R.E.M. - These Days

[Megatron1945]

1st cassette I bought as a 13 year old, along side the Cults "Love" album. WOW! Is it any wonder my grades that year were sooooo poor from listening to these cassettes over and over until the play button faded!

[campoxford]

love

[Jbone85]

1985????.....F'n Amazing.....this is classic stuff........the entire album.

My hair-metal buddies ask me what I listened to in the 80's.......they missed it.

[nilbog44]

their first several albums were all amazing. every single song was awesome on murmur,reckoning,life's rich pageant,fables,document, green,automatic for the people. most of out of time and adventures in hi fi were fantastic too. you could take any of those albums and put it up against greatest hits collections of "legends" like eric clapton or jimi hendrix and they put them to shame. an amazing band. their deep cuts are better than most artists greatest hits

[RainJetSprinklers]

Best part 1:41 to 2:09

[lovelaj0149]

we are young despite the years funny as hell

[KJS80s]

@lovelaj0149 Now that they are much older?!

[series360]

I was hoeping for a nico cover :( still this is pretty good im gonna go listion to nico now. :D

[ZigbertD]

Ahh, memories of college days.I agree this is REM's best album, great band at their peak. I saw them at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans on the tour for this record, easily one of the top five shows I've ever seen by any band. The energy level was through the roof. When they went into "Superman" from this record, I thought the place might explode.

[ambaradan60]

Simply wonderful

[Jbone85]

Great stuff

[Sligomol]

hugely underrated album, and one of the best songs ever penned.

[bbqbod]

imo the best pop song EVER!!!!!

[MultiNickDanger]

Life's Rich Pageant represents REM at the height of their potency, when they were widely acclaimed as the best band in the world, which IMO was definitely true at the time. I have purchased this album at least 5 times that I remember - twice on vinyl (I left the first one in my back windshield and it melted), once on cassette, once on CD, and once on I-Tunes. I refuse to live my life without this album in my music collection.

[feelbeat]

@MultiNickDanger I'm totally agree with you, I bought twice on vinyl, and twice on cd since I discovered it when I was 13. This record change my life. "Begin the Begib" and after "These Days" smashed my ears and my brain.

[jeffthekat]

EXCELLENT!!!

[henryyydarkkk]

Bloody hell what a tune!

[blaizevincent]

rock band next week!

[iamjanan]

The high water mark of a great American band.

[lyonslaforet]

With Murmur (1983) and Automatic For The People (1992), Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) is R.E.M.'s best album and there are three adjectives to describe it: fresh, consistent and powerful!

[EricAKATheBelgianGuy]

All the people gather/fly to carry each his burden/

Love that part. Give me these Georgian gods over today's stuff any day.

[ppnauman]

Grrreat song..! Despite the years.

[usmcfutball]

Their best album. And this is their best song that nobody plays.

Like a clarion call to action. Like a roll call of where one stands. Great music!

[christoJihad2]

I've never been more in love with a woman than I was when this album came out. Great times, dancin' in the kitchen and living room off a boom box in Glenoma, Washington. Now she's unhappily married and wants to kill herself and I'm here thinking about it all. Life can be cruel...

[thutton67]

R.E.M. in their finest hour. 'Life's Rich Pageant' is close to perfect. Proud to say I caught them on this tour - on a cold November night in 1986, 3 buds and I drove a Volks Beetle from Rhode Island to Portland, Maine. Worth the ride.

[ddoublled]

wow you guys are waxin' all lyrical and shit!!! I first saw them at the fox in ATL 4th row reckoning tour. That was the first of 42. favorite american band by FAR!!!

[charlesalber]

First REM album I ever bought!

Great stuff!

[jwarnerfortsmith]

r.e.m.----really enduring music.....michael stipe is like bob dylan lyrically i think...i love to smoke one and then be like...wha???

[groovydeus]

Agreed. 'We are young despite the years...we are hope despite the times'...Makes me feel so, even after all this time. It reaches a place that (I think) due to age, responsibility, etc..., is seldom touched by the music I hear today. Not that it any less relevant - I really enjoy Dylan for example, but those tunes really 'move' my parents. There seems to be a sweet spot in our growth where music really resonates. For me it seems this was it.

[sweetttina666]

Man its just....his voice...just reaches into my subconscious ...and ...and... (!)....twenty years later despite all my problems he still can grab my spirit and ....he must've figured out how to tap into heaven- yeah thats it!- because if there is a God that created a heaven it cant be a physical place. It must be brought TO US via chemical messenger set in motion thru voice projection and musical timing.... Sorry to ramble, he just DOES SOMETHING to me.

[catstarman1]

I think you are on to something! Like sub-sonics....a vibration that just makes you feel electric all over!!!

[themooddisorders]

3rd best album by REM

[tintrojan]

Nah, their best album. Document second, Green third

[EricAKATheBelgianGuy]

Is it just me, or is this similar melodically (especially in the opening seconds) to "Second Guessing"?

[funkydafunker]

Same here. I'm 40. Their songs keep jumping ahead of us. Brilliance.

[ladyjanus]

STILL GOOD!!

[cinemavirtualis]

Something else that amazes me is how relevant this song is to my life and the world today (at age 45).

[cinemavirtualis]

If anyone ever challenged me as to REM being a band that could really ROCK it when they want to, Id play this song to them first. It's brilliant and incredibly catchy and one of my favorite REM songs of all time.

