{"id":29761,"date":"2025-09-12T05:30:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T09:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29761"},"modified":"2025-09-12T10:45:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:45:46","slug":"take-five-early-r-e-m-songs-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/take-five-early-r-e-m-songs-you-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Early R.E.M. Songs You Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>R.E.M. was one of the most important musical acts of their era. Groundbreaking in establishing alternative rock (or college rock, or post-punk, or whatever critics might label it), the Athens, Georgia foursome of Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass) and Bill Berry (drums) made some of the most significant music of the 1980s and beyond. They also had thew grace and good sense to quit on amicable terms while they were ahead, avoiding the self-referencing nostalgia circuit.<\/p>\n<p>And while there are gems to be found throughout R.E.M.\u2019s entire body of work, the faithful will often point to their early years, the so-called I.R.S. era during which they made their first five albums. On the 40th anniversary of the release of R.E..M.\u2019s third album, <em>Fables of the Reconstruction<\/em>, here are five genre-defining tracks from the pride of Athens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRadio Free Europe\u201d from Murmur (1983)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe band debuted with a single and then an excellent EP, 1982\u2019s <em>Chronic Town<\/em>. A few short months later, again working with producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter, they recorded and released <em>Murmur<\/em>. The album reached #36 on the <em>Billboard<\/em> 200, and introduced the world to the band\u2019s jangling and mysterious sound. <em>Murmur<\/em> is filled with now-classic tracks, but \u201cRadio Free Europe\u201d \u2013 a re-recording of their 1981 debut single \u2013 exemplifies the R.E.M. sound. Released as a single, the new recording climbed to #25 on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Mainstream Rock singles chart.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ac0oaXhz1u8?si=L8lE2iWAebYtyfLa\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSo. Central Rain (I\u2019m Sorry)\u201d from <em>Reckoning<\/em> (1984)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe critically acclaimed <em>Reckoning<\/em> signaled a breakthrough for R.E.M. Working yet again with Easter and Dixon, the band created an arguably more accessible album stuffed with alluring tunes and Stipe\u2019s delightfully inscrutable vocal work. \u201cSo. Central Rain (I\u2019m Sorry)\u201d served up a memorable tune \u2013 listen to Mills\u2019 bass line \u2013 with a melancholy vocal.<\/p>\n<p>Personal note: this writer named his daughter after the character referenced in <em>Reckoning<\/em>\u2019s haunting ballad, \u201cTime After Time (Annelise).\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/msWi0c4tHV8?si=vOcUuOBz8ymN8dog\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cCan\u2019t Get There From Here\u201d from <em>Fables of the Reconstruction<\/em> (1985)<\/strong><br \/>\nAround the time of <em>Fables of the Reconstruction<\/em>, R.E.M. began its climb toward status as one of the most popular bands on the planet. They also shifted gears musically, making a denser, psychedelic-flavored album with producer Joe Boyd. Boyd had worked with Pink Floyd\u2019s Syd Barrett, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention and other groundbreaking acts, all before producing R.E.M. \u201cCan\u2019t Get There From Here\u201d subtly added horns and other auxiliary instrumentation while keeping the unique character of the band intact.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gD3cYh5Pp1I?si=eIpkm7Ocr8pE7h6n\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cFall On Me\u201d from <em>Lifes Rich Pageant<\/em> (1986)<\/strong><br \/>\nWorking with producer Don Gehman, the band changed direction yet again, making a more straightforward and rock-oriented album with <em>Lifes Rich Pageant<\/em>. R.E.M. \u2013 who always credited songwriting to the entire group \u2013 came up with a winning single in \u201cFall On Me,\u201d which reached #5 on the <em>Billboard<\/em> Mainstream Rock singles chart.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lf6vCjtaV1k?si=dVwDKQnemx_7shuw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe One I Love\u201d from <em>Document<\/em> (1987)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe final album of R.E.M.\u2019s I.R.S. era, <em>Document<\/em> found the group co-producing with Scott Litt. Stipe\u2019s lyrics are less indecipherable than on earlier records, and the band\u2019s top-notch songwriting and arrangement skills are as sharp as ever. <em>Document<\/em> spawned three singles, including one of their most well-known songs, the Top Ten \u201cThe One I Love.\u201d By the way, Stipe is not singing \u201cDiane\u201d at the end of the chorus; the word is \u201cfire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>R.E.M. made ten more well-received studio albums after leaving I.R.S., including the worldwide smash <em>Out of Time<\/em> in 1991; that album went Top Five in ten countries, earning 4x Platinum status in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j7oQEPfe-O8?si=rwqVZusBJk0eND-k\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>R.E.M. was one of the most important musical acts of their era. Groundbreaking in establishing alternative rock (or college rock, or post-punk, or whatever critics might label it), the Athens, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1773],"class_list":["post-29761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-r-e-m","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30145,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29761\/revisions\/30145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}