THE
FLOWERS OF GUATEMALA
R. E. M. (MICHAEL STIPE)
SONGWRITERS: BILL
BERRY; MICHAEL STIPE; MIKE MILLS & PETER BUCK
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: LIFES RICH PAGEANT
LABEL: I. R. S. RECORDS
GENRE: ALTERNATIVE ROCK
YEAR: 1986
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia,
formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry,
guitarist Peter Buck,
bassist Mike Mills,
and lead vocalist Michael Stipe who were students at the University
of Georgia. Liner notes from some of the
band's albums list attorney Bertis
Downs and manager Jefferson Holt as non-musical members. One of the first alternative rock bands, R.E.M. was noted for Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style; Stipe's distinctive vocal quality, unique stage
presence, and obscure lyrics; Mills's melodic bass lines and backing vocals;
and Berry's tight, economical drumming style. In the early 1990s, other alternative rock acts such as Nirvana and Pavement viewed R.E.M. as a pioneer of the genre. After Berry left the band in
1997, the band continued its career in the 2000s with mixed critical and
commercial success. The band broke up amicably in 2011 with
members devoting time to solo projects after having sold more than 85 million
albums worldwide and becoming one of the world's best-selling music artists.
R.E.M. released its first single, "Radio Free Europe", in 1981 on the
independent record label Hib-Tone. It was
followed by the Chronic Town EP in 1982, the band's first release on I.R.S. Records.
In 1983, the group released its critically acclaimed debut album, Murmur,
and built its reputation over the next few years through releases every year
from 1984 to 1988: Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Lifes
Rich Pageant, Document and Green,
including an intermittent b-side compilation Dead Letter Office. Don
Dixon and Mitch Easter produced their first two albums, Joe Boyd handled production on Fables of the Reconstruction and Don Gehman produced Life's Rich Pageant. Thereafter, R.E.M. settled on Scott Litt as producer for the next 10 years during the band's most
successful period of their career. They also started co-producing their material and playing
other instruments in the studio apart from the main ones they play. With
constant touring, and the support of college
radio following years of underground
success, R.E.M. achieved a mainstream hit with the 1987 single "The One I Love". The group signed to Warner
Bros. Records in 1988 and began to espouse
political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.
R.E.M.'s most commercially successful albums,
Out
of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), put
them in the vanguard of alternative rock just as it was becoming mainstream. Out
of Time received seven nominations at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards, and
lead single "Losing
My Religion", was R.E.M.'s
highest-charting and best-selling hit. Monster (1994) continued its run of success.
The band began its first tour in six years to support the album; the tour was
marred by medical emergencies suffered by three of the band members. In 1996,
R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported US$80 million, at the
time the most expensive recording contract ever. The tour was productive and
the band recorded the following album mostly during soundchecks. The
resulting record, New
Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), is hailed as the
band's last great album and the members' favorite, growing in cult status over
the years. Berry left the band the following year, and Stipe, Buck, and Mills
continued as a musical trio, supplemented by studio and live musicians, such as
multi-instrumentalists Scott
McCaughey and Ken Stringfellow and drummers Joey
Waronker and Bill Rieflin.
They also parted
ways with their longtime manager Jefferson Holt and band's attorney Bertis
Downs assumed managerial duties. Seeking to also renovate their
sound, the band stopped working with Scott Litt, co-producer and contributor to
six of their studio albums and hired Pat McCarthy as co-producer, who had
participated before that as mixer and engineer on their last two albums.
After the electronic experimental direction
of Up (1998) that was commercially unsuccessful, Reveal (2001) was referred to as "a conscious return to their classic
sound" which received general acclaim. In 2007, the band was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in its
first year of eligibility and Berry reunited with the band for the ceremony and
to record a cover of John Lennon's
"#9 Dream"
for the compilation album Instant Karma: The Amnesty
International Campaign to Save Darfur to
benefit Amnesty
International's campaign to alleviate the Darfur conflict.
Looking for a change of sound after lukewarm reception for Around the Sun (2004), the band collaborated with co-producer Jacknife Lee on their last two studio albums—the well-received Accelerate (2008) and Collapse into Now (2011)—as well as their first live albums after decades of touring. R.E.M. disbanded amicably in
September 2011, with former members having continued with various musical
projects, and several live and archival albums have since been released.
Lifes Rich Pageant is the fourth studio album
by the American alternative rock band R.E.M.,
released on July 28, 1986. R.E.M. chose Don Gehman to produce the album, which was recorded at John Mellencamp's
Belmont Mall Studios in Belmont, Indiana.
This was the only album the band recorded with Gehman, who moved them from the
more obscure and dense sound of their earlier albums to an accessible, hard rock-influenced
quality. The album was well-received critically.
I took a picture that
I'll have to send
People here are friendly and content
People here are colorful and bright
The flowers often bloom at night
Amanita is the name
The flowers cover everything
The flowers cover everything
There's something
here I find hard to ignore
There's something that I've never seen before
Amanita is the name they cover over everything
The flowers cover
everything
They cover over everything (Amanita is the name)
The flowers cover everything
Don't look into the
sun
Don't look into the
sun
There's something
that I've never seen before
The flowers often bloom at night
Amanita is the name they cover over everything.
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