It's the end of the world as we know it
A Fan's Tribute to The Greatest Band on Earth
source: Source: "Rec.music.rem FAQ"
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For joining, you generally get a few postcards/newsletters, some random promo stuff when a new record comes out (usually a poster, some buttons, photos, things of that nature) and a holiday package containing the ever-famous Christmas collector's edition fan club single, and possibly other goodies like a calendar. Only you can decide if this is a good deal -- but bear in mind that such collectables generally increase in value over time, especially the fan club singles. In 1998 the single was actually a video.
John. Nobody knows why he dropped the name but still uses the initial. Much biographical information on the band members' full names, birthdays, home towns, childhood, and educational backgrounds is covered in detail in the book It Crawled from the South by Marcus Gray.
Here is a quick list of a few recently-published R.E.M. fanzines as of 1996, in no particular order. Fanzines tend to come and go, so it's a good idea to check if it still publishing before sending money.
In the scientific field of sleep research, the acronym r.e.m. indeed stands for "rapid eye movement," and refers to the stage of sleep in which, among other things, dreaming occurs. But, in the case of the band, no, it doesn't. The story related by Peter Buck on the band's early 1983 Late Night with David Letterman appearance is that they picked it out of the dictionary (not all dictionaries include scientific terms like "r.e.m.," so don't be disappointed if you don't find it) and they liked it because it was so ambiguous.
From It Crawled from the South:
"'We sat up one night,' says Michael, 'and we just got completely drunk and rolled around the floor. We had all this chalk, and we took every name anyone could think of and we wrote it on the wall in the living room. When morning rolled around, we pointed and erased, and it was between R.E.M. and Negro Eyes, and we thought *that* probably wouldn't go over too well outside our immediate circle of friends!'" (p. 24).
Encyclopedica Britannica:
REM sleep n (1965): a state of sleep that recurs cyclically several times during a normal
period of sleep and that is characterized by increased neuronal activity of the forebrain
and midbrain, by depressed muscle tone, and esp. in humans by dreaming, rapid eye
movements, and vascular congestion of the sex organs--called also paradoxical sleep, rapid
eye movement sleep
The band borrowed this slogan from a sign in Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods, a popular home-cooking restaurant in Athens, Ga., which, incidentally, sells T-shirts, hats, and other such merchandise featuring the slogan (address 1016 E. Broad St., Athens GA, 30601).
The phrase means that people at the restaurant "automatically" get what they want (as in: "Do I get fried potatoes with my chicken?"; "Automatic!").
It is a tattoo of Ignatz Mouse and Krazy Kat, who are the main characters in the comic "Krazy Kat" by George Herriman, drawn from the 1920s-1940s. If you don't know who/what these are, and like interesting comics, make a beeline to a library or good bookstore and find a compilation of old Krazy Kats. They are a incredible mix of quite hilarious and totally surreal (reality-bending) material. Berke Breathed's "Outland" (and parts of "Bloom County" before it) are the closest contemporary comparison to the style and attitude.
There's a web page at http://www.krazy.com/coconino.htm which explains the comic better than I have -- I suggest surfing over there if you're interested.
While many people would have looked forward to such a project and have hoped something had been accomplished before the Nirvana singer's untimely suicide, according to Stipe they had only traded correspondance about such a project and nothing was composed or recorded. One of the ironic tragedies of Cobain's final months was his expression of admiration for the way R.E.M. had handled their superstardom, though, as Stipe pointed out, they were lucky it took years for them to reach the point and learn to adapt to the strain of the media spotlight.
After Cobain's death, Courtney Love gave R.E.M. one of Kurt's guitars, which they used when recording the song "Let Me In," the lyrics to which are about Kurt. Kurt had Fender make him a custom guitar, a combination of a Mustang and a Jaguar. He got this for the final Nirvana tour of late 93/early 94. He used it only a few times, as he was never satisfied with it. It was left-handed, sonic blue, with a pearloid pickguard. Kurt never smashed it, and rarely even played it. Since Mike Mills (who plays the guitar part on "Let Me In") is right-handed, they had to string the guitar righty. The guitar looks odd upside-down, but it didn't really look very good right-side-up, either (Kurt's original conception on the guitar was a LOT better).
Stipe, like many other performers, wears an earpiece monitor when the band performs live on stage. It is an earphone connected to the mixing board, and allows him to hear himself singing, and is analogous to the small angled loudspeakers you see on stage in front of the other musicians. In a large amphitheater filled with very loud noise, one can well imagine how easy it would be for the singer to get drowned out and not be able to hear him or herself, and this earpiece monitor helps prevent that.
This is an urban legend which even the band are weary of denying. The topic has also been the subject of many flame wars, and most newsgroup members don't want to hear any more about it. On AOL in August 1994, Stipe said this about the so-called countdown theory:
"the countdown is a silly coincidence. i swear it. pb [Peter Buck] sez were going into neg.#;s next, so there. i did put the #7 on each record for a while but started getting strange mail in volumes about it and so we quit. no reason for 7, it was just a cool typo thing [like typefaces on fables]."
