way to the fore, there's no doubt there's something rather danceable about these songs. They even sound like 'Remain In Light'-era Talking Heads in places.
LUMP - 'Animal' Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay released their second set of songs and it continued the sounds and themes of their debut collaboration from a couple years back. Some really good songs on this one, and an interesting direction, far from the acoustic folk sounds both are known for in their full-time "jobs".
QUIVERS - 'Golden Doubt' A lot of really good music coming out of Australia of late, and Quivers is another name to add to the growing list. Imagine taking all the best bits of the Go-Betweens and adding some US West Coast sunshine circa 1967 and you're pretty much there. Obviously our good friend Brian is all over this, and he's a man of impeccable taste.
NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS - 'Carnage' With the pandemic making it difficult make a record with the Bad Seeds, Nick and Warren - who are practically joined at the hip nowadays - made their first non-soundtrack record as a duo. I have to say, I prefer it over the last two Bad Seeds efforts. Minimalist and electronic, it also sounds as menacing as some of Nick's best work. White Elephant is the highlight for me - laced with references to recent political and social events and concluding with a rapturous epiphany.
Honorable mentions well worth checking out (in alphabetical order):
DJANGO DJANGO - 'Glowing In The Dark' FOO FIGHTERS - 'Medicine At Midnight' GOAT GIRL - 'On All Fours' ICEAGE - 'Seek Shelter' JAMES - 'All The Colours Of You' (recommended by MrsRobster) PIP BLOM - 'Welcome Break' SQUID - 'Bright Green Field' WE ARE SCIENTISTS - 'Huffy'
And to round off, a song that has proven to be the biggest surprise hit of the year. With only four songs released to date, this lot will likely take over the world when their self-titled debut album is released in 2022. So if you haven't heard this already, you're probably dead. It's brill.
I'm off to my burrow again. There will be a few sporadic pieces cropping up here from time to time throughout the next 12 months, but a full return is certainly not imminent. See you whenever, have a good 2022.
OK, after last week's all female selection, it's time to give the fellas a look-in. Here's four more excellent records that have lit me up over the past 12 months.
IDLES - 'Crawler' If you thought all Idles did was make loud shouty politically-correct punk songs, think again, for 'Crawler' sees the band make quite a dramatic shift in their approach. Yes, the shouty punk songs are still there, but you also get dark electronica, discomforting soul and, in Progress, something so haunting and ominous, it sounds like another band entirely. It's arguably their most triumphant attempt at experimentation and production. Trust me, put the headphones on and turn this one up. Stunning, possibly my favourite Idles moment to date.
THE CORAL - 'Coral Island' The 10th album from our favourite Scousers has drawn comparisons to classic 60s records like 'The Village Green Preservation Society' by The Kinks, and the Small Faces' 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake', and it is a concept record crammed to the brim with the band's trademark psychedelic folk. Telling the story of a fictional seaside town and its people, it features narration from Ian Murrary, none other than the grandfather of the Coral's own Skelly brothers James and Ian. Some cracking songs on this, but then it is The Coral after all.
GRUFF RHYS - 'Seeking New Gods' It would, of course, be remiss of me not to include at least one album from the Land of Song in my rundown, and there can be no finer ambassador than Gruff, who delivered one of the best solo records of his career. Rather oddly (which itself is perhaps not surprising), it's influenced by Mount Paektu in North Korea and was recorded partly in the Mojave desert and partly in, erm, Bristol... Wherever they come from, the songs on 'Seeking New Gods' are pretty damn infectious.
LIARS - 'The Apple Drop' You never quite know what you're going to get from Liars. They lurch from style-to-style, often during the same record, with little regard for genre or theme. While that can be said to some extent of their 10th album, it all seems to hold together pretty well and contains some really good songs. It's like dark, synth-infused post punk with traces of Nick Cave and 'Kid A'-era Radiohead thrown in. It's certainly, for me, their most enjoyable record since 2014's 'Mess'.
This week's pick of my favourite albums of the year features a really diverse range of stuff, all of it by female artists. You may enjoy them, you may not, but I love every one of these.
