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IVH: R.E.M. / Green [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-09

Tonight’s selections from R.E.M.’s sixth studio album Green. Green was released 35 years ago this week.

There was a brief moment, at the end of the 1980s, when lots of people all over the world felt like peace might not be such a crazy idea. That was the early-spring thaw of the Cold War, a time of glasnost and perestroika. Presidents were signing treaties; thousands of nuclear weapons were about to be destroyed. It was during that season of global change, in November 1988, that R.E.M. came out with the album Green. — The Atlantic

Orange Crush

Green is an album of experiments. Freed from their usual roles, the band members tinkered with sugary pop, martial arena punk, fluttering folk rock, country flourishes, and dramatic dirges. Especially on the second side (referred to by the band as the “metal” side, referring not to the genre but to the element), these experiments collide for a set of songs as strong and as diverse as any sequence on previous albums. [Michael] Stipe’s vocals overlap eerily on “The Wrong Child” to create an unsettlingly spectral roundelay. Against the military stomp of “Orange Crush” he sings through a megaphone that lends his vocals a corroded quality appropriate to the subject matter (namely, the degenerative effects of Agent Orange on U.S. soldiers). Foretelling the glam-rock attack of Monster, “Turn You Inside-Out” is a scabrous examination of the entertainer/audience relationship, while “I Remember California” grows so darkly ominous that it threatens to sink the Golden State in the Pacific. Whereas Document, their final release for I.R.S. Records, sounded grimly solemn, Green is often positively giddy as the band try out new tricks and as Stipe grows more confident and charismatic as a frontman. The album contains some of the jauntiest and most upbeat tunes they had ever recorded, revealing a self-deflating sense of humor as well as a sophisticated self-awareness. “Pop Song ‘89” is a pop song about pop songs, with Stipe introducing himself (“Hi! Hi! Hi!”) before wondering, “Should we talk about the weather?/... Should we talk about the government?” Both subjects had figured prominently into his lyrics on previous albums, and R.E.M. were trying to figure out what to sing about next. The joviality of tunes like “Get Up” and especially “Stand”, which dominated the “air” (or first) side, proved divisive, alienating long-time fans while attracting new listeners. Because MTV played the hell out of “Stand” and because this pop urge would culminate in the questionable “Shiny Happy People”, it’s all too easy to dismiss the pop songs on Green. They certainly haven’t aged as well as some of the other, graver tunes, but it’s intriguing to hear R.E.M. bring to the fore a playfulness that had previously only been shunted to the margins. Plus, there’s a certain charm to their unguarded goofiness, which seemed at odds with the band’s sense of purpose and Stipe’s cultivated enigma. And it extended to the packaging as well: the spot-gloss 4s on the over, the spiraling tree trunk on the CD, and especially the untitled closing track, which made it impossible to request at live shows. "Untitled" grows out of the same pop impulse that motivates “Stand”, yet the result is wide-eyed and big-hearted as Stipe delivers some of his most direct lyrics. The music is simple, shaky, even arguably unprofessional, as [Peter] Buck lays down a rudimentary drumbeat and [Mike] Mills interjects an emphatic organ riff. Even on a major label, R.E.M. were still trying to shirk the trappings of their newfound celebrity, to play with their own image, to bend the language of pop music to convey their own ideas rather than fix their ideas to the mechanics of pop. — Pitchfork

