Score One for Document

R.E.M.'s Document came out twenty years ago today. Wikipedia lists its release date as September 1st, 1987, but it was officially released on August 31st. That was the day I moved to CA, and I remember buying the album at Tower when it opened that morning. It was the same day that Michael Jackson's Bad was released, and I had to wade through tons of MJ detritus to buy the R.E.M. album. I also bought the cassingle, the first item I ever purchased in that newfangled format.

Last week was the 25th anniversary of Chronic Town. R.E.M.'s five-year run from Murmur through Document is about as solid as any band has ever been in my life. I bought almost everything they put out, in multiple formats. I bought the single for the B-side, an acoustic version of "Maps And Legends" from a show at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Dead Letter Office had come out a few months earlier, which compiled all of R.E.M.'s B-sides through Lifes Rich Pageant, but their Document-era b-sides haven't been as widely available. They're on the singles and the bonus IRS "vintage years" CDs and the In the Attic collection, none of which are currently "in-print" (which doesn't mean "hard to find").

Most of Document's b-sides were acoustic live songs taken from that 5/27 McCabe's show. Three songs from this gig ("The One I Love", "Maps and Legends", and "Disturbance at the Heron House") came out on various 7 and 12 inch singles. There was also a live medley of "Time After Time", "So. Central Rain", and Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain" from a Dutch radio show that came out on the "Finest Worksong" single. The only studio B-side was a cover of Floyd Cramer's "Last Date" instrumental, which isn't too essential, but the acoustic versions and live medley are great. Here are all the live B-sides assembled.

R.E.M. live in 1987

1. The One I Love
2. Disturbance at The Heron House
3. Maps and Legends
4. Time After Time, etc.(medley)

(#1-3 from Mc Cabe's, Santa Monica CA 5/27/1987)
(#4 from Utrecht, Holland 9/14/1987 )