# What's the best song off of "Green"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 23, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789 "2010-09-23T17:23:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/1 "2010-09-23T17:23:12Z")
Ouch. Just my opinion, but had it not been for _Around the Sun_, this would have ranked as R.E.M.'s worst album for me (I’ve warmed to _Up_ recently; though _Reveal_ might also qualify as worse than this one). Saw them on this tour, though, which was an awesome show. So, what do you say about their jump to a major label?
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### Author:  [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/2 "2010-09-23T17:33:00Z")
the album ranked: You Are the Everything, then World Leader Pretend, then Orange Crush and Turn You Inside Out (tie), then everything else but Stand, then Stand
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### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/3 "2010-09-23T18:06:33Z")
This ranks as my personal Worst REM Album (That I Know). It was \*hard \*to vote.
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### Author:  [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/4 "2010-09-23T18:51:49Z")
_Pop Song 89_ and _Stand_ seemed to be almost novelty songs, like _Shiny, Happy People_ and _Star 69._
Still, I liked some of the harder edge stuff like _Orange Crush_ and _Turn You Inside-Out_, the latter gettting my vote. The slower songs are completely forgettable and I have no idea why, for the first time, they printed a lyric and it was the stilted _World Leader Pretend._.
Definitely an overall disappointment at the time.
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### Author:  [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/5 "2010-09-23T19:38:45Z")
I think it so encapsulates the early '90s environmentalism. It also reminds me of _Northern Exposure_, for some reason. Maybe one of Maggie’s deceased boyfriends was a tree-hugger.
I like “You Are the Everything.” Crickets.
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### Author:  [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/6 "2010-09-23T20:00:04Z")
I like “I Remember California” – I always heard it as a song from a post-apocalyptic future nostalgic about the present. I’m not sure if that was the intent, but it always kind of creeped me out. In a good way.
> [@](#):
>
> I remember traffic jams
> Motor boys and girls with tans
> Nearly was and almost rans
> I remember this.
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### Author:  [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/7 "2010-09-23T20:46:36Z")
I voted for “World Leader Pretend”, but really, it could have been any song on the album except for “Stand” or “Orange Crush”.
And I remember the day this came out. I was a student at Ball State University, and I was messing around the university’s VAX system, and a girl I knew who was a huge R.E.M. fan posted a message along the lines of “I just listened to the new album from my _former_ favorite band in the world, R.E.M., and I hate it!” When pressed for details as to _why_ she loathed it, the only reason she could ultimately give was because it had been released on a major label. That’s right, she hated the band she used to worship _simply because they now made more money than they used to make_. This (and similar incidents/attitudes), **woodstockbirdybird** , went a long way toward developing my less-than-flattering opinion of hipsters.
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### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/8 "2010-09-23T21:57:50Z")
That seems to be more a function of age than anything, to me. Though I admit hipsters are generally in their 20s. But there are (usually young) snobs in every genre of music fandom - some of the most elitist people I’ve ever had conversations about music with were heavy metal fans. I can understand when you’re young and you listen to non-mainstream music that validates your negative feelings about “straight” society that any perceived sell-out can be seen as a betrayal of your ideals. I just know that people grow out of it, so I don’t let it bother me much.
Still, I agree with your acquaintance that this album isn’t in the same league as their IRS albums (or their next four albums, for that matter).
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/9 "2010-09-23T22:14:02Z")
The poll is missing an option for “Ether Ships”!
Come to think of it, it’s missing pretty much every song off [the _Green_ album I was thinking of](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_(Steve_Hillage_album))…
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### Author:  [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/10 "2010-09-23T23:01:57Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#):
>
> That seems to be more a function of age than anything, to me. Though I admit hipsters are generally in their 20s. But there are (usually young) snobs in every genre of music fandom - some of the most elitist people I’ve ever had conversations about music with were heavy metal fans. I can understand when you’re young and you listen to non-mainstream music that validates your negative feelings about “straight” society that any perceived sell-out can be seen as a betrayal of your ideals. I just know that people grow out of it, so I don’t let it bother me much.
>
> Still, I agree with your acquaintance that this album isn’t in the same league as their IRS albums (or their next four albums, for that matter).
