19 replies to this topic

[MyNameIsDean]

1. How good they are live.
2. How they played everything by their own rules throughout their career.
3. Just the killer melodies and Stipes vocal and lyrical touches of genius.
4. The lyrics to the last chorus of Find the River;

  The river to the ocean goes,
a fortune for the undertow.
None of this is going my way.
There is nothing left to throw
of Ginger, lemon, indigo,
coriander stem and rose of hay.
Strength and courage overrides
the privileged and weary eyes
of river poet search naivete.
Pick up here and chase the ride.
The river empties to the tide.
All of this is coming your way.

5. Fall On Me.

Honourable mentions and nearly top 5 list makers goes to Perfect Circle, E-bow, Murmurs, Fables and Monster, Stipes star T-Shirt, Mills technicoloured suit, Bucks haircuts and last but not least Berrys Eyebrows

[Driver Nate]

1. That special place they could take me to in concert that no other band could match.
2. Getting lost in the lyrical content and packaging of the earlier albums. That's nothing against the latter day stuff but once the veil of mystery was lifted and the lyrics were easier to understand, things were never quite the same.
3. The build up to the release of an album pre-internet before all the leaks and information were at your fingertips; when the only hints you had were maybe a single and some press previews.
4. How they were were a role model to so many other bands when it came to how they ran the business of R.E.M.
5. That they knew exactly when to call it quits.

[fanfan]

1) Michael's voice - He's a very special person and it shines through when he sings, particularly when he sings from his heart.
1) The wonderful songwriting - It makes me sad how many great songs will never be written now but I'm happy for the ones that we have got. These guys have complemented each other so well musically, it's unbelievable and something very hard to find.
3) how great they have been with everybody - with their fans, with their employees and their friends - I always felt like they cared about us fans, in so many respects (I mean - you write something here on murmurs and a bit later it just happens - and felt spoilt with the Christmas package.
4) Peter's guitar  - Those great Rickenbacker riffs
5) that they all took the time to sign my stuff and have their pictures taken with me in 2003.

There is much more that I love about R.E.M. but these are the top 5 things that I can think of right now.

[mrocks7]

1. What I've really learned to appreciate in the last few years: the genuine kindness and integrity that runs through the band and R.E.M. HQ
2. The fact that they carved their own way from the roads connecting southern cities with Athens to the contrials formed by their intercontinental flights and back again
3. The music and lyrics
4. The civic responsibility
5. Stipe's sense of art and design - the visual aesthetic of R.E.M.

[Kimo]

1 - Michael Stipe's unique voice and lyrics. I love the way Michael tells stories and describes landscapes.
2 - The musicianship : Peter Buck's ringing guitar arpeggios and jangly riffs, the Millsy punchy bass lines and piano playing, Bill Berry's propulsive drumming... I also admire their instrumental versatility. (As long as Michael doesn't pull out his harmonica...)
3 - The Stipe/Mills vocal harmonies.
4 - The fact that they managed to maintain a familiar consistency while sounding different on every album. This is extremely rare for a Rock band that's been around for 31 years.
5 - And of course, the live performances, the stage charisma and energy!!

[ashurt100]

5. The fact they value friendship.
4. The way they wrote songs.
3. Bill Berry
2. They were a great live band.
1. The opening to "Feeling Gravitys Pull." It's what turned me from a casual fan into a lifelong fan at 15.

[RamblingRob]

1. Live
2.  Choice of venues. At least in US, they eschewed stadiums and arenas for the most part
3. Their politics. I am an American liberal
4. The mid-tempo songs (Fretless, MOTM, Uberlin, Beat a Drum, Fall on Me, Final Straw, etc.)
5. Their three or four songs in a row "sets" within albums (1. FW, WTTO,EM, Heron: Document, 2. WTFK, CWE, KOC, Sleep/Dream: Monster 3. Bittersweet Me, BM, BTD, among others.  Most of the albums have ouitstanding three or four song-in-a-row- "sets.")

[Preston]

The line between some of these is blurry, and this doesn't do justice to the question the love runs deep:

1.  Their unique sound - warmly familiar, but no one else like them.
2.  Stunning, transcendental (stolen description, but true) moments playing live.
3.  Frequently stunning songwriting.
4.  Familial sense of community among the fans and even between the band and fans (they were REALLY good to their fan club).  The band and office really are a family or they have fooled us (I am convinced it's sincere).
5.  Sharing them with my wife and kids.  R.E.M. feels like a part of my family, because we've really all grown up with them (wife and I from 16 in '83; kids from birth).

