8 Years Ago today-R.E.M. calls it quits*

Acclaimed Music puts them at no. 2, after The Beach Boys. That is, of course, a weighted ranking system based on reviews, not sales.
I was not as impressed by TP as many other people were, but this is not the thread for that. This is the thread for moaning how old we have gotten if it has already been eight years since R.E.M. broke up.

 

Very true.

I still recall REM's first appearance on David Letterman in 1983. They did South Central Rain and Radio Free Europe. After they finished singing, Letterman went to talk to them. Buck and Mills answered the questions with a smiling Berry in the background. Stipe, in contrast, sat down on the stage just out of camera range doing his best to "hide".

Fast forward 10 years or so and can anyone imagine him doing that?

 

He also said he would never lip synch in videos. All the way up to Religion. He did say at the time he actually sang to the backing track but how can one tell. Yeah 2 years later he was changing his slogan shirts at awards shows. Im not calling him out for this but the marketplace does dictate these actions some times.

 

The intentions of a young, introverted artist were inevitably changed by worldwide fame.

 

1a and 1b for me. Lol

 

To me, the only other American band that comes close in terms of lasting influence & size/consistency of their discography is Sonic Youth

 

Guess I'm not among the 10 million. Wonderful song, they pull off that dark undertow thing they do so well on the verses giving it a downward slant. Get past the chorus and you hear a fairly desperate song about looking for connection and joy.

 

I would include Husker Du, but their catalog is obviously not as deep. It's all quality, though.

 

I'd say Nirvana and Guns N Roses and Metallica and The Ramones and The Beach Boys and Skynyrd might disagree with you.

 

Nahhhhh. Are you saying you play the same geetar for an entire set? And I stopped being even mildly irritated about Clapton's choice of instrument a long time ago.

 

We are talking about recording. Once a guitar player shifts to another guitar, their music flies to a different direction.
I don't care what they play on stage, it is in the studio that the music is made and choice of guitar sets the tone and direction of that music.

 

I play whatever instrument suits the arrangement, be that a 5-string, fretless or a plain old Precision. I will admit to having an inordinate amount of love for my old Precision tho.

 

I'm curious, you honestly feel that choice of instrument does not matter? You honestly think that if Metallica for their next album decided to play Rickenbacker 12 strings and acoustic guitars, the album would sound like "And Justice For All"? You honestly don't see a change in Clapton's music and The Cult's music and REM music when a change in guitar occurred?

 

I do think it matters. That's why I choose the right intrument for the job.

And I do see a change with the examples you cited. Perhaps they didn't want to repeat themselves over and over again.

edit - and I've had discussions over a few drinks with Peter Buck. He's a very inventive player.

 

This might be true... but people around here don’t have trouble rhapsodizing about or just defending the late career albums of other artists who went on much further past their heyday than R.E.M. did. I’m not sure why they get hit so much harder with the stick of not remaining megapopular for their entire career.

 

I never understand this criticism in retrospect about REM and their political nature - I imagine, for example, a track such as Fall on Me probably "wanted" the same attention as World Leader Pretend being the only lyric printed on Green, and then the entire packaging the slips with Out of Time. I don't think said person became a "walking cliche", he just never had a large enough audience to say anything for most of their first decade.

I believe it was around Life's Rich Pageant that he admitted... in the late 90s "if anyone can actually hear my writing and I'm not just mumbling I might as well write about something important/honest/genuine" paraphrasing the quote.

Oh and, unrelated but, I can't believe that comment on the 70s - there's something for everyone.

 

His sound, his playing style - thus the band's sound and style - was very different when Buck went to a Les Paul.
It's a s simple as that.

 

Peter didn’t decide to switch guitars and then say “oh no, now I have to write rock songs and stop playing that jangly stuff.” He decided to write rock songs and then picked the right guitar to play on them. When he wrote other kinds of songs, he played a different guitar ....

 

So?

 

That clip is great. Mills looks about twelve years old.

 

Yeah, that's possible. But does it matter? Chicken or egg scenario. Guitar or write rock songs...does it matter which came first?

To be honest with you, as a guitar player I'd say the Les Paul came first and is it what prompted Buck to play power chord and RAWK! I have Rickenbackers and I have Gibsons - two very different animals - and when you pick up either of those guitars you are led to a certain style of playing and certain sound. I pick up my Gibson SG, I want to rock. I pick up my Rickenbacker 12, I want to jangle and run through arpeggios. Buck got his hands on the Les Paul and he sure wasn't going to come up with "Sitting Still" on it.

Those jangling arpeggios throughout the verses (starting at 0:15) are not going to be brought about when holding a Les Paul. (Sure it could be done, but the sound and the song itself would be very, very different.)

 

Uhh, it changed...and not for the better.

Are you lying about being a musician? No way can someone who is a musician not know what happens when an artist grabs a different instrument. I'll be honest, I don't believe you've ever picked up a guitar in your life.

 

You got me. Bye.

 

Everyone understands that different guitars sound different. But what you really didn’t like was the change in musical direction, which the whole band was going through. The change of guitar was just a part of that.

You realize that Buck was a wealthy musician with dozens of guitars... he didn’t pick up one new guitar after playing one other guitar all his life and change his entire playing style because of it. He knew what guitars to play to get the sound he wanted.

 

So you missed punk then?
I never understand how people get sick of a band because of how they present their politics. I thought the t-shirt strip was kind of funny, and as far as videos go, they aren't the music, what's in the grooves is.
I do remember some folks having a problem with the homoeroticism of the "Losing My Religion" video.