Stand

Green would arrive on November 11, 1988. What would quickly become evident was that under the extreme pressure of inane expectations R.E.M. had delivered a gem. Green was quintessential R.E.M. without sounding like R.E.M. out of the past. The band had traded in their asymmetrical trademark structures for a more standard structure without losing faith in what made them unique. Topically the band pulled no punches as they espoused growing political and environmental concerns. The label move allowed them to get their message of hope in the face of adversity to larger audiences. Additionally captured on the release buried underneath the outstanding layer of R.E.M. musicianship were acknowledgements to Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Sly Stone and many others. Diversity in the playlist was a key element but what made it most appealing was the clarifying of Michael Stipe’s vocalization and Peter Buck’s signature rock guitar style coming into manhood. Green would go double platinum, reached #12 on the US charts and 27 in the UK; becoming the band’s first gold record in the US and supported with a mammoth international 11-month tour. Green was the point where R.E.M. had to figure out if they were going to thumb their nose at the fame they had attained or ignore all the swirling cacophony and continue as they intended to go. The band under an extraordinary microscope opted not to play it safe but to instead acknowledge how absurdly they had travelled to success and emphasize their intent to continue being themselves. Throughout the recording, the listener could hear flashes of the band’s ever-present self-deprecating humour, their self-awareness of how far they had come and the importance of keeping their feet on the ground. That humour and pragmatism shines through on the first cut, Pop Song 89, the track is a song about pop songs. It is punchy and clever as it addressed the madness that swirled. It was probably not at all what anyone expected on the first track but confronted the dilemma the band was faced with as they now had to be all things to all people. Buck’s signature guitar lick centres the song as it perfectly set the stage for the rest of the album to transpire. This track is the beginning of the highwire act the band would complete balancing between their existing discography and their metamorphosis into one of the most influential bands in the ’90s. Pop Song 89 was R.E.M.’s way of restating the Sunset Blvd Norma Desmond quote “Mr. DeMille, I am ready for my close up”. — XS Noize

Pop Song ‘89

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Having made the leap from a small label, I.R.S., to a monolithic major one, Warner Bros., R.E.M. hasn’t sold out; rather, the band has taken the opportunity to crack open the shell it’s been pecking at since it recorded its first album. On Green, R.E.M. acknowledges the outside world with a slew of musical references and some relatively pointed lyrics. As Michael Stipe’s vocals get more distinct, so does his message – instead of meaning almost anything you want them to, his noticeably improved lyrics seem to be about at most two or three different things. Stipe even makes an effort to enunciate. And perhaps more remarkable, this is the first R.E.M. album with printed lyrics – actually, it provides the lyrics to just one song, “World Leader Pretend,” but with this band you take what you can get. [...] The band’s last two albums – Lifes Rich Pageant and Document – seemed very much of a piece, but Green is a distinctive record with a new feel, at once slightly synthetic and deeply felt, with Stipe conveying strong conviction without shouting and subtle emotion without disappearing into the woodwork. [...] R.E.M. may be dangerously close to becoming a conventional rock & roll band, but Green proves it’s a damn good one. — Rolling Stone

I Remember California

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R.E.M.’s self-consciousness circa 1988 had drastic impact on Green‘s running order, resulting in a first third of a record built around singles that are rather insistent on being taken as throwaway fluff. Listening to those cuts while bearing in mind that the band’s early ’90s mega-stardom remained an inconceivable concept even post-Document, one can imagine how diehard fans might have absolutely lost their shit upon their first exposure to the album. “Pop Song 89” is an atypical R.E.M. opener, its knowing title, daft guitar riff, and vacuous lyrics marking it as positively lightweight in comparison to previous pole position occupants “Begin the Begin” and “Finest Worksong”, those rousing klaxon calls to building a better tomorrow. The sunny stomper “Get Up” owes a hefty debt to the catchiest of ’60s garage pop nuggets, but band’s bemusement with its growing fame is most concentrated in “Stand”, where every aspect of its construction — Michael Stipe’s dance step instructions, Peter Buck’s wah-wah guitar solo, the two(!) shameless key changes in the closing chorus for extra oomph, and so on — is a frothy mixture of cliché pop tricks all in service of one big joke. But if anyone was truly had, it was the band. R.E.M. had by that stage in its career become too damned good at what it did. All three of the aforementioned singles are actually pretty enjoyable, with even the comparatively flimsy “Pop Song 89” being charming enough to warrant a few replays. “Stand” especially may have been borne as a gut-busting lark, but it was to become R.E.M.’s second top ten smash, and deservedly so — try as I might, that earworm of a chorus refuses to leave my brain even days after I extricate myself from the record. It helps that these moments, self-aware and calculated as they are, are never cynical or crass; instead, they graciously invite the audience into the fun. The remaining spread of Green is equally impressive, different as it is. Here the political, humanist R.E.M. beloved of liberal-minded college students is to be found. Smack dab in between “Get Up” and “Stand” is “You Are the Everything”, the mesmerizing first of several folky mandolin laments that populate the record. An even better song in that vein is “The Wrong Child”, where Stipe’s heart-rending cries of “I’m not supposed to be like this / But it’s ok” indicate that the band has lost none of its potency or poignancy; in fact, it was the most emotionally moving moment the group had created up to that point. Determined and resolute, “World Leader Pretend” justifies being afforded the honor of being the first R.E.M. song to have its lyrics printed. The mannered pop frivolity from earlier is discarded completely by the record’s b-side, where “Orange Crush” (one of R.E.M.’s top singles, hands down, and the album’s high water mark) and “I Remember California” reside. On paper, Green‘s divergent and at times incompatible directions should count against it (and in fairness, Green does end up being the least cohesive R.E.M. record from the ’80s). Instead, it hangs together surprisingly well, inadvertent proof that R.E.M. was suited for the big time after all. — Pop Matters