[king.of.comedy]

• Peter's guitar
  
• Michael's lyrics and voice
  
• Unforgettable Bill Berry
  
• Mike's choruses
  
• Their friendship and private life

[Pete B]

1.Michael Stipe
2.Peter Buck
3.Mike Mills
4.Bill Berry & Scott M & Bill R
5.Music & Memories

[petruchio]

1. The whole mystique thing. The vague lyrics, the early packaging, the veil was lifted but those days made me a fan for life.
2. Live shows. I was lucky and saw some early ones that were full of surprises and covers, but I never saw an R.E.M. show that I did not love.
3. How they managed success and the mainstream, spoke their minds, stood by convictions. This was undeniably a major influence on me.
4. The easy way they acted as an influence, friend and fan of so many artists I love.
5. While Collapse Into Now might be R.E.M. on familiar ground, I am glad they have decided not to circle the wagons and make a bunch of records that repeated past glories. I respect that they kept going, tried electronic stuff, made pop music, tried ATS sounds and quit on a strong note.

[rocket21]

Up
Monster
Automatic for the People
Chronic Town
Fables of the Reconstruction

[jumping151]

its the little things that loom large:

1. bill berry's backing vocal in "pilgramage"
2. peter buck's guitar solo in "flowers of guatelama"
3. "this flower is scorched, this film is on a maddening loop".  i know precisely what he meant.
4. mike mills backing vocal on "wendell gee".  what's he saying?  it hardly even matters.
5. "time, it can not abide" from the farewell of "walk it back".  no it can not.

[REMCHICAGOBOY]

1. The mutual respect they always had for each other. Aside from a very, very few exceptions, I've never really heard them public badmouth each other (I'm sure they did it privately but never publicly).
2. No other band or artist ever affected me live the way they've affected me.
3. Besides maybe the Beatles, Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan, no other band or artist can match the consistent quality of their entire catalog. (Around the Sun being the only real, true clunker ) Michael's voice and lyrics, along with Mike's organ, bass and singing, Peter's guitar and Bill's drums and harmony. It was magic and a big rarity in music.
4. Ending with Collapse into Now. It was/is a very, very smart decision. I'm really glad they didn't drag it out, even to tour on their catalog.
5. Never, ever hearing one of their songs in a car or tampon commercial.

[REMCHICAGOBOY]

ashurt100, on 31 October 2011 - 05:38 PM, said:

1. The opening to "Feeling Gravitys Pull." It's what turned me from a casual fan into a lifelong fan at 15.

It just floors me each time as well...

[ebowtheloser]

1. They were the first thing my (then still) future wife and I discovered we had in common
2. The sound of Peter's guitar as it chimes out high notes that are just on the edge of distorting
3. Mike and Bill harmony vocals
4. Michael's lyrics
5. That they always handled themselves, their business affairs, and their fans with class, care and professionalism

[David46239]

So many things. . .

5.  Lightnin' Hopkins.  So close to the edge of not saying anything and yet saying so much.
4.  The bridge on King of Birds
3.  The backing vocals to Maps and Legends
2.  "In a corner garden/wilder lower wolves."
1.  When Micheal's eyes roll back into his head going into the second chorus of Fall on Me on MTV's Unplugged.

[David46239]

jumping151, on 01 November 2011 - 07:46 AM, said:

its the little things that loom large:

1. bill berry's backing vocal in "pilgramage"
2. peter buck's guitar solo in "flowers of guatelama"
3. "this flower is scorched, this film is on a maddening loop".  i know precisely what he meant.
4. mike mills backing vocal on "wendell gee".  what's he saying?  it hardly even matters.
5. "time, it can not abide" from the farewell of "walk it back".  no it can not.

2 and 4, absolutely.  I have never had someone listen to Flowers of Guatemala and not been impressed by that solo.

[Pilgrimager]

Some specific one's as opposed to just sayng Michaels voice.
-The 'all my life' vocal on Hairshirt
-The lyrics to You are the everything
-The guitar riff on Me in honey
-the bass intro to Catapult
-KRS 1 rap at the end of Radio song (if that counts)

[Driver Eight]

Agree with most all of the above. Here's my 5, in no particular order:

1. The mystery, wonder and delirium that go with their best music, from the earliest days to the last. In the early songs, Michael's mumbling added to this, but even when you knew the lyrics, later, as with Man on the Moon and Beat a Drum, to name a couple of my favorites, there so often was a delightful head-scratching quality about their songs - Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in action. ...

2. Their inventive, inspired song-writing. Yes, Michael was principal lyricist, but as with all great song-writing teams, they complemented each other beautifully, with Bill taking a great song and making it better, Michael taking a sketchy riff from Mike or Peter and running with it, etc. The magic they had together and shared with us all was beautiful.

3. Their conscience and integrity, and the extent to which they stayed true to their roots and core mission, to themselves and to each other and to us as fans, all along.

4. That most all their albums were chock full of good to great songs. Their body of fine work outpaces all but a few of even the greatest acts of the past several decades. Other acts reached similar heights, few did so often and so frequently.

5. The stories they told and the pictures they painted, with their and our minds as canvasses and their voices and instruments as paintbrushes, the air between us the paint.