R.E.M. - Cuyahoga

[phototristan]

This song is not about an oil slick. It's about a blood bath during the Civil War.

[donaldjr1969]

@phototristan: If you are able to get a hold of the November 12, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone, Michael Stipe mentions the Cuyahoga River catching fire and as such, the basis of the river and the song title is a song about environmental destruction.

I too was unsure about if they really meant anything about the Cuyahoga River, so I decided to find out what I can.

[BODLAW1]

That's also how I learned to pronlunce it when I lived in Bay Village.

[Bends95]

This is my favorite song from Lifes Rich Pageant,killer tune!

[BabylonAGoGo]

I live in Cleveland and it's pronounce "ki a hog a"

[cubbfann08]

@BabylonAGoGo yes, but you live in cleveland...

[BODLAW1]

@cubbfann08 Cleveland rocks. Nothing wrong with that.

[pinkfreud62]

@BabylonAGoGo I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls and we pronouned it KI -A -HO - GA

[donaldjr1969]

@pinkfreud62: I am a Cuyahoga Falls resident too. I have heard it pronounced that way as well as the incorrect "KUH-HOG-GA."

[vashydana]

Wish he would pronounce it right LMAO I live in Ohio, and its not pronounced coy a hugga LMAO

[GAdawgsfan93]

@vashydana well, the band's from GA. Are u gonna expect us Southerners to pronounce half of what we say right?

[bmailb]

i always find it very amusing how every generation is so sure that "their" era was the height of creative output. While I feel that way about REM and many older bands I think it is the height of arrogance to be certain that you have witnessed the "best" music. I also can not argue that there is a glut of bubble gummy. poppy, corporate drivel....out there now, There is also tons of creative great music being made all the time you just have to dig deeper for it, underneath all the drivel

[joe6pahk]

Check out the Decembrists cover on the kcrw website ("today's top tune" on 3/24/110)! Possibly as awesome as the original.

[blackelvi]

R.E.M = Me fave group. Best songs, as good as Brooce Springsteen..... Now THAT is saying something!!

[Robinhoodarch]

Any word on the deluxe reissue of this album?

[SurferDoolittle567]

@Robinhoodarch I'm sure there will be one. I enjoyed the demos included with the Fables reissue, and I think I'd rather have more demos/outtakes again than another live show, as I already had perfectly good bootleg copies of the live shows included with the Murmur and Reckoning reissues. They better include something good and hard to find, as that's the selling point for me. I'm sure the remaster will be just as compressed and loud as the earlier reissues, so that's irrelevant to me.

[MikeBarnesKumite]

Incredible song.

[codern]

You know, Im always bitching to our oblivious youth who are subjected to the worst music reflecting these ridiculous times, but i think i should take a new approach & bitch at the parents who got to experience the best of music, like REM for example! So why don't you educate your kids about good music, you experienced it at its best. You came from THEE cream era of good music & now the kids of today are brainwashed with the shit they think is music. You have a responsibility here!

[awxish]

@codern I agree, but my mom loves REM and I've known them since I was little. I can't listen to them without thinking about her and it ruins the music a bit. Learning it from your parents can sometimes ruin it. People my age need to learn how to use a record store and a Google machine :).

[stbr68]

@awxish My mom introduced me to REM. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.

[watcher18893]

@stbr68 myself*

[billsurf101]

@codern dont fret, im 20, and am so into REM and others from that era, before and after. All is not lost, we are all not caught up in the Justin Bieber, Hannah Montana crap. I am aware and love Pink Floyd, Led Zepplini, Nirvana and others... there is hope!

[astroboirap]

looks like a zombified john hannah aka. batiatus on the cover

[caseworker001]

It has environemtal meaning. It has politcal meaning. It's about 1:45 'till the chorus kicks in and it just dang rocks.

[watchinshadows]

Ah..brings backs good memories of being a teenager and listening to this on my walkman!

[michaelolender]

I remember when my aunt Sophie took me to the record store and bought Murmur in N. Y. back around 1986? Now she's dying of cancer and i realize how special she is to me.

[livedinbars]

Ive never been able to figure out how REM could make music that rocked this much but sounded so sad at the same time. Love them.

[TheUnclePunky]

Leaving New York didn't get a lot of play..but it sure made old REM fans like me happy..

[eartant]

REMember a great band ?

