REM Broke Up!!!

[Folkie]

Fables is my most favourite as well, but the band never seemed to like it that much due to the circumstances of recording it in the UK.

I hardly ever still listen to AutomaticftP! The album that is my least favourite is Green if I have to go by album as a whole.

I agree completely that "Green" is by far their weakest album: plenty of filler and lots of lame songwriting. And, although, in my opinion, "Automatic" is a much stronger effort, I think the album suffers not only from overwrought arrangements, but from many of the tracks being overplayed onstage to the point where they've become stadium anthems. "Out of Time," on the other hand, contains some consistently strong songwriting, and even "Losing My Religion" stands up to repeated listenings. As I said, I think their golden period extended from "Chronic Town" to "Lifes Rich Pageant." And if, as Peter Buck stated in an interview, their goal was "to make one really great record," I think they've met that ambition many times over.

[electrofaro]

Let's watch some video!

http://www.musicvault.com/r-e-m/video/h ... 01931.html

[Folkie]

Thanks, Werner, for this previously unavailable footage of R.E.M. in the middle of the "Reckoning" tour. The sound and video quality are excellent, and they capture a great band at the height of its powers. It would be hard to pick favorites, but the encores with Roger McGuinn and John Sebastian are priceless. I watched the whole thing straight through, and it took me back many, many, years.

I'll be interested to hear what others think (Any insights, Sweden?). This marks a major step forward for R.E.M. fans everywhere!

[Sweden]

Thanks, Werner, for this previously unavailable footage of R.E.M. in the middle of the "Reckoning" tour. The sound and video quality are excellent, and they capture a great band at the height of its powers. It would be hard to pick favorites, but the encores with Roger McGuinn and John Sebastian are priceless. I watched the whole thing straight through, and it took me back many, many, years.

I'll be interested to hear what others think (Any insights, Sweden?). This marks a major step forward for R.E.M. fans everywhere!

Well, it's not really "previously unavailable footage", but has been in circulation for several years... Having said that, it's a pretty damn great show from that period. There is a very good quality copy of the full show held by a collector (not me!), but to my knowledge it hasn't really been shared unfortunately.

Somethign which did appear for the first time recently was footage of the show in Yokohama, japan in 1984. Not very good quality, but very cool to see. Peter was playing an acoustic guitar for So. Central Rain, something which I never knew he did for that song (and which he's never done during any later tour from what I know). The only reason I can think of was that maybe he only travelled with one guitar and asked for a 12-string as part of the backline, and they only got him an acoustic 12-string. He did play a 12-string for that song elsewhere in 84-85.

[Folkie]

Thanks for the correction, David! The footage is new to me, anyway. I'll have to search YouTube for the Yokohama, Japan show from the same year.

[Sweden]

Thanks for the correction, David! The footage is new to me, anyway. I'll have to search YouTube for the Yokohama, Japan show from the same year.

Hehe, sorry if that came across wrong, pointing out it had been around for a while. It is certainly cool footage!
I'll see what I can do in terms of Yokohama. I don't think it's on Youtube.

[Sweden]

See if this link works: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pv7f7y7ym2d3 ... 4.mp4?dl=0

I have also (I think) identified the acoustic PB is using (see around the 13 minute mark). It's likely a Guild FS-46-CE os some kind. Like this one:



And, speaking of So Central Rain - I am pretty sure I have identified the guitar in the video as a Gretsch. It has always been said he used a Guild Starfire, but looking at details from the video that doesn't seem to be the case. More on that later...

[Folkie]

Thanks for the link, but the sound and video quality were too spotty for me. Anything else new out there?

[electrofaro]

The video of Capitol Theatre was out there alright, but for people like me who are not really into videos that much it was nice to hear from another former Murmursian of the link above. These live recordings provide a nice glimpse of what it was like before a lot of use went to - or could even - see them live.

Some collectors are quite annoying in that they hoard stuff, show it to some people even when they visit but refuse to copy/share it. Oh well, here is to hoping for Peter's boxset!