A Tribute...Weeks too late
Music has the power to move you, great music has the power to alter your life, change your thoughts, even, arguably become a better person. To me, life without music is not a life at all. I have been fortunate to have loved so many different bands and hopefully there will be other musicians in the future that may inspire me as much as the ones that have come before them, and they drastically outweigh the musicians of the present.
I categorise bands into two types; Those whose music is timeless and has been created before I was born or I became aware of their talents, such as the great bands of the 60/70's, like Pink Floyd, Like the Beatles. Who, stride colossal like of the musical world. The second category can at times, not equate to those in the first, in terms of talent, but I have developed a more sentimental attachment to them, as I was fortunate enough to have grown with them as their music has grown over the years. Their music has been contemporary to my life and has essentially provided the soundtrack to my memories. One such band, has recently disbanded.
This band, was called REM and for one fine moment between, 1991-1996 they could be argued, that with U2 they were the biggest and most commercially popular band on the planet. Indeed in 1996 they signed the biggest recording contract in history, proof positive that they strode the world of music like colossus'. In 1992 I was 15 and I had begun to be interested in more 'alternative' sounds and this year seemed to be the spring from which most of my musical influence and melancholy sprang from. Family was destroyed, finally and for that summer, Automatic for the people, vied with Achth
ung baby for air time. Both albums showed two bands, exercising demons in their music. Rebelling against the moronic, 'happy' pop culture that seemed to be resurgent at the time. It was also the year that saw the birth of a 'grunge' band who, have grown like me, older, not neccessarily wiser, but have matured into something more different that stood in 1991. That was Pearl Jam, but they belong to another story. This story is REM and how they bought though into music and applied a certain level of realism and seriousness that seemed to be missing. Here's a sample from their masterpiece.
Not the most recognised track from the album, but to me one of the most powerful as a fifteen year old youth. I had never been exposed to this kind of music before. I listen to this track and I still remember the stereo I first played it on and felt like I had discovered something rare and wonderful. I think this is one of the blessings of youth that we soon forget, like a child, discover of new things and new concepts provides so much pleasure, but as we age, those new things, new concepts become thinner and thinner on the ground and pleasure is no more in everything we see and do because we have seen and done it. Like discovering a new author and then devouring their whole 'corpus'. once you've done that, they can no longer be discovered any more. REM where one of those cultural reference points. My friends and I used to sit around in the evening and listen and discuss what we were listening to. This no longer happens. That is a sad thing, I miss those times, terribly.
Of course, when you discuss Automatic for the people, there is as always that massive elephant in the room. A little like, 'One' from U2's Achtung baby, a song which at the time dominated the others creatively and commercially, or so the opinions opined. Automatic suffered from the one track, which most everybody has heard and that is this one;
It is of course, 'everybody hurts', the REM classic track. There is an interview with the band whereby they describe how the song itself, was specifically aimed for 'teenagers', who, having been there myself at some point I seem to remember and as mentioned before 1992-4 was not perhaps the easiest of times for me. It never is when your family life, the one thing that, as a child and a young adult remains the same is revealed to be nothing more than a fake, is taken from you by the ones you love. Perhaps, the one thing I have still never really come to terms with is how, speaking now as a father and a parent of varying levels of success and having an oversight of the parent/child bond, is how an individual can inflict such pain on an innocent life, one who has known only that you will always be there and have always been there and yet now, you no longer wish to be. How can you not care enough or love enough to try to change, if change is needed to be with your family, the very bedrock and reason you get out of bed in the morning. Teenagers tend to aggrandise their problems to the level that no one has ever experienced before and how, 'teenage angst' as Placebo would say, can drive vulnerable children into shells of protection from which they may never emerge, or when they do the damage has already been done and they are altered beyond recognition, preyed on by darkness. Sometimes these emotions are overplayed, but like most things perception is not generally the truth but at times, being a teenager can be the loneliest of places. I would never wish to be of that age again. Yet, there was a comfort in this music and there was a hope as the message says, 'everybody' hurts, sometimes and they do. I sometimes cringe at my teenage behaviour, the over-reactions and the heliocentric nature of my existence at times which could be neither good nor pleasant, but I was not the worst and was sometimes pretty good. But it is never easy finding your place in the world, perhaps it is more difficult when you have no one to turn too for that advice and reassurance. From an early age I have been a resource of 'one'. At times because I have been unwilling to accept offered help, I have to admit, but more often because it was just 'me'.
It is probably the reason as to why, now I am approaching middle age, I am still, at times, only confident in my 'resource'. I am the only person who hasn't let me down. Rightly or wrongly I have a track record of delivering what I need. This is changing, it does when you are given the opportunity's I have been given in the last five years of having to share, both existence and ego with another. At times it is not a comfortable fit but it can be made to work. It does require effort and endurance.
Though a constant throughout life has been the ability to fall into the soundtracks of ones life, as a teenager and as an older person. I consider at times myself most fortunate that those musical influences are still contemporary and at times a cornerstone of my cultural reference points. It is that, just every now and again, when such an institution (and music bands can be), reach a natural break and when after 20 years they will no longer be there, no longer helping you with their music, their thoughts and creativity which you can assume to be your own, life seems a little more lonely than the day before. So that's the tribute, to the glory that was REM's past, to the parting of the ways and hoping that another may yet take their place.
This band, was called REM and for one fine moment between, 1991-1996 they could be argued, that with U2 they were the biggest and most commercially popular band on the planet. Indeed in 1996 they signed the biggest recording contract in history, proof positive that they strode the world of music like colossus'. In 1992 I was 15 and I had begun to be interested in more 'alternative' sounds and this year seemed to be the spring from which most of my musical influence and melancholy sprang from. Family was destroyed, finally and for that summer, Automatic for the people, vied with Achth
ung baby for air time. Both albums showed two bands, exercising demons in their music. Rebelling against the moronic, 'happy' pop culture that seemed to be resurgent at the time. It was also the year that saw the birth of a 'grunge' band who, have grown like me, older, not neccessarily wiser, but have matured into something more different that stood in 1991. That was Pearl Jam, but they belong to another story. This story is REM and how they bought though into music and applied a certain level of realism and seriousness that seemed to be missing. Here's a sample from their masterpiece.
Not the most recognised track from the album, but to me one of the most powerful as a fifteen year old youth. I had never been exposed to this kind of music before. I listen to this track and I still remember the stereo I first played it on and felt like I had discovered something rare and wonderful. I think this is one of the blessings of youth that we soon forget, like a child, discover of new things and new concepts provides so much pleasure, but as we age, those new things, new concepts become thinner and thinner on the ground and pleasure is no more in everything we see and do because we have seen and done it. Like discovering a new author and then devouring their whole 'corpus'. once you've done that, they can no longer be discovered any more. REM where one of those cultural reference points. My friends and I used to sit around in the evening and listen and discuss what we were listening to. This no longer happens. That is a sad thing, I miss those times, terribly.
Of course, when you discuss Automatic for the people, there is as always that massive elephant in the room. A little like, 'One' from U2's Achtung baby, a song which at the time dominated the others creatively and commercially, or so the opinions opined. Automatic suffered from the one track, which most everybody has heard and that is this one;
It is of course, 'everybody hurts', the REM classic track. There is an interview with the band whereby they describe how the song itself, was specifically aimed for 'teenagers', who, having been there myself at some point I seem to remember and as mentioned before 1992-4 was not perhaps the easiest of times for me. It never is when your family life, the one thing that, as a child and a young adult remains the same is revealed to be nothing more than a fake, is taken from you by the ones you love. Perhaps, the one thing I have still never really come to terms with is how, speaking now as a father and a parent of varying levels of success and having an oversight of the parent/child bond, is how an individual can inflict such pain on an innocent life, one who has known only that you will always be there and have always been there and yet now, you no longer wish to be. How can you not care enough or love enough to try to change, if change is needed to be with your family, the very bedrock and reason you get out of bed in the morning. Teenagers tend to aggrandise their problems to the level that no one has ever experienced before and how, 'teenage angst' as Placebo would say, can drive vulnerable children into shells of protection from which they may never emerge, or when they do the damage has already been done and they are altered beyond recognition, preyed on by darkness. Sometimes these emotions are overplayed, but like most things perception is not generally the truth but at times, being a teenager can be the loneliest of places. I would never wish to be of that age again. Yet, there was a comfort in this music and there was a hope as the message says, 'everybody' hurts, sometimes and they do. I sometimes cringe at my teenage behaviour, the over-reactions and the heliocentric nature of my existence at times which could be neither good nor pleasant, but I was not the worst and was sometimes pretty good. But it is never easy finding your place in the world, perhaps it is more difficult when you have no one to turn too for that advice and reassurance. From an early age I have been a resource of 'one'. At times because I have been unwilling to accept offered help, I have to admit, but more often because it was just 'me'.
It is probably the reason as to why, now I am approaching middle age, I am still, at times, only confident in my 'resource'. I am the only person who hasn't let me down. Rightly or wrongly I have a track record of delivering what I need. This is changing, it does when you are given the opportunity's I have been given in the last five years of having to share, both existence and ego with another. At times it is not a comfortable fit but it can be made to work. It does require effort and endurance.
Though a constant throughout life has been the ability to fall into the soundtracks of ones life, as a teenager and as an older person. I consider at times myself most fortunate that those musical influences are still contemporary and at times a cornerstone of my cultural reference points. It is that, just every now and again, when such an institution (and music bands can be), reach a natural break and when after 20 years they will no longer be there, no longer helping you with their music, their thoughts and creativity which you can assume to be your own, life seems a little more lonely than the day before. So that's the tribute, to the glory that was REM's past, to the parting of the ways and hoping that another may yet take their place.
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