24 replies to this topic

[MontyGotARawDeal]

After listening to "Collapse into now" many times this week you can clearly sense an ending present, this grows greater towrads the end of the album "Blue" being the key talking point. This haunting song just says to me Goodbye and farewell. I can't muster the courage to depict it any more than that.

[MurmursAdministrator]

I heard Blue in the studio last year and then the final whole album I think in late September/October. I lived with the record through the holidays and as much as I never wanted to admit it, I knew it was the last. After I left WBR and the record came out, it became a lot more difficult to play all the way through, as it made me too sad. I still haven't in quite a while.

Anyhow, I will always remember in Nashville hearing that song come together, piece after piece. It was a magical thing to behold really.

[welliwonder]

When i first heard the album my first thought as Blue faded out was, wow, that really sounds like the end. I said as much on here too, but I didn't know , and I still found it a bit of a shock.

With the benefit  hindsight  of course , Collapse couldnt sound more obviously like goodbye other than if they'd called it 'Our Last Record' and the more I think about it , the more I'm convinced that Michael knew all along this was farewell.

[Lori]

I thought they were going to end it after Up came out, but it didn't happen so I wasn't expecting it after Collapse Into Now and listening to Blue.

From Up - (Falls To Climb)

"who cast the final stone?
who threw the crushing blow?
someone has to take the fall
why not me? why not me.
had consequence chose differently
had fate its ugly head
my actions make me beautiful
and dignify the flesh

me. I am free. free...

[MontyGotARawDeal]

MurmursAdministrator, on 25 September 2011 - 10:09 PM, said:

I heard Blue in the studio last year and then the final whole album I think in late September/October. I lived with the record through the holidays and as much as I never wanted to admit it, I knew it was the last. After I left WBR and the record came out, it became a lot more difficult to play all the way through, as it made me too sad. I still haven't in quite a while.

Anyhow, I will always remember in Nashville hearing that song come together, piece after piece. It was a magical thing to behold really.

That sounds awesome being right there in the thick of it listening and hearing the creation of what we now know to be the last R.E.M. song. I agree I do in fact find it hard to listen to, the only time I really have done is when it's come on shuffle.

[Bartlet]

But we actually know Blue is not the last REM song, what with the new ones on the Greatest Hits in November.

Ethan, you said you didn't "know" but that you knew. The quotation marks say to me that you actually, officially, knew, but I seem to have read that wrongly?

[Oowatanite]

Bartlet, on 04 October 2011 - 05:29 PM, said:

But we actually know Blue is not the last REM song, what with the new ones on the Greatest Hits in November.

Ethan, you said you didn't "know" but that you knew. The quotation marks say to me that you actually, officially, knew, but I seem to have read that wrongly?

I think he meant he had a gut feeling but no confirmation.

[dtram]

Bartlet, on 04 October 2011 - 05:29 PM, said:

Ethan, you said you didn't "know" but that you knew. The quotation marks say to me that you actually, officially, knew, but I seem to have read that wrongly?

Don't want to speak for him but I assume the quotes mean that no one told him officially but he read the tea leaves and knew it was coming.

[MurmursAdministrator]

dtram, on 04 October 2011 - 06:34 PM, said:

Don't want to speak for him but I assume the quotes mean that no one told him officially but he read the tea leaves and knew it was coming.

Yes. I have felt it for a while but as a fan didn't want to admit it to myself I think. I really love and respect all the guys as individuals and as the output of the band collectively, so even though I knew it was coming, the sense of finality was a bit too much to face at the time.

[Driver Eight]

MurmursAdministrator, on 04 October 2011 - 06:36 PM, said:

Yes. I have felt it for a while but as a fan didn't want to admit it to myself I think. I really love and respect all the guys as individuals and as the output of the band collectively, so even though I knew it was coming, the sense of finality was a bit too much to face at the time.

Ethan, you had more of yourself invested in the band than any of the rest of us, and a lot us had a lot invested in them. I sure did.

I only listened to Collapse a time or two on live streaming, some songs once, some twice. I knew in my gut it was almost surely the end for them. Two or three of the songs sounded straightforwardly funereal, epitaphic. Even the album's title, to me, refers to the band's end - that was then, it was a real, live, glistening, throbbing, living thing, and now, it collapses into a singularity, fade to black.

I have to say, I'm at peace with it, though it does still sadden me a bit. They were amazing. A lot of magic came from them, a lot of amazing music, a lot of people, hearts, moved. And all living things have a lifespan.

