Pre-Murmur songs

R.E.M. (1980-2011) Bootlegs
1

Im working on a compilation of Pre-Murmur songs. Just for personal use and perhaps to share overhere :wink:

Tracks like those on their first rehearsal space demo:
Dangerous Times / All The Right Friends / Different Girl / Narrator / Just A Touch / Baby I / Mystery To Me / Permanent Vacation

Other tracks from 1980-1981 are:
Schéhérazade [Nikolay Rimsky-Koraskov cover ?]
Lisa Says [The Velvet Underground cover??]
Chappaquiddick (She said)
Mediocrity
Body Count
Nervous Breakdown
Action
hey hey Nadine
Skank
That Beat
Ha (we got paid for it)
A girl like you [The Young Rascals cover ??]
Wait
Ive Got A Charm

I don’t think those covers are actually covers. Since the original tracks are different :wink:

But Im looking for an expert to help me with this! Who has any more insights on those tracks?

-Are they original REM compositions?
-Am I missing some?
-Any info on those rehearsal space demo? Is it 4-track?

Thanks!!! :slight_smile:

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I don’t think A Girl Like You is a Young Rascals cover, nor is Lisa Says a Velvet Underground cover.

3

Agreed. Probably none of these are covers, right?

4

I’d suggest posing your question here:

http://remtimeline.com/listentome/

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From all I know, all of those were R.E.M. originals that were discarded before Chronic Town because, according to the band, they were “not serious enough compositions” or something to that effect – except for “Just a touch”, which became an actual finished song on LRP, “All the right friends”, which got two different proper recordings, “Narrator”, which became a Hindu Love Gods track (R.E.M. minus Stipe, plus Warren Zevon) and, kinda, “Permanent vacation”, which was much later recorded live in studio as an “Itunes Original”.

Those songs have always fascinated me, and a few of them are actually really good and catchy, like “That beat”, and could easily have been recorded as b-sides, at least.

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Agreed. Some of those could have been recorded as fun b-sides.

Im working on a compilation set for those recordings. It looking very promising, but will take a while to complete. When done Ill share it with you guys.

I just want to know if I missed something? :slight_smile:

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One I don’t see listed is sometimes labelled as an early version of Pilgrimage (only a few words in common) also known as “September Song.”

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I’ll send you here a few screenshots of live sets and the such that I have here. You can check and add stuff as you see fit:

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First part of this project is done. Ill upload them soon

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noticed recently an attempt to rechristen “ha (we get paid for it)” (already an apocryphal title) to “us and you” and i’d like to call it out and put a stop to it :slight_smile:

on the bootleg, stipe introduces it as “this is a new song
 to us and you,” and i guess someone misheard it. it probably doesn’t have a official title but it’s definitely not “us and you.” i think it bothers me because that is a really un-r.e.m. title.

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