Life's Rich Pageant - R.E.M. (CD 1998)

Rolling Stone put it best. The underground ends here.

And R.E.M. fans have been ambivalent about it ever since.

Don t believe me? Believe it or not, accusations of sell-out became common amongst its devoted when this 1986 album came out. Poppy. Fun. Consciously radio friendly. Life s Rich Pageant was tantamount to betrayal.

But R.E.M. has always been a band that abandons what s gotten them raves and praise. Think back if you would. Remember Monster? A lot of the reasons for its electric snarl was to undermine expectations of another Automatic. They wanted to throw those Everybody Hurts fans for a total loop.

So Life s Rich Pageant was made to confound fans and critics. Our last album, Fables of the Reconstruction, was made in London; we ll record in Bloomington, Indiana. Folk producer Joe Boyd was our guy last time; let s use Don Gehman, the guy who worked with John Mellencamp.

Oy, R.E.M. doing Pink Houses .get me some valium.

Except, the band pulled it off like never before, and it opened up new areas of expression. Peter Buck realized he liked the Fender as much as the Rickenbacker. Finally, Bill Berry s drums could actually be heard, and he wasn t bad at all. And Mike Mills fell in love with the organ. It seemed like the band had finally burst out of their affected cult balloon and they liked it!

But let us not forget Mr. Michael Stipe; Mr. Ambiguous was given a cold hard douse of non-B.S. Gehman Water. He still suffers traumatic flashbacks.

Don t believe me?

Shortly after Up was released, the British magazine Uncut published a retrospective on the band. Stipe admitted that Gehman forced him to break out of his leaning towards enigmatic songwriting. Stipe was not happy. On one track, Just a Touch , the band went through it only once and then Stipe stormed out. During the interview, Stipe went back to his experiences on Life s Rich Pageant again and again like a wound that refuses to heal or that he won t allow to heal.

R.E.M. abandoned a lot of comfort zones, whether it was forced or not. Stipe began to address environmental concerns and the capitalist vampirism of Reagan-era America. The result is a conflict of clear-cut protesting couched in uncomfortable metaphors, fighting to hold on to the distance of ambiguity. Global warfare is dressed up as a Hyena. A new country is conceptualized because of the plight of the river Cuyahoga.

It is also R.E.M. s brightest album of humorous in- jokes. Begin the Begin is a play off the standard tune Begin the Beguine. Underneath the Bunker equals drunken noodling. And the album ends with Mike Mills singing lead on a song originally done by the obscure 1960s band, the Clique. This charming ditty, Superman , has unfortunately taken a chunk out of the band s tush as it has been used to plug the computer product, Lotus. So a band that has studiously avoided using their songs to peddle commercials has ironically been labeled as sell-outs because of a song they didn t even write.

And so it was Life s Rich Pageant that kicked off the era of R.E.M. --- Ecologically and Politically Responsible Citizens. They would wear this tag, at least musically, for Document and Green finally culminating in their emotional breakthroughs, Out of Time and Automatic For The People. The band learned to rock as a band and Stipe came out of his shell. Stipe being Stipe, he would preach to the masses for a little while longer.

But thank goodness he crept back in again. At least, partially.

Track Reviews and Analysis:

Begin the Begin---A lot of interesting lyrics in this one. So much so that I m tempted to break down every line. Well, that didn t last long. Here you go.

Birdie in the hand for life s rich demands.

(Play on A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Basically it means it s better to hold on to something than to witness it. Be a part of it, don t be a spectator.)

The insurgency began and you missed it.

(The uprising, revolution has begun. You missed it.)

I looked for it and I found it.

(I searched for it; I wasn t idle. And I found it, because I searched.)

Miles Standish proud. Congratulate me.

(Miles Standish was a mayor of a colonial settlement in the New World. He ended up slaughtering a lot of Native Americans. Ironically, the ones who came over were making their own change to escape the tyranny of England, but ended up imposing a more insidious form of it. Stipe seems to be saying that change goes both ways, for good or ill. The pithy Congratulate me is effective sarcasm.)

A philanderer s tie, a murderer s shoe.

(Lyric screw-up. The line was supposed to be philanthropist s tie but Stipe changed it inadvertently. We ll take the lyric as it stands since he hasn t bothered to change it. Escalating of sins for a supposedly righteous politician, prefigured by Miles Standish. Even if he acts like he s doing good, he wears the clothes of a cheater and a killer.)

Life s rich demands create supply in the hand of the powers. The only vote that matters.

(The wants of life, namely money, are in the hands of those in power. The only vote that matters is the one that gives them power.)

Silence means security. Silence means approval. Always zenith on the TV. Tiger run around the tree. Follow the leader. Run and churn into butter.

(To not voice anything means you re content with the status quo. Zenith is a word play on the brand name Zenith [symbol of capitalist passiveness, a television] and a zenith, a high point on TV. Could be an election or major event, something groundbreaking. When an animal goes round in circles it chases its own tail. A tiger, regal and dangerous [government, monarchy, authority] is going round in circles, not getting anywhere. The followers blindly follow theleader and the whole mess resembles a formless blob. No solidity, no foundation.)

Let s begin again. Begin the begin. Let s begin again like Martin Luther Zen. The mythology begins the begin.

