Listening in a new light

Hi! Is there any song that you started to like more after learning of the band’s enthusiasm for it? I used to think ‘Walk Unafraid’ was just okay, but the band obviously loved it and their excitement for it really was apparent in their live performances of it.
Similar thing with ‘All the Way to Reno’. At first listen it was okay, but I heard that Bill thinks it’s one of their best songs so I listen to it a little differently now.

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I’m willing to guess Bill loves Lotus too?

That was another song that didn’t really grab me at first, but I saw them tour for ‘Up’ and it was the song they opened with. Stipe shimmying across the stage with a very funky groove kind of won me over, lol.

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Hiya back.

Idk if it was their enthusiasm (such as playing it live and really getting into it onstage) that made me listen to certain songs with fresh ears. Or if it was just me living, for a while, with certain tracks.

I’d go with ‘Pretty Persuasion’ as it’s never been a favourite of mine. However, seeing and hearing it on the ‘Up’ tour made me reassess it somewhat.

Poss also ‘Electron Blue’ was privileged to witness some storming renditions of it. MS practically “headbanging” during the outro :smile:

And,yeah, WU is sooooo great live, isnt it :raised_hands:

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That’s a great assessment of “Walk unafraid”, even though I loved that song from the get-go. I like the later live version with the crescendo intro and the hurricane piano even more.

I can honestly tell you I didn’t pay much attention to “Country feedback” for years, and then they decided to play it live I don’t know when anymore and boy, isn’t that song unbelievably emotional? It gets to a point now that I can’t sing it without crying a bit on the “Crazy what you could have had” part. Also, Peter’s free solos live make it a whole different beast.

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Right??? There are some beautiful and intense live versions of that song!

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When Up was released I remember Bill saying something like, “I leave the band and they go and make the best album they’ve ever made” in an MTV interview. Then again, he may have just been being polite.

He also said when he heard it, he felt like a chump! I think he was just being nice and supporting his best friends. That was on Behind The Music.

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I cant say yes because of it, but there are so many songs i love more live. Walk Unafraid is totally in my top 5.

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Have you heard the cover of it by First Aid Kit? It’s one of the (very) few R.E.M. covers that I like. :slight_smile:

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