Other Mixes By Pop Kulcher
Cassette
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Theme
Cassette
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Theme
Cassette
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Theme
CD
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Single Artist
CD
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Theme - Narrative
R.E.M.: We Were Little Boys (The Early Years, 1980-1987)
| Side A | ||
| Artist | Song | |
| R.E.M. | Narrator (live) | |
| R.E.M. | Hey! Hey! Nadine (live) | |
| R.E.M. | Body Count (live) | |
| R.E.M. | Permanent Vacation (live) | |
| R.E.M. | All The Right Friends (demo) | |
| R.E.M. | Mystery to Me (demo) | |
| R.E.M. | Gardening at Night | |
| R.E.M. | Wolves, Lower | |
| R.E.M. | 1,000,000 | |
| R.E.M. | Radio Free Europe | |
| R.E.M. | Talk About The Passion | |
| R.E.M. | Sitting Still | |
| R.E.M. | Catapult | |
| R.E.M. | Shaking Through | |
| R.E.M. | We Walk | |
| R.E.M. | There She Goes Again | |
| R.E.M. | Walter's Theme | |
| R.E.M. | Romance | |
| R.E.M. | Harborcoat | |
| R.E.M. | 7 Chinese Bros. | |
| R.E.M. | Pretty Persuasion | |
| R.E.M. | So. Central Rain | |
| R.E.M. | Second Guessing | |
| R.E.M. | (Don't Go Back To) Rockville | |
| Side B | ||
| Artist | Song | Buy |
| R.E.M. | Ages of You | |
| R.E.M. | Pale Blue Eyes | |
| R.E.M. | Feeling Gravity's Pull | |
| R.E.M. | Maps and Legends | |
| R.E.M. | Driver 8 | |
| R.E.M. | Green Grow The Rushes | |
| R.E.M. | Can't Get There From Here | |
| R.E.M. | Kohoutek | |
| R.E.M. | Crazy | |
| R.E.M. | Theme From Two Steps Onward | |
| R.E.M. | Begin the Begin | |
| R.E.M. | Fall on Me | |
| R.E.M. | I Believe | |
| R.E.M. | The Flowers of Guatemala | |
| R.E.M. | Superman | |
| R.E.M. | Toys in The Attic | |
| R.E.M. | Bad Day | |
| R.E.M. | Finest Worksong | |
| R.E.M. | Exhuming McCarthy | |
| R.E.M. | The One I Love | |
| R.E.M. | Disturbance at the Heron House | |
| R.E.M. | Strange | |
| R.E.M. | It's The End Of The World As We Know It | |
Comment:
Decided to expand my old 2-cd R.E.M. mix and replace it with 2 separate collections; one for the IRS years, and one for the Warner years. Obviously, this is the one that matters (though there's still plenty to recommend their career after leaving IRS records, even if I'm not a fan of their material since drummer Bill Berry left the band).Not much I can say that hasn't been said before; R.E.M. was the band of the 80's, the one that got me through college, the band who neatly summed up everything that was great about college radio back before it got corporatized and destroyed by the post-Nirvana era. And when it comes down to it, I can't think of a more consistent band -- maybe not ever. Beginning with the Chronic Town ep and continuing over the course of 5 full length albums, there wasn't a weak release in the bunch. Hell, there was hardly a weak song in the bunch. Who else can make such a claim? The Beatles, the Stones, the Who, the Kinks... but really, that's it. So, yeah, you really do need 2 discs to do the era justice, even though that means about 6 tracks per album (and it was still hard to make cuts). Plus a handful of killer b-sides, and, for the sake of completion, some early material before they'd figured out what they were trying to do.
For purists, I should note that I ended up using the original cd's rather than the remastered songs on the recent IRS hits anthology; while I'm usually ok with remastering, the punchiness of the reissue just didn't comport with the sound I grew up with. This stuff was meant to sound just a bit murky, and the extra polish was a distraction.
Feedback:
Fantastic overview. I agree that they really lost something when Bill left, though I still try to listen with one ear at least. This really puts things into perspective.
Murmur and Life's Rich Pageant are my two favourites.I remember being intrigued by Murmur because the words were indecipherable but the hooks were irresistible. I Believe is probably my favourite song but there is plenty on here to enthuse about. Their modern stuff sounds lame by comparison.
Had a friend who went to UofG when these guys were coming up so I got a little OD'd on their early stuff. This is bringing back some fine memories, tho.
Fantastic! I've always liked a lot of the garagey pre-Chronic Town stuff so it's great to see some of that included. I'd have to echo the sentiments about Bill Berry's departure too, though some of the new material lurking about on youtube and elsewhere on the net sounds pleasantly raucous...
Their early stuff is pretty much all that matters to me and you've more than hit all of my favorites. Nice work.
along with the smiths & the 'mats, one of my favorite bands from the 80's - & you've hit pretty much every peak i can think of - excellent work
I'm going to reminisce - whether you like it or not. The first R.E.M album I bought was AFTP as a 16 yr old. I think someone copied Out Of Time for me the previous year... About a month later I was on vacation in the States, and in a wall or kmart found all the previous albums on cassette for next to nothing ( compared to UK prices at the time we are literally talking next to nothing..). So I bought them all, and for the next two weeks they were on constant rotation on my walkman.
And I fell in love. That 2 week crash course changed my listening habits forever. Murmur & Document were my original favourites, but as you've stated, hardly a weak track to be found in their first 7 or 8 albums. It took me years to find the Pylon original of Crazy, and when I finally got hold of it ( on a freebie in a music mag ) I realised it wasn't a patch on R.E.Ms version..... sorry for going on so long - one of my Top 5 bands ever.
And I fell in love. That 2 week crash course changed my listening habits forever. Murmur & Document were my original favourites, but as you've stated, hardly a weak track to be found in their first 7 or 8 albums. It took me years to find the Pylon original of Crazy, and when I finally got hold of it ( on a freebie in a music mag ) I realised it wasn't a patch on R.E.Ms version..... sorry for going on so long - one of my Top 5 bands ever.
One of my all time favorite bands. A little story too... This weekend the English Beat is in town for a 25th anniversary concert celebrating a local college radio station. The Beat was their first sponsored concert. I was at that show in the Buff State gym back in 1982 and as good as they were we were all blown away by the opening act R.E.M. I immediately went down the street after the show to the record shop and bought Chronic Town which was their only record at the time. The next night I was playing their stuff in the bar on the strip where I was spinning records.
That's what is great about the I.R.S. years - I can't complain about what you included, but have to ask, "Where's '9-9,' 'West Of the Fields,' 'Cuyahoga' and 'Life and How To Live It'?!?!"
Bringin' back memories. I recall the performance of Radio Free Europe on the Letterman show. Ah, those days when no one could understand what they were singing, and no one cared.
Don't rank all of these songs as high as others, but definitely the BEST period of R.E.M. history.