BEGIN THE BEGIN - REM

[Huboons]

Good Song. Horseshit collectivist propaganda by someone romanticizing FDR the worst president the US has ever had. Anyone who worships FDR is a thief.

[aunthattie]

Dorethea Lange

[jason4485]

Pictures courtesy of Evans and Agee

[aunthattie]

@jason4485 Dorethea Lange as well

[jason4485]

@muskypucker you're such a hardass.

[thatwardgirl]

I am wildly in love with this. It is perfect and brilliant. It makes me understand more what it means to bear the name of Miles Standish, which I have, which I do.

[3primarypoints]

Your work is outstanding....it's a prefect blend of music, your vision and when is being felt. Going to be check out your other stuff....Good Man.

[57Canham]

Such a beautifully done video

[TheGEEman60]

Those faces are the rural martyrs that the band seems to have distanced

themselves from since Bill Berry revived farming

[TheGEEman60]

@TheGEEman60 Precisely kee-rect

[geridg]

this song is a call to Environmental arms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who the enemy is,  is clear. Who is the hero? "The finest example is you" 1986 by the way

[jhunterpdx]

Life's Rich Pageant is REM's finest moment... it is so beautifully crafted... simple, profound and timeless. I could listen to it forever.

[frankc32]

@jhunterpdx, as an R.E.M. listener since the Chronic Town days, I have to agree.

This LP is simply genius in its contents, construction and conductivity.

A definite "desert island" LP.

Cheers!

FrankC32

[tony0000]

I hate REM. But I admit, this is a great song.

[frankc32]

@tony0000, that is interesting.

Explore the roots of your hatred, perhaps it will shed some light on yourself... (just a thought, of course, I could be wrong)

Cheers!

FrankC32

[usmcfutball]

You wanna' make love? You wanna' go to war? Listen to THIS song.

If 'Begin The Begin' doesn't race your pulse you are 1) dead and 2) not human. REM forever!

[frankc32]

been there, done that, debated Stipe BS since 1981.

At some point the little boy stands up and the mumbling becomes the man, and then finally the man owns the lyrics.

LP becomes Document! 1987! Life-changing time for me, so delayed, gotta' DIG IT!!!!

Cheers!

FrankC32

[angrami]

I used to listen to Document every day and still have the original tape...great album, wish REM could make records like this again...

[strumtstrummer]

Well done, one of my favourites when I first got FOTC...

"I looked for it and I found it"

I DID!

Hairshirt from GREEN...

That's where I found it...leave all your baggage in the Attic.

Saved my life anyway.

Shine on folks...:O)

[KookyCookieMonster2]

I love this song so much

REM is one band that never gets old.

Love REM so much

[KrisMartinez13]

i love this album R.E.M is great :)

[twilightfreak1012]

Did any of you guys ever hear them live? Or really experience there music?

[chrisgellroy]

I used to see them every weekend at a club named FRIDAYS, off Tate Street, Greensboro, NC. The door was $3.00, and about fifty patrons would roll in to the small club, the stage was only 18 inches higher than the main floor,,we were really close to REM. Also, I was with Hero (Micheal Pittman) for several weeks before he moved to San Fran where he hooked up with Mike Stipe several times. This story started in the early early eighties, thru present times,

Rob Craver

[frankc32]

@chrisgellroy, this is intriguing, dude, please elaborate.

Cheers!

FrankC32

[twilightfreak1012]

hello .... why are you listening? REM is one of the best bands to ever play!!!!!!! Those who name call usually are!!! F U

[christoJihad2]

@foilseal You're a fucking idiot. Why are you on this site, and who cares if Michael Stipe is fucking gay, you jerk! He didn't try to give you a blowjob did he? I haven't read or heard he's a child molester and he doesn't throw it in our faces he's gay. The times they are a changin' dude, and there's nothing we can do about it, even if we want to.

