Covered in Folk: R.E.M.
(Redbird, Great Big Sea, Rosie Thomas, Grant Lee Phillips and more!)
I enjoy a good challenge. So when a recent and otherwise well-written treatise on the socio-economic function of cover songs past and present declared the R.E.M. catalog “too cryptic to survive being covered”, I set out to amass a collection of songs which would prove the author wrong.
My dubious pursuit was confounded a bit by a long-time personal apathy for R.E.M.’s particularly angsty, often melodramatic performance style, as filtered through frontman Michael Stipe’s voice and phrasing, which just aren’t to taste. Sure, there’s a few songs I wouldn’t change the station for — the driving guitar of Fall On Me, for example, or the deceptively cheerful pop surface of Man on the Moon. But these are predominantly band-driven songs, where so many others of the canon are singer showcases.
It’s a personal choice: I don’t like listening to Dylan either. But as with Dylan, and so many of the popular artists whose songbooks comprise our Covered in Folk features, there’s a recognizable genius under there, couched in a palatable form. It is no accident that R.E.M. is well established and well respected; love ‘em or hate ‘em, their influence, particularly in the emergence of college alternative radio, is legion and undeniable, and their reputation deserved.
The combination of cultural cache and strong songwriting has produced a world of broad and eminently listenable covers. It’s telling that when Stereogum decided to solicit current indie darlings for their second cover tribute, it was seminal R.E.M. album Automatic for the People which they ended up reconstructing track-for-track. And, as with so many previous features, that many of my favorite cover artists have taken on the R.E.M. songbook speaks volumes to its appeal and its potential among folk musicians and fans of a certain generational outlook.
My top ten list of covers consistently includes Grant-Lee Phillips‘ incredible version of So. Central Rain; I’ve posted it twice here before, and each time it has elicited comments from the readership. There’s more familiar covers here, too, from Rosie Thomas‘ lovely version of The One I Love, which pays tribute to Sufjan’s popular bootlegs of the same tune, to well-played cuts from folk supergroups Redbird and Cry Cry Cry.
Tori Amos and The Corrs come from that same AAA and college rock region of the genre map R.E.M. helped establish. Great Big Sea trend towards the sea chanty made modern, but most folkies will know the name. Stereogum’s coverage is predominantly indie rock, but the names are recognizable to those who come via the indiefolk music blogs. In the end, there’s nothing rare here, except perhaps the live cover of REM obscurity Hairshirt from Glen Hansard’s recent appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
But surely that familiarity proves the point. After all, if folk is in the ownership and the interpretation of song, then cryptic becomes a relative term, and coverage itself proves palatability. For in the end, is there greater foundation for love than the recognition of the soul, the spark of something sensible to the self, and the subsequent struggle to own it? And is it not this love, in the hands of the talented and thoughtful, which makes coverage great, and tributes worthy? Listen, and judge for yourself.
- Cry Cry Cry: Fall On Me
(from Cry Cry Cry; their in-studio cover from The River Music Hall is also good)
- Glen Hansard: Hairshirt
(live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 3/12/09)
- Frida Hyvonen: Everybody Hurts
- Ferraby Lionheart: Man on the Moon
(from Drive XV: A Tribute to Automatic for the People)
Today’s bonus coverfolk tracks give R.E.M. the chance to take on a few core folksingers, from Hall of Famer Leonard Cohen to the man whose original version of Gentle On My Mind won a Grammy for Best Folk Performance the same year Glen Campbell made it famous. After all, as the banner says, we do covers of folksong here, too:
- R.E.M.: Wall of Death (orig. Richard Thompson)
- R.E.M.: Gentle On My Mind (orig. John Hartford)
- R.E.M.: First We Take Manhattan (orig. Leonard Cohen)
Category: Covered in Folk, R.E.M.
April 5th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Redbird’s you are the everything cover is AWESOME. I loved it since I first heard it some time ago.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
[...] coverage was REM, the Athens, Georgia outfit who have been performing for nearly three decades now. The post features ten covers of REM songs plus three tracks covered by REM. You should definitely check out [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 8:58 am
BH,
Have a closer listen to the pre-Green era R.E.M. Michael Stipe was less melodramatic, and the songs were a lot more interesting. (IMO, of course!) I’m always surprised that Automatic for the People is rated so highly. That was the beginning of the end for me. There are a couple of great songs on it, but from beginning to end, I’d rather listen to Murmur, Life’s Rich Pageant, or Document.
One correction: Ferraby Lionheart’s version of “Man on the Moon” is not from Drive XV. The Shout Out Louds do the honors on that album.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:19 am
FiL, I think we’re dealing with a debatable technicality here. Ferraby Lionheart’s “Man on the Moon” is listed on the Stereogum track listing for Drive XV (along with many other great extras) as part of the “Bonus Tracks” for Drive XV. Although it is true that these tracks were not included in the original stream-set for that album, in my mind, as with rereleases of CDs, bonus tracks which come from the same exact media distribution as the “other” tracks ARE part of an album. That, plus the fact that Mike Mills comments on those tracks, as he does with the NON bonus tracks, validates their inclusion as “part” of the album.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Thanks for the info, BH. Somehow I missed all those bonus tracks back when I originally downloaded Drive XV.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Glad I could help, then, and enjoy — in my mind, those bonus tracks are among the better tracks on the album!
May 21st, 2009 at 7:57 am
Over the Rhine does a lovely version of The One I Love - think it is on their MySpace page.