LITTLE SIMZ - 'Sometimes I Might Be Introvert' You may remember I mentioned back in the summer that I was blindsided by Little Simz's incredible track Introvert. The album that followed is well worth a listen too, displaying her enviable talent for rhyme and rhythm, as well as a range of musical styles. On this brilliant Afrobeat-infused track, she teams up with fellow British-Nigerian artist Obongjayar.
KING WOMAN - 'Celestial Blues' I was turned onto this record by Shirley Manson of Garbage. Not that I know her personally or anything - she was speaking to Steve Lamacq on 6 Music and mentioned that this was what she was listening to at the time. Doom metal meets shoegaze - sounded right up my street, and it definitely is. Play this one LOUD!
MARISSA NADLER - 'The Path Of The Clouds' To calm us down a bit after that, though no less ominous, here's another wonderful moment from Marissa Nadler. Her 10th album draws on themes of metamorphosis, love, mysticism, and murder, and the result is arguably her best record yet. Gorgeous, as always.
SHE DREW THE GUN - 'Behave Myself' For some reason, prior to last year's brilliant one-off single, the Frank Zappa cover Trouble Every Day, I was unfamiliar with She Drew the Gun, other than my mate banging on about how good they were. I really should listen to other people more. Their third album has been a highlight this year, and MrsRobster in particular is a big fan, especially of the title track which she says makes her feel a bit mischievous! She Drew The Gun will become our first gig in two years when we see them in February. Oh, and a word of warning: do not watch this video if you are offended by words.
It's that time of year again. I've been really enjoying my blogging hiatus, and truth be told, I can't really be arsed to start up again. But as this is something of a tradition, I've decided on a few short posts to summarise my favourite sounds of the year. Perhaps unsuprisingly, there's a predominance of female artists in here which continues the trend of recent years.
As usual, they're not in any particular order, but here's my top four, and the first one probably pips the others to the coveted title of 'Robster's Album Of The Year', but it's a close call.
YUNG - 'An Ongoing Dispute' It took Danish upstarts Yung five years to follow-up their debut, and it was quite a tumultuous period by all accounts. But my word, what a return. As good a record as I've heard all year, it came out in January and still deserves regular plays.
TORRES - 'Thirstier' For her 5th album, Mackenzie Scott (aka Torres) didn't stick to any formula and as a result we got a stylistically diverse offering and her most adventurous to date. Some great songs on it, but this is the one I come back to again and again, a track in which she channels Springsteen and the Killers while remaining very much herself. This could well be my song of the year.
DU BLONDE - 'Homecoming' The artist formerly known as Beth Jeans Houghton delivered her third - and best - album this year and it's absolutely riddled with riffs and quirky musings on life and relationships. With the added bonus of special guests including Shirley Manson, Andy Bell and Ezra Furman, its a fun ride in spite of its rather short duration.
JANE WEAVER - 'Flock' Another masterpiece of psychedelic pop from Jane Weaver who, even this long into her career, seems to be churning out her best work in recent years. 'Flock' really should have been the album of everyone's blissed-out summer. Of the four videos on show today, there's little doubt that this one for Solarised is by far the best, though granted, the bar was pretty low...
This is the last post for the time being. There were a few different things I had lined-up to be the conclusion of this run and I kept changing my mind. Recent articles have met with far less of a response than I was hoping for, so the best articles I had lined up really would have been wasted. I may post them at some point in the future - here or elsewhere - or I may not. We'll see.
In the end, I decided to round off with one more REiMagined album I put together myself (not the one that was originally planned for last week), and this one has an added twist...
I always thought 'Accelerate' was an album made to be played live. It's loud and raw, stripped of everything that made its two immediate predecessors so awful. It was a back to basics R.E.M., an album that retraced their roots back to their earliest days and those hectic shows at Tyrone's O.C. and the like.
So what I've done is basically compile a completely live version of 'Accelerate' using various performances recorded between 2005 and 2008. Now I don't have stacks of bootlegs from this era, but I have a couple, and along with some officially-released stuff, I've managed to not only bring the whole thing to life, but also sling in a couple of bonus tracks too. Tracks 1-10 follow the album tracklisting faithfully but ends with Stipe bidding the audience "goodnight". What follows is an 'encore' consisting of two non-album songs plus the album closer.
