R.E.M. announces they're breaking up

Wow, a Guadacanal Diary reference... A band I was surprised didn't get bigger...

 

You shitting me? That's 1 and 1A for me. Oof.

 

Yeah, never saw them live, but had their cassette tape.

 

What was their biggest song?

 

The only tape of theirs that I had was "2x4." IIRC "Litany" was the biggest one on that album. I'll have to dig that baby up. Not sure if I still have one of them machines capable of actually playing it, though.

 

I think I still have my yellow Sony Sports Walkman. I've had it for at least 25 years. I can't bring myself to donate it. I think that's our only tape player in the house...

 

Cool stories on here from cranberry, TigerVols and John especially. Very few get a chance to see the moments before greatness unfurls itself.

Life's Rich Pageant remains one of my top 5 all time albums. Just love that cover to cover. And to follow that with Document and Green was a 1-2-3 punch very few rock and roll bands could approach.

My favorite remembrance of the several times I saw them in concert: playing Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue" as an encore, while that song was still on the charts for Mr. Gramm. Just a hunch that Peter buck liked that riff.

One unique story that's perhaps apt for this site: Mike Mills actually won Mark Bradley's AJC NCAA bracket pool one year. That contest draws thousands of entrants and normally, it's some joe schmoe who's an office worker, a truck driver or something. That year, it was the bassist for one of the most prominent rock and roll bands in the world.

Tonight, going to have put in a play set that includes "Crush With Eyeliner", "Disturbance at the Heron House", "Flowers of Guatemala" (containing Pete Buck's finest moment in the guitar solo), "Get Up", "Begin the Begin" (Miles Standish proud--just love that phrase) and "Superman", of course.

They may 'break up'. But with the music on record, they'll never go away.

Just a tremendous band. In fact, Rolling Stone had it right:

 

The one I remember was "Watusi Rodeo."

 

I'll tee up "Chronic Town," "Murmur" and "Reckoning" to remember what it was like to have the illusion of innocence. Damn, was I ever really that young?

 

My bad... "Monster" tour.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rem/1995/desert-sky-pavilion-phoenix-az-23d69067.html

 

Looks like Michael Stipe is on a different Monster tour:

http://perezhilton.com/2011-09-21-michael-stipe-exposes

 

Everybody (Who is an R.E.M. fan) Hurts.

True story: Mrs. PD, who is from rural south Alabama, was a student at Auburn when her roommate showed up one day with student tickets to a concert at Beard-Eaves Coliseum. They head to the show thinking they're going to see REO Speedwagon.

It was R.E.M., a group she had never heard of even those this was the mid-'80s and they were considered one of rock's best bands. Like I said, she was relatively sheltered growing up.