Celebrating Lifes Rich Pageant

On the 29th anniversary of the release of Lifes Rich Pageant allow me to expound further on why Lifes Rich Pageant is so damn good. Why I have owned it on CD, LP, remastered deluxe CD, and remastered for iTunes. It explains why I have seen this band 10 (11, 12?) times, why I took a pilgrimage of sorts with Peter Sklar to Athens to visit R.E.M. and why being a fan has meant so much to me. If it was available as a title, it would be the name of this under used blog. Lifes Rich is an old friend who always greets me. 

Look at the album art.

Like most early R.E.M it's cryptic, mysterious, it's missing an apostrophe in Lifes, it's the only R.E.M. album produced by Don Gehman, it has half of Bill Berry's face on the cover with his giant eyebrows. I love the font. Side A is referred to as the Dinner Side and Side B is the Supper Side. As usual there were no lyrics included, and on this album the track order is deliberately in the wrong order and leaves off Superman and Underneath the Bunker. Some of the tracks listed have a small quote from that track to the right of it as a tease or a reminder. Others are a comment on the track, Stipe even laments his throat hurts after I Believe. Almost every track comes in under 4 minutes and the whole album is under 40 minutes (fitting perfectly on one side of C90 for you tapers). It's an album that defied all conventions to me, but set a new standard.

This is the album that truly set R.E.M. as my band, as the one that mattered over all other bands to this day. I don't quite recall how I found it in 1986 - maybe it was Fall on Me on MTV https://youtu.be/lf6vCjtaV1k or maybe it was a review in Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/lifes-rich-pageant-19860828 and possibly it was Neil Rigler but playing that CD from the first roar of Begin The Begin it catapults (pun intended) R.E.M. from the mysterious southern jangle into indie rock territory with Bill Berry's ferocious drum playing. Quickly followed up by the call to action in These Days this one-two punch with Peter Buck's driving guitar, Stipe's ever mysterious lyrics, and Mike Mills harmony easily cements this in my rock hall of fame. And just as your adrenaline is coursing through your veins, the album tones back to easily the most gorgeous of R.E.M. songs Fall on Me. Look, I've been a fan for 30 years now of this band, and I'm still not sure what it means, but each time that initial guitar strums, I'm right back at the same place loving this album.

Cuyahoga continues the gorgeous melody telling a tale of an America that no longer exists, with refrains about "take a picture here, take a souvenir." Just listen to Mike Mills bass playing that keeps you flowing down that river and then Berry's drumming brings you back to attention. Hyena puts us back into 4th gear. There's some sweet piano in the introduction and the band moves us forward haunting with "the town is safe again tonight" and that the only the only thing to fear is fearlessness, harmonies swell and there is something oddly heroic about Hyena. All under 3 minutes.

And then there's Underneath the Bunker. It's not listed. It makes no sense. It's like a track from some obscure foreign film. It has Stipe singing likely through a megaphone. It has a sense of humor. It closes out the Dinner side

Supper begins with The Flowers of Guatemala. How gorgeous is this track! It's a slow dance that builds up to it's lush conclusion. It sounds like it refers simply to a trip and a moment overtaken by just lush greenery. I think just like this album "there's something here I find hard to ignore, there's something that I've never seen before". And Mills harmonizes so perfectly with Stipe seguing into another Buck solo into the tracks high point before resting gently with the same guitar jangle and triangle ending that started the track. Underrated in the R.E.M. canon and simply perfect.

I Believe starts with a banjo reminding us that these are southern rockers after all. Stipe convinces us that he believes in coyotes and change. Buck's jangly Rickenbacker continues throughout the song. It's shiny and happy in the right way.

What if we give it away? has earnestness in Stipe's voice throughout a solid track then also ends with a note that sounds like the question Stipe asks throughout the song. And as you contemplate the question, the band roars back with a barn-burner Just A Touch. It starts with feedback, Stipe railing on about the world and name checking people we don't even know. It moves like a Jerry Lee Lewis song on an old wooden roller coaster. Seriously. It rumbles and rattles throughout, old timey piano playing, hoots and hollers abound and it ends with the proclamation "I can't see where to worship Popeye, love Al Green, I can't see, I'm so young, I'm so goddamn young" You're exhausted after the ride and leave the Jerry Lee roller coaster shaken but wanting more.

But you don't get more - you get Swan Swan H - not hummingbird, H. A spooky campfire tale about something long gone where the whiskey is water and the water is wine. Pump organ or accordion plays in the background and we're left to question what noisy cats are we. Seriously. Just as Dinner ends with the Bunker, Supper ends with this track that sounds like a relic from long ago.

And then you think we're done. At least the album's listing would suggest otherwise. But this strange low scratchy radio transmission begins in a foreign language (which after the interweb came along I discovered was from a japanese string pull Godzilla doll and says "This is a special news report. Godzilla has been sighted in Tokyo Bay. The attack on it by the Self-Defense Force has been useless. He is heading towards the city. Aaaaaaaaagh...." that then introduces a song that has become my ring tone and even once or twice my intro music at our own big event. The guitar strums, the drums kick in, and Mike Mills sings in that great nasely voice that "I am Superman and I know what's happening ... I can do anything" and it's about how he's better than the guy some other girl is going out with. It's a 1969 song written by The Clique but forever ingrained in my R.E.M. soul. I even saw it played at Rutgers in 1987 (10,000 Maniacs opened). It's a perfect rock-pop single.

There are better R.E.M. albums, there are more perfect R.E.M. albums, some are lush, some are critically acclaimed. But this one - this is my favorite. I believe in Lifes Rich Pageant and love all 38 minutes of this each and every time.

Give it a listen today. And listen loud.

https://itun.es/us/8fQuZ

https://open.spotify.com/album/5utjCgJfaqaOqfHGMzD9cB