The sources I've used here are:
'Live At The Olympia' - official live album recorded in Dublin in early July 2007. The band played four nights in front of an audience to rehearse new material just prior to the recording of 'Accelerate'. The shows were billed as 'working rehearsals' rather than official live gigs. All but one of the album's songs was performed over the four nights plus two other new songs that didn't make the album, nor that have ever been released in any other form.
'The Take-Away Session' - recorded at various locations around Athens, GA. and filmed by Vincent Moon for La Blogothèque in September 2007. I've included Sing For The Submarine, a song played only a few times on the 2008 tour. This version was played inside a grain silo and features Bill Rieflin playing a plastic pot, breaking sticks and banging the side and floor of the silo!
'Live At The Rolling Stone' - bootleg of a performance at The Rolling Stone in Milan for MTV Italy. The small audience included invited Fan Club members.
'iTunes Live In London' - official recording at the Apple Store in Regent Street in March 2008. Most of the set was released on iTunes a few months later.
'Oxegen 08' - bootleg of a segment of the set played at the Oxegen Festival in Co. Kildare, Ireland in July 2008.
'Live At Rock AM Ring' - bootleg of the band's performance at the 2005 Rock AM Ring Festival at the Nürburgring, Nürburg. I'm Gonna DJ was played during the tour for 'Around The Sun' and must have been the most thrilling thing to hear from the band at that time!
I've strung it all together as a continuous file as usual - enjoy.
Accelerate [REiMagined Live] compiled by TheRobster
1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge (Dublin) 2. Man-Sized Wreath (London) 3. Supernatural Superserious (Oxegen) 4. Hollow Man (Milan) 5. Houston (Dublin) 6. Accelerate (Dublin) 7. Until The Day Is Done (Milan) 8. Mr. Richards (Dublin) 9. Sing For The Submarine (Athens, GA.) 10. Horse To Water (London) 11. Staring Down The Barrel Of The Middle Distance (Dublin) 12. On The Fly (Dublin) 13. I'm Gonna DJ (Nürburg)
A change of plan. There was going to be a fourth REiMagined album, but JC and I couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to finish it, so instead I'm bringing this post forward by a week.
By the time R.E.M. released debut album ‘Murmur’ in April 1983 (three years and seven days after their very first gig), they had written and discarded a heap of songs. Those chosen for the album showed a depth of songwriting quite extraordinary for a young band. It is a record that remains, 38 years later, full of mystique and intrigue, many of its songs sounding not just unlike anything else around at the time, but pretty much ever since.
Of its 12 songs, several had been written and performed more than two years earlier, surviving the numerous culls the band had made to their set over time. Songs like Radio Free Europe and Sitting Still, which comprised their debut single in 1981. Shaking Through, Laughing and 9-9 were also live staples by the end of that year too.
Other songs we’ve all become familiar with can be traced right back to R.E.M.’s embryonic period. All The Right Friends, Gardening At Night, Rockville and Just A Touch all date from the first few months of the band’s existence and ended up on R.E.M records in some form or other over the years, while Pretty Persuasion and an early version of What If We Give It Away were also performed as early as January 1981. Other songs such as Narrator, Baby I, Action and I Can’t Control Myself – all performed at their first show as an unnamed act – fell out of favour before 1981 was out and were never heard of again. Well, other than on bootlegs, of which there are many.
One thing I’ve often mused about over the years is, what if instead of recording the ‘Chronic Town’ EP, R.E.M. decided to do a full-length album? What songs would it include? And how different would it have sounded to ‘Murmur’? So to complement this run of articles on hypothetical R.E.M. releases, I decided to stop thinking about this “pre-debut” album and actually try and get a version down. Now, I’m not going to pretend that this record would ever have existed. There are no indications whatsoever that R.E.M. ever planned an album before ‘Murmur’, so this really is just a silly exercise in compiling a fantasy record that never was. I thought it might be interesting. And it has been.
