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.