My hmphs

By 1986, the early 80s world of pop icons such as Duran Duran, Journey and Wham! were falling out of favor, and the new breed - Mr. Mister, Bon Jovi and Whitney Houston - already sounded tired and uninteresting. I had already begun searching for new material, having discovered U2, and as I entered college that year, I was ready to jump out of the pop music world and into the underground.

My first exposure to R.E.M. and Lifes Rich Pageant came in a record review that appeared in my college’s student newspaper. The review heaped praises on the album, even calling the song “Fall on Me” one of the greatest songs ever written. I laughed at this hyperbole; R.E.M.? Weren’t they drug-addicted punk rockers who never bathed?

Things changed, though, when my friend Robby bought the cassette and commanded me to get in his car and listen to the new R.E.M. album. Immediately. I was unsure, feeling like those kids in the after-school special who are faced with smoking a joint for the first time: Should I really listen? It seems like everyone else is doing it… But given that Robby had perfect taste in music, I put myself in his hands - and his car.

Lifes Rich Pageant hit me on the head with a 2×4 from the opening song. “Begin the Begin” - um, began with a guitar riff from Peter Buck and slammed into a minor key with a heavy drum beat. In fact, five of the 12 songs were in minor keys, which gave the entire album a dark, brooding feeling. Lead vocalist Michael Stipe’s rough growl fit perfectly with the somber mood.

Although most of the album breathed fire and flew at 70 mph. I would discover later that this was a break from R.E.M.’s Byrds-like sound of the early 80s. But I liked it. It was not scary. It was musical and surprisingly accessible.

The great songs continued. “The Flowers of Guatemala” - well, I’m still not sure what that song is about, but I enjoyed the slow pace of this ballad - yes, ballad! I saw “I Believe” as a creed, even though Stipe’s beliefs were unusual (”I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract…I believe my throat hurts”). And just when you thought the album was getting too deep and introspective, they end the album with “Superman”, a tongue-in-cheek romp through the world of bubblegum music.  “I am, I am Superman, and I know what’s happening!” Stipe cried, with Mike Mills singing in perfect harmony.

I had to grudgingly admit that the record review was right, not only with the album, but with “Fall on Me.” It was not a fast-paced punk rock song, but a folk anthem, with a soaring chorus and a hint of a political theme (Nuclear war? Acid rain?). It was the finest moment of the album, and is still one of my favorite R.E.M. songs.

My friends and I grew to hold this album in the highest regard, and it became a cult classic; such lyrics as “Miles Standish proud” and “Tiger run around the tree” (”Begin the Begin”), “What noisy cats are we” and “Hey captain don’t you want to buy some bone chains and toothpicks?” (”Swan Swan H”) entered our vernacular. (These lyrics were bizarre, but at least you could understand them. I quickly learned from earlier albums that Michael Stipe’s singing used to be unintelligible.)

Looking back now, my reluctance to listen to R.E.M. seems comical, especially given their worldwide following and multiplatinum albums. (They even appeared on “The Muppet Show,” for goodness’ sake.) This group was harmless, and I bought their back catalogue and discovered the joyous folk-tinged Murmur and the murky Fables of the Reconstruction. Green and Out of Time still lay fallow, waiting a few more years to be released.

As their popularity grew to include a Top 10 single (”The One I Love”) and a Grammy award, I could scoff at the “newcomers” and tell of the days of Lifes Rich Pageant. I was not on the floor of the 40 Watt Club in 1980, but I was just ahead of the wave - a position I grew to enjoy.

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I’ve read that, like Star Wars vs. Star Trek fans, you can never love both R.E.M. and U2; it’s either one or the other. But it’s just not true. I do love both of them. And at one time or another, I’ve hated both of them.

U2 was one of my first true loves. I discovered them in 1984 in the middle of the second British invasion, when my attention was drawn more toward Thompson Twins, Kajagoogoo and Wham! (Yes, I said Wham!). The Unforgettable Fire was a perfect introduction to the group, even though it was an atypical album for them. Their previous releases had been passionate, even angry; The Unforgettable Fire was both soothing and stormy. Laden with keyboards and synthesizers, it was dreamy, not unlike producer Brian Eno’s ambient works.

But it was their signature hit, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” that caught my attention. With the Edge’s guitar chiming away, I discovered that Bono was singing about something important. This was different from songs about Mickey and New Moons on Monday and Karma Chameleon. And as I discovered their back catalog, I heard their more political songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (Gasp! They had a whole album entitled War!).

