The Song Fight Bulletin Board

What is your favorite R.E.M. song?

Another band where I only know their radio singles. I kinda like "Stand" but only because it was the theme song to "Get A Life." That's a TV show that was ahead of its time, and ended far too soon.

Fall on Me.


Closely followed by These Days and Cuyahoga. And I Believe.

And since they are all off "Life's Rich Pageant", I guess that would be my favourite album….but it isn't - that would probably be "Automatic for the People".

Oh..really liked So, Central Rain too.

cool guys. Maybe the most over rated band of all time?
Lee (cavedwellers) loves REM, we covered a bunch of their songs. I knew our versions before I heard the originals.

I do love the pop hit : It's the End of the World, that's easily my favorite.

for the most part concerning REM I just don't get it. But they love Velvet Underground, Robyn Hitchcock, and Radiohead, so they have excellent taste, I just don't like much of their music.

"Try Not to Breathe" with honorable mention to "Nightswimming". Automatic for the People is one of my all-time favorite albums. Props to R.E.M. for constantly evolving; every album that I know, which admittedly isn't all of them, has a different signature sound.

Whereas Glennny feels that REM may be the most overrated band of all time, I feel like R.E.M. has an amazing amount of depth that cries out for further exploration. Honorable mentions to "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)", "E-Bow the Letter", "Crush with Eyeliner" and "Drive" (though i feel like there are at least 20 other songs I could mention...

When this thread came up, my mind started racing over which song to choose. I kept coming back to this one. My favorite is Überlin.

"Shiny Happy People". While it is a catchy tune, I favor it most because Dennis Leary made fun of it

"Pull that bus over to the side of the pretentiousness turnpike. I want the Shiny people over here and the Happy people over here!"

-jd0

South Central Rain. Pretty much after the album Reckoning, I lost interest.

@fluffy. I remember that show too. Every time Is see him we always say, "oh look, it's that Chris guy" still to this day. I think I first remember him from a reoccurring character on Letterman. Also an odd coincidence, I just programmed a new show on my DVR that Chris Elliot is in called Schitt's Creek. He plays Roland Schitt. I haven't watched an episode yet, but it looks like it could be good. It has a couple SCTV top dogs, like Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara and probably some just as writers. So that makes it a must watch and decide kind of show. It's a Canadian show, obviously, and started airing in Feb. From the trailer, it looks a lot like Arrested Development (which I really liked as well) because of the whole "lost the family fortune due to tax evasion" kind of thing.

I say "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".
-bill

Man, another tough one. Honorable mentions to "Imitation of Life" and "Cuyahoga" (even though the latter was already mentioned). The Unplugged 2.0 version of "Cuyahoga" is also especially tasty.

My personal favorite is "Sweetness Follows." Largely due to its placement in the movie Vanilla Sky, which hit me at an impressionable age, and therefore has a strong emotional connection for me.

Can we go back to real bands?

Spud wrote:Can we go back to real bands?

Don't you worry old timer. I'm sure someone will mention Bing or The Andrews Sisters any day now.

I have to agree with Fall On Me. LIfe's Rich Pagent is a great album.

Spud wrote:

Can we go back to real bands?

LOL! I agree. This Lit major music is barely music. There's a lot of bands that can barely play their instruments that I love, but for some reason the way REM does it just bugs me. I know its supposed to be charming, but its aggressively boring. There are some exceptions with this band, but I can't sit through an album.

glennny wrote:Spud wrote:

Can we go back to real bands?

LOL! I agree. This Lit major music is barely music. There's a lot of bands that can barely play their instruments that I love, but for some reason the way REM does it just bugs me. I know its supposed to be charming, but its aggressively boring. There are some exceptions with this band, but I can't sit through an album.

You should check out their earlier stuff, like the album Life's Rich Pageant which some have mentioned; it's a lot better and less bland than their later pop radio stuff (Shiny Happy People, ugh!). They actually knew how to rock back then (as opposed to, say, their 1994 'rock' album, Monster, which is basically a long boring drone).
My own favorite song is 1992's "Nightswimming", from Automatic for the People. I don't care for most of their post-Automatic music, but there are still some highlights in their later work (1998's "At My Most Beautiful", one of the prettiest ballads ever written, and 2004's "The Ascent of Man", for example - "ÜBerlin", the one Niveous has mentioned, is also good).

You don't understand. I have been exposed, very exposed to REM. I think I have like 5 albums. I have heard every album. There are songs I like, there's a good riff here and there. There's a lot of good lines. However, for most of their catalog I listen, and I am not pleased. People I respect , yourself included, love that band. I've always felt like I am supposed to like them. But I end up singing " meh meh meh meh meeeeh" like they are an average circus
There are certainly worse bands, but I still find them to be the most overrated band of all time. Well maybe the Clash is the most overrated band of all time, but REM is close.

glennny wrote: There are certainly worse bands, but I still find them to be the most overrated band of all time. Well maybe the Clash is the most overrated band of all time, but REM is close.

You're just trying to pick a fight, aren't you!

glennny wrote:Spud wrote:

Can we go back to real bands?

LOL! I agree. This Lit major music is barely music. There's a lot of bands that can barely play their instruments that I love, but for some reason the way REM does it just bugs me. I know its supposed to be charming, but its aggressively boring. There are some exceptions with this band, but I can't sit through an album.

Suffice to say - REM are one of my favourite bands of all time (just behind The Clash).

I recall growing up in the dire (pre-Nirvana, post The Clash) years of the 1980's - and REM were one of the very few bands worth listening to, emerging from the Phil Collins/Bryan Adams/Michael Jackson/Madonna-infested sludge of those horrible, horrible times - when poodle-headed metal bands still roamed the earth..

glennny wrote:But I end up singing " meh meh meh meh meeeeh" like they are an average circus

As in "Mott the Hoople and the game of Life, meh meh meh meh"? You know, I actually thought of this one when I wrote my Average Circus

Spud wrote:Can we go back to real bands?

Can you hum a few bars?