Cuyahoga

I have no idea why it's taken me so long to cover this song. Always have loved it, a gorgeous strummed bass guitar riff and some interesting bass parts in the bridge and chorus too. The verse features a really delicate guitar part panned far left (so often played incorrectly live by Peter Buck himself in future performances) and some lovely jangly, layered guitars in the chorus.

I deliberately left out the piano and synth parts from Lifes Rich Pageant through my appreciation for the stripped down Athens demo version.

I visited Ohio in 2008 and bored everyone with my uncharacteristic knowledge of the Cuyahoga river and its pollution problems. Boring people with R.E.M. based trivia is becoming something I'm doing more and more these days…

Vocally, I've always loved this song as I believe it stands as the perfect mid point between the undecipherable mumbler in Fables and the emerging extrovert and political spokesman of Document.

I Believe

Another great Lifes Rich Pageant song I've been tempted by in the past. This super-fast song just brims with energy and was a joy to put together.

Though the drums and bass are as per the album version I've gone with the Tourfilm version for the way I treat the main guitar. On the album the riff that opens the song dies away and comes back whereas played live on Tourfilm the guitar sound is more at the forefront, a lot dirtier and less precise.

Green Grow The Rushes

A nice little song which almost completes my task of covering all songs from Fables Of The Reconstruction, with only Can't Get There From Here to go, should I decide to take this on.

My first memories of this song were hearing it on The Best Of R.E.M. on cassette in the early nineties. I remember being struck by, and impressed, how a rock band in their mid 20's could create a song as mellow and non-macho as this. It was around the time of grunge with all the lads at school opting for the loudest, most masculine music possible whereas the band I liked wrote songs like Green Grow The Rushes!

Instrumentally it's rather basic, there's nothing particularly complex going on with the drums or bass guitar, just a jangly electric guitar weaving it's way through the song towards the closest thing the song has to a climax right at the end. The one finger guitar riff in the bridge is reminiscent of that in 7 Chinese Brothers.