[JoshuaTaylor]

"This is where we walked, this is where we swam.... Take a picture here. Take a souvenir." *sigh* ;-)

[dcheath8]

great audio. thanks

[bradmexperience]

R.E.M. is probably my favorite band of all-time due to all my memories of listening to them as a teenager. It comes down to Murmur, LRP and Automatic for me when discussing their best album, and it usually changes from time to time. I listened to them so much that I more or less have their first five or six albums memorized note for note. Unfortunately, I stopped listening to them after New Adventures. Something sucked the life out of the band, whether it was Bill Berry's departure or otherwise

[Doleafol]

I use to play this song endlessly when it was originally released. I loved the tune and the imagry. It was very evocative. Reminds me of my college days and going fishing with my dad. We use to go out on a boat and I would listen to R.E.M. on the boat.

[mrmonkeyisland1]

A real summer song.

[arizonabay15]

I love the cover...... Buffalo Bill.

[JustCamus]

One of my very favorites.

[poughkeepsiejohn1]

Love Mike Mill's opening bass lines. Never better.

[lameplanet]

I always liked Life's Rich Pageant better than any of their other albums. Such a beautiful record.

[santanaincubus]

to me REM > U2

[veritasrex66]

@santanaincubus Bono has called REM his favorite band, and U2's biggest contemporary influence.

[simmer308]

I AGREE...

[themooddisorders]

great song about a burning river!....the red river is threatening fargo, grand forks,but not Winnipeg yet.... We have a system that will divert the river around the city....the floodway as we call it...one of the few man made structures seen from space.

[ricflairfan5]

you can hear mike mills do a bass solo at 3:04 through 3:14 !!!!

[ricflairfan5]

finally a song where you can greatly hear mike mills bass ty so much for posting it!!

[Steve99jp66]

@mrdfitz1 I feel the same way sometimes. But then I remember that simple bacteria are far more successful life forms than we are; they live everywhere and can even survive in the vacuum of space. I've read that if you piled up all the bacteria (air, ground, underground) it would cover the earth 3 feet thick. Long after we are gone, they will still be here. We only think we are the masters, but we are a footnote in the big picture. Don't worry, life is greater than even we imagine.

[vitorro1970]

Autenticos-genial.

[lightwaker]

I'm in the middle of a kickass playlist I guess someone made.. fabtastic.. all older stuff so far too. I was born in 1984 which was (I think) the same year they formed. I got into them in the mid nineties but my favourites are the older more raw stuff. My fave album is Document.. why am I still talking..

[kakashi76767]

eh.... much better rem stuff out there... at least 100 better songs

[HikiLuoma]

Great great song

[MeshGearFox]

They pronounce Cuyahoga wrong :T

[fenderrlee]

it can pronounced anyway

[panacea999]

Love this one, the chorus "Cuyahoga......gone" and the sad way he sings "...take a souvenir"

[DeathOrGlory83]

my fav r.e.m. song, ty for uploading

[deweypug]

This is where they walked and swam, hunted, danced and sang... (so sad what we did)

[ohiocanalgirl]

This song is about the Cuyahoga River which is in NE ohio. I live about three miles from it. It is most famous for catching on fire in 1969. It also caught fire 12 times between 1850 and 1969. Its really ashame that our river is still so dirtty.

[klingoncelt]

Well, the earlier fires were due to the natural gas wells bubbling up from the riverbed.

[Larvemannenz001]

it literally cought on fire? how? how can water burn, was i contaminated, covered in oil, cause i heard it was polluted

[ohiocanalgirl]

i set it on fire - sorry

[luxaurum]

@Larvemannenz001 Water doesn't burn...oil is lighter than water and floats to the surface, where it can be ignited and burned---and frequently is....

[MORGAN999]

This is one of my favorite REM songs, too...

I don't see the 'feel good' thing, though. If you know what this song is actually about - well, I find it quite depressing. The Cuyahoga River was SO POLLUTED, with such a thick layer of toxic waste on the top, the river literally caught fire. The song is also about the genocide of Native Americans. As a Mohawk/Irish descendant, and environmentalist, none of that makes me 'feel good', though I do find it quite motivating in another way.

[alexp9999]

one of my very favorite "feeling good" tunes XD

[ord1711]

What a marvelous, marvelous song.

I interviewed for a job in a national job search, and the job was located in Athens. They asked me close to the end of the interview if I had any questions for them. I immediately asked if they ever saw REM around town. :)

[deweypug]

Was the job for the Director of the Botanical Garden? I sent my resume and spoke with them, asked the same question! Hilarious!

