R.E.M. is an American rock band started in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe and guitar player Peter Buck. R.E.M. was one of the first popular "alternative" rock bands, and gained early attention due to Stipe's unclear vocals, and Buck's unique guitar style.
Their first mainstream hit came in 1987 with the single "The One I Love," which is one of my all time favorite R.E.M. songs!!
Though I was a big fan of R.E.M. in High School, R.E.M. is a big part of many college memories of mine. Freshman year, I was pretty much a goodie two-shoes. I was uber serious about school, and pretty much followed all the rules and stayed inside the lines. My roommates, on the other hand, seemed to be living life to the fullest freshman year! And it's not that I regret being Miss Goodie Two-Shoes that year, as it did help me become the person I am now, but it did cause me to miss out on a few things ... one of which includes the R.E.M. concert that year.
Notre Dame did a great job of bringing big concerts to campus. When my friends found out that R.E.M. was coming that fall ... they were SO excited. And it's not that I WASN'T excited ... I just, in my Miss Goodie Two-Shoes mind, decided that that was a non-essential expense, and that I would save my money and not go to the concert. Dumb, dumb, dumb! So my friends camped out for tickets, and had an awesome time at the concert, and honestly ... I can't even remember what I did that night, or who I hung out with, but to this day, that is one of my few regrets from college!
Moving forward ... my Aunt bought me a guitar when I was in High School, and I took it with me to Notre Dame thinking that I would have time to take lessons. Time? What is that? So in lieu of taking lessons, a good friend of mine, who was an awesome guitar player and did not bring his with him to school, would come over and hang out in our room and jam on my guitar. Oh how I loved those jam sessions. He would play my guitar, and occasionally I would sing along. And, of course, one of my favorite songs that he would play on my guitar was "The One I Love" by R.E.M. Plus, it didn't hurt that I had quite a crush on the guy!
And my final "The One I Love" memory ... after I graduated from college, I dated a guy (whom I married and have been happily together with for almost 16 years!) who ran a bar for four years. And one of the many perks of running a bar is LOTS of concert tickets. One of the most memorable shows that we got tickets to in those four years was Bush at Riverport Ampitheater. My boyfriend was unable to go with me to the concert, as he had to work at the bar, and so I took my friend Lora with me. The tickets ended up being FRONT ROW seats, right in front of Gavin's mic. Ahhh, heaven. When he came out to play the first encore, he started with R.E.M.'s "The One I Love." He looked RIGHT AT Lora and I and sang the song to us. I swear I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
Of course, now that I have kids and try to expose them to as many retro songs as possible, they really like the R.E.M. song "It's the End of the World" ... and they love the fact that I know every word to this song!!
So I hope you've enjoyed my little walk down memory lane with R.E.M. and hope you enjoy a little "It's the End of the World" tunage!
Cheers!
Two Tidbits:
ReplyDelete1. I remember working the parking lot at the Arena and there was no crowd for REM, like there were other shows.
2. My Wife from Georgia, always goes crazy silly, when an REM song comes on.
I have no idea if there was a big crowd at ND for R.E.M. or not ... but everyone that I've since talked to who was at that show always RAVES about how great that show was!
ReplyDeleteAnd I too always get "happy" when I hear a R.E.M. song!! :)