Happy 37th Anniversary To My Favorite R.E.M. Live Bootleg
Give a listen to a classic show performed on this date in 1985
In the history of R.E.M., 1985 possibly is the single most fascinating year. In June, they put out their third album, Fables Of The Reconstruction. Now a beloved fan favorite, at the time it was regarded as something of a failure after the acclaimed opening duo of Murmur and Reckoning. (Not even the deathless standard “Driver 8” made much of an impression, peaking at only no. 22 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.) This was a period when R.E.M. stood at the crossroads of being either a decently successful indie band with a hard ceiling or a viable mainstream rock institution capable of taking over the world. They began the move toward the latter the following year by making Lifes Rich Pageant with Don Gehman, a producer known at the time for his work with John Cougar Mellencamp and, a decade later, Hootie And The Blowfish. The result was their first Gold record and eventual entrée into the major-label world.
If their public-facing profile appeared to be slightly fading in 1985, the state of internal relationships was even worse. In David Buckley’s 2002 band bio R.E.M. Fiction: An Alternative Biography, Mike Mills tells the author that “there were a couple of occasions where we came pretty close to breaking up” that year, singling out a day in Albany (when they played this show) where they had a “clear the air kind of meeting that was probably the worst.” Apparently, Mills and Michael Stipe in particular were at loggerheads — “there was love there but there was also a great deal of oil and water for a while,” Mills says. “But we both finally grew up.”
Either in spite of or because of that tension, the ’85 Reconstruction tour has always been a personal favorite. R.E.M. at this point still had the vibe of a really cool bar band that could cover both the Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes” and Aerosmith’s “Toys In The Attic” with equal credibility on any given night. And then they carried over that boozy looseness to their own already deep catalog of killer originals.
You get a sense of that versatility in this compilation of live cuts from the tour, which includes the (almost) complete performance shot for the German TV show Rockpalast on October 2, 1985 — you can also watch it here — with an additional 50 or so tracks culled from the tour, many of which are fun covers like Zager & Evans’ “In The Year 2525” and Brownsville Station’s “Smokin’ In The Boys Room.” (Even Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” gets a workout.)
But if you’re looking for one show from this time, I recommend the tape recorded in St. Petersburg, Fla. on November 26, 1985. The performance is hot and heavy, and features a cameo from The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn on ”Shaking Through” and McGuinn’s own “So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” (covered the same year that Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were also sneering the song on the Southern Accents tour). But what I really love about this tape is how the recording is maxed way into the red. It’s slightly distorted and bombastic as hell, in a way that recalls the Monster tour one decade in the future. It’s R.E.M. in peak rock ‘n’ roll mode and it’s glorious. Enjoy.
Stream/download the 11/26/85 tape here.
Never heard this show! Thanks!
Cool. I did not know they were on archive.