[xNotverynicex]

Lifes Rich Pageant is my favourite R.E.M album (next to Reckoning...since it excels at merging the early folky R.E.M with the more upbeat and rocking R.E.M that Document showed us...). Also, I find this song extremely beautiful, singing about how a river caught fire and how we must take care of our planet...wish more contemporary bands did that...

[hottie4709]

I've heard people say that U2 never did anything descent after 'THe Joshua Tree', which I totally DISagree with. However, I DO belive R.E.M. never did anything descent after 'Green' (although there are a couple of good songs on 'Monster')... Food for thought...

[panacea999]

So "Automatic for the People" is just crap, is it?

or "Daysleeper"?

[foxkieran]

Really??

Automatic for the People, dude.

Come on.

[luxaurum]

@hottie4709 

[rutger5000]

Sounds like the one I love.

[knsdonnell]

age changes us in many ways , it has also changed rem but i have changes to thank the lord for them ,they have always touch me in ways not many thing of this earth has

[pnice000]

This brings back some great memories. Simple times, great tunes

[theawkwards]

great song. i am also a fan of song, Sad Professor, from a different, later, period in their career. long may they reign.

[bunnerabb]

This is the best REM album ever.

[lordtrax8]

In my opinions the 3., after Murmur and Automatic.

[scottr371970]

I agree. I remember buying it it back in "86.

[sweetness2follow]

Rem are (were) the greatest band ever. But I'm no apologist and their last two albums are pointless shit. Theres no invention in Buck/Mills compositions anymore and the most important thing they had (Stipes voice) has gone south forever...Sad.

[mindcontrolpete]

Was he a semi-transperant godlike presence in those days? No human being could've wrote this

[mindcontrolpete]

I meant that in a good way!

[ElvisFanForever7985]

Early R.E.M was the greatest band on the planet,sadly no more..they should have quit in -97 and keept their dignity

[haddingtonbb41]

jesus i suggest you invest in post 97 rem. im a fan since i first bought murmur. I love all their albums, other than fables. 3 out of the post berry alums are amazing. Up, Around the sun and accelerate are stunning stunning albums. Reveal i would admit is slighly below par. Up is my fav REM album o all time.

[chrisistubing]

Other than fables? That's one of their best in my opinion

[fastlane444]

While I love REM and like all their albums; have to say Up is my least fav - some good songs but a downer of an album. I like Ar.the Sun and Accelerate but consider them opposites - ATSun has no rocking songs at all; Accelerate totally rocks, esp. the beginning songs. I think Pageant and Document are the most balanced though Doc. is harder, Automatic the most lush and Fables the most haunting & mystical

Not a bad album in the bunch but Up has too many slow songs that lack zip, unlike Fables

[HikiLuoma]

@fastlane444 IMHO Fables was the first absolutely fantastic album and Automatic the last. But REM has never made any actually bad album, I just don't like the others as much as those six awesome ones.

[icecreamscuseme]

@HikiLuoma For me, their 90s work is astonishing in how big the quality is throughout them all. Life's Rich Pageant (as well as Murmur and Document) gives them all a run for its money though.

[stbr68]

@fastlane444 I agree Up is a little droll as an album, but I think the individual songs are gold. Lotus, Hope, At My Most Beautiful, Sad Professor, Daysleeper, Parakeet, these are some of their greatest.

This song is fabulous too, but in a different way. Stipe doesn't tell a story linearly, but conveys images and let's our imagination fill in the rest. It's a little like How the West was Won and Where it got Us, only completely different musically. Mills is just incredible here.

[deweypug]

I agree. There were two distinct REM eras: pre Document and post. I prefer the former. And that is right, they were semi-transparent gods of music.

[carzyhorse138]

One of their best songs. There's so much in this.

[howard142]

great! thanks

[PizzaT]

Larvemannen you are a loser!

[PizzaT]

Larvemannenz001 needs to get OVER IT! I have no clue what he is talking about. He is saying FUCK YOU, which to the average viewer it looks like he is saying it to REM, but he claims its towards me, and then stealing music and hurting someone else is ok. hmm. what an asshole. I dont even know what this dushbag is talking about. I probably retaliated because he went to one of my fan sites and talked shit.