[chrisgellroy]

I don't think I would go to rock stars for enlightenment, I to them cause they rock,,,,, that's entertainment, I hate church and I don't look for Bozo from U2 to school me,

[frankc32]

@chrisgellroy, well said, my friend, well-fucking siad.

Cheers!

FrankC32

[ACERAMGAD]

I like the beat and the guitar~~Peter Buck can pluck!

So everybody likes to fuck...find some (*)(*) to suck!

Eat chicken or a duck...drive a car or a truck?

So you wanna go under the knife..nip n tuck..Good Luck!

I gotta go find a canadian ~~ Slapshot Puck!

[sweetttina666]

What a great intro to Lifes Rich Pageant. Thier music grabs me like you wouldnt believe

[zenswing]

OK, let's go ahead and begin...

[spacedoginnebraska]

Thank you very much.

[LTF6161]

My grandfather "worked" for the CCC. He said it was more like camp than work and that it was the greatest time of his life. The point was to take single male teenagers and early 20 somethings out of the real workforce so men with families could take the few real jobs around.

[TheMJtheGOD]

Perhaps your Grandfather was gay. That was why it was the greatest time of his life! !! The idea was to isolate gay men so that they would not object to such conditions. After several "single years" in the CCC they then would marry and have a "normal life".

[uclrichard]

you brainless cunt! there's no such thing as god you prick - i hope you die soon and everyone remotely connected to you

[TheMJtheGOD]

I agree, there is no such thing as god. We agree!! We are brothers!!!!

:-)

[chrisgellroy]

Yes many grandfaters are gay, esp. according to the Kinsey report that has largely been dismissed, hell I am gay but wouldn't mind some pussy.

[mrREDBIRDFAN]

I think War and PEACE NEEDS SOME SUNLIGHT

[frankblues]

minkowski you have lost it by claiming 'urban myth' on the lancet article. That is so silly it really brings into doubt the rest of what you say.

[minkowski76]

"You err in assuming socialist ideas are for and from addicts and musicians. "

I dare you to find me one conservative rocker? And not the country garbage either. Rock. Modern rock. Go back to the 60s if you have to. I mean, what would you find? Ted Nugent? Find me one positive REM tune about a Republican. Find one Pearl Jam song that isn't some misanthropic dirge for the crazy homeless guy. Come on. Yeah, you might find ONE, somewhere. Some obscure rocker that voted for Nixon, but that's it.

[RepublicanTorture]

Wow you got it bad, dude. You commie hunters are kooks.

[RepublicanTorture]

I don't give a shit about the politics of musicians. I care about the hypocrisy of voting against stimulus funding then turning around and taking credit for it while you're handing out big government checks. Or slamming consumer protections while you sue phishing internet scammers using consumer protection legislation.

We're all commies, friend. Everything in USA is planned. There are no free markets. You have advocate for the rich and advocates for the poor and a very few in between.

[GrinchandMax]

Elvis was very conservative after he lost his mind and they put him on every psychiactric medication on the planet. He was even (ironically) one of Nixon's anti-drug goons.

But make no mistake ROCK AND ROLL is anti-establishment! Try not to dwell on it too much! It's very misplaced and odd!

[KOSMICKEN09]

begin the begin came out in 1986 btw.....

[minkowski76]

And if people can't see that FDR's polices were an outgrowth of his love infatuation with big government planning, that he admired the 'efficiency' of social fascists such as Stalin, Mussolini and even der Fuhrer, not to mention the anti-roylist leftists of Spain, then you've all been very, very bad, and you need to go sit in the corner with a good history book, and not that Howard Zinn bullshit either.

[LTF6161]

If you don't realize that FDR saved capitalism in this country you are an idiot. Just ONE example: If the federal Emergency Banking Act had not passed the economy of this country would have imploded and we would have been left w/ fascism or communism. FDR saved this country. And I am a historian w/ neo-conservative tendencies. So stop the kneejerking and any other jerking that you're doing and learn a little history from someplace other than right wing radio.