So where to start... I do have to give credit to the incredible website that is The R.E.M. Timeline, an exhaustive source of every known gig, setlist and significant event in the career of R.E.M. from pre-formation through to the present post-breakup years. No self-respecting R.E.M. fan should be without it permanently bookmarked in their browser, trust me. I used this wonderful site to research what songs the band was playing around the time they ventured into Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio in North Carolina in October 1981 to record what would become ‘Chronic Town’. This was my benchmark. At their last gig before recording started, they played a hometown show at Tyrone’s in Athens, GA., a regular haunt for them in the early days. The set that night (23rd September) was:
Just A Touch / Ages Of You / 1,000,000 / Get On Their Way / There She Goes Again / Action / Wait / Sitting Still / Permanent Vacation / Mystery To Me / White Tornado / I Can't Control Myself / Burning Down / Shaking Through / Laughing / Romance / Pretty Persuasion / That Beat / Stumble / Radio Free Europe / Carnival Of Sorts (Box Cars) plus an encore of The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Stranded In The Jungle - Ska / Gardening At Night / Windout / 9-9
Two nights after the final recording session in January 1982, the band played a show in Hoboken, New Jersey. This was the setlist:
Ages Of You / Catapult / Shaking Through / Gardening At Night / 9-9 / Windout / Laughing / Romance / Sitting Still / Pretty Persuasion / That Beat / 1,000,000 / Wolves, Lower / Radio Free Europe. There was also an encore comprising four cover versions before culminating with Stumble.
Between these two shows, the band was already incorporating many new songs we’d hear on subsequent releases in the place of older songs that fell out of favour. For instance, both Just A Touch and Get On Their Way were gone by the time 1982 rolled around and wouldn’t be heard of again until they were revived for the ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ album more than four years later. Action and Wait also bit the dust during this period.
Of the newer songs, Catapult was the baby of the family, having only been performed for the first time a few days before the final session at Drive-In Studios. An initial attempt to record it failed, though a few weeks later it was successfully captured during demo sessions for RCA.
These sets give us a pretty good idea of where R.E.M. were at the time, but it is by no means definitive. Permanent Vacation (not the Aerosmith song!) and Mystery To Me were still in the live set right up to the last show before those final sessions with Easter in mid-January 1982, but while they may have continued to be played thereafter, they don’t appear on the known setlists shown on The R.E.M. Timeline, so they may have been dropped shortly after. Other old favourites also became redundant during this period: Dangerous Times, Body Count, Burning Down, Different Girl, even (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville fell by the wayside.
So taking all this into account, and considering the gigs inbetween, plus the songs recorded during the ‘Chronic Town’ sessions themselves, I compiled a list of songs that, hypothetically, might have been in the running for a debut album for release in Spring 1982:
1,000,000 9-9 Ages Of You Carnival Of Sorts Catapult Gardening At Night Laughing Mystery To Me Permanent Vacation
Pretty Persuasion Radio Free Europe Romance Shaking Through Sitting Still Stumble That Beat Windout Wolves, Lower
It’s realistic to assume all five songs that made it onto ‘Chronic Town’ would have been included, along with both sides of the debut single (though with the band’s choice of mix of RFE rather than the one that was issued). I have, however, made some completely subjective decisions. I didn’t want this to be a basic compilation of officially-released early tracks. I wanted to include some songs most people had never heard before, songs that captured the very early R.E.M. sound, the fast, energetic rock ‘n’ roll that made them such a frenetic live act at the time. So I’ve taken some liberties.
I’ve omitted 1,000,000 and Stumble. Both made it onto ‘Chronic Town’ but they are my least favourite tracks on it. I’ve also dispensed with Catapult as I think it was way too new to ever be a serious contender. 9-9 was just a bit weird to fit in with the rest of the songs, and while Laughing may well have fit, I wanted to steer away from ‘Murmur’ as much as possible and let it stand alone. Pretty Persuasion ended up being passed over for both ‘Chronic Town’ and ‘Murmur’, instead appearing on ‘Reckoning’ where it remains an undoubted highlight, so again I sidelined it for that reason.