[Larvemannenz001]

if i replied to you're comment and said fuck YOU. it's clearly aimed towards you, i can't help people who post comments like "fuck rem" on a rem video, you're just stirring up trouble, i don't need to get over anything, if i hadn't stood up to that comment, you probably would've thought you could do whatever like huh? stealing music? hurting someone else? i've only hurted you, you've hurted all the viewers of this video, which at the time is around 10488, think about it

[sweetness2follow]

Lots of other bands sound great until I listen to early REM.......

[redbugiii]

Great Song and

Great Band!!

[Larvemannenz001]

Fuck YOU!

[PizzaT]

Fuck REM or Pizza T?

[Larvemannenz001]

fuck pizza t, listen it's okay if don't like the music, but posting negative comments on a fan video, builds a bad athmosphere, okay?

[Hibbleton666]

I'm afraid the vinyl copy i bought is heavily worn,i've had it nearly 20 years !

[Hibbleton666]

hmmm displacement of native peoples,pollution.

sung brilliantly at glastonbury :) (1999).

the album stands alone.

[Terminator7653]

The day Bill Berry left the band a part of REM died

[GlueyPorch]

Yeah, a BIG part. They should've split up and kept their dignity.

[Terminator7653]

REM were a cool band what happend?

[deweypug]

Perfect. Imagery abounds with this song...

[poughkeepsiejohn]

A very good album produced by Don Gehman, which probably explains why this sounds almost like a John Cougar Mellencamp album. The band, though, hasn't been the same since Bill Berry left. Although their most recent album is pretty good. The recent re-issue of "Murmur" is fantastic! I can't believe that album is 25 years old!

[stevets01]

Reckoning is reissued in 4 days.

[driver8train]

This was the album that hooked me on REM for life back in 86...been my favorite band ever since. I remember being 14 and wearing this cassette tape out...wore out and had to buy another one.

[Terminator7653]

o yeah

[Lion117]

Great!

[cancersux]

my dad has this on vynil and i just hooked up a stereo in my room about a month ago and i have probably listened to it like 15 times

[js33ym]

I wore this album out in college, must have played it about a thousand times. Classic R.E.M., one of their best.

[computerblue84]

yeah, i wore this record out back when i was in college as well...and that was only three years ago!!

:-)

[geislo3]

one of the songs that touched me to the core

[RuskNation61]

top to bottom, Life's Rich Pageant is BRILLIANT!

[stedcamp11]

Hows he saying it wrong?

[theeponym]

Wikipedia says:

kuy-a-HAW-ga

[cleanpickins]

he says the beginning of the word wrong, sounding like coy. it should be:

kaɪəˈhɔgə or kaɪəˈhoːgə (the first vowel is a long I sound like pie or high or guy).

[conqst3]

Too bad he is mispronouncing the name Cuyahoga in this song. If your going to sing a song about Cuyahoga at least say the words right.

[sakif224]

honestly, who cares

[rcwrstlr]

I didn't realize what word he was singing until you pointed it out. It matters how it is pronounced if you are from the area.

[conqst3]

Yeah, I live about 1.5 miles from the Cuyahoga river (burning river after the fires) near Cuyahoga Falls. I saw a live verson of this song, and he pronounces it right. It's a great song, but it's strange for me to hear the name mispronounced. Cuyahoga means crooked river BTW.

[Groundhog2265]

On June 22, 1969, an oil slick and debris in the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to environmental problems in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States.

It is unclear what caused the fire, but most people believe sparks from a passing train ignited an oil slick in the Cuyahoga River. This was not the first time that the river had caught on fire. Fires occurred on the Cuyahoga River in 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1936, 1941, 1948, and in 1952.

[singingindark12]

@Groundhog2265

:-( that sounds tragic. i feel sorry to say but that incident caused to bring this beautiful tune.

[HeirApparent01]

Voor ons.

Guido

[romo937]

One of my favoorite songs...but I never knew most of the lyrics. Now after over 20 years of listening to it I now know them! Thanks for posting.

[ryan06105]

It's amazing how they used to be able to rattle off awesome song after awesome song.

What happened???

[GlueyPorch]

They carried on too long after they ran out of ideas. I think Monster was the album where it all started to go wrong.. They had a great run of albums though, Fables of the Reconstruction and Murmur being my favourites

[darkxhino]

amazing song good lirics =REM!

[IcrushwitheyelinerI]

omg i love this song! It means so much to me

Truely one of the best songs ever written!!

[nadeboy7]

coolest bassline...EVER!!

[danastar0820]

my fave rem song!!!!

[sadnambo]

I think it sing not M. Stipe of R.E.M band. :/