Get Up

"I could turn you inside out! But I choose not to!" R.E.M.'s singer Michael Stipe, back arched, is bellowing into a megaphone. Five songs into their concert at the Onondoga War Memorial Hall in Syracuse, an upstate New York college town, R.E.M. are into their stride. The Memorial Hall, built in 1951 and running to seed, is filled with over 8,000 bodies and this mixed audience of students, rock fans and teens attracted by R.E.M.'s current hit single is going gently berserk amid purple and orange light. Syracuse is the twenty-ninth American date out of R.E.M.'s eight-month 1989 world tour. The night before, they played to 17,000 people (85 per cent capacity) in New York's Madison Square Garden; the next day, they go to Toronto. Their current single, 'Stand', is at number six. Their first album for Warners, Green, is in the top 20; released last November, it has sold over a million copies. The week of the concert, R.E.M. are dubbed 'America's hippest band' on the cover of that bastion of American rock values, Rolling Stone. It seems like business as usual. Except that singer Michael Stipe is wearing make-up and a dress. It's a nice dress: a knee-length affair in red tartan. It covers the trousers of a baggy, dark brown 1950s suit and is covered by the suit jacket, which is held together with a safety pin. It is not the standard attire of a serious American rock group. R.E.M. are generally upbeat and often didactic, but 'I Could Turn You Inside Out' is designed as an all-out assault on the senses. The transformation that is the hallmark of any powerful pop event is beginning to take place. R.E.M. use surrealist backdrops throughout their performance: here, the screen is filled by murky film of fish shoals moving with a hypnotic slowness. The lyric examines the power of the performer, whether a pop star, "a preacher or a TV anchorman", to manipulate a mass audience. Within this context, the dress has a particular significance: it marks R.E.M.'s passing from their cult rock-band status to the blurred, warping world of pop stardom. — The Quietus

Turn You Inside-Out

World Leader Pretend… was always my favourite song on the record, though it might be hard to explain why. I just love the idea of someone writing a song called “World Leader Pretend” and then enumerating the things he can do as world leader. It’s pop too, but it has a slightly mysterious sound about it, with pedal steel lines. “I sit at my table and wage war on myself / It seems like it’s all…it’s all for nothing.” And that’s an important line because I read this song as explaining the pointlessness of power. If you get to the ‘top’ and control the world, for what purpose do you then exist? Do you play war games to amuse yourself? “I’ve a rich understanding of my finest defenses / I proclaim that claims are left unstated / I demand a rematch / I decree a stalemate.” It’s a perfect sentiment for the end of the eighties. Perhaps it’s a self-help manifesto in the Foucauldian mould—how to take one’s life back from the powers that be: “This is my world / And I am the world leader pretend / This is my life / And this is my time / I have been given the freedom / To do as I see fit.” The vibe is much mellower here, and the mood, subdued and solemn. — Alan Bumstead

World Leader Pretend

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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?

Jimmy Kimmel: Daniel Ricciardo, Lauren Daigle

Jimmy Fallon: Jared Leto, AJR

Stephen Colbert: Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Willie Nelson, Taylor Tomlinson (R 11/1/23)

Seth Meyers: Hilary Duff, Please Don't Destroy, Justin Faulkner

The Daily Show: Judd Apatow, guest host Sarah Silverman

LAST WEEK'S POLL: HAS MUSIC BEEN GETTING PROGRESSIVELY "WORSE" OVER THE YEARS?

Yes 49%

No 29%

Pie 23%

[END]
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