Why R.E.M. Don't Get The Credit They Deserve

Hey, people who love R.E.M.! This is the mindset that you’re allowing to lead the conversation about the legacy of the band. Killjoy dismissiveness all the way down.

Peter Buck? “Midtempo acoustic strumming with basic arpeggios.”

Michael Stipe? “Little sad introspective poet man lyrics.”

 

I took my son to a "hip" barbershop about a year ago and got wayyy too excited when I saw his young stylist wearing an old Monster t-shirt.

 

I have to say I can't make it through either of the Filthy Friends songs people have posted here. It's the singing, I can't stand the singers voice. I have read over and over how Corin Tucker is an amazing singer and it baffles me. There is something there I am just not hearing. She seems like a lovely person, though, and I am happy that so many people seem to enjoy her singing. Just doesn't work for me, to the point that I can't make more than 30 seconds into either of those songs.

 

That’s true, although most of those artists mostly generally avoided material from their previous bands for a good long while after their bands broke up. It took Johnny Marr nearly 25 years before he really started embracing his legacy with the Smiths. REM’s only been gone for ten years or so, so who knows!

 

I was trying to keep up with them, but I didn't know if I could do it.

 

I've heard that said but I don't think so.

If he's wrong, Westerberg is in good enough company, including

Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet ii. i. 167 Ro. "O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" Juli. "What satisfaction canst thou have to night?"

and Shakespeare (and Fletcher) again, Henry VIII iv. ii. 55: "Though he were unsatisfied in getting,..yet in bestowing..He was most Princely"

and Dryden, tr. Lucretius Against Fear of Death: "Unsatisfy'd with all that Nature brings; Loathing the present, liking absent things."

and Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: III. 41: "His ambition was yet unsatisfied."

and George Eliot, Felix Holt I. i. 49: " To feel a woman's hunger of the heart for ever unsatisfied."

Etc. etc. etc. (with thanks to OED)

 

Blaming an artist for their inferior imitators makes little sense to me. It’s not Led Zeppelin’s fault Greta Van Fleet do what they do.

 

I just saw road movie for the first time, and I was damn impressed at how good they were live (yeah, I know there’s some extra guys up there too.)

 

My old band played with a (notably younger than us) hardcore band at a fest a few years back. Their bassist had a Monster tattoo. So we chatted for a while. I may have confused him by how excited I was to talk about REM

 

That's true enough, although it would help REM’s case immensely if successful Grammy-winning contemporary bands talked up their influence. At least Led Zeppelin have that going for them.

 

Well, as with the Beatles and Queen, their "lack of hook" could be their hook.

 

Tip o' the hat, sir. You do your research.

 

I hear some of Peter Buck’s influence in a track like this. Don’t know if these guys are winning Grammys, but they seem to be hip, or were last week, before Pitchfork moved on to the next thing. The last National album featured a shout-out to ‘listening to Lifes Rich Pageant over and over again.’ But it’s totes whatever, R.E.M.’s legacy is secure, sorry not enough current Grammy winners are imitating them or that Stipe isn’t a dead icon like St. Kurt, or whatever the stick of the moment people want to beat them with is.

 

Boy, I’d sure like to know who’s fault that is.

 

Personally, I'd say it's partly the fault of the Greta Van Fleet themselves for being such derivative, slavish imitators. But more importantly, it's the fault of all of the people still so hung up on Led Zeppelin that they would accept a second-rate cover band as the real thing. At least Coverdale-Page actually had Page.

But that is a common phenomenon these days. It seems like so many people are hung up on picking the carcass clean on the rock era that they will buy $500 boxed sets with nothing new but a bunch of subpar quality (sonically and performance-wise) demos and alternate takes. And oh, yeah, marbles, scarves and stuff.

And these same people keep asking these bands, who are now in their 70's and 80's to please, please, please go back to what they were doing in their 20's and 30's, even though most of these bands have zero interest in doing that, and have said so repeatedly.

So, what do we get? Greta Van Fleet and a legion of fans who can't accept that anything of any musical merit happened after 1979. Rant over.

 

I'd say R.E.M. did get the credit in the form of money. They were an indie band who struck gold via the (while it was significant) MTV era. There were approximately another 1 million other indie bands who did not.

 

After Berry left, they gradually became a weird pop band with strong Beach Boys tendencies & hit-&-miss lyrics.

New Adventures had a few lyrics that make me wince too, but I still like the album enough to have ordered the vinyl reissue.
A post-1996 best of compilation would be interesting, just to see how the post-Berry era holds up when compared to their heyday. "The Great Beyond" would be my choice as opening track.

 

I tend to agree. They should have pulled a Led Zep instead of a Who.

 

The trick they pulled off was seeing out their contract after Bill left. Ker ching all round. So they’ve no need to curate themselves. And that whole thing has gone nuts in the decade since they retired, thanks to the net. The credit they get is in their ethos and their pop chops, which echo far and wide.

 

If I had to pick, it'd be U2 last 4-5 albums over REM's last 4-5 albums. Bono vs. Stipe lyrics leans U2 for me(Bono has lots of lyrics face palms, but always a couple strong lyrics per album). REM could skip the last 5 albums in a hypothetical reunion setlist and few if any would feel cheated. 4 legged table vs 3 legged table aspect also leans U2.

I do pick Buck over Edge by large margin on the last respective 5 albums. I think Edge checked out a bit around the time his daughter was sick 15 years ago.

Depeche/Strokes/Midnight Oil(reunion album is done)/Radiohead may break your 2 decade rule, even 3 decade. Arcade Fire might get there as well. Deftones are there as well if you start going toward metal along with TOOL.

 

While I disagree with the OP's premise that REM is short on credit (I think they are given TONS of credit even now, decades after their creative peak), I don't disagree with your observation that they made it possible for a bunch of bands playing pretty unimaginative strumming - Amerindie pop to get a lot more traction than they deserved for much of the 1990s. I'd name a bunch but they were all pretty forgettable, except for some reasons Gin Blossoms come to mind.

 

The Replacements released incredible and exciting records

 

REM, i my opinion, an extremely over-rated band, with an average singer.

right place right time, i reckon

 

Wow how many lukewarm comments about REM here.

Have you really listened albums such as Murmur, Automatic for the people, Green, Reckoning..?
Do you know that Murmur is deservedly regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 80s?

 

They were an excellent live band. Lots of power and oomph.