Anyone who's a fan of an artist with a big back catalog has to have certain albums that they don't find the time to play that often. For me, that album is R.E.M.'s Green. I don't dislike it, but sometimes I almost forget it's in their catalog. Before this week, my Green CD probably hadn't felt the joy of laser playback more than once or twice in the last four years. I listen to all the IRS albums fairly regularly (every few months), and Automatic and Out Of Time, but never find myself pulling out Green very often.
Now that I've listened to the album three times in the last two days, I'm starting to realize the errors of my ways. It's the missing link between Document and Out Of Time mixing the rock of the former with the pastoral folky sound of the latter. For the longest time, I thought the four "emphasis tracks" ("Pop Song 89", "Stand", "Get Up", "Orange Crush") were the weakest tracks on the album. Now I love the way that these uptempo rockers mix with the quiet folky numbers. A couple of the songs like "The Wrong Child" and "Hairshirt" are a bit too lyrically over-earnest (something that plagues the past few R.E.M. albums), but they match well with the Big Rock Anthems. And the Big Rock Anthems now come across as over-the-top parodies of big Rock Anthems. The music box solo in "Get Up", the wah-wah solo on "Stand", the megaphone on "Orange Crush". They're almost like parodies of big, major label rock songs.
One of the thing I like best about Green was that it was the last R.E.M. album to have quality B-sides on the singles. All the singles from the album (besides "Stand") had cool cover tunes on their flip sides. The b-side of "Stand" was a throwaway instrumental called "Memphis Train Blues", but they put their cover Iggy Pop's "Funtime" on the b-side to "Get Up", Suicide's "Ghostrider" on the b-side to "Orange Crush", and added Syd Barrett's "Dark Globe" on the 12-inch version. They also covered Television's "See No Evil" on their 1988 holiday fanclub single.
These were all songs that they covered live, and the studio versions were recorded live in the studio. The Green tour was also last R.E.M. tour where cover songs featured prominently. They didn't tour behind their next couple albums, and after that, they had a huge back catalog and didn't need to rely on cover songs. Here are these four covers in all their live-in-studio glory. All aboard for funtime!
Green covers by R.E.M.
Dark Globe (Syd Barrett)
Funtime (Iggy Pop)
Ghostrider (Suicide)
See No Evil (Television)
4 comments:
I believe that GREEN was the first CD I ever bought.
I hope I'm remembering this correctly...In 1988, Game Theory was on tour and we stopped in Athens GA for a show. Green had just been released, and I snatched it up (cassette) at a local record store. That night, at our show, Peter Buck came by and he was very distraught over the fact that Dukakis had just lost the election to George Bush. (I seem to remember that REM came out in support for Dukakis). That night Peter stayed glued to his barstool and had many, many drinks...
Green was the first REM album I bought new (I became a fan right after Document was released), so it's probably the one I know best. I agree that much of it is embarassingly overwrought (I can't take "world Leader Pretend" anymore, for example), but I think it's generally underrated. It's also one of the best _sounding_ REM records and whenever I hear it i'm struck by how much of it i've absorbed--it was hugely influencial and elements of it still echo in a lot of the stuff I do.
Listening to Document and Green over the last few days has helped me gain a new appreciation for Scott Litt's production. Nice and clean with everything upfront, and very little of that "dated 80s" sound.
My one brush with Mr. Buck was around that same time at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz when he was playing with Robyn Hitchcock. I think this was the show after they played with Game Theory at the Fillmore. Buck and David Lowery of CvB were lecturing everyone at the bar about the evils of major labels.. "It's almost like having a JOB!". I was going to buy PB a beer, but he was playing that night with Robyn so he was getting them for free anyway.
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