I wonder what next chapters there will be for them. I reckon Peter will be playing that guitar until he's old and grey. One never knows what Michael will do next - wonder if he ever considered writing a novel. He's got the imagination, the literary vision for it. Mike, inventive musical genius, I'd love to see him involved in musical production or a sort of Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Wilburys-type collaboration. That would be cool. And whatever Bill does, you figure he'll be happy. That's cool with me - just heard the other day that he wrote, for the most part, "Everybody Hurts." That's amazing, and his role in "You are the Everything" and "Get Up," among other things, for those I'll always be grateful to him.

I'm ready to see what the future holds, for them and mostly for me. I feel fine, as it were. ...

[Bartlet]

Thanks for clarifying Ethan. I would have put the quotes around the other lnow/knew.

[Joni Smeke]

Bartlet, on 05 October 2011 - 05:54 AM, said:

Thanks for clarifying Ethan. I would have put the quotes around the other lnow/knew.

I think it works both ways. Putting the quotes around the first "know" makes it the "official" know. Anyway, I understood it in the same way that dtram did.

[stipeeyes]

As fans listening.  We shouldn't have to take clues that an album is the last one.If we did that we would have thought Automatic was the last one.   The guys should have said when the album came out it was their last album.  What happened when Michael kept saying, "Don't confuse the singer with the song"?  Suddenly the last one is messages to the fans that the band is ending.  As fans we deserve much more than this.

And their idea of a farewell gift is a greatest hits with 3 new songs.  Here is a band that started out a live band. Peter didn't even want to put albums out at first.   I think they should of ended as a live band.

They will always be my favorite band and great guys. I just think they could of handled this break up in a better way.

[Driver Eight]

stipeeyes, on 05 October 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

As fans listening.  We shouldn't have to take clues that an album is the last one.

I think it's hard to say there's a should and a shouldn't here. According to what moral code or implied contract or course of dealing with the fans does one say that?

stipeeyes, on 05 October 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

Here is a band that started out a live band. Peter didn't even want to make records at first.   I think they should of ended as a live band.

Fair point, imo. But they'd have to do 20 farewell concerts around the world, minimum, to make everyone happy, and plenty of people even then would complain, "they didn't come to my town." They've accepted that it's over, it's run its course. We should, too.

[Driver Nate]

I could only imagine the backlash if R.E.M. were to launch a "farewell" tour on the heels of a greatest hits collection.

As for how they handled the announcement, I'm not sure what they could have done to break the news any easier. These aren't the days of MTV where they could have taped a segment announcing their demise as they did when they let everyone know Bill Berry was leaving.

In regards to "hidden" messages on their albums, much less ones hinting at their demise, I've never been one for doing that. There are certain fans that read things into every single thing they do. Those same folks could probably find messages on Murmur that foretold the future but I'm not one of them.

[MurmursAdministrator]

stipeeyes, on 05 October 2011 - 07:55 AM, said:

As fans listening.  We shouldn't have to take clues that an album is the last one.If we did that we would have thought Automatic was the last one.   The guys should have said when the album came out it was their last album.  What happened when Michael kept saying, "Don't confuse the singer with the song"?  Suddenly the last one is messages to the fans that the band is ending.  As fans we deserve much more than this.

And their idea of a farewell gift is a greatest hits with 3 new songs.  Here is a band that started out a live band. Peter didn't even want to put albums out at first.   I think they should of ended as a live band.

They will always be my favorite band and great guys. I just think they could of handled this break up in a better way.

Your sense of entitlement is really quite something. I've admired it for years.

[Joni Smeke]

If I got tired of doing something and decided to stop, I certainly wouldn't stop doing it by doing it.

And as far as I know, you always start as a live band... Someone's got to know you to buy your albums.

[Driver Eight]

Driver Nate, on 05 October 2011 - 08:25 AM, said:

In regards to "hidden" messages on their albums, much less ones hinting at their demise, I've never been one for doing that. There are certain fans that read things into every single thing they do.

And then there's the pretty straightforward messages right up front on Collapse. Not exactly puzzling over lyrics as with Murmur.

[Driver Nate]

Christratton2007, on 05 October 2011 - 10:47 AM, said:

And then there's the pretty straightforward messages right up front on Collapse. Not exactly puzzling over lyrics as with Murmur.

Mentioning Murmur wasn't really my point, it was that I didn't read things into everything R.E.M. did, lyrical, artwork or otherwise. Others seem to make it a full time job. I just enjoyed listening to the music.