This week marks the 25th anniversary of the release of my personal #1 favorite album of all time - Fables Of The Reconstruction by R.E.M. Wow - 25 years. The summer of 1985 was possibly the darkest period of my life. My parental units were going through a separation, and I had gone away to camp for 6 weeks to be a CIT. I was 15 and already a confused enough kid as it was without throwing in the whole divorce issue. You folks are gonna have to bear with me if you want to get to the end of this post, because it represents what might be the most critical time of my life, albeit not necessarily a happy one.
I knew that Fables was going to be released shortly after my arrival at camp, so I made a buddy promise to record it onto a cassette and mail it to me when it came out (keep in mind that this a long time before downloading music and/or even the advent of CD's). When I finally got my hands on the tape, it never left my Sony Walkman for the rest of the summer. I walked around aimlessly listening to it over and over, mesmerized by the dark and murky sound that I heard (despite this, I did a good enough job for them to ask me back the next summer as a junior counselor). Later on, through interviews with the band, I came to find out that the recording of the album was a dark period for them as well. This certainly came through in the music. R.E.M. had arrived in England to record the album, just a scant few months after coming off the road after 4 years of non-stop touring. Like the band, I felt detached, scared and alone, and Fables either helped or enhanced my mood, depending on the day. Either way, it got me through that summer and many more.
Unlike their previous releases, Fables did not open with a bouncy, upbeat rocker. "Feeling Gravitys Pull" (apostrophe intentionally omitted by the band) was eerie and disjointed, setting the tone for the album with Peter Buck's creepy guitar in the forefront - and topped off by a string quartet, of all things. Next was "Maps And Legends", a brooding, meandering midtempo number that drew inspiration from the legendary GA folk artist, Howard Finster. Where was this album going anyway? Then came the classic one-two punch of "Driver 8" and "Life And How To Live It". "Driver 8" was a quintessential R.E.M. song, complete with minor chords, vivid imagery and "WTF is Michael talking about" lyrics.
Many people have asked me over the years what my favorite song is, and I usually give them a look of disdain, as if they were asking someone to choose their favorite child. But, in all honesty, there's always been one song that I really would have to put above all others, and that is "Life And How To Live It". This song is just it for me. If I had to live the rest of my life with this song looping over and over in my head, I wouldn't complain. The mysterious guitar intro, the melody, the tempo, the lyrics, the background vocals, the looping bass line, the breakdown in the middle, the ending - the whole song struck a chord deep inside of me and has never let go. It is as perfect a song - for me - that has ever been. And, naturally, I had no clue at the time what Michael Stipe was singing about. But, like so many of their other songs, that fact actually worked in my favor, because I interpreted and got exactly what I needed out of that song to apply to what I was feeling and experiencing at the time. I felt, through the few words and phrases I could understand (this was also years before you could just look up lyrics online), that Stipe was speaking to me - that it described a man and his life that had run amok.
"Old Man Kensey" is a dark legend intertwined with an eerie rhythm track. The next song, which kicked off Side 2, came out of left field. At first listen, "Can't Get There From Here" became the band's first "HUH?" song. Here we find R.E.M. gettin' down with some Memphis soul - a coulda/shoulda been hit. "Green Grow The Rushes" is a beautiful song with one of Peter Buck's signature two note guitar melodies (a la "7 Chinese Bros." and "Letter Never Sent" off of Reckoning"). It also contains another signature bit: Michael Stipes "la la la's" leading into a what is best described as a "hanging from the mic for dear life" vocal plea of desperation at the end, which was fairly common back then.
From here, things get interesting. "Kohoutek" is quite a confusing song to listen to without staring at a lyric sheet, as Stipe's vocals are buried deeper in the track than they had ever been before or since. The most murky, dark and mysterious tune on the album, "Kohoutek" causes significant brain swell, especially when listened to in the dark. Next is an almost punk song, at least in terms of tempo. "Auctioneer (Another Engine)", moves at a high speed train's pace before suddenly halting at the stop of a dime. But it's fun as hell to listen to.
If the aforementioned "Life And How To Live It" is my #1-a, then the penultimate track, "Good Advices" is my #1-b. Even though the lyrics were written before the band's trek to England for the album's recording, Stipe wrote of a longing sense of home. The few snippets that I could comprehend, I took to heart: "Home is a long way away...I'd like it here if I could leave and see you from a long way away...At the end of the day, when there are no friends, when there are no lovers, who are you going to call for". Ironically, I didn't want to go home at the time - I wanted to stay where I was. To me, camp was home, and I knew IT would feel like a long way away when I got back to my real home.
The final track is "Wendell Gee", a simple, country-rock song that brings an interesting, yet appropriate closure to what would become the most important album of my life. I've probably listened to this album a thousand times through in the 25 years since its release, and it never gets old. Never. But the fact of the matter is that this album probably ranks as the least favorite for most R.E.M. fans, which has always rankled me. As far as I'm concerned, these folks can take their "Losing My Religion" CD singles and go jump off a cliff. Thanks for indulging me, and I beg your pardon for getting WAY too personal.
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