I'll admit to a degree of trepidation when thinking about an R.E.M. post. The Vinyl Villain and Is This The Life? blogs have both produced jaw-droppingly brilliant R.E.M. series that on a personal level were an education and delight, feats of astonishing research and passion for the band and, for all that followed them, a chance to revisit one of the greatest bands of all time.
All that said, this cassette is very important to me, not least because it was compiled by my lifelong friend, who I first met at primary school and has been there through thick and thin ever since. I was familiar with R.E.M., but this was my first fully immersive experience of their music, encompassing all of their albums to date, from Murmur to Out Of Time. These songs themselves are now like old friends and just listening to the sequence of songs takes me back to a special time in our lives. We were both in further education (different colleges) at the end of 1991 , having had a couple of years out working, and were at a point where our lives were taking us in different directions.
Music isn't our only connection, of course, but there's still a thrill when we share something that we think the other may like or not have heard. Mixtapes were always an integral part of that and this is one of the best.
Reckoning was one of the last IRS albums that I added to my personal collection. For years, I thought the opening track on the mixtape was solely (Don't Go Back To) Rockville and I was disappointed that my copy of the Eponymous compilation appeared to have an edited version. When I eventually got Reckoning, the penny finally dropped and I realised that Stuart had included the tail end of preceding track Camera, which was essentially a bit of R.E.M. mucking about in the studio. It's an ingrained musical memory, so I've kept the opening track of this selection, as he intended. Closing track, Shiny Happy People B-side Forty Second Song, is a curio; I suspect it was there to fill the blank space at the end of a C90 cassette. However, it's less of a throwaway instrumental than some of their other B-sides and after many, many plays over the years, I couldn't listen to this side without it.
This one's dedicated back to Stuart. Thanks for everything.
1) Camera (Reprise) / (Don't Go Back To) Rockville (Album Version) (1984)
2) Half A World Away (1991)
3) Turn You Inside-Out (1988)
4) Perfect Circle (1983)
5) Exhuming McCarthy (1987)
6) These Days (1986)
7) Green Grow The Rushes (1985)
8) Second Guessing (1984)
9) Talk About The Passion (Album Version) (1983)
10) Texarkana (1991)
11) Crazy (Cover of Pylon) (1985)
12) Cuyahoga (1986)
13) Forty Second Song (1991)
Looks like a very good Side One. The Camera Reprise story is great.
ReplyDeleteI must have played this end-to-end at least four times today.
ReplyDeleteThat's my morning's listening sorted, cheers. A terrific selection.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Martin. All credit to my friend Stuart, but it's been on constant rotation these past few days. Maybe I should get to Side 2 sooner rather than later, it's a corker.
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