Feeling Gravity’s Pull -
Maps and Legends -
Driver 8 -
Life and How To Live It -
Old Man Kensey -
Can’t Get There From Here -
Green Grow the Rushes -
Kohoutek -
Auctioneer (Another Engine) -
Good Advices -
Wendell Gee - Mills
For some reason I remember reading that Berry had a hand in writing Can’t Get There From Here.
yes, and “driver 8”
Feeling Gravity’s Pull - Buck
Maps and Legends - Buck
Driver 8 - Buck & Berry
Life and How To Live It - not sure. Buck & Mills?
Old Man Kensey - just like Catapult & Cuyahoga - started out from a Berry-bass-line, not sure what happened next…
Can’t Get There From Here - Berry
Green Grow the Rushes - Buck
Kohoutek - Buck
Auctioneer (Another Engine) - ?
Good Advices - Mills?
Wendell Gee - Mills
Are these just guesses? Or how would you find out? I’m fascinated. I’ve been told and believe Bill wrote Nightswimming. Stripe’s lyrics of course. It pisses me off so much when people say he was only the drummer. Fools.
In a recent post in one of the R.E.M. groups on FB someone took him to task for his drumming abilities. They acknowledged his other contributions to the band but didn’t speak highly of his abilities as a drummer. They made some good points, and while I try to be objective about R.E.M., it still felt like sacrilege. BTW, it was all well stated and nothing they said was meant to be insulting.
Not guesses, some of them I’m sure of, some I’m semi-sure (and some, of course, I don’t know) - really paid attention to the who-wrote-what issue in all my years of fandom (since 91’ more or less), but sometime my memory deceives me, and sometimes ,in certain interviews, you can just “read between the lines” in the way that one of them is talking about a certain song and it sounds like he wrote it. and one time I had a conversation with one of the Love Tractor guys and he gave me some info regarding some of the early songs…
Pretty sure Nightswimming is Mike. But Bill definitely wrote classics like Perfect Circle, Everybody Hurts, and Leave. Agree with you completely - so much more than a drummer.
Given the non specific nature of their credits I’ve always been fascinated by the notion of who came up with what.
Re Fables Driver 8 always seemed liked the quintessential Buck composition to me - jangly riff, Am and Em everywhere, ringing open chords. I have very few sources myself but as a life long fan you get a vibe; Buck = minor key jangly rock, Mills = country tinged power pop and piano ballads Berry = dark horse favourites. Then Stipe comes along and puts a beautiful cherry on it all.
Outside Fables this is what I know from interviews etc in regards to who came up with the basic song on which the others built:
Mills:
Rockville
Nightswimming
Kenneth
Electrolite
Supernatural Superserious
Buck:
Losing My Religion
Saturn Return
Living Well
Berry:
Everybody Hurts
This is all I’ve got but I’d love to know more. I guess most of the output was more collaborative but I believe the above were essentially a one guy deal re the music composition with Stipe then adding vocals
Like Ignoreland, Life and How To Live It uses the drop D/Neil Young tuning, which strongly suggests that Buck wrote it.
By contrast, the funk/soul vibe of Can’t Get There from Here almost certainly came from Berry, who had played with that genre in the Back Door Band with Mills. Highly unlikely that Buck would have come up with those chords or that groove.
To me, Bill was a brilliant drummer/percussionist. I wouldn’t waste time arguing about it. To each their own, but having seen them live so many times, what I witnessed of his drumming was superb.
Peter & Bill. just read the “part lies…” liner notes…
