R.E.M. - Cuyahoga

[ivorbigonee]

almost nirvana'ish unplugged at the start. and i love both bands.

[boognish94]

man I love the unplugged version of this classic song

[dubingster]

its enough to say BEAUTIFUL

[kimoxxx]

It makes me all weepy.

[Bummercund]

So full of emotion, my eyes are moist.

[fred6059]

Nah I LOVE it!

[fred6059]

I used to play this every single time I drove over the Cuyahoga and I listened to it after a guided tour of the Cuyahoga  and they played this when I saw them during the UP tour in Cleveland. So many memories.

[MarcusLey2084]

@fred6059 so you like it then : )

[StinkiwinkiPoo]

i like that changed part of " we need skin that u and me"

[swimmerB0B]

i think the word cuyahoga had more intrigue than the 'plight' of the river itself. i'm one of those kids who swam in the cuyahoga all thru my boyhood (60s/70s). the vast majority of the pollution occurs in akron's little cuyahoga and cuyahoga county- where we swam upstream in summit county it could never have been polluted to the point of even being physically harmful, let alone flammable. the upper cuyahoga hasn't seen any serious industrial pollution for 50 years and will soon be free of dams.

[ohiocanalgirl]

This song is about a RIVER THAT WAS ON FIRE : THE CUYAHOGA

[StinkiwinkiPoo]

beautyfuel............

[billsurf101]

what can you say?? awesome??? beutiful???? fantastic????? just cant say enough good about one of the best bands to ever come along. and no, they dont make them like R.E.M. anymore.

[benbizzy100]

I bumped into Mike Mills, literally, several years ago and a nicer human being you could never hope to meet. Gracious and kind are only a few words that define him. If the rest of the group is as nice then we'll all have to go on a sugar free diet.;

[malagatreez]

Makes me cry and want to start a revolution and wallow in nostalgia all at once.

[StinkiwinkiPoo]

nice

[codern]

love it! pure and simple! fuck music today

[negoibi1]

the best.....

[ohiocanalgirl]

this song is about how people polluted the cuyahoga river so badly that it caught fire

[stefaniajorajuria]

REM SON GRANDES,"take a picture here,take a souvenir",son grandes por su musica y tambien por sus liricas,es una banda norteamericana capaz de alcanzar el mas elevado espiritu de autocritica,como pocas,y aun de reprocharle publicamente hechos a su propio gobierno.Los respetamos y admiramos.Muchos discos mas de REM.Stefania y Ramiro de A tlantida,Uruguay.

[CaptainPhillibuster]

I love how Michael always captures the emotion of the song so perfectly while performing. He's the best.

[adebicki]

i think the xylophone is the perfect finishing touch for this acoustic set.

[09nob]

shoot the nob head on the xylophone it totally ruined one of my favourite songs

[playininjapan]

@09nob this ain't yer father's REM that's for sure

[mariofan84]

That's my river. Cleveland ,Ohio. The Maume indians called it the "crooked river".

[Boomkap08]

The Masterwork of Lifes Rich Pageant :-)

[seboux69]

magnifique MICKAEL!!! the best of the world

[manu310881]

Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



[Orkomagic]

This is the best version of this song yet.

[lifehouse57]

sounds even more beautiful than the original recording

[taylorsurfer]

Definitely in the list of top 10 R.E.M. songs, though it is so hard to choose.

[kanield65]

The beter version : slower but more sensitive.

[GAdawgsfan93]

i'm 16 and i have heard R.E.M. songs since i was little. i used to only know their more known songs like Losing My Religion and The One I Love, but to this day i still find GREAT lesser known songs from them on their early albums like FOTR, Life's Rich Pageant, and Murmurs. NO band today( in any genre) can match their musical talent, and this is coming from a dude who is stuck in the generation of Lady Gaga and emo groups like Panic At The Disco. I live 30 mins. from Athens,GA where they started

[Boomkap08]

@GAdawgsfan93

Greetz from germany. it´s cool that´s the young generation like´s R.E.M. Is a great band. The best Live-Band i´ve ever seen. I think Georgia is a great nice country of the USA. Best wishes. :-)

[darrel816]

One of the greatest REM songs. Life's Rich Pageant is one of their best albums.

[SmokeDogg11]

I didn't think it was possible for this song to sound more beatiful than the original version. I was wrong. This is absolutely gorgeous.

