Left of the Dial

R.E.M. in many ways are the great American success story and gave hope to every band that played less than mainstream music out of their garage. This is a band that went from Radio Free Europe which only kids in Athens GA. heard to Everybody Hurts which everybody heard. They are the classic example of a band that with each increasingly successful album put out lost fans as they made even more. They are the band that appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone as "America's Best Rock n' Roll Band" and only got bigger from there much to the chagrin of their oldest fans.
Everybody seems to have their cut off point with R.E.M, for some it's Life's Rich Pageant, others it's Green and some will say that after their first album, Murmur they sucked ass; all the time critics loved them and their concert venues got bigger and bigger. Their singer Michael Stipe went from a shy mumbler on stage to being a tremendous front man who threw his body around, danced ridiculous and wore costumes. Bill Berry on drums, Mike Mills on bass and Peter Buck on guitar all seemed like dudes you would never pick out as rock stars, all unassuming in appearance, more like college students than musicians. Their sound a southern inspired cryptic style of rock that nobody else sounded like. Starting around 1980 they manged to avoid being new wave, metal or even grunge though they were without a doubt, indie college rock.

My introduction to them was in 1985, Can't Get There From Here and I thought it was a funny sounding song with a funny looking video. After hearing this song I was introduced to more of their music by a friend of mine who flatly said ever other album they put out sucks. I was a big fan of Life's Rich Pageant as well as Dead Letter Office and as much as I liked those album I never bought their next album, Document which would be their introduction to the main stage of Rock N' Roll.

Document brought them from the basement and into the frat house with, It's the End of the World As We know It, and I feel Fine. The One I love however is a great pop/rock song still, a classic that deserves all the kudos it gets. It was also one of those ambiguous clues to Michael Stipe's sexuality. Green, their sixth album was one that I really, really liked despite that horrible song, Stand  that was played every hour on Mtv and was all over the radio. Orange Crush, Turn You Inside Out (even if it sounded just like The Finest Work Song), and my favorite track on the album, You Are The Everything held the album together. The Latter song would heavily influence their biggest song ever on their biggest album ever which came next.
Out of Time gave us Losing My Religion a song you couldn't avoid if you tried. It was played on rock stations, alternative stations, adult stations, your parents CD player and was Mtv all day; the video was gorgeous and weird and wone almost every VMA it was nominated for. The album sold 12 million copies world wide! While Losing My Religion was the high point of the album many of the bands hard core fans had jumped ship by then. Shiny Happy People may be the lowest depths the band ever sank to and made their future look unbearable. That song still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
With 1992's Automatic For the people the band's 8th album it seemed the pattern continued, old fans rejected them while new fans devoted themselves to the band. Everybody Hurts, another gigantic hit on the radio and Mtv made this album mega successful. As many people loved that song and that damned video there were as many who hated it. I remember sitting in my living room with my roommate who began playing they song on his guitar we changed the the lyrics to "everybody sucks . . . my ass."
When The biggest band in the land returned in 1995 with, Monster they tried to get away from their increasingly wussy status and put some fuzz and volume on the guitars with a an album that sort of rocked with songs like,  Star 69 and What's the Frequency, Kenneth? but it was also apparent that Michael Stipe and the boys weren't young anymore. Don't get me wrong one of my favorite R.E.M. songs, Let Me In is on this album.

And then it all seemed to stop. Something in the music world change, something in the hearts of Mtv changed. Their airplay was diminished quite a bit and even though the critics still loved them their popularity seemed to dwindle down to where it had been before Document. I know people who will tell you about their best work was put out after Monster but I'm not one of them. Maybe their decline was all due to Bill Berry leaving the band, I don't know. Maybe it's just not possible to pretend you're still and alternative/indie band after so many year, so many concerts and so many record sales, maybe they should have finally embraced just how big they were so they could continue being a huge act. Maybe they didn't want that.
Where do they belong in the rock pantheon after their 30 years of performing and recording? They deserve a place of note, that's for sure and while they haven't been relevant for the past fifteen years their first fifteen were damn good and they were damn cool. A little southern band with very astute melodies and a sound that while familiar was all their own, R.E.M. have been to the mountain top of popularity and back down and seemed to never give in to what music trends were going on. That in it's self earn my respect.

I never saw them live but I did see Stipe and super model Helena Christensen go into a bar in New York once, I kept on walking.

My Top 10 R.E.M. Songs (in no roder)
1. Let Me In, Monster
2. You Are The Everything, Green
3. Swan Swan Hummingbird, Life's Rich Pageant
4. 1,000,000, Chronic Town
5. Radio Free Europe, Murmur
6. The One I Love, Document
7. Low, Out of Time
8. Superman, Life's Rich Pageant
9. Orange Crush, Green
10.Fall On Me, Life's Rich Pageant

Honorable mention: Toys in the Attic, Dead Letter Office