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.
"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
Having a loving family is important. Not getting killed in a foreign war is important. Your health is important. A clean environment is important. R.E.M. is not important. LOL! That is, except for self important music snobs like you.
get a life.
Do I actually have to write the words (important for a band, relative to the world-wide stage as a whole)? Umm, no, because normal people would kind of _assume_ that. As a band, influence on other bands, bringing political activism to their stages, on the way indie labels worked, the ascension of "alternative" from being an alternative to being a genre, important. Relative to the fallling of the Berlin Wall, not important.
Oh, but hey, Clinton/Gore ran in 1992 with one of their slogans being "Bush is _Out of Time_, but we're _Automatic For the People_," and they played the inauguration. Gee, must be important-important! Well, still no. But important enough to warrant you getting all pissy again, woo-hoo!
Seriously, find something important to do or something. Hell, put your apparently inexhaustible energies into writing the column you think this should be for the Mercury. My hat would be off to you.