As the buildup to The Joshua Tree grew, so did my anticipation. I was on a choir tour during spring break when it was released in 1987, and I persuaded the bus driver to stop at a mall in Macon, Ga., so I could buy it. And now as I look back, I can safely say that The Joshua Tree is the only follow-up album that has surpassed my expectations.

I played it constantly - so much that the cassette wore out and I had to buy another. I felt a rush of emotion as Larry Mullen beat the drums with a frenzy, opening the album and the first cut, “Where the Streets Have No Name.” I felt like crying every time I heard “With or Without You”, its slow beginning building until a sudden release of emotion by Bono, met just as intensely by the Edge’s echoing guitar and Mullen’s tom-toms that mimicked the beating of a heart. And I felt at peace with the strings accompanying “Mothers of the Disappeared,” the song that ended the album.

These guys could do no wrong. I loved them, I went to their concerts with a religious fervor, I readied myself in 1991 for the follow-up, which would vault them into the rock stratosphere.

Achtung Baby was the biggest disappointment of any follow-up I’ve ever heard.

The album has received great reviews, ranking right alongside The Joshua Tree as their masterpieces. But that new creative spurt meant exploring new sounds: European, techno, and electronic music. Distorted vocals, guitars and synthesizers were the norm, and their singles (e.g., “Mysterious Ways”) sounded too polished. In my view, U2 had sold out.

When their next two albums came out, I ignored them - especially Pop, in which they looked and sounded like Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Bono grew cocky, calling the White House and ordering pizzas during concerts, strutting around on stages adorned with giant lemons and the golden arches of McDonald’s, and sporting the now trademark wraparound sunglasses.

During most of the 90s, I was estranged from the group. They have since redeemed themselves partly with their last two releases, which have seen them get back to their roots. But still, in the back of my mind, I remember their experimentation. I have forgiven, but not forgotten.

R.E.M was a wild strange group when I first heard about them in 1986, (I grew up on north Georgia, where there was no access to college radio) but when I started listening to Lifes Rich Pageant, I found that they were relatively harmless. Little did I know then that LRP was about as hard-edged as the band would get; their back catalogue was surprisingly tame.

Over the next few years, I waited for the masterpiece that never came, but I was never disappointed, and each album was a new twist in genre and sound: The political overtones of Document, the pop sensibilities of Green (my favorite), the mandolin-laced Out of Time and the dark but accessible Automatic for the People. So when Monster was released in 1994, promising a return to the hard edge of Lifes Rich Pageant, I was excited.

Disappointment #1. Monster sacrificed melody for feedback and fuzzy guitars; it seemed as if Stipe and Co. were trying to reach out to Nirvana and Pearl Jam fans. It quickly became my least favorite R.E.M. album, soon replaced by the rough, hastily assembled New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and then replaced by the minimalist, electronic (!) Up, and then Reveal and Around the Sun. I can’t tell you anything about those two, they were so nondescript.

The loss of Bill Berry after New Adventures (he retired to his farm in Watkinsville, Ga.) seemed to be a huge blow, for they never really found their sound, or maybe even their identity. Sadly, R.E.M was no longer relevant. Like U2, they have begun to redeem themselves with this year’s Accelerate, but after five duds in a row, it’s a big hole to climb out from.

So who’s better?

I guess I can say that my fervor for U2 was greater and more intense, but after Achtung Baby, I felt cheated, and U2’s fall from the pedestal was a long way down. R.E.M., on the other hand, has always seemed like a casual acquaintance, not letting you close enough so that you really know them. I liked most of their songs; I loved very few, and only one (”At My Most Beautiful,” the only jewel from Up) would make my Top 20 songs of all time. (That’s just a guess; I’m still formulating that list in my head.) Likewise, they’ve never had a truly masterpiece of an album, but until the 90s, all of them were great. My heart belonged to U2, my head R.E.M.

There. After 3,000 words of introspection, I feel better, at least.

Previous posts:

• Part 1
• Part 2

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Given that both R.E.M. and U2 both represented the rise of alternative rock in the 1980s, it’s surprising that their musical styles rarely, if ever crossed.

U2 often sang of the political problems of the moment and perfected the rock anthem, Bono’s emotional voice ringing above the Edge’s chiming guitars. R.E.M. - well, for the first five years, nobody knew what Michael Stipe was singing, and Peter Buck’s guitar playing paid homage to the Byrds. Let’s take a closer look at their musical styles.