[chrisgellroy]

If you don't realize that we don't care now, and better yet all the bitches we are fucking while your are studing, are going to make ganstas that will fuck your educated sons and doggers...........

[christoJihad2]

@LTF6161 I don't know if even Lincoln could have guided us through both the "great depression and WWII. He was a great man and a great president, both my parents lived through both and loved him. And he DID save America and the Free World.

[minkowski76]

Not sure where the poster gets his information. This song isn't about the Depression, it's about social strife caused by class warfare. It's another of REM's anti-capitalist screeds in the form of an awesome catchy song. REM really should stick to music and leave politics alone. Nothing is more annoying than listening to half-educated drug-abusing talented musicians pandering illiterate, half-baked recycled Marxism as political theory. But as a musical band, they totally rock.

[RepublicanTorture]

There is class warfare in America. You clearly have never been to the deep south. You, sir, are uninformed. But oh yeah, Saint Ronnie declared proclaimed class warfare in impossible! Therefore it must be so!

You err in assuming socialist ideas are for and from addicts and musicians.

[minkowski76]

Actually, moron, I live in the south. Unfortunately. And no, there's no class warfare here, and dare I say, I don't think you know what the phrase means. And yes, REM and many other groups are socialist, if not much worse. In fact, the best term for them is 'leftist', not so much because they're from the left, but because they hail from the more predominantly vocal portion of the left that is home to Marxists, Trotskyites, and all the other neo com morons that actually do advocate class war.

[minkowski76]

But judging by your idiotic Youtube name, what an we expect? Balance? Perspective? Honesty? Context? Nah, no, by looking at your name that you chose for a video site, we can see you're just another far-left wing nutjob with a serious axe to grind on the anvil of obfuscation and ignorance. And I'll eat a watermelon in one bite if you can name me where 'Saint Ronnie' ever claimed the impossibility of class warfare. More than likely, you simply failed to understand the quote ;)

[aaronbygrace]

unless you start watering crops with gatorade like the mike judge movie i think were all set.

[ord1711]

Such a intro to the fourth album. If you listen straight through the first three albums, the guitar on this first song of LRP is really striking.

Great video. And Norris was a Cornhusker!

[christoJihad2]

I love this song and the video you made to it, but the coming depression and holocaust because of the lack of food, the collapse of morality and the desperation and isolation people already feel will make the last depression look like a holiday. I love this country, but I feel it in my soul that something ahead is going to crush many millions of Americans and possibly end it as it now stands. I wish and pray it wasn't true, but I feel this in the pit of my stomach and from the pain in my heart.

[markgreyam]

Well if you feel it then I guess it must be true. What the hell, seriously?

[TheMJtheGOD]

christoJihad2, do yourself a favor and break into the old bank account, then go out and "BUY A CLUE"!!!! The "coming depression and holocaust"???? WTF???????? "WTF" stands for "What the Fuck". Buddy, you are losing it big time!! Does mental illness run in your family??? Wait, don't answer; I already know that it does. Good luck!

[uclrichard]

i sympathise (as an englishman whose country has been destroyed by mass third world immigration) - if people bred less and drove less and thought harder about their culture and less about fucking religion we'd all be better off...fundementalists who won't accept scientific fact and human progress have crippled USA - just as islamic and african immigration has destroyed england...

[christoJihad2]

I believe in Christ, not Christians. In America, the stupid fundamentalists feel so strongly that we're in the 'last days' that they feel it's okay to destroy the eco-system, drive up the global temperature, (if they even believe it) Israel can do no wrong, and that the U.S. was 'anointed' by God. They're so fucked up that most of them think it was great that we invaded Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent children, but God forbid aborting an embryo or fetus. They're so fucked up!!!

