REM cover by Toad The Wet Sprocket with the Gin Blossom & Vertical Horizon singers helping out

[James Hart]

I've been a long time REM fan since Reckoning came out, seen them a few times... dug the first Gin Blossoms and Vertical Horizons releases. I found this good enough to share

 

[davismanLV]

Oh wow, thanks James. I have a new favorite song for a while. That was awesome!!

 

[James Hart]

I should have also mentioned... I am a huge Toad the Wet Sprocket fan too. Before they blew up 'light FM' stations they toured and having worked with my boss at the time when they were all in college, he invited his buddies to crash with him as a home base while touring east coast colleges and smaller clubs.

I worked at a brewery and hung out with them drinking craft lager and jamming acoustics (and my boss on harmonica) a couple times. I had an Alverez mahogany 12 string at the time... it was summer 1990.

 

[Rocky]

One of my favorite songs.

 

[Peskiner]

Not bad.

Fables of the Reconstruction, the album "Driver 8" is from, is among my top 5 R.E.M. albums.

 

[James Hart]

Fables, Life's Rich Pageant, and Document all are regular additions to my daily playlists. My current playlist has those plus Green and Reckoning... that list is about 3.5 days long and been my daily list for about a month now.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Thanks for this James! I was a big REM fan when they first broke out. Murmur is one of the greatest albums of all time, IMHO, making 1983 one of the best years of music. Again, this is just my take on it all. I have great memories of this time. I had a best friend, a woman, we hung out all summer and listened to Murmur. We were just friends, nothing more, and it is one of my all time fave relationships I ever had. We were inseparable, and then it ended when the summer ended. I never saw her again. I don't even remember her name.

But that summer, I drove around Newport RI cranking Murmur. I listened to REM thru Fables of the Reconstruction and then Document. After that, they lost me or I moved on to other music, as way leads on to way, like Robert Frost said, Nothing Gold Can Stay.

So thanks for the trip down memory lane, bro.

My fave REM song, however was off Document. That and King of Birds just floor me.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Maybe one of the prettiest songs ever written and I love the REM Tourfilm series on YouTube. If you have not heard it...

anyway, I saw REM once, at Brown University, outside, when I was like 17 or 18. They were fantastic.

 

[Westerly Wood]

And this one was probably my favorite off of Murmur. No one was writing stuff like this back then. and that is a Guild 12 string!

 

[James Hart]

Finest Worksong and King Of Birds are 2 great ones for sure!

Great story, thanks for sharing!

I saw them once at Rutgers where someone threw a glow stick at Michael, he caught it between his head and shoulder... without skipping a beat he sang a verse and chorus about how stupid it was to ruin a show for others then the band walked off.

They also opened that show with "The One I Love" (hit of that tour) then announced that the Yuppies can go home and the concert was about to start.

I loved the depth of his lyrics, the way him and Mills sang alternate melody stuff over each other, Mills' great bass lines and Buck's seemingly abstract jangly guitar work.

By the time "Losing my Religion" came out, I moved on to moved on to more instrumental interests and it wasn't until 10-12 years back I caught back up with their later material and understood drums enough to hear and appreciate Bill's contributions to the band and their sound.

Oddfellows Local 151 and Old Man Kensey are 2 favorites of mine to name a couple of the top of my head

 

[Rocky]

understood drums enough to hear and appreciate Bill's contributions to the band and their sound.

They lost me when they lost Bill. I liked Monster when it came out, but it didn't stand the test of time like the others.

If you want to get a real feel for how much Bill defined the sound and drove the band, look for a live tape called "File Under Kudzu."

https://www.discogs.com/release/3529259-REM-File-Under-Kudzu

 

[James Hart]

I loved that Bill had had enough and became a farmer.

 

[Rocky]

I loved that Bill had had enough and became a farmer.

Bill apparently always wanted to be a farmer. UGA is an ag school. But before school he worked for Ian Copeland (brother of Stewart and Miles) at Paragon Promotions, which was related to the Capricorn Label.

 

[Westerly Wood]

When Stipe didn't need to enunciate words....

 

[James Hart]

I was a 15 year old bassist, watching Letterman to catch new music that was years away from the limited radio stations in my area of NJ (Iron and Zinc rich mountains between me and the NYC radio waves)... I was blown away by that episode, I had Reckoning pre ordered at my favorite little record shop on Spring St in downtown Newton, NJ. I pre ordered a few things there over the years they were opened... Reckoning & Fables, Shawn Colvin's Steady On, Live's Mental Jewelry, Bob Mould's Workbook.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Wait, this was my favorite favorite song off Murmur...Never heard anything like this before:

 

[James Hart]

I think Mike's best tone was when he was playing Pilot basses

 

[Westerly Wood]

One more interesting note. My younger brother had REM's demo album, the one before Murmur, "Chronic Town". And there was this song on it I just really dug from the getgo, and knew this band was going to be huge.

 

[HeyMikey]

When Stipe didn't need to enunciate words....

Hey Woody, I’ve been looking for an REM song to play when I watched this clip and thought, yeah I should do So Central Rain. My idea was to do it on 12-string to capture the jangle. Today I stumbled on this video who at first I thought was a young you! His is a bit slow but really nice. However, change the speed setting to 1.25 and it is very good as well. Edit; Looks like you need to view it on YouTube.



He also does a nice 12-string version of Driver 8

 

[Westerly Wood]

This might be my favorite Driver 8 version however: