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Editor's Note: This blog was contributed by Shaun Rogan. Be sure to read his previous blogs for Zoom In Online: A Trip Thru Hell with the C.A. Quintet and Lux Interior (1946-2009): A True Legend of Rock N Roll.

Skipping Down the Nature Trail:
The Invention of College Rock
REM Murmur REDUX

Artist: R.E.M.
Title: Murmur
Original release: IRS Records 1983
Deluxe 2cd reissue: IRS Records 2009

FLASHBACK TO MY LIFE

Balmy summers in 1984. REM were crawling out of the speakers of the cheap set up in my bedroom. Murky. Summery. Beautiful, Mysterious. Bold.

Those are all words that would accompany many subsequent releases until their gradual implosion in post-major label sign up to Warner Brothers. The dream faded with the release of Green in 1990. A big fat RAWK record. Somehow the symmetry between music and environment was irrevocably lost, regardless of the sporadic brilliance that followed. REM were meant to be buried deep in the thicket of college radio and pseudo rock magazines, It was their domain, their habitat. Their sound was organic and timeless as illustrated by the foliage decorating the sleeve. We cherished them in the way we cherished quiet moments alone, longing for a better way, a new way.

REM - MURMUR DELUXE REISSUE IN THE STORES NOW!

No matter, we lost them to corporate worldwide, U2 with a tune, whoredom. For about 6 or 7 years REM were probably the coolest band in the world. No. Correction, REM were the coolest band in the world. Period. Yes you will hear from some that Automatic for the People was the pinnacle of their career, but that is fatuous myopia. They had already crossed over into something that was unrecognizable from their previous incarnation as purveyors of mysterious and maddeningly tuneful and charming guitar rock. Yes, that right, you heard. CHARMING. Michael Stipe's beautiful slurred mumbling vocals propelled by Mike Mills ever tuneful bass runs and Peter Buck's spiraling axis of picked Rickenbacker chimes. It was perfect. For a while.

So, to the reissue of their touchstone debut long player, Murmur. Put plainly, it's a masterpiece of Southern Gothic underground rock. I could end the piece right here and now, merely instructing you to go get it. However, that would be cheap, and I know you want me to elaborate. No, my dear reader I am going to take you back to the halcyon days of REM as a true musical force. I am going to talk about the passion and how the reissue of Murmur rights some wrongs but also opens up new vistas on the first proper opening gambit of what became a long strange trip from the backwaters of Athens, Georgia to the stadiums of the world.

There was a time before REM. A time before chiming guitars. A time which unless you owned records by Big Star or The Byrds you would never know the beauty of chiming Rickenbackers and beautifully executed power pop.

REM blasted out a new frontier of musical language. One of hope, of beauty, of mystery and melody. REM were once true musical pioneers. Suspend your disbelief - it's the truth, brothers and sisters.

So finally onto the reissue of the debut. Of Murmur.

It's been remixed. It's been cleaned up. It's been polished from raw origins into a sparkling gem of modern music. Some may say this is to its detriment. And to a degree I would concur. However, I think of this as a new treatment. An addition. I wouldn't buy this as an alternative to the original vinyl issue but as a companion. I promise I will review the record for you eventually. In fact, I already am so pipe down. I am writing creatively for chrissakes.

REM - Murmur - Side 1

Side one opens with "Radio Free Europe." The song was originally the lead side of the very first REM 45, recorded for micro independent label, Hib Tone in 1982. I believe the master is the same version but cleaned up and with overdubs, but can't be sure. Anyway it sets the coordinates for all that will follow. Stipe intones in a total blur about being "straight off the bus" and "calling all in transit." I am sure it has many interpretations, but none of which can substitute the pure joy of the driving melody and dashes of vocal colour. It's a call to arms. The kind that Dave Grohl tried to shout in his ham-fisted Foo Fighters lead single "This Is A Call" but to far more limited effect. This was the real deal baby. This was audacious, and out of time. This was REM. The reissue sparkles real bright compared to the overall murkiness of the original mix - a feature that is repeated throughout the remastered deluxe version. It's a bit like watching the sun disintegrate a raincloud. Glorious and uplifting. It was quickly followed through by the epic journey of "Pilgrimage" with its simple guitar motif and vaguely mystic incantations courtesy of Stipe that may or may not have meant a damn thing. It refers to a "two headed cow" - me neither. Needless to say it remains a classic piece of songwriting, all shimmering guitars and beautiful harmonies.

