All week long the word had been passed around town. Party this Saturday. Three live bands. Free beer.Now with thousands of people converging upon the old Episcopal Church on Oconee Street just around the corner from the University of Georgia, the Athens grapevine was proving unfailingly effective."
- Tony Fletcher, Perfect Circle, the Story of R.E.M.
The two or three frequent readers of this blog know that I fall into musical obsessions. For the last few months, it's been rediscovering the genius of R.E.M., from my favorites Document and Murmur to listening to maligned Fables of the Reconstruction with new ears, it's been a joy to listen to it all. And so it was time to learn more - to dive into what the internet tells me is the best R.E.M. bio. And I agree: Fletcher exhaustively documents the birth, rise, and success of the band in a compelling and readable way. Fair warning tho -- he's done his research; it's a long book and contains all of the gigs and side projects details. As such, the book doesn't have a narrative flow as much as a propulsive push to get through it all. (To be fair, the ingrained structure of many rock books.) But the beat is smooth, Fletcher's writing moving cleanly from one event to another with no discordant notes. In fact, I hardly noticed the transitions from one album to the next, and it's a mark of his deep knowledge and empathy with the band that he's appropriately glowing about the amazing music that they produced while also calling them out on their missteps.
Not that they made many. R.E.M. is fascinating for many reasons: the great music, their interesting chemistry, their ability to have complete artistic control of their songs - but also their ability to become the biggest band in the world without major compromises or making enemies along the way. Hell, they don't even have any drug problems! Fletcher tells this admirable story while pointing out how their ability to "close ranks" when needed was an essential, if cold-hearted, element of their success (How they treated poor Peter Holsapple (an essential collaborator on Out of Time) is a rare misstep.)
My only problem with the book is not Fletcher's fault: as R.E.M. became more and more famous, the narrative began to involve lists off high-profile gigs with other celebrities and long, drawn out recording sessions across several continents, with lots of talk of "overdubs" and "remixes." This, combined with my disinterest with the music they recorded after the amazing New Adventures in Hi-Fi, made the final portion of the book a bit of a slot. Despite this, a solid narrative of the group and I highly recommend for any fan of R.E.M.
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