Comic Strip Courtesy of the Cup

Thanks to Beth at A Cup of Coffey for emailing this cartoon.

Must Be Time For Penitence

Shelly was out for a much needed evening with friends, Alexis was downstairs, and Emily was crabby...really crabby. Luckily, she's a big fan of going for a ride, and generally falls asleep in her car seat by the time we've driven 2 blocks down the road. Tonight was no exception.

So, it was just me and a sleeping baby, out burning some fossil fuel. What'ya gonna do? I needed the time "alone" to clear my head. Work has been insanely busy, but that's OK, I suppose. The real story is that I had grabbed a CD on the way out the door, Eponymous by R.E.M. It'd been awhile since I spent some quality time with this disc, among the first things I ever bought on the CD format.

Some people loathe "greatest hits" albums, and I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of them either. But, as a college student without sufficient means to replace my vinyl Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Lifes Rich Pageant and Document with CDs, this one made a ton of sense to me at the time. Plus, some of these versions were different anyway.

DAMN! What a killer line-up! The original hib-tone single version of "Radio Free Europe"--apparently Peter Buck thinks it's a piece of shit--man, I think it's fantastic. Then there's the different vocal mix version of "Gardening at Night," which is the absolute tits--LOVE it! "Talk About the Passion"--Hello, is there a better song? "So. Central Rain"--oh, yeah, that's my favorite (I almost forgot). But wait, Track 5 is "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville." That's my favorite, without question. "Can't Get There From Here" would almost certainly be the best song on 99.9% of the albums ever released by anyone. Here it blends right in, actually running the risk of being overlooked between Rockville and "Driver 8."

Now, I finally have a real complaint with Track 8, "Romance." I appreciate that I don't need to buy the soundtrack for Made In Heaven to get it. And, I'm usually a fan of chronological order. But, this is a bonus track at best, IMHO. After 7 straight songs that could each be legitimate contenders for "favorite song of all-time" honors, this one doesn't make the grade. This is especially true since it keeps Pageant from getting a second representative here...a crime! (In case you forgot, that's the album with "Begin the Begin" and "Cuyahoga" and "Swan Swan H." and "Superman" and "Hyena" and the fucking-a-righteous "The Flowers of Guatemala" to name a few.) Alas, the ship is righted immediately with "Fall on Me." It doesn't get any better than that.

Finally, the CD closes with a trio from Document: "The One I Love" (which was overplayed like hell in 1987, but is still a heavyweight-champion type of song), "Finest Worksong" (with a mix of horns that's killer), and the completely incomparable "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)." The beauty is that the van's CD player just cycles right back to "Radio Free Europe" when it's over...

I drove for 3 complete listens through this CD (except for skipping "Romance" the second and third times it came around). My head hasn't been this clear in months.

R.E.M. Inducted Into RnR HoF

Of course, Ms. Coffey was there! So, for the rest of us, check out the replays here. Eddie Vedder did a fine job with the induction speech (not sure why anyone would think he wouldn't--he's always shown a great admiration for those who preceded/influenced him).

The performances were pretty decent, especially as these ceremonial things go.

"Gardening at Night" was really good. And, I loved the vocal trade-offs between Michael Stipe and Eddie Vedder during "Man on the Moon." But, the performance of the night was almost certainly Patti Smith's absolute belting out of "Gimme Shelter." WOW!