"Laughing" continues with the general theme of impenetrable 'mood pieces'. Things surface a little more clearly with "Talk About the Passion" the closest thing to a single this record would ever give up. Still, it's obtuse and its sentiment that "not everyone can carry the weight of the world" would be a recurring theme which would reach its nadir in the funeral REM singalong "Everybody Hurts" some ten years later. An example of how a band can lose it so totally that they become a parody of themselves.

Thank Christ it's still 1983 on this record and REM keep pumping out perfectly formed 3 or 4 minute masterpieces. They flow thick and fast on this record. "Moral Kiosk" and the beautfifully reflective "Perfect Circle" bookend the end of side one of the orginal vinyl outing. The latter being particularly affecting with its simple piano lead refrain. Gorgeous. Remember, REM before the bombast, REM were capable of acts of unspeakable beauty.  Unspeakable, to the point that Michael Stipe would disguise his lyrics to the point of impenetrability. "Perfect Circle" dissolves into a mist of wails and reverb. It could be the prettiest thing they ever wrote.

REM - Murmur - Side 2

Side 2 kicks off with a real humdinger, "Catapult" which basically reflects on childhood pranks and staying up late and getting away with it. A perfect little pop song, that of course was far too left field to ever be a perfect little pop song. This little confection is followed by a cynical love song that would become a staple subject matter of Stipe's, but is most notably realised in the utterly spiteful "One I Love." Of course none of the bozo record buying public could get their heads around it, and instead took to be a heart on sleeve delcaration of blind devotion. "Sitting Still" revolves around one of Peter Buck's most enchanting spinning guitar motifs and once you've heard it you just wanna hear it over and over..."9-9" follows and we enter the truly dark and terrifying REM complexes first visited on "Chronic Town" in the shape of "Wolves, Lower", which incidentally in the opinion of this writer remains the greatest piece of music the band have EVER recorded. "9-9" occupies a semi-world of barely recognized suggestion and almost willful obscurity, the only audible line being Stipe dementedly repeating the phrase "conversation fear" over and over and over. It's spooky, it's unsettling and it is completely entrancing. Haunted and haunting.

We are now in the home straight. "Shaking Through" is a straight ahead pop song quickly followed by the rather odd (fellows) ditty "We Walk" which goes precisely nowhere for its entire duration but beguiles nevertheless. This leaves us with the final statement of Murmur. The final track is completely colossal. It is called "West of the Fields," and it raises all kinds of phantasmagorical images of barely seen peripheral vision in darkened woodland, of half heard conversations, of barely recalled dreams, of being in someplace West of the fields. Its blurred call and response chorus/bridge builds to an uncomfortable climax then dissipates into the ether.

The importance of Murmur cannot be underestimated. No one had made a record of that style in a decade and even when they did it was roundly ignored. The reissue is a companion to the original release. It is so significantly different in its sonic tone as to be a different record. Some may mourn its clarity but I would prefer to think it's celebrated as a great piece of fable reconstruction.

The bonus live disc recalls a hot show from Toronto in 1983. The band tear through several of the numbers on the studio record as well as offering some tasters for future victories from 'Reckoning'. It has great sound quality and some very droll intersong banter from Stipe. A great addition to the canon given that live REM commercial releases wouldn't surface until well into their corporate rock fiefdom phase.

So there we have it. A new Murmur. Still sounding like it could be the start of something massive. Which in fact it was. Not just for REM but for alternative rock in general. This kicked the door open like nothing before or since. Buy the ticket and get on the bus to nowhere.

Postscript: This blog is dedicated to Peter Buck, who reinvigorated the sound of the electric guitar and who is a Southern gentleman of the highest order.

Shaun Rogan has been an avid collector of rare and esoteric sounds for over 25 years. In music terms, he cut his teeth with pioneering industrial noise terrorists God in the late 1980's sharing stages with the likes of Henry Rollins, Butthole Surfers and My Bloody Valentine. He currently slings a guitar with South London punk veterans The Phobics and has his own garage-psyche ensemble, The Call Ons.

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