That left 12 songs to sequence, so the next job was to source decent quality versions of them from both official and unofficial releases. Not that difficult, but not as easy as I’d hoped either, and it’s where we can kiss bye bye to any idea of consistency. The recordings I’ve used range from 1981 to 1986 so they are a bit all over the place sonically. But like I said at the start – I’m not going to pretend this is what any such record would have ever sounded like. It’s more a collection of songs that might have made the cut. So forgive the seemingly haphazard nature of the final product – just enjoy it for what it is.
The artwork features St. Mary's Episcopal Church at 396 Oconee Street, Athens, GA. Of course, you all know this was the abandoned church where R.E.M. played their very first gig back in April 1980. All that remains of the building today is the steeple (not visible in this picture) which has in recent years been undergoing renovations in order to preserve it, hallowed site that it is.
Oh, and I haven’t come up with a title, I’ve just called it R.E.M. but if you have any suggestions, I’ll rethink it and may re-title it if you impress me. Here goes:
Side One 1. Radio Free Europe (1981) Mix taken directly from the ‘Cassette Set’ demo tape. It’s the one the band wanted as the single, but ended up being remixed by the label boss. This original version is also the one incorrectly labelled as the Original Hib-Tone Mix on ‘Eponymous’. 2. Romance (1983) Rough mix from the ‘Murmur’ sessions, but never made it to the final mixing stage. 3. That Beat (1983) Recorded live to two-track during the ‘Murmur’ sessions at the same time as the version of There She Goes Again used for the b-side of the re-release of Radio Free Europe, and the version of All The Right Friends which featured on the European re-issue of ‘Dead Letter Office’. 4. Mystery To Me (1986) Demo recorded for ‘Lifes Rich Pageant, one of many early songs revived for that project. Later issued as part of the LRP 25th Anniversary re-issue in 2011. 5. Shaking Through (1981) From the first demo sessions for ‘Chronic Town’ at Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio. This is, incidentally, the same recording I used in my recent Imaginary 7" series. 6. Windout (1983) Recorded for ‘Reckoning’, but ended up on the Bachelor Party soundtrack. Later compiled on ‘Dead Letter Office’. segue: Jazz Lips (segment) (1981) A snippet of an experimental piece recorded during the demo sessions at Drive-In. This would act in a similar way to the untitled, unlisted pieces at the end of Shaking Through on ‘Murmur’ and Little America on ‘Reckoning’.
Side Two: 1. Wolves, Lower (1981) First version recorded at the Drive-In Studio. It’s slightly faster than the one that ended up on ‘Chronic Town’ and is known as the “fast version”. 2. Sitting Still (1981) The version featured on the ‘Cassette Set’ demo tape, also issued as the b-side of Radio Free Europe on Hib-Tone. 3. Gardening At Night (1981) Original vocal take as featured on ‘Eponymous’, recorded for ‘Chronic Town’ on which a different vocal take was used. 4. Ages Of You (1981) Original mix, recorded at Drive-In for ‘Chronic Town’. Remixed version used as b-side to Wendell Gee single and 'Dead Letter Office' compilation. 5. Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars) (1981) Recorded during first Drive-In Studios demos session 6. Permanent Vacation (1981) I don’t have a studio recording of this, so this is a live version captured at Tyrone’s in Athens on 10th April 1981. My copy is from the legendary vinyl bootleg ‘So Much Younger Then’.
R.E.M. compiled by TheRobster
1. Radio Free Europe 2. Romance 3. That Beat 4. Mystery To Me 5. Shaking Through 6. Windout
7. Wolves, Lower 8. Sitting Still 9. Gardening At Night 10. Ages Of You 11. Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars) 12. Permanent Vacation
What’s that you say? An Imaginary 7”? What a brilliant idea, wish I’d thought of that. OK, so how about Ages Of You? I’ve always liked it, and to promote ‘Dead Letter Office’, a 12” promo was issued in the States for it. Never a 7” in any country though, and certainly not the mix included here. For the b-side, I’ve returned to the ‘So Much Younger Then’ boot which has lots of those early songs that never made it onto official releases. Body Count is one of the band’s most interesting early songs in that it is possibly their first attempt at an overtly political lyric. An anti-war song that explicitly references Vietnam, the subject would be raised again in 1988 on Orange Crush. It’s also by far their longest track from the period.
