This post isn't as timely as I would have liked, but I needed to get to it before I am Out of Time [gleefully accepts rotten fruit thrown in his direction]. The news came out several days ago that REM were disbanding after some 30 years of playing together. My initial response was like that of hearing that a celebrity that I long ago assumed to have died had, in fact, just recently died. REM had ceased to be relevant to me by the mid 1990s. The last album of theirs that I purchased was the excellent Automatic for the People in 1992. While they were no longer relevant to me, I don't think it's fair to say that I outgrew them as much as they outgrew me. I respect the fact that their sound continued to evolve throughout the 90s, even if it evolved in ways that I didn't care for.
Additionally, I stand in awe of a band that can stay together for as long as they did. Between their first album--1983's Murmur--and their last--Collapse Into Now, released earlier this year--stand 28 years of personal, musical, and political history. The changes that have taken place in their lives, in the lives of their listeners, in the music industry, and in the world are profound. To put it in my own personal perspective, when REM released Murmur in 1983, I was in elementary school! And even though I had ceased to follow them for nearly 20 years, there was something reassuring about knowing that REM were still recording and touring. They provided a tie to my youth, through music and memory, offering a sense of fixity amid a sea of constant change.
Here is a clip of REM at their peak, performing Fall on Me--which is probably one of my top 5 favorite songs--live on MTV Unplugged in 1991. Somewhere among all the boxes of stuff I packed when we rented out three rooms in our house is a VHS cassette of this show that I recorded when it first aired.
Additionally, I stand in awe of a band that can stay together for as long as they did. Between their first album--1983's Murmur--and their last--Collapse Into Now, released earlier this year--stand 28 years of personal, musical, and political history. The changes that have taken place in their lives, in the lives of their listeners, in the music industry, and in the world are profound. To put it in my own personal perspective, when REM released Murmur in 1983, I was in elementary school! And even though I had ceased to follow them for nearly 20 years, there was something reassuring about knowing that REM were still recording and touring. They provided a tie to my youth, through music and memory, offering a sense of fixity amid a sea of constant change.
Here is a clip of REM at their peak, performing Fall on Me--which is probably one of my top 5 favorite songs--live on MTV Unplugged in 1991. Somewhere among all the boxes of stuff I packed when we rented out three rooms in our house is a VHS cassette of this show that I recorded when it first aired.
Comments
Post a Comment