[philmont] Packing in Music

On Wed, 23 May 2007 17:28:51 -0400, "Dr. Bob Klein" <drbob@troop111.org> jammed all night, and by sunrise was heard saying:

> A more recent version of same is Radio Free Europe by R.E.M. - a great
> rockin' tune. The lyrics of which have been a source of argument and
> controversy since it came out. The lead singer (and the band) have
> steadfastly refused to clarify what they're singing.

I play a number of R.E.M. songs. Michael Stipe is the lead singer; all
their early stuff had his vocals mixed way down in the mix, like "just
another instrument", rather than on top, the usual way in popular music.
There's lots of debate, but they supposedly have a private server with
all the lyrics on it. This came out during some interviews over their
MTV Unplugged sessions... MTV had requested "It's the End of the World
as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)", and Michael didn't remember all the
worlds (understandably)... but they were able to get them. More recent
CDs actually do include lyrics sheets, but the vocals are much higher in
the mix these days, too.

> Having listened to
> it many times, I am quite sure they were absolutely trashed out of their
> minds, and have no earthly idea what they were trying to say for some of
> the verses and choruses.

This one seems pretty accurate to me:
http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/getsome.org/guitar/olga/chordpro/r/REM/RadioFreeEurope.chopro

> But in this case, slurring the lyrics into
> incomprehensibility actually worked.

I think R.E.M. cultivated that for awhile... they didn't publish any
early lyrics in those days (this was college music for me), and on some
of the songs, they would change words around, or even in one case, they
had two entirely different songs with the same music (you have to get
some of the early rarities recordings to hear the full extent of this).
Just having fun with it.

-- 
Dave Haynie 
Troop Advancement Coordinator <advancement@daretowntroop60.com>
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