The artwork is based on a photo of a sculpture in Rev. Howard Finster's 'Paradise Garden'. Finster, as you probably know, was an artist whose work with R.E.M. spanned a number of years. The band filmed the video for Radio Free Europe in Paradise Garden; Stipe and Finster co-designed the artwork for 'Reckoning'; and Maps And Legends was written as a homage to Finster. He can also be seen in the 'Athens, GA. Inside/Out' documentary.
A Bonus Imaginary R.E.M. 7" 'AGES OF YOU'
(IREM7-16)
side A: from 'R.E.M.', an Imaginary pre-‘Murmur’ debut album side B: previously unreleased
(click sleeve art to enlarge)
And a video for you... captured live at The Pier, Raleigh, NC. on 10th October 1982 here's a sadly incomplete but still utterly compelling clip of Ages Of You. Stipe is having a great time, grinning throughout, Mike Mills looks about 12 years old, and Buck and Berry are just coolness personified.
It was anyone's guess what 'Up' would sound like prior to its release in 1998. The band's first without the lynchpin that was Bill Berry, what would they be able to come up with as a three piece? Initial single Daysleeper hinted that it would be business as usual, an almost by-numbers R.E.M. piece, but the reality was anything but. 'Up' was a very different R.E.M. record, steeped in electronics and experimentation.
As such, reaction to it was mixed, and many see it as the beginning of the band's commercial and critical downturn. And it probably was, but that's not to say that somewhere amongst this sprawling 14/15-song mass there isn't a really good 40 minute record screaming to get out. It definitely suffers from being too long, much like its predecessor, so JC and I need to get our snippers out and come up with a version of 'Up' that does away with the downs. So I fired my initial suggestions over to my Caledonian compadre:
This is one I don't listen to as much as 'New Adventures In Hi-Fi', probably because there's so much going on, it's quite hard work to get through. That said, some of the finest moments on 'Up' are its more peculiar and diverse. So consistency may have to go out the window. That's particularly evident with my proposed Side One.
Side One 1. Daysleeper 2. Lotus 3. At My Most Beautiful 4. Hope 5. Sad Professor
Side Two 6. I'm Not Over You 7. Walk Unafraid 8. The Apologist 9. Why Not Smile 10. Falls To Climb
I've dispensed with Suspicion (no surprise there), You're In The Air, Diminished, Parakeet and Airportman. I did toy with putting Airportman in there as the closing track. I moved it around a few times but just couldn't make it work. It's not one of my favourite songs on the record, but I feel it kind of should be there as if to make a point that this is not the R.E.M. we once knew. It makes that point immediately on the real 'Up', being the opening track. But that's always irked me, and I tend to start playing the album from Lotus onwards.
Therefore Daysleeper makes the cut as the opener instead of being buried as deep as it appears on the actual album. It kind of leads us more gently into the 'new' R.E.M. with a sense of familiarity. The other two singles are next, followed by my Imaginary 7" choice. It's not deliberate to put the singles together like this, nor is it intentional to put the most diverse selection of tracks together first. It worked out that way and I like how they do seem to work in sequence. Sad Professor closes the side as a way of introducing a more contemporary (if that's the right word) sounding second side.
You'll notice I've also included I'm Not Over You as a track in its own right. It's lost on the original album as a hidden interlude at the end of Diminished, and live Stipe performed it in the encore entirely solo, with his rudimentary guitar playing. I think that alone merits inclusion - it's the song that gave Michael Stipe the confidence to perform without his bandmates.
