An all R.E.M. set list, inspired by one of my show’s followers who had posted to Facebook R.E.M.’s song Low, a hypnotic favorite of mine from the band’s Out Of Time album. As a result, we got discussing the band and, since I’ve of late been doing themed shows for my Saturday programmed sets, live albums for the last four weeks, he suggested that at some point I might do an R.E.M. playlist.
So, here it is, mostly deeper cuts from throughout the band’s career as they went from an alternative ‘college radio’ band to worldwide mainstream success to, in their later days as a trio after the retirement of drummer Bill Berry 1997, declining sales and chart success in North America but solid sales and high chart placings for both albums and singles in the UK.
Berry, incidentally, became a farmer in the band’s home state of Georgia and did some sporadic music work before returning to the industry in 2022 as part of the Georgia band The Bad Ends, who released an album in 2023. I was always aware of R.E.M. but didn’t get into them until they hit the mainstream with the single The One I Love from 1987’s Document album. As tends to happen if one likes what one is hearing, I went back, and forward with them on each subsequent release. The band amicably called it a day in 2011 but not before assembling the terrific 2-CD compilation Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011.
Here’s the set list, with source album information.
1. Begin The Begin . . . From Lifes Rich Pageant album, 1986
2. The Wake-Up Bomb . . . New Adventures in Hi-Fi, 1996
3. A Month Of Saturdays . . . unreleased until issued on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, 2011.
4. Living Well Is The Best Revenge . . . Accelerate, 2008
5. Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter . . . Collapse Into Now, 2011
6. Low . . . Out Of Time, 1991
7. Bad Day . . . first issued in 2003 as a single from In Time: The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003, later also on the Part Lies . . . compilation, 2011.
8. Talk About The Passion . . . Murmur, 1983
9. Gardening At Night . . . Chronic Town EP, 1982
10. Supernatural Superserious . . . Accelerate, 2008
11. We All Go Back To Where We Belong . . . unreleased until issued on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, 2011.
12. The Great Beyond . . . Man On The Moon movie soundtrack, 1999
13. New Test Leper . . . New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996
14. Country Feedback . . . Out Of Time, 1991
15. Finest Worksong . . . Document, 1987
16. Driver 8 . . . Fables Of The Reconstruction, 1985
17. Lotus . . . Up, 1998
18. How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us . . . New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996
19. I Took Your Name . . . Monster, 1994
20. Tongue . . . Monster, 1994
21. Fall On Me . . . Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986
22. Sitting Still . . . Murmur, 1983
23. Imitation Of Life . . . Reveal, 2001
24. King Of Comedy . . . Monster, 1994
25. Uberlin . . . Collapse Into Now, 2011
26. Star 69 . . . Monster, 1994
27. Hallelujah . . . unreleased until issued on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, 2011.
28. Radio Song . . . Out Of Time, 1991
29. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville . . . Reckoning, 1984