Did you know that the 1994 REM song What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? has it’s origins in a 1986 attack on Dan Rather by a deranged man distrustful of the media, repeating the phrase “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
So, what are your favorite REM songs? Any stories, personal or otherwise that accompany them? Anyone ever seen them in concert? The floor is yours.
Without a doubt. One of my favorite songs period.
R.E.M. - Leave (Alternate Version) (Official Audio) - YouTube
One of my favourite bands. Saw them live often in the '90s as I was working in shows production.
Saw them on a beautiful unplugged showcase for the press one night in Milan promoting Automatic For The People.
They wrote many brilliant songs: Nightswimming, Fretless, The One I Love, E-bow The Letter, Country Feedback …
Favourite song is the first one I ever heard, Carnival Of Sorts (Box Cars), from their first EP, Chronic Town (reissued on the Dead Letter Office compilation). I was in grad school at Berkeley, and the college radio station KALX played the hell out of it. I saw them tour Murmur, at the Berkeley Square. There were all of a hundred people there, it was quite easy to get close to the stage. Michael Stipe had his arm in a sling.
I think the I.R.S albums are brilliant and I don’t really like anything after that.
Fall on Me, probably. Also love the early stuff. Saw them on the Lifes Rich Pageant and Document tours. I miss them!
Sonically, there are at least a few parallels between Leave and Losing my religion, obviously there’s no mandolin and it’s executed at a reduced dynamic, but parts of the progression, as well as Stipe’s approach to the song. Interesting that I never noticed it before.
Let Me In is beautiful.
“What’s The Frequency Kenneth” is a great tune, and Monster is my favorite R.E.M. album. Got to see them touring for that album, and Radiohead opened for them while touring for The Bends.
I think this is my favorite R.E.M. song and video:
I’d always had dreams of running away as a teen, and I imagined this to be the soundtrack to such audacious endeavor.
To this day it is still the soundtrack to my life.
My parents were in a band that was around that scene at the time, named Guadalcanal Diary, and they toured with REM a good bit. I grew up in Athens and had lots of family friends that knew them, in fact my sister had a wedding party at Micheal Stipe’s pool, which was unsurprisingly quite nice. Micheal Stipe was maybe a bit of a recluse, but it was also hard for him to fly under the radar in Athens. But he helped support some important local businesses whose building he owned, so I only have nice things to say about him.
Are you serious?? I still listen to 2x4. “Get Over It” is an all-timer for me. Do they still play music?
They broke up. LOL, never mind, I meant REM, duh, ignore me.
I really love these “small world” kind of moments, even if just for this purpose I’m glad I started this random kenneth thread 
Lol, my dad was the guitarist, Jeff Walls. Sadly he died a few years ago, but he was playing and touring until about 8 months before he died, a lifelong guitarist for sure. My mom, Rhett Crowe, still plays occasionally and still has her bass, but it was never necessarily her passion, kinda getting pulled along for the ride.
sorry for your loss.
That’s pretty cool. There’s a Discog!
Now that I think if it, I discovered a ton of bands in the eighties becuase they either opened for REM or had records produced by somebody in the band. Guadalcanal Diary, The Feelies, Waxing Poetics, Let’s Active, the DBs, 10,000 Maniacs…
Very sorry to hear about your dad, but I’m so glad they made those records.
Saw them on the Monster tour when I was still a teenager. Had the tour t-shirt; wore it all the time.
Favorite song these days: These Days
Previous favorite songs: Crush with Eyeliner, Finest Worksong, Stand, Star Me Kitten, Superman, Radio Free Europe, Life and How To Live It, so many more
One of my favorites, for sure. I think the run from Chronic Town through Automatic rivals anyone’s. Saw them in Oakland on the Green tour with Robyn Hitchcock and then on the Accelerate tour with The National and Modest Mouse. Hard to pick a favorite record, I’d be torn between Murmur and Reckoning, AFTP is pretty stellar too as are many of their album cuts off Green and OOT. My top five songs…Perfect Circle, You Are The Everything, Sweetness Follows, Feeling Gravity’s Pull, So Central Rain, Flowers of Guatemala, Fall On Me, Crazy (the Pylon cover), Rockville…yeesh, I could go on and on. LOVE them.