Troopwithdrawalapalooza
From the AP:
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and REM frontman Michael Stipe will headline a New York concert to urge the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
I hope Sheehan opens her set with "World Leader Pretend."
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and REM frontman Michael Stipe will headline a New York concert to urge the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
I hope Sheehan opens her set with "World Leader Pretend."
posted by JMW at 10:52 PM
4 Comments:
Whoa, easy there, lone ranger. I was just making a stupid joke about a rock concert. Let's save the heavier analysis and partisan bickering for further along in the cycle (I just can't bear the thought of almost three years of talking-headedness about the '08 election).
Two things happened: Stipe went from being pretentious-but-essentially-humble to somewhat unbearable as a public figure. But more importantly, they lost Bill Berry. They had always said that if one member quit, they would close up shop as a band, and they should have. I don't know what he brought to the songwriting table that was so irreplaceable, but since he left, each album has been worse than the last. I hold out hope, of course, but only a sliver. In a sense, I think they're not THAT far from Springsteen or Young, who keep getting credit for putting out solid work, but it's pretty average stuff.
But I can't complain. I can never remember the exact wording, and I don't have it anymore, but some British magazine a couple of years ago said something like: If you make one great album, you've done more than most bands; if you make two or three, you're in the hall of fame; if you make five or six, you're REM.
In fairness, you were never as into REM at their peak as you were with Bruce and Neil, so it makes sense that you find them realtively worse than B&N now.
The politics is a separate thing. Stipe just turned into a really bad lyricist, and his voice isn't as lively as it used to be, either. On the early records, it didn't matter as much what he was saying, but the words still had a certain elliptical charm. Now they're just bland.
It's time like these when I realize the blog is a lot like taking people in a time machine to a table at our dining hall in college. Except back then, REM was still making great records.
Very funny.
Automatic for the People was released our freshman year. And yes, Monster wasn't great, but it had a handful of very good songs that were way better than anything on the last three records.
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