Monday, July 16, 2007

you are the everything

I've been going through some old personal papers and filing stuff and I found an old piece of paper covered in incredibly corny, angsty writing from when I was 14 or so, with lots of references to R.E.M.'s Green. That's as specific as I'm going to get, though. It was with a pile of R.E.M.-related clippings from all sorts of publications from Melody Maker to Seventeen, mostly circa Out of Time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Out of Time was released, one of the two major US newsweeklies (I think Newsweek) ran a one page profile on them, with a vague "underground sounds reach the charts" slant. It seemsd quaint in retrospect.

One, because R.E.M.'s last album had sold nearly a million copies (if not more) and they were getting one page (which is more than what any indie band would get back then - none. Not that R.E.M. were indie at that point, but they came from the independent scene).

Second, because Nevermind was released later the same year, Pearl Jam made the cover of Time the next, and nowadays all sorts of good indie bands can get some ink in those magazine.

Unknown said...

when i was in fifth grade, i kept the insert for my tape copy of green in my binder at all times. i must have listened to that album about a hundred million times. i don't think i understood most of it though, i can't pretend i was very interested in politics back then. world leader pretend wasn't about bush, it was about kids playing games. it is weird to listen to now, because i still hold on to those early impressions.

Anonymous said...

indie bands are like the 00s version of hair metal or something...

bbrg said...

REM made news for kicking off their Green tour in my hometown of Louisville, KY. I had never heard of them but then I switched on MTV and "Stand" was playing. I was hooked. I have deeply embarrassing memories of being caught by an aunt singing along earnestly to ""Get Up" on a car trip to Chicago and then explaining all the lyrics -- whatever my 12-year old interpretation of them was -- to her. Ouch. (I would do the same thing with "And Justice For All" a year later. She was an former rock fan of sorts.) My tastes quickly got a lot more esoteric, weirder, darker, edgier, etc., but Green is still a fine pop album. Thanks for reminding me of it, and rest assured you're not the only one with an embarrassing memory.