7 Chinese Brothers

Where I work we have a music system with a huge catalog of bands and the idea is you add your preferred album to a playlist and you'll hear it at some point during the day. Well, someone put Reckoning on, knowing that I was an R.E.M. fan and, hours later, it just so happened that 7 Chinese Brothers came on sandwiched between two heavy rock songs and I remember thinking "Christ, I love this song but it sounds so weedy when placed next to two hard rock anthems"!

That was merely an observation! I still love the song, it's a really understated addition to Reckoning, far from being a classic but charming in its own way. I tackled this as part of my "Rickenbacker obsession" because I liked the layered guitars in the chorus and then the chiming notes during the middle 8. Plus, I like the way it's yet another early R.E.M. song where Mike Mills is playing melodic bass lines that are as vital as Peter's guitar.

I remember reading somewhere that Don Dixon had so much trouble getting a decent vocal performance out of Stipe on this track that he threw him the liner notes to The Revelaire's Joy Of Knowing Jesus which of course inspired the entertaining Voice Of Harold, he then performed the song in one take which is the one we hear on Reckoning.