I was a major REM fan since their debut release of the “Chronic Town” EP back in August of 1982. I was in the midst of my college radio career at WRSE FM 88.7, based in the student union building at Elmhurst College. (Now called Elmhurst University) Few people knew who these guys were and their fandom slowly but steadily grew over the next several years.
I was way into REM ever since they released their debut music, an EP titled “Chronic Town.”
In the summer of 1983, I saw REM in concert for the first time during their tour to support the “Murmur” album. Get this, it was a WXRT budget show at the Park West with opening act Let’s Active. Tickets cost me and my pals 4 bucks apiece! If you think that’s sweet, my close friends Marko and Bobbo saw the quartet from Athens Georgia the previous year in the student cafeteria at S.I.U. for two dollars!
For me, of course it was the band’s songs that hooked me. They were different and hard to put into a specific genre of musical style. You also were never sure of the meaning behind the songs. With Peter Buck’s jangling guitars and the often hard to decipher lyrics from lead singer Michael Stipe’s each of REM’s songs required close and repeated listening and I was fine with that. Bill Berry’s drumming was a great compliment to each tune and bassist Mike Mills was a fine vocalist in his right.
Thanks to my first career as a radio producer, I had the opportunity to meet the band members twice. In person, these guys were just normal dudes with no pretense or attitude, in spite of their musical skills and accomplishments. REM was cool because they didn’t TRY to be cool. These guys just went about their craft without falling into typical rock or pop star cliches.
An early pic of the group from Athens, Georgia.
REM’s music kind of lost me after 1994’s “Monster Album” but that record and the previous releases were enough to garner my lifetime admiration. As far as my song favorites; I’d go with “Radio Free Europe”, “Talk About the Passion”, and the entire “Reckoning” album . After that, each disc added more forever loves for me including my all-time favorite REM song, “Driver 8.”
I bring up all this REM nostalgia (and I could list many more tunes I love and concerts of theirs I saw) because last week the band was enshrined into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. A well-deserved and overdue honor that includes all four members because they all shared EQUALLY in songwriting credit and yes, the money earned from every track they ever recorded. More of this can be learned in the two links I’m posting at the bottom of this blog as CBS journalist Anthony Mason interviewed REM in well covered segments.
REM performs live for the very last time as they played the hit “Losing My Religion” at the Songwriters Hall of Fame event.
You’ll also see that REM will never play as a band again. Their reasons for this reticence is honorable and accurate. Don’t get me wrong, I like that The Who, Eagles and Rolling Stones continue to tour but for the quartet from Athens, Georgia, they’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt and are gone for good. Once again, cool without trying to be cool.
Here are those 2 links to check out.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/r-e-m-discusses-bands-breakup-songwriters-hall-of-fame-honor-and-more
Next Blog: A last post before my summer break!