No, this isn't a love song. It's a song Michael Stipe called "violent" in 1988 but acknowledged later that it could be open to interpretation. "A simple prop to occupy my time" is not exactly a loving line.
But I'm here to talk about Peter Buck's guitar work. Despite being a rock band, I don't think they got enough credit for the sheer talent of the instrumentalists, and Buck - who also played mandolin and banjo on other tracks, has a HELL of a guitar solo in this song.
The video features friends and family of the band, including Michael Stipe's sister, Lynda (who herself was formerly in a band called Oh-OK and a little later was in another one called Hetch Hetchy).
I just needed an excuse to talk about Lynda Stipe. OK, let's move on.
From their fifth album, 1987's Document, the song would be their first big hit single, hitting the US Top 10 and getting airplay worldwide... but not as much as they would if they were on, say, Warner Brothers....
In 1990, R.E.M. released a movie Documenting the Green tour, called Tourfilm. I figured the footage of this song from that would be better than anything someone with a videocamera in the audience in 1989 could get.
It's a pretty straight-forward version of the song.
In fact, this is a song they always did faithful.... even in 2005.... even in the pouring rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment