R.E.M.'s Murmur is on the stereo when another aging ex-hipster gets in my cab.
August 27th, 2008
“Son of a bitch, you’re running up the meter!”27 comments
August 20th, 2008
"Hey bro, remember me? You wrote that story about me in the paper."3 comments
August 13th, 2008
“It’s the Californians, man, the Californians are the worst.”15 comments
August 6th, 2008
The middle-aged man I picked up at Vendetta is in a hyperactively verbose lather ...0 comments
July 23rd, 2008
When I step into the obese old woman's apartment5 comments
July 16th, 2008
The obese old woman at Fred Meyer has a bad hip and a wheelchair...8 comments
July 9th, 2008
“...I need to take a shower first and wash all of this blood off.”6 comments
July 2nd, 2008
“So I’ve got these two women in the back of my cab who just refuse to get out...”8 comments
June 25th, 2008
“My friend’s getting divorced, and he’s really drunk,” says the bartender...8 comments
June 18th, 2008
There’s nothing like a good Friday night, and I’m referring to the money.3 comments
[December 13th, 2006] R.E.M.'s Murmur is on the stereo when another aging ex-hipster gets in my cab. "Oh man, these guys were my favorite band all through the '80s." "They're still mine," I respond. We argue, good-naturedly, about their later work. He can't forgive them for having a massive hit 15 years ago with "Losing My Religion," because it was so "commercial." "Are you kidding?!" I ask. "The lead instrument on that was a mandolin. Think about what was on the radio at that time. Mariah Carey. They didn't go mainstream—the mainstream came to them."
He concedes this point. We both cheerfully dis "Shiny Happy People," a song even lead singer Michael Stipe deems "an abortion." But what we talked about most was about how important R.E.M. was for so many people way back then, about how they brought the underground up with them, paving the way for Nirvana to take over the world.So many people learned about so many books, new bands, underground movies, etc., from every R.E.M. interview.
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"You can play Six Degrees of Separation from R.E.M. with half my record collection," I say. He laughs and admits the same. "I saw them live last year," I say.
"Oh god, I've been afraid to myself for years. How was it?"
"Fan-fucking-tastic," I respond. "They were as good as when I saw them in '84, even if they're moving a little slower."
He chuckles. "Yeah, well, aren't we all." —nightcabbie@wweek.com
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