The instrumental version on the CD-single for "Stand" is called "The Eleventh Untitled Song (Instrumental)." One can therefore infer that it's simply called "Eleventh Untitled Song." Reportedly, however, some of this cut's lyrics were included in a Fan Club mailing under the title, "So Awake Volunteer," so some people consider that to be its intended title. Recently, an industrious group reader posted that while browsing the Library of Congress, he discovered that the song is copyright-registered under the title of "11", its track number.
The Spitting Gargoyle on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Bill Berry's. Gruesome makeup and photography courtesy Stipe. The spliced-together photos constitute a visual pun ("buffalo bill").
Michael Stipe, hiding behind a camera. Note there are several images superimposed over each other at different angles. The car is a black Checker Marathon (the kind of car most cabs used to be) which Michael used to drive.
Carl Grasso was reportedly the art director (or product manager) for IRS back then; supposedly the band used to drive him nuts with what they would and wouldn't allow on the album covers. Grasso is also credited for album design on Murmur.
Stipe was quoted in several interviews at the time of Monster's release as saying it is written from the perspective of a person who's getting older trying to understand current youth culture.
Note that the lyric (printed inside) contains a quote from Richard Linklater, director of the film Slacker: "Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy" -- a rebuttal of sorts to older generations who would claim Generation Xers, or "slackers," are merely spoiled, lazy brats. (This line of argument is that "slackers" have chosen to exclude themselves from mainstream society as a protest against its empty values.)
Montgomery Clift, actor. He was considered to be one of the most handsome movie stars ever in Hollywood at his prime, though he lost much of those looks in a car accident. His films included "Raintree County," "A Place in the Sun," and "The Misfits." He died fairly young due to depression and alcohol abuse. A biography of Clift, written by Robert Laguardia, was published in 1977.
Answers to questions about other real people mentioned in R.E.M. lyrics can be found in the document, "Real People Mentioned in REM Songs, v.1.2" researched by Gary Nabors and periodically posted to the group (email rgh3@cornell.edu for a copy if you missed it).
No. Electro-Shock Therapy, usually called Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is not pronounced like a word, but is pronounced as separate letters ("E-C-T" rather than "EST"). The EST in "Country Feedback" is probably the self-assertiveness encounter therapy called EST, which stood for "Erhard Sensitivity Training". Werner Erhard, in the seventies, concocted weekend "self-improvement" seminars to make people "tougher" and more "responsible." He made tons of money by locking large groups of future yuppies in Holiday Inn convention rooms, yelling at them a lot, and refusing to let them leave, even to go to the bathroom (this was supposed to make them more successful in life).
For those who don't have the service in their area, many phone companies now offer a service that allows one to dial directly back to the number from which your most recent incoming caller dialed. The sequence of buttons to activate this service is "* - 6 - 9", and some of the phone companies offering the service just call it "Star 69," while others just refer to it as "Last Number Callback" or something similar. It presumably was developed to allow people to more easily track down the perpetrators of prank, obscene, telemarketing, and other types of harassing calls, as well as to allow you to recontact someone who has called you, whose number you don't have, and from whom you might have accidentally been disconnected.
Andy Kaufman was a celebrated conceptual comedian from the 1970's who, while most popularly known for his role on the sitcom "Taxi," also became infamous through his stand-up comedy routines for a performance-art style of character creation, audience manipulation, and general strangeness. His act was as much an indirect commentary on the act of performing itself (which would obviously interest Michael Stipe) and perhaps even the act of believing in something, or reality, itself (which seems to be what 'MotM' is largely about).
More information on Kaufman can be found on the web here.
A hand-held electronic gadget that—when held over the strings of an electric guitar—produces a characteristic sustained tone (yes, it is used by Peter Buck on the track). [For more information surf to http://www.ebow.com/.]
It sounds like someone saying, perhaps on a CB radio, "...Ah, speed zone up here, too." Mike Mills mentioned in an interview that he recorded a demo version of the song on the tour bus, so perhaps the clip is meant to allude to this.
14. "Is the song 'Losing My Religion' about not believing in God? "
No. The phrase "losing my religion" is a southern term meaning that the person is at the end of their rope or about to give up on something. In this case, according to Stipe in several interviews, what the narrator of the song is giving up on is his or her obsessive love. Stipe also mentioned that he wrote the song with the Police hit single "Every Breath You Take" in mind.
15. "What is the story behind Fables's 'Life and How to Live It'?"
Michael Stipe has told the story many times of an eccentric man who had divided his house into two separate apartments so that he could live in the half that suited him best at any given time. It was discovered on this man's death that he had written a book called Life, How to Live; every copy of the book that had been printed was stashed away in a closet in the man's house. Occasionally someone from the newsgroup stumbles across a copy of the book in a used book store. It is reported to be bizarre and distressingly racist.
Source: "Rec.music.rem FAQ"
(all these questions + MANY MORE check it out)