R.E.M. Fans Unite (Or, Help Me Make a Playlist)

Cafe Society
1

I am going back and forth on creating a playlist for R.E.M. Part of my problem is that I want a playlist with only one song from each album. This is what I have so far:

Chronic Town - Gardening at Night
Murmur - Sitting Still
Reckoning - (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville
Fables of the Reconstruction - Can’t Get There From Here
Life’s Rich Pageant - Superman
Dead Letter Office - Voice of Harold
Document - Disturbance at the Heron House
Eponymous - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Green - Untitled (Track 11)
Out of Time - Country Feedback
The Best of R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
Automatic for the People - Nightswimming
R.E.M. Singles Collected - The One I Love
Monster - What’s the Frequency, Kenneth
New Adventures in Hi-Fi - Electrolite
R.E.M: In the Attic - Time After Time Etc. (Live Medley: Time After Time/Red Rain/So. Central Rain)
Up - Lotus
Reveal - Imitation of Life
In Time: Best of R.E.M. 1998-2003 - Animal
Around the Sun - Leaving New York
As you can tell, I sort of “cheated”, using the “Best of” albums to pick up tracks, so I could select deeper cuts from the original release.

Any suggestions, or tunes that I overlooked? This was a really tough exercise–try picking only one song from “Automatic for the Peop.e”–I’m still not a happy camper with that one… Thanks for your input.

2

Personally, I would have to include Everybody Hurts on any REM compilation.

3

I have to have Fall on Me from Eponymous so if I’m gonna keep ITEOTWAWKI(AIFF) it’ll have to come from Document which means I have to lose Disturbance at the Heron House. But I’ll take Radio Free Europe from Murmur so that frees up a track selection from a greatest hits disc. I’d take Shiny Happy People either from Out of Time or from a greatest hits CD (if it’s on a greatest hits CD, then I’ll take Losing My Religion); I’m a sucker for Kate Pierson’s voice.

4

I’d have to figure out a way to get Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts, and Man on the Moon into the playlist.

5

Interesting. By which I mean different than mine, and therefore wrong on a fundamental level. :wink:

Here is how I would go:

Chronic Town - Gardening at Night
Murmur - Perfect Circle
Reckoning - (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville
Fables of the Reconstruction - Maps & Legends
Life’s Rich Pageant - Superman
Dead Letter Office - Voice of Harold
Document - Finest Worksong
Eponymous - Fall on Me
Green - You Are The Everything
Out of Time - Losing My Religion
The Best of R.E.M. - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Automatic for the People - Find the River
Non Album Tracks - First We Take Manhattan
R.E.M. Singles Collected - The One I Love
Monster - What’s the Frequency Kenneth
New Adventures in Hi-Fi - Leave
R.E.M: In the Attic - Driver 8 (Live)
Up - Hope
Reveal - Imitation of Life
In Time: Best of R.E.M. 1998-2003 - The Great Beyond
Around the Sun - Leaving New York

This was really hard, and fun at the same time. I’m probably going to put this CD together later tonight.

6

I’ve never been crazy about Superman. For the LRP track, I’d go with Cuyahoga, or maybe The Flowers of Guatemala.

7

CT: Stumble
Mm: Moral Kiosk
Rk: Harborcoat
FotR: Auctioneer (Another Engine)
LRP: Begin The Begin
Dm: Fireplace
DLO: Crazy
Ep: Radio Free Europe (original version). But I would cheat and also include Romance.
G: Orange Crush
OoT: Near Wild Heaven
AftP: Try Not to Breathe
Mt: I Took Your Name
NAiH: Binky The Doormat
Up: At My Most Beautiful
Rv: Imitation of Life
IT: Bad Day

I haven’t heard AtS. Count me in as one of those who feel that the band lost the plot after Bill Berry hopped on the tractor… I haven’t enjoyed an R.E.M. album all the way through since. Up damn near alienated me from them!

8

I’m kind of in the same boat, but I really did enjoy Around the Sun. It seemed like kind of a throwback to some of their older stuff in parts.

9

I remember an interview with Berry where he said that Up was the band’s best album. He should save manure like that for his farm.

10

No love for Oddfellows? This saddens me.

11

It’s an interesting exercise, but I find it impossible to choose between “Drive,” “Everybody Hurts” and “Monty Got a Raw Deal” from Automatic for the People. As good as REM has been, that album was a cut above, one of the truly great albums in rock history.

My choice from “Out of Time” would be “Shiny Happy People.” A very underrated song.

12

You gotta have **Texarkana ** from Out of Time. You just gotta.

“20,000 miles to an oasis…”

13

Chronic Town: Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
Murmur: Perfect Circle
Reckoning: Harborcoat
Fables of the Reconstruction: Feeling Gravitys Pull
Lifes Rich Pageant: Begin the Begin
Dead Letter Office: Bandwagon
Document: Oddfellows Local 151
Eponymous: Radio Free Europe (Hib Tone Single)
Green: I Will Turn You Inside Out
Out Of Time: Near Wild Heaven
R.E.M. Single Collected: Fall On Me
Automatic For The People: The Sidewinder Sleep Tonite
Monster: Let Me In
New Adventures In Hi-fi: Be Mine
In The Attic: Gardening At Night (Other Vocal Mix)
Up: At My Most Beautiful
Reveal: Imitation Of Life
Best of R.E.M.: Nightswimming
Around The Sun: Leaving New York

I avoided most of the biggest hits. Does anyone really need to hear “Losing My Religion” again? And, am I the only person who thinks that “Everybody Hurts,” while an OK song, is the weakest track on Automatic? And that included the New Orleans instrumental.

14

Probably ties for my favorite, along with All The Right Friends from the Vanilla Sky soundtrack.

15

You can count me in on that one.

As for my playlist, I’m still stuck on Reckoning. I’ll need more time.

16

I left “Everybody Hurts” off of my playlist, but “Losing My Religion” was the song that really introduced me to R.E.M. way back in high school, so it has a special place in my heart. I know that it has been played to death but I still enjoy it every time that I hear it.

17

Ditto.

18

Thanks for all your help, everyone. It’s almost an impossible exercise–in fact, I had to make several different versions of my playlist, just to capture all of the good stuff that I missed out on the first time around.

19

If you’re willing to fudge a bit, counting the Man On The Moon movie soundtrack gets you the song of the same name.

20

You have to get ‘All The Right Friends’ on there as well. I only know the song from In Time, a compilation/best hits album, but it’s wonderful.

I second the love for ‘Shiny Happy People’. If you happen to live by the right kind of radio station, you’ll never have to put ‘Losing My Religion’ on a mix CD. Ditto ‘Man on the Moon’, although probably not so much.

Beyond that, everyone else has mentioned everything I was going to. Including ‘Don’t Go Back to Rockville’.