Both Walk Unafraid and The Apologist are songs that could have been singles (certainly far better singles than Suspicion was), while Why Not Smile and Falls To Climb are both utterly gorgeous and contrast each other. Why Not Smile is a desperate plea to a very unhappy, totally despondent individual, while Falls To Climb's protagonist laments on all the lows in his/her life, yet somehow sees hope at the climax, the song's anti-crescendo with its drum rolls and sparkling synths seeming to emphasise that all may not be lost. That for all the downs, there may just be an 'Up' around the corner. It closes the original record and there's no more fitting way to close mine.
I considered a couple of different versions of some songs but they just didn't quite have the effect I was looking for, so this is simply a straightforward effort, culling some songs and rearranging what's left. From 65 minutes down to 40 - I think my work here is done. Over to you.
JC responded with a rather succinct missive which doesn't leave an awful lot to debate. But then, 'Up' was always a difficult album to love for numerous reasons, length being just one of them. He still offered some interesting thoughts though:
I found this quite tough. I think that's a combination of things - not being a huge fan of much of the album and a touch of blog/writing fatigue in recent weeks. I could easily drop this album to a six-track, bargain price EP, but to keep things simple, I decided that I'd stick with the ten tracks you settled for but suggest a marginally different running order, as well as one alternative version.
Side One 1. I'm Not Over You 2. Walk Unafraid 3. At My Most Beautiful 4. Hope 5. Sad Professor
Side Two 6. Daysleeper 7. Lotus 8. The Apologist 9. Why Not Smile [Oxford American version] 10. Falls To Climb
You'll see that I'm suggesting flipping the first two tracks from each side. My initial thought was to open with Walk Unafraid as I reckon it's one of the most underrated songs from the era, largely as it was one they seemed to crank up in the live setting, but your thoughts on I'm Not Over You being a stand-alone track make such great sense, and I feel opening the album in that way would be as much of a curve-ball as Airportman actually was.
Lotus is one of the great second songs of any album, and it was down to follow Walk Unafraid on my first draft. But having changed my mind, and decided to go with I'm Not Over You as the opener, it just felt too much of a shock to the system to go straight into a song which opens up 'Hey, Hey....'. Therefore it goes to Side Two and it does fit in well after Daysleeper.
As for Why Not Smile, it's simply down to me liking the other version a bit more.
Now like last week, when I received Jim's reply, I thought there's not much of a hot debate to be had here, certainly not one that warrants a Zoom call. But not for the first time, he got me thinking. And that's no mean feat in itself!
My safe opening track was being brought into question. JC reckons I'm Not Over You would have made more of a statement, and he certainly has a point. But I tried it out myself and I'm not entirely convinced. I do think it works better opening side two.
However, I can't argue with his position on Walk Unafraid. It is one of the band's best tracks of the period and deserved more attention. I just can't get over the fact that the studio version really underplays its strengths though, strengths that shone through when played live. So I thought "what if I could get it sounding more like the live version in order to really bring it out of itself?" So I set about attempting that. After a fair bit of experimentation (and frustration at my chronic lack of remixing skills), I ended up settling on a particularly good live version (recorded for The Black Sessions on France Inter radio, and officially unreleased), onto which I welded a couple of studio snippets and fixed a little vocal slip in the middle where Stipe didn't get back to the mic in time!
Now I feel Walk Unafraid sounds and feels more like it should and therefore worthy of side one, track two. Lotus, which held that feted position on my offering, takes its place on side two.
The only remaining thing to consider is the version of Why Not Smile. I went for the album version, JC opted for the alternative take that featured on the b-side of Daysleeper. And to be fair, although they both sound very different, there's very little to separate them in terms of quality. In the end, I only decided to retain the album version due to running time. It's a minute longer than the other one and therefore makes for a more even side two compared to the slightly longer side one.
So there it is - 'Up REiMagined', a shorter, more focussed version of R.E.M.'s much overlooked 'transitional album'. And a better one I reckon. Agree? Once again, the whole thing is down below for your enjoyment.
Up REiMagined compiled by TheRobster & JC
1. Daysleeper 2. Walk Unafraid [Black Session edit] 3. At My Most Beautiful 4. Hope 5. Sad Professor
6. I'm Not Over You 7. Lotus 8. The Apologist 9. Why Not Smile 10. Falls To Climb
