R.E.M. Live 1982

[Folkie]

At the risk of being redundant, I thought I'd post this YouTube link here for all to listen to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPE-l-tfN0I

Absolutely raw, vintage material. My apologies if it's come up in previous threads.

[Sweden]

You even posted in the earlier thread about it, Robert!
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=405555&hilit=raleigh

It certainly deserves a repost though, so thanks! It's a nice one. As you may remember, video of a February 1981 show also surfaced last year. It has now been removed from YT for some reason, but may be possible to track down. http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/1 ... are-video/

[Folkie]

Well, I guess I'm suffering from (hopefully) temporary amnesia. Still, I think the show is seminal stuff and deserves a second post.

[David Watts]

Thankyou for this.
I had a real good time watching this gig.

[The Mod Lang]

Thanks for the post! I love early REM!

[Sweden]

You even posted in the earlier thread about it, Robert!
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=405555&hilit=raleigh

It certainly deserves a repost though, so thanks! It's a nice one. As you may remember, video of a February 1981 show also surfaced last year. It has now been removed from YT for some reason, but may be possible to track down. http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/1 ... are-video/

The February 20, 1981 show is now back up on Youtube. The earliest filmed material of the band made available in any type of public fashion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyUvmu1IIss
The band had been together for just over ten months at this time...

[Folkie]

Thanks for the link, David. I've grown familiar with the band over this period through bootlegs. Will let you know what I think when I watch it.

[Folkie]

David,

The bulk of the material on this bootleg sounds so different from the stuff on "Chronic Town" and "Murmur," that when I first heard it, almost 30 years ago, I assumed the majority of the songs were cover tunes. Is there a reason the majority of the songs here never made it to vinyl?

Robert

[Sweden]

David,
The bulk of the material on this bootleg sounds so different from the stuff on "Chronic Town" and "Murmur," that when I first heard it, almost 30 years ago, I assumed the majority of the songs were cover tunes. Is there a reason the majority of the songs here never made it to vinyl?
Robert

Well, you have to remember that the main CT sessions were over a year after this, and the Murmur ones two years after this. That's a long time during the first three years of a band's existence, especially when they pretty much toured without break those years. They became much better musicians, and probably got a clearer idea of what they wanted to do. Also when they gained some reputation so they knew they would get a crowd anyway, they could afford to write different types of songs, less "danceable" if you will, and develop the non-straightforward aspects of their music. So, I think the simple answer is "development" and that they thought had moved on from the earliest stuff when they got a chance to record. They probably thought they had much better songs than those they had played the first year or two, and also probably had grown tired of a lot of that material.

Then again, Gardening at Night was written in the summer of 1980...

[Folkie]

Wow, I didn't know "Gardening at Night" was written that early. It's always been one of my top five favorite R.E.M. songs. The 12-string really chimes and shimmers (Is that Mitch Easter's Fender XII on the studio version?).