(Let s start from scratch. New rules. New system. Let s reform like Martin Luther did during the Reformation. Mythologies are stories that define a culture. It s not absolute, though. Myths can be broken down and remade into something grander. Remake the myths, the legends, you remake the culture.)

Answer me a question. I can t itemize, I can t think. You look to me for reason? It s not even fair. I can t even rhyme in the begin.

(Stipe whining about him being the one everyone looks to for answers. Hello, messiah complex. To emphasize his ineffectiveness, he points out his lyrical inadequacy.)

A philanderer s tie, a murderer s shoe. Example? The finest example is you.

(Reiteration of the deceiving politician. Since he s not a good example of decency, who is? You. You can make a difference. You can begin again.)

Repeat of first verse and chorus.

Good tune to set the mood. Rocking, hard driving, and first of many Stipean impulsive howls in the bridge. Mills goes nuts on the organ. Infectiously buoyant.

These Days---Don t worry. No long winded analysis here. Another rallying call to liberal arms with declarations of being young despite the years and being hope despite the times. Good sturdy rocker. Has a good sense of humor about it, too. When Stipe sings that we have many things in common, he cynically adds name three. Naturally his three bandmates respond Three! Wah-ha. Wah-ha.

Fall On Me---Probably the most famous song on the album and one of their best ballads. Stipe sings about acid rain on one level, and life s way of dumping burden after burden on you on another. Great lyrics with a reference to the experiment of a feather and weight falling at the same rate. Of course, this only happens in a vacuum, but technicality aside nice image. Mills sings the bridge as only Mills can and the countermelody ( What is it up in the air for? ) Interesting nitpick about the title. Since the song is a plea for the sky not to fall, the song should be titled Don t Fall On Me. But instead the title is a positive plea for the sky to fall. Cynical fatalism, perhaps?

Cuyahoga---Ode to the polluted Ohio river. Lyrics chastising ethnocentrism and cultural elitism (Our father s father s father tried/Erased the parts he didn t like) are mixed with an elegy to natural beauty. The narrator mourns the passing of the river and its fall into tourist curiosity. This is where we walked. This is where we swam. Take a picture here. Take a souvenir. The last go around of the chorus switches the pronoun from we to they bringing up images of the original inhabitants now wiped out or, more chillingly, sung in past tense of the narrator, perhaps done post-apocalyptically. Powerful song. The chorus is final. Cuyahoga. Cuyahoga. Cuyahoga is gone.

Hyena---Awkward metaphor of global nuclear warfare using a hyena as personification. Actually it s pretty catchy with some all too rare warp-speed picking by Buck. Nuclear warfare is shown as a grinning maniacal hyena and the image just doesn t do it for me. Hyeans aren t scary. Stipe, as is his wont, undermines famous sayings, in this case FDR. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. becomes The only thing to fear is fearlessness. The bigger the weapon, the greater the fear. This song points the way toward Document s concerns: The world as madhouse.

Underneath the Bunker---Goofy and drunken. A cheesy cha-cha with indecipherable lyrics. I like it. It s cornball and stupid.

The Flowers of Guatemala---The least effective ballad on the album, Flowers is a mournful tribute to the victims of U.S. involvement in Central America. Too forceful in its emotions. We must feel bad about what s happening! We must grieve! Good Buck solo, though.

I Believe---When Peter Buck kicks it off with some banjo pickin action, you re in for a treat. Stipe sings his belief system in Stipean fashion, although somehow stating he believes in coyotes and time as an abstract may have been done to tick Gehman off. Lyric Screwup II: In the line What do you do between the horns of the day? the line is supposed to be What do you do between the hours of the day? But horns is one syllable and easier to say. Not to mention, its eye-rolling enigmatic mystique. Good foreshadowing with the line, Explain the change, the difference between what you want and what you need. The answer to this would come in Document s first track. History of Stipe Reference: The line When I was young and fever fell refers to him getting scarlet fever as a kid. I need to get a life.

What If We Give It Away?---The band went back in their catalogue for this tune. A small title change was all that was required. It s hard to tell what this song is actually about, but I think it s giving away your personal freedoms. Good vocal work by Stipe and a catchy melody make this one a keeper. Good one to sing along to.

Just a Touch---Real oldie about an Elvis impersonator. Really. The story goes that Stipe wrote this the day Elvis died. R.E.M. goes thrash metal with an infectious whoop. He ends it all with an angry scream in lyrical tribute to his idol, Patti Smith. I m so young! I m so goddamn young! I love this one. If it s true that Stipe stormed out, he made sure he left an impression.

Swan Swan H---The other band members hated the title, but a great Stipe ballad in waltz time about the Civil War dulls some of the pretension. Awesome lyrics in this one, with varying perceptions by soldiers, mothers, and the deceased done in archaic style. My favorites? Six in one half, dozen the other. Tell that to the captain s mother. The chorus, Swan Swan Hummingbird, hurrah. We are all free now. What noisy cats are we. And the chilling closer, A pistol pot, cup of brine. The whiskey is water; the water is wine. One of Stipe s best compositions.

Superman---The first cover song on an R.E.M. album is a doozy with a great lead vocal by Mike Mills. Stipe provides great harmony and the whole band just exudes fun. Catch the Twilight Zone keyboard work after the bridge. Giggle. R.E.M. would never be the same and never as gleefully funny.