[minkowski76]

You make it seem like only snake-handlers are driving SUVs and over-watering their lawns. It seems you think everyone in the US is a Christian nut, and everyone is an abuser of the environment, thus we are all Bible-thumping imbeciles bathing in CFCs and CO2. You are egregiously misinformed. And you know, you can stop quoting that bullshit about hundreds and hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq. That's an urban myth started by med journal The Lancet, and it was well discredited by 2004. Thanks.

[christoJihad2]

@minkowski76 Why would it be discredited in 2004 when most of the dead Iraqis were after 2005-8, you cunt! We didn't kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, we unleashed a civil war, although assholes like you and your god, Dickhead Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, and all the other neoconazis would never call it what is was.

[minkowski76]

@christoJihad2 You're obviously merely another ranting internet moron without the intellect to sufficiently understand even the simplest and most cogent facts and opinions. The fact of the matter is rather easy to understand: the Lancet employed a mathematical model, using Fallujah as the base numerical model, to extrapolate deaths for all of Iraq. That would be like counting gangland deaths in LA, and then multiplying for all of America. You would receive a highly erroneous number.

[minkowski76]

@christoJihad2 Furthermore, the Lancet admitted their own dubious methods, admitted they were performing an act of leftwing social activism, which you apparently and foolishly defend and even admitted, albeitly in a subtle fashion, that they were attempting to sway the 2004 election. Official and even official body counts do not remotely approach the Lancet's inflated number. And, even more importantly, most of the deaths were caused by Iraqi and foreign terrorists.

[minkowski76]

@christoJihad2 Finally, the most accurate post-invasion Iraq death tolls are entirely comparable to the mortality rate under Saddam Hussein, deaths caused either by political assassination or by starvation, the latter in large part due to UN sanctions, brought on by Hussein's egregious flouting of 'international law'. You know, for a guy that claims to 'love his country' you seem to know little about it or history, much less politics. Typical and expected ignorant-arrogance, I guess.

[minkowski76]

Well, you got part of the right. The Third world immigration part, but the other half? No, you're wrong. Not sure where you get your information either, but if you think the US is run by a cabal of creationists looking to put the sword to science, you're mistaken entirely. In fact, most of our woes have nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with the over play of Keynesian economics that are now just beginning to puke up a stomach of fetid, rotten fiscal policies.

[christoJihad2]

@uclrichard You brought all that on yourselves when you colonized the rest of the world, then felt pangs of guilt and let a bunch of your former colonials live in England. America has a third world country at our southern border that has no rule of law, anything and everything can be bought and sold and we let millions of the least educated, most American hating into our country illegally. But the effect is the same and we're both losing the land we love.

[uclrichard]

@christoJihad2 amazing post, christo! i'd forgotten my original (angry) comment...still nice to hear from you and good luck, old chap...i'd love to visit the new england seaboard one day - the old colonies....england is dead (so is much of europe and america, though)....we are heritage people, now...the white english are so rare in london, these days, that we will soon have united nations badges to protect us from export duties...lol....

[christoJihad2]

@uclrichard I didn't mean to make it sound like you're responsible for any of your country's problems any more than I am for America's. It's become exactly the same way here, and where I live, a city in Southern California, in what was pretty much, no, a completely American enclave, is now heavily populated by illegal aliens. This town was, up until 2006, was statistically the safest city in the United States under 100,000.

[christoJihad2]

@uclrichard Part 2. It's not that way now, with at least two gangs of fucking Mexicans. There's a large increase in crime, and now drugs, even heroin, are available if you bother to look. They're squirting out babies, on our dime, like a dog has puppies. As soon as they have a baby they're pregnant again, and I'm not exaggerating. It doesn't matter that both parents are illegal, if the kids are born here they're U.S. citizens.

[joeygsmom]

I think these pics are from the "dust bowl"...from the looks of things there may be another one coming unfortunately....

[neohip]

Yes,the "dust bowl" and "great" Depression.

I don't think another is coming.I think/hope we are half way through it!.

Anyway,theirs another bail out coming,but it ain't for us!.

