blasts from the past, circa 1992:
Driving home from the mall (how suburban of me) the local "alt-rock" station played "man on the moon" from R.E.M's "Automatic for the People" and without realizing it, I found myself quietly singing along to the chorus.
In the fall of 1992, I was a junior at Denison University. Taking up my time were (1) my position as a student adviser, and (2) being a DJ at WDUB, Denison's 100-watt FM radio station, doing (if I recall) two shows -- one with "regular" music, and the other featuring all Beatles. "Sitting on a Cornflake," I called it, and just typing those words trigger goosebumps down the side of my neck ... it was corny, it was pretentious, but it was fun, and it was the only show I ever did that got regular listeners.
I borrowed "Automatic" from the station -- this was long before the days of ripping CDs, back when an 80 MB Syquest disk was hot shit -- and let it sit on my counter for a week before I was willing to listen to it. I'd just been introduced to R.E.M. my freshman year and loved "Out of Time" but this one scared me, because the first single, "Drive," was moody and dark -- which "Out of Time" most definitely was not -- and I didn't understand it terribly well.
But I finally gave it a listen, and ... well, I don't think I played anything else for two solid months. I got the goosebumps because of that -- all the events and people tied to that disc make it impossible for me to listen to nowadays. I don't think I've heard it more than twice through since 1994. My good friend Adam had a theory about the negative effects of revisiting music that stirs up too much nostalgia. I thought it was bunk when he told me, but I realize now that I was having too much fun living in the past that way, so: Adam -- you were right.
"Monster" came out in 1994, "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" in 1996, "Up" in 1998, and "Reveal" in 2001. I was sitting in a restaurant in Evanston, Illinois, with my lovely wife, and we'd just purchased "Reveal." The cast on my leg, and the crutches I used to get around downtown Evanston, made me realize that you could tie almost every momentous event of my life to that point around some R.E.M. album's release.
To wit:
-- my first big crush in college ("Out of Time")
-- my junior year ("Automatic for the People")
-- my first job and first new car (I got out of work early my second day at the paper to go get "Monster"(
-- moving to Chicago, sans job (one month before "New Adventures in Hi-Fi")
-- first job in IT (same week that "Up" was released -- "Daysleeper" is the first thing I remember hearing, in mono, through Targetcom's office phone system)
-- surgery for my broken ankle ("Reveal")
-- I have nothing for "Around the Sun," really -- maybe I could stretch something, but why break a good, useless theory with facts?
So here we are in 2006, and I don't listen to R.E.M. much anymore. I think the presidential election really keeps me from listening to them or Springsteen. I don't mind that artists have political opinions; it just so happens that, at that time and even somewhat today, I don't share them. Which is fine, I guess ... but the vehemence of their opinions, the vitriol that poured out, and the abject, brazen campainging for Kerry left me alienated a bit from whatever their art is trying to say.
I don't listen to them much, but it's kind of fun to do my Elvis impression during "Man on the Moon" ...
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