know what I mean. You hear a new band, you fall in love. The band woos you with a couple of good cds and just when you think you're in it forever, they start sucking. They change their tune or their direction and you decide it's just not worth the effort of pretending you love them anymore, so you put away all the cds and get on with your life and your pursuit of other bands worthy of your love. As time goes on, you remember only the bad things about that band. You remember the third-rate albums that followed the good ones and you forget about the good times you had together. The memories, like the cd cases, gather dust. And then one day you happen to be listening to an internet radio station that is playing songs from that long gone era when your love with that band was new and fresh. And suddenly it all comes back. Why you loved them, why you stood in line for tickets to see them, why you scrawled their lyrics in your journal. Chronic Town and Murmur notwithstanding, Reckoning was one of the best cds ever made. Go build yourself another dream, this choice isn't mine.
Sigh. Come back to me, Michael. I miss you.
Favorite song: So. Central Rain (this clip is from Letterman)
R.E.M. wiki.
3 comments:
Thank you. That's exactly how I feel about REM. So much promise, and then Fables: "Well, okay, it's uneven, but maybe the next one will be--" and then before I knew it, "are you fucking serious with this Shiny Happy People shit, Michael?"
When I was still in Air Force Tech School in '84 and still deeply thinking "WTF have I gotten myself into?" Murmur got me through that.
I'm sorry, whenever I read or hear anyone complain about "Shiny Happy People" I always remember the DJ who introduced it with, "Now here's the song that's pissing off art students in black all across the nation." I sprayed a mouthful of coffee all over my desk. I always took it as one of those, "Look, we're just a band, relax." songs. I mean, "Losing my Religion" is on the same album so...it balanced.
"Radio Free Europe" on Murmur is one of my favorite songs ever, and I still don't know what the hell he's saying. Murmur and Reckoning were kinda like my Van Halen comment...they should have stopped when they were ahead.
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