R.E.M., "Lifes Rich Pageant"

Don dreams big with R.E.M.

Don’s Pitch:

“Let’s put our heads together

And start a new country up

Our father’s father’s father tried

Erased the parts he didn’t like

Let’s try to fill it in”

So begins “Cuyahoga,” the fourth track from R.E.M.’s 1986 Lifes Rich Pageant, the record that bridged the band’s early ‘80’s college rock emergence and turn-of-the ‘90’s commercial dominance. Finally, Michael Stipe’s famously enigmatic lyrical and vocal style became crystal clear. He found his voice.

And what a voice. So distinct as if it’s an instrument itself. The tone and offbeat phrasing so indelible that it makes R.E.M. almost impossible for other artists to cover.

The entire band grows into itself on Pageant. Peter Buck’s jangly Rickenbacker more potent. Mike Mills’ boyish bass lines more mature. And Bill Berry’s drumming more assertive, the quartet’s secret weapon, sparkling and driving throughout.

But R.E.M. are at their best when they keep you guessing. Each tune ends with the anticipation of what will come next. The one-two punch of opening tracks “Begin The Begin” and “These Days” signal the band is going to rock harder than usual. Yet they’re followed by mid-tempo beauties, “Fall On Me” and “Cuyahoga,” these latter two songs best representing the ecological and political themes that dominate the album. 

The rest is a delight - all of it - unfolding with “Hyena”’s momentum and the gorgeous ballad “Flowers of Guatemala,” with it’s simple, joyous guitar solo. Next up is “I Believe,” which successfully pulls off a banjo intro *and* an accordion bridge underneath soaring Byrds-esque harmonies and guitar lines. Who knew until that point that R.E.M. could be so accessible?

The B-side continues to satisfy with “What If We Give It Away,” the raucous “Just A Touch,” and breathtaking “Swan Swan H”.

In the end, just when you think you have R.E.M. figured out, they finish with another twist: a cover of The Clique’s “Superman” with endearing lead vocals from Mills, not Stipe, and the chorus: “I know what’s happening/I can do anything.”

I haven’t listened to Lifes Rich Pageant front to back in decades. But what stands out most is how heavy was their influence. The end of “Begin the Begin” is Nirvana. The odd song structures evoke Liz Phair. Hints of Pearl Jam throughout. 

R.E.M. were a band not only out of time, not only ahead of their time, but even today, with all that’s happening in our world, Lifes Rich Pageant is just in time.

“All the people gather

Fly to carry each his burden

We are young despite the years

We are concerned

We are hope despite the times

All of a sudden, these days

Happy throngs, take this joy

Wherever, wherever you go”

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CJ’s Response:

We all thought we were so cool in college. We had posters on our dorm room walls of all the bands we believed were changing the music scene through our collective force of will—The Replacements, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Jane’s Addiction, Camper Van Beethoven and this band, R.E.M.

Inarguably, R.E.M. was the most successful and enduring of the college radio bands. They made accessible and relevant records well into the 1990s. Surely, they benefited from the confluence of MTV and the popularity of the alternative scene. But, to their credit, they made enough quality music to deserve that kind of right place at the right time karma.

Lifes Rich Pageant coincides with my senior year of high school/freshman year of college. The songs conjure images of my friends and me shooting pool in some fraternity taproom or playing drinking games in the dorm or just hanging out in the quad on a sunny day. They are a soundtrack of poppy tunes from a happy time in my life. 

It’s lovely to reminisce with songs like “Begin The Begin,” “These Days” and “Fall On Me.” Although, in my opinion, nobody gets to sing about the Cuyahoga except for Chrissie Hynde. Certainly not some pimply-faced poseurs from the SEC. And I will fight anyone who says differently.

But, the balance of the album suffers from what I believe to be REM’s Achilles’ heel. Michael Stipe falls in love with a lyric and Peter Buck falls in love with a hook and then they just repeat it over and over again. (See: “The One I Love”) As a result, the songs plod and stall and never really go anywhere.  I wish that weren’t the case, but it is.

It would be disingenuous to say that I hate this album, but listening to it again after all these years makes me think that maybe the things we revered in college weren’t so cool after all.

• Pitch Failed (Definitely not the one I love.)

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Mitch’s Response:

Back in the ‘80s we were both hot blooded and cold as ice. We’d work for the weekend, put a candle in the window, and grab two tickets to paradise with Sister Christian and Mr. Roboto. Corporate rock smothered the airwaves like a pair of parachute pants on a chubby middle-schooler. From this endless sea of cheese, two shining beacons of hope emerged - U2 from Dublin and R.E.M. from Athens - to take rock back where it started: underground.

You’d hear about these cool bands from older kids and the far left side of the radio dial. Everything about them was different: the sound of the music, the themes in the lyrics, the attitudes of the band. They were here to save us, to save music, and to save the world.

Over time both R.E.M. and U2 became more polished, more produced, more accessible, and much more popular. In the early days I loved U2 more - Boy still hits me in a visceral way - but when they went pop with The Joshua Tree they lost me. They started chasing hits and they lost their edge. 

The opposite happened with R.E.M. I got on-board with Document and loved them more with each successive album, and their peak run from Out of Time to New Adventures in Hi-Fi is unimpeachable.

Unlike Don, I don’t think the R.E.M. cake is fully baked yet on Lifes Rich Pageant. The opening 4 tracks are fab, but after that it’s hit or miss and Stipe is still mumbly-as-hell. I really enjoyed digging into Lifes Rich Pageant, but in the end it just made me want to listen to a better ‘90s R.E.M. album, or Murmur, or a compilation of the I.R.S. years. 

• Pitch Successful (that missing apostrophe still bugs me)

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Ken’s Response:

I’ve never been a huge R.E.M. fan; I’ve never owned any of their albums and I don’t know the lyrics to more than a handful of their songs.  I did see them once in the early-’90s, and it was a pretty good show.  I was all-in on classic rock in the ‘80s, and (I’m not proud of this) I tended to reject other types of music because I was a rock “purist”.  I honestly believe that my intentions were good; that what I was really trying to reject was the tsunami of awful pop that was trying to destroy rock ‘n roll.  Among the top songs of 1986 (the same year that Lifes Rich Pageant was released) were: “That’s What Friends Are For” which is an unspeakably bad song by some legendary musicians, “Party All The Time” by...wait for it...Eddie Murphy, “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin, and “Mad About You” by Belinda Carlisle.  Not exactly the ‘86 Celtics of the music world.

Okay, I was wrong!  No, not about Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam or Glass Tiger, but there were some really good artists around that I missed.  R.E.M. was entering their prime years and I ignored them completely.  Over the years, I’ve learned to enjoy a lot of R.E.M. music, mostly the stuff you hear on the radio or blasting from 4 ft tall Pioneer speakers at a college party back in the 90s.  

There is no doubt that these guys are great musicians and the masterful use of counter-melodies on songs like “Fall on Me” has become somewhat synonymous with this band.  There are a couple of clunkers too, and I’m pretty sure they stole “Underneath the Bunker” from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (yes, I know Pulp Fiction wasn’t released until 1994,) but it has no place being on this album at all.

There is great vocal work, although not as tight as it would become on some later albums, and the drum work of Bill Berry is awesome!  I think it’s the juxtaposition of his punk beats with some extremely non-punk lyrics that helped R.E.M. define college rock.  

• Pitch Successful (Kenneth digs the frequency.)

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Don’s pitch was successful and R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant has been added to the Newbury St. Collection.

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Thanks for reading! Who do you think is right this week? Join the conversation and take a stand on R.E.M.’s Lifes Rich Pageant.