[iw9hlm]

Poetry.

[alberzeta]

Great song by REM, beautiful unplugged.

[duskwalker2]

What kind of bass is he playing?

[CrazyCat9898]

Michael has a wonderful voice, i love R.E.M.

[riesencub]

Pure poetry - both lyrically and musically.

[sorcerer1975]

@riesencub agreed. great band with a great message ...

[kevinclager]

I love listening to this when driving over the Cuyahoga!

[Boomkap08]

A great Song, a great band. :-)

[steve66oh]

meesalikeu - anyone, always, can see a pristine Cuyahoga - you just have to go upriver past the industrial brownfields and towards its source in rural Geauga County.

[MORGAN999]

It is funny... if you don't actually read all the words to this song, it seems like a little 'feel good' ditty.

It is a song about genocide and raping the land.

You wouldn't expect Michael to write something that didn't have a deeper meaning, would you?

I love this song because it moves me deeply.

'We are NOT your allies'...

[ohiocanalgirl]

The song is about Native American Culture bieng forced out of thier homes. The Cuyahoga is a river that was so polluted that it caught fire between 1850 and 1969 12 times!

[meesalikeu]

gee 12 times! get itbstraight, yes it was dirty, but the cleve was just a media whipping boy. the hudson river burned daily from the 50's to the 80's. yes daily! and the gowanus is still as polluted as the cuyahoga ever was. pitts & 3 rivers back then? please. but instead the ny media picked on cleveland.

[thokager]

what a great version of this song, they are so talented, michael's got such a wonderful voice!!

[gpeddino]

Wonderful song. The way he sings "Take a souvenir..." at 3:40 and Mills does a beautiful slide on the bass, gives me goosebumps. R.E.M. rules us all.

[hepta86]

Qué grande Stipe! :D

[theawkwards]

i like. am always moved by this song, but can someone tell me if it's about native americans, or have i badly misconstued?

cheers

k

[jamesgeorgeblackburn]

Yep. The title is the Native American name for a River in Ohio that used to get so polluted that it would sometimes catch fire!

"We destroyed a culture to build ours"

I think at the time it was also a call for a repair of America both politically and ecologically.

[TallFastLoud]

In "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn cites a joke from a Native American newspaper about the Cuyahoga, it goes like: "A white man was telling me that Indians have never created achievements like his and I said 'You're right, what Indian would've been clever enough to create a flammable river?'"

[jot337]

This song is about the Cuyahoga River, which was so polluted it actually caught on fire. He seems to be recalling a childhood visit before it became so spoiled.

[meesalikeu]

hes just imaging, he would have to have been born in the 1700's to have seen a pristine cuyahoga!

[ybk1130]

amazing song!!!

[arabflyer]

amazing song, original and this version. death cab does a pretty good cover too. great great great band

[tarheel8494]

walked swam hunted danced sang

[remnicolas]

Wow thanks i've always wanted to hear this unplugged!

[rixenbixen]

Hey does anybody know if Michael wears colored contacts or something? Cos here his eyes seem brownish while at some of the Perfect Square thingies I´m pretty sure they´re bien blue...:O Well, they rock anyways, but I was just sorta wondering..

Love this song.

[sorcerer1975]

his eyes are hazel ...

[janathen94]

This is probably one of my favorite REM songs ever...for a long time, since the late 90's up until last year, I really missed the old REM - like how they were during the IRS years - when they put out what I think is their BEST music. With the new album Accelerate I think they've found their way back. Supernatural Superserious and Hallow Man are prime examples! I listen to Michael Stipe sing and I hear honesty, so sincere...

[Mugsycache14567]

Absolutely georgious! When did it burn? In the '70's?

[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.

[Mugsycache14567]

Wow! You are a fountain of knowledge. Thank you. Let's put our heads together now, and start a new country up.

[Terminator7653]

o yeah strange

[Terminator7653]

Strange song

[mikejacobskc]

I need oxygen, this is sooooo good!!

CUYAHOGA!

[barrycuda68]

watched it when it aired, been looking everywhere since for it, thank you for posting.Had never heard it before, now its my fav, lifes rich pagent is awsome!!

[rpbraziliansinger]

Amazing!!

[Quirkster20]

Wow, fantastic!

[demetrios4voto]

:):):):):))))))))

[soundofstone92]

Awesome!