Oh, I agree with you about us all being melodramatic and overly emotional (and stupid, likely as not) in our youth, and I’m sure she’s grown out of that and looks back on those days with a mixture of revulsion and good humor now. But as I said, the ludicrousness of her position all those years ago has stayed with me, and was a progenitor of my current rather vehement disdain for flagrant hipsterishness (e.g., being hip for hipness’ sake).
And I agree with your assessment of this album as paling in comparison to what came immediately before and after (though upon its release, I hated **Monster** with an unbridled, white hot intensity). Still, I think the tunes are largely there, if a touch uninspired and by-the-numbers.
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### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/11 "2010-09-23T23:14:24Z")
I hated _Monster_ initially, as well (and judging by the used bins at my local independent record store, I’m not the only one). But a couple friends whose judgment I trust told me to revisit it, and, much like _Up_, I found it a lot stronger than my first impression had led me to believe. “Tongue” especially seemed to be a departure that worked for them. Even some songs I wrote off as utter throwaways on the second side grew on me.
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### Author:  [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/12 "2010-09-23T23:14:58Z")
Also: Metal fans can, indeed, be near-unrivaled snobs about their musical genre of choice. Still, I do believe that I, personally, have run across, both in person and in reading the articles (and comments) on websites such as **Pitchfork** and the **A.V. Club** , more rampant snobbery and knee jerk disdain for anything containing even a _smidgen_ of mass appeal than I have in countless conversations with various metalheads through the years. And that’s also why I like **That Metal Show** so much: one week they’ll have Lemmy Kilmister on as a guest, followed the next week by a George Lynch - Don Dokken reunion, followed the week after that by Joey Kramer from Aerosmith.
Plus, metal happens to be much more of a cross-cutural, cross-generational music-for-the-average-Joe than is much of indie rock. Which is pretty well why many critics and, yes, hipsters turn their noses up at it.
Oh, and sorry for the lengthy thread hijack.
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### Author:  [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/13 "2010-09-23T23:16:35Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#):
>
> I hated _Monster_ initially, as well (and judging by the used bins at my local independent record store, I’m not the only one). But a couple friends whose judgment I trust told me to revisit it, and, much like _Up_, I found it a lot stronger than my first impression had led me to believe. “Tongue” especially seemed to be a departure that worked for them. Even some songs I wrote off as utter throwaways on the second side grew on me.
Ditto.
It was actually only in the last four or five years that my opinion of **Monster** did a pretty much complete turnaround.
But more on that in the **Monster** thread…
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### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/14 "2010-09-23T23:16:51Z")
I remember driving home from an REM show with my head in my sweetie’s lap \ and listening to ‘You are the Everything’; it’s a good memory, so that’s my favorite.
I have no idea what the best would be, though.
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### Author:  [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/15 "2010-09-24T16:29:41Z")
I voted for _You Are the Everything_, because it’s one of my favorite songs, period. That being said, the album overall was their weakest to date (_Around the Sun_ is the worst, and, while _Up_ grew on me, too, _Reveal_ hasn’t gotten better with age). _The Wrong Child_ is just awful. Simply awful. And I’m not terribly fond of _Hairshirt_, either. The rest of it’s allrightish, though I guess I could do without _Stand_ and maybe _Get Up_. I love _Orange Crush_, though.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/16 "2010-09-24T18:07:18Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#):
>
> Saw them on this tour, though, which was an awesome show.
Oh yes, they were very special on the Green tour.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/17 "2010-09-24T19:47:56Z")
> [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](#):
>
> I voted for _You Are the Everything_, because it’s one of my favorite songs, period.
Agree. Very evocative lyrics.
\*
Here’s the scene you’re in the back seat laying down
the windows wrap around
to the sound
of the travel and the engine…
\*
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### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-song-off-of-green/554789/18 "2010-09-24T19:51:27Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#):
>
> > [@woodstockbirdybird](#):
> >
> > Saw them on this tour, though, which was an awesome show.
>
> Oh yes, they were very special on the Green tour.
Was that the first tour where they used a side musician? Peter Holsapple really freed them up to do a lot of things they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to (such as “Perfect Circle”).