U2 is from Dublin, Ireland, and it’s hard to believe that their musical style was not influenced by their country. Fiercely patriotic with a history of political and economic troubles, U2 reflected their society in their music. Bono’s passionate vocals are usually very clear and descriptive, whether he was speaking of Bloody Sunday (”And today the millions cry / We eat and drink while tomorrow they die”) or Martin Luther King, Jr. (”Early morning, April 4 / A shot rings out in a Memphis sky”)

Musically, the melody usually carries the song, with simple bass lines and chords; one of their most enduring songs, “Bad” from The Unforgettable Fire, consists mainly of two notes in the bass. “With or Without You,” their biggest hit, has four chords played over and over. The choruses are usually anthemic, with Bono holding long notes for dramatic effect (”In the n-a-a-a-me of l-o-o-o-ve”; “With or Without Y-o-o-ou”), usually by himself, with no harmonies. It makes it easy for audiences to sing along.

R.E.M. could not be more different. In the early years, Michael Stipe’s lyrics were indecipherable; fans held listening parties to try to decipher his warbling and mumbling, and even when one could understand the lyrics, you still couldn’t tell what it meant. (”They called the clip a two-headed cow”? Is “Fall on Me” about nuclear war or acid rain?) Once Stipe’s lyrics became clearer, he began to enunciate his political views more, but the jabs were more subtle than Bono’s.

But Stipe did tend to get more lyrics into a song, whether it was reading the liner notes of a gospel album (”Voice of Harold”) or rattling off nonsensical phrases (”It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”). Their music tends to be more complex, with bassist Mike Mills singing harmonies or countermelodies with Stipe.

The music was usually upbeat with R.E.M.; while they didn’t come up with the most hummable tunes, there were very few subpar songs. Until their later years, they were remarkably consistent. And they never took themselves too seriously.

Well, that got us nowhere. Let’s try to face each band member one-on-one to see who’s better:

Vocals: Both are the undisputed leaders and spokesmen for their group, although neither would acknowledge it. Both have a distinctive voice that one instantly recognizes as the sound of the group. Bono is more of a showman - no, a diva, with his now trademark sunglasses and his many alter egos onstage. Stipe says little during concerts, and his off-stage persona is shy and quiet. In the early years, his vocals were buried beneath the music, but as his voice and pitch improved, he waws brought more to the forefront.

Who’s more annoying? Bono. Who’s the better singer?…Bono.

Guitar: Both the Edge (U2) and Peter Buck (R.E.M.) have developed their own styles that, like the lead singers, give the group a signature sound. The Edge’s guitar playing is set with a delay that makes it sound like a train sometimes, clanging and chiming and echoing into nothingness and creating an atmosphere on which Bono lays his vocals. In its time, it was unlike anything being played in popular music, but it has since been copied by other groups such as Radiohead and Coldplay.

Peter Buck’s style is a little more derivative, having shaped his sound from the Byrds. It’s an arpeggio-styled “jangle” (R.E.M. has been put in the “jangle pop” genre) that fills in the holes between Stipe’s ramblings and adds an extra layer of texture. They’re both indispensable. This one’s a toss up.

Bass: The only clear winner in this face-off. Adam Clayton of U2 has been described by some as the luckiest person in rock; he has three marvelous musicians to hide behind. As described above, the bass lines in U2’s songs are simple, giving Clayton an easy job. But if you listen closely to “All Along the Watchtower” off of Rattle and Hum, a song with only four notes in the whole song, played the same way over and over, he still messes up.

Mike Miills, on the other hand, is an accomplished musician. His bass lines are often complicated and alive, and he assists the band in playing keyboards and background vocals. Mike has also written and sung lead on several songs as well. Mike Mills in a landslide.

Drums: Hmmm… This one’s a tough one, given that I know very little about the art of drum playing, and what constitutes good drumming. I notice Larry Mullen Jr.’s (U2) playing more, from his rat-a-tat-tat snare in Sunday Bloody Sunday to his booming tom-toms on The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree. He even survived U2’s foray into electronica. Bill Berry of R.E.M. complements the band, rarely taking stage center. So at first glance, it seems that Mullen gets the nod. But when Berry left R.E.M. in 1997, the band fell apart, releasing one bad album after another. Perhaps he is more valuable.

Sigh. Another tossup. U2 - 1, R.E.M. - 1, and two ties.

Part 3: My own personal journey with both groups. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
Part 1

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