It’s time to get back to my favorite decade. For the month of March, I’ll be looking back at some of my favorite jams from the 80s. These songs often came to me via MTV or the radio. NYC-area stations WDRE, WPLJ, WNEW, K-ROCK and Z100 introduced me to everything from irresistible pop confections to under-the-radar post-punk anthems. I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for the 80s. It was the decade when I discovered music can be a truly powerful thing. #31DaysOf80sSongs
Green isn’t the prototypical R.E.M. album. Coming off of Document, one of my all-time favorite records from the band, Green felt a bit disjointed and uncharacteristic. But some of my favorite R.E.M. songs hail from this album. “Orange Crush”, “Turn You Inside-Out” and “You Are the Everything”. The album also included the band’s first big mainstream hit in the States with “Stand”. Green showed that R.E.M. was still evolving, still experimenting, but still staying true to who they are as a band. “Get Up” is an undisputed case in point.
The song sorta sounds like an R.E.M. song, but it also sorta doesn’t. It plays that pivotal role of being Track 2, where its continued momentum coming off Track 1 is mission critical. “Get Up” begins like it’s missing a few opening bars and is already midway through an intro. That unique character continues with the song composition, where verses sound like choruses and the chorus sounds like a verse. The song’s title is sung out loud incessantly in rounds. The dreamlike state mid-slumber is brought to life by what sounds like wind chimes. This was a song Michael Stipe wrote about bandmate Mike Mills, who was sleeping in and having trouble arriving at work on time during the album’s recording. Mills didn’t even know it was about him until nearly ten years later. Can’t help but wonder how many R.E.M. fans thought it was a song about themselves.
“Dreams, they complicate my life.”