[DoubleDutchBust]

EZENITHD

BEGIN THE BEGIN - REMSG

LOS ALAMOSNEW MEXICOP

DDNAT E R E S T R I A LDSS

ODBALL A G R A N G EMEGA

DDNAT E R E S T R I A LDSS

LOS ALAMOSNEW MEXICOP

BEGIN THE BEGIN - REMSG

EZ E N I THD

zzzzZEN ITH

[watchinshadows]

The perfomance of this song on 'Tour Film' is awesome.

[strummeresque]

You are ABSOLUTELY right

[OttoGierke]

Great song!

[lyonslaforet]

It has always been one of my favorite songs on Lifes Rich Pageant!

[blawson2112]

Outstanding song & pic's to back it up.

[KerreyTheBitterSugar]

this is a massive throbbing song

one of REM's finest efforts!

[lovedungeon]

Most of there songs are quieter, I love this song because it's harder. There other stuff is cool to. My favorite is chronic town though. I love the part in the middle of this song when peter buck feeds back his guitar. That sounds so sweet. My dad has the old record of this.

[chefriodapunk]

REM coming out of Athens Georgia in the early 80's as a college radio wonder that turned the alternate or "NEW WAVE" radio upside down. In Seattle we loved what we heard, believe first on University of Puget Sound Radio or The Wave. This song hit the radio after the mumbled Radio Free Europe, and we finally heard Stipes voice and lyrics. Driver 8 while be what they are known for early on but this song is the true feeling of the band as they where young, broke, and hungry.

[misterx1969]

Peter Bucks Guitar tone was never better than this song.... Outstanding even to this day. I only wish the guitars stayed as prominent in their later hits as it was here

[Vitalogy7]

still remains one of my favorite REM songs

[bluespiral58]

Let's begin again on January 20, 2009

[agustindufaualejandr]

me encanta esta cancion ees una de las mejores de rem

[irapdumom]

i met michael stipe in park city

[4thatfilm]

Stipes lyrics are prophetic: "Life's rich demand creates supply in the hand Of the powers, the only vote that matters Silence means security silence means approval On Zenith, on the TV, tiger run around the tree Follow the leader, run and turn into butter Let's begin again like Martin Luther zen The mythology begins the begin Answer me a question I can't itemize I can't think clear, you look to me for reason It's not there, I can't even rhyme here in the begin"

[mus1cat]

What the heck does this mean?

[spacedoginnebraska]

I totally get it, man. Totally. Bless You.

[jdroke1045]

thanks.....i really appreciate your comment....i saw what they were trying to do in their 86 tour and kinda ran with it....

[OttoGierke]

zzzz

[thutton67]

@jdroke1045 Great post, but ... this is from 'Life's Rich Pageant', released in 1986.

[spacedoginnebraska]

Thank You

[atrybus]

Well done.

[kingpin00234]

An amazing song, to say the least. Subtle and attractive.

[Scroobily]

Groovy.

[b111791]

This could also be titled "America's Future" with a few third world savages thrown in.

[ripman14]

Very, very nice. Thanks.

[christoJihad2]

Whoever put this video together has a photojournalist's eye and makes this excellent song even better.

[tubularheel]

it's a good video, but the credit for the photojournalistic quality goes to the original photos. Some of these are some of the most famous photojournalistic photos ever. Helped define what photojournalism could be. the Dorothea Lange photos are famous. That's the power of the video.

[b111791]

These were the people of America...long before a certain people of a certain influence decided to change the entire fabric of the country on them...and they never even knew what hit 'em. :-(

[AndyLuke]

a fabulously collected set of photos that made very interesting viewing and helped to give the song a greater sense of context for those not so in the know. well done.

[BabyBeastie1]

Miles Standish proud, congratulate me...

[dkovacs]

This is good too.

[Skycat2006]

NICE...GJ!!!

<33333

;-)

[messi1390]

yes I too!

love this song

[pb2638]

I always wished they'd do a video for this song