My favourite R.E.M album is Monster, largely because that's the first album of theirs that really made me take notice. Since then i've come to appreciate their other albums, and AFTP is a very close second. "Find The River" and "Nightswimming" are two of their finest songs imho.
I’m old enough to have seen Rage Against the Machine open for House of Pain. FWIW, Both tore the roof off the place. At University of Wisconsin football games, the play “Jump Around” every home game, and the stadium goes berserk. Supposedly, it’s enough to register on a Richter scale on campus, but that might just be an urban legend.
As for REM, I think I’d put “Automatic” at 5th or 6th?
As entertainment on transition year bus journeys I would recite the verses to Jump Around word perfectly in a somewhat posh accent with no attepmt at rapping to a surprisingly appreciative audience... After the first rendtion it became a requested regular! Ah, simpler, simpler times
I haven't a clue what possessed me to decide to painstakingly learn the words to a song that was not a Doors song (pretty much all I was listening to then, ok,well, Pearl Jam as well... I was nothing if not a cliche!) but this party trick such as it was certainly helped my cachet in the latter years of secondary with the "cool" gang 😂
Re Ned's Atomic Dustbin: Neil sure does go for the jugular in that sentence! 💀 He nailed it, but oof!
Bernard! You used Everlast's name correctly the first few mentions and then it changes to "Everclear." Since you're a fabulous writer, I'll blame spell check.
Yes, "Forever Everlasting" was a commercial dud but man, did I love that record. It reminds me of my high school years and my friends at the time. If you played that album right now, I'd probably still know at least 75% of the lyrics. You didn't mention Everlast went on to another solo career right after House of Pain. One of the first albums in that leg was "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" which is such a departure from his earlier work. I kinda grew out of Everlast after those first few albums during that lag. He's not a bad artist but sometimes you just outgrow music.
Spotify has a "Essential REM" (or something similar) play list which I was listening to last week after our back and forth about this upcoming issue of your newsletter. Man, they were fabulous artists and are still one of my favs even nearly thirty years on. I was thinking about what REM album was really formative in my youth and probably Document is the top one. It really reminds me of my high school sweetheart and was played constantly while we were dating. And yes, AftP is, as the kids say, slaps.
I think it would be super cool if you did an occasional one off newsletter about music and memory. I know that is some of the purpose, if not majority of the purpose, of your newsletter but I mean like really deep dive into what album in that particular week/month of the year you're writing about really grabbed you and never let you go.
My favourite R.E.M album is Monster, largely because that's the first album of theirs that really made me take notice. Since then i've come to appreciate their other albums, and AFTP is a very close second. "Find The River" and "Nightswimming" are two of their finest songs imho.
I’m old enough to have seen Rage Against the Machine open for House of Pain. FWIW, Both tore the roof off the place. At University of Wisconsin football games, the play “Jump Around” every home game, and the stadium goes berserk. Supposedly, it’s enough to register on a Richter scale on campus, but that might just be an urban legend.
As for REM, I think I’d put “Automatic” at 5th or 6th?
More memories!
As entertainment on transition year bus journeys I would recite the verses to Jump Around word perfectly in a somewhat posh accent with no attepmt at rapping to a surprisingly appreciative audience... After the first rendtion it became a requested regular! Ah, simpler, simpler times
I haven't a clue what possessed me to decide to painstakingly learn the words to a song that was not a Doors song (pretty much all I was listening to then, ok,well, Pearl Jam as well... I was nothing if not a cliche!) but this party trick such as it was certainly helped my cachet in the latter years of secondary with the "cool" gang 😂
Re Ned's Atomic Dustbin: Neil sure does go for the jugular in that sentence! 💀 He nailed it, but oof!
Bernard! You used Everlast's name correctly the first few mentions and then it changes to "Everclear." Since you're a fabulous writer, I'll blame spell check.
Yes, "Forever Everlasting" was a commercial dud but man, did I love that record. It reminds me of my high school years and my friends at the time. If you played that album right now, I'd probably still know at least 75% of the lyrics. You didn't mention Everlast went on to another solo career right after House of Pain. One of the first albums in that leg was "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" which is such a departure from his earlier work. I kinda grew out of Everlast after those first few albums during that lag. He's not a bad artist but sometimes you just outgrow music.
Spotify has a "Essential REM" (or something similar) play list which I was listening to last week after our back and forth about this upcoming issue of your newsletter. Man, they were fabulous artists and are still one of my favs even nearly thirty years on. I was thinking about what REM album was really formative in my youth and probably Document is the top one. It really reminds me of my high school sweetheart and was played constantly while we were dating. And yes, AftP is, as the kids say, slaps.
I think it would be super cool if you did an occasional one off newsletter about music and memory. I know that is some of the purpose, if not majority of the purpose, of your newsletter but I mean like really deep dive into what album in that particular week/month of the year you're writing about really grabbed you and never let you go.