Thanks, REM, for meaning something to me back when popular music meant something to me.
I was the right age to get Chronic Town and Murmur in real time, bought scalped tix I couldn't afford to take my girlfriend to the Document tour at Radio City, thought Automatic for the People got it just about right, and so on.
(I know they didn't write Superman, but I love that video, and I couldn't find a good one for Pilgrimage.)
I was ripe for Life's Rich and Document. Still love Disturbance at the Heron House.
Posted by: Meno | Sep 21, 2011 at 08:19 PM
Gardening at Night and Moral Kiosk got me through first year of Carolina law school.
Posted by: Foreclosure Attorney | Sep 21, 2011 at 08:30 PM
GREAT band. Sad to see them go but let's be real, what else did they have left? They left their mark years ago. I HATED "Monster," hated it. But they redeemed themselves quite nicely after. One of the best studio bands ever.
Posted by: A.C. | Sep 21, 2011 at 09:43 PM
Saw them open for the English Beat in Durham a million years ago. Shortly thereafter, WRDU started playing Radio Free Europe and Laughing and I was hooked. Stayed with them a long time. Really seemed to lose their mojo when Bill Berry called it quits. They're still well represented in my 'pod.
Posted by: JB | Sep 21, 2011 at 10:05 PM
'Fables' gets alot of play on my ipod. Especially, Life & How..., Green Grow..., & Good Advices. Peter Buck at his best.
Posted by: Mike Blake | Sep 22, 2011 at 08:58 AM
Back in the day, School Kids Records used to actually rent/loan LPs. I took Lifes Rich Pageant home for a couple days and thus began fandom. From the very first lick of Begin the Begin, just wow. I admit I dubbed that LP to cassette before returning it but I paid the band back over the years.
Posted by: Dan | Sep 22, 2011 at 09:10 AM
Mike Mills said in an interview once that they recorded their "mature" albums first, which I thought was a nice way of looking at it.
Also: First single to big hit: 1 EP, 5 LPs, six years. No record company in the world would invest that much in a band today. And even then, IRS cut its own throat by not distributing "Document" abroad to any significant degree.
Posted by: Lex | Sep 22, 2011 at 10:03 AM
I liked Monster, although I didn't take it very seriously. Seemed like an improvement over the big hit records that followed Document, which did not much for me.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Sep 22, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Keep your hat on your head. Home is a long way away.
Posted by: Chris Brook | Sep 22, 2011 at 04:39 PM