[lyonslaforet]

Last year during the "Accelerate" tour, this song seemed to be part of the fixture in the setlists. Unfortunately, when I went to see the band in August 2008, they didn't play it. What a shame!

[Maryval99]

Great song on a great album.

Lifes rich pageant was my first R.E.M. album and I can still remember the day I've first listened to it. What a revelation!It's still my favourite REM album (and one of the greatest of all time) and it's great to read, I'm not alone in thinking that way. I definitely like most of their albums, but this one I really love. Maybe because I was young these days too...

[TheRebelLeonRoy]

I read that this song is about the band's feelings at been ridiculed in the media for preaching politics. It was meant as a kind of ballsy statement.

[YomenCoxwain]

I saw R.E.M. in November of 1987, after they had released "Document" at the Oakland Coliseum, three days before I saw U2 at the outdoor Oakland County Coliseum after they had released "The Joshua Tree"...If it had been a boxing match, the fight would have been stopped 30 seconds into the first round...R.E.M simply put U2 on their collective ass!! Opening with "Finest Worksong" and if I remember properly, as it was 22 years ago...They knocked 18,000 people on their collective keyster...

[Mugsycache14567]

I was at the REM gig. My G-friend and her firend and I drove from Humboldt State and stayed at The Colliseum Motel! DISgusting! Pubes on the towels! But REM wailed. Closed with The Velvet Underground's After Hours (And if you close the door, the night could last forever....) A great cabaret type version.

[xXSpeechImpedimentXx]

ya. and bono is such a boner.

[sweetness2follow]

If lifes rich pageant isnt in your top 10 albums of all time then I would suggest an ear surgeon.

[colibri1]

The hopeful lyrics of this song used to make me cry during the 80s.

[christoJihad2]

The best song on REM's best album, a masterpiece. The one-two punch of Begin the Begin and this song is one of the most powerful starts of any album ever. Love it.

[tintrojan]

@christoJihad2. Great  track, brilliant album. I reached this video only because I have the album on vinyl and i'm yet to obtain it on cd or otherwise. A one-two intro only matched by Ali or Frazier...!

[cyberstein12]

I love this song...they didnt play it in mexico city last november...they played took your name...but they gave us I believe and Life and how to live it...great show...it changed my life...REM and Mr. Springsteen the greatest!!!

[AgentZB4]

They Opened with this last summer in Toronto. It just blew my mind.

[Issicra]

I love the sense of urgency in this song. One of my favorites.

[Hibbleton666]

oops, see reply above lol.

[baze555]

My all time favorite album. This is REMs best Album, every single song...you wear out one song, then the next becomes your favourite!

[stickyman04]

haha yea, im wearing the hell out of this one right now!!! lol

[sweetttina666]

I will rearrange your scales?

[sorcerer1975]

this in one of my fav r.e.m. songs offa one of my fav albums of all time !!!!

[Hibbleton666]

I bought the Album 20 years ago, i knew nothing about politics,and was just a teenager enjoying these great songs.

Life's Rich Pageant is possibly my favourite album ever,but i never bothered to learn the lyrics or to go deeply into them until recently.

now in my mid thirties it makes perfect sense,what an album to waste on kids !

or was i just a bit naive ? only experiences in life can really teach us,a great album of political commentary to a terrific soundtrack.

it stands alone.

[Issicra]

I'm in the same boat as you.

What scares me a little is that I doubt we will ever see an album like this again that "kids" would even pick up... Whether they understood politics or not.

Pageant was one of their best records.

[Hibbleton666]

if you're in the same boat as me start bailing pal ! ;)

Maybe the current economic depression might stir up some political commentary from independently minded new musicians,who knows hey ? :)

but I agree,there's too few albums as good as this to have come along in the past 10 or dare i say 20 years...maybe a little economic impoverishment might get "kids" out of their instant gratification cyber comfort zones and they might even form a rock band.

nice eclipse footage btw :)

[Issicra]

I agree. This album should mandatory for any music appreciation class too.

It's kinda funny that this song was written in the midst of the Regan era... but the message is just as relevant today. Back in 1986, that message was probably lost on me... I didn't get it until years later.

This song evokes a lot of emotion in me now. Almost. like anger...

PS.. thanks for watching my eclipse vid :)

[voodookook]

I saw quite a few kids at a Richie Havens show in Beaufort, NC last week and they were into it!!!!!!

I don't think most people from my generation (70's) would understand the message he was getting across or may have never heard of him.

He was stoked to see the young turn out and assured us all they would get the job done!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's hope!

[ToulacAxeHand]

Loved it when they played this at Manchester.

Love you Michael :D

[sickerhead]

Um furniture fan is an idiot

[driver8train]

Damn, the memories come racing back everytime I hear this song.

[camarin]

they played it last night at santiago de chile, was the second song and i never thought i could actually see it ever live!

AH!!!!

[Marcuskristicus]

This and Reckoning are the best REM albums- they both have that slightly ragged sound that shows the band were having great fun.

[usmcfutball]

Penguin! To me 'These Days' by REM "is about" being young enough to think that things will be/get better by the time you reach your parent's age.

Now, this USUALLY doesn't come to pass. But when you're nineteen or twenty, well...you have the luxury of thinking that your generation is the one strong enough to give it a good shot.

Cheers!

[BlameItOnThePenguin]

I love this song but does anyone know what this song is about? Or is it suppose to be about what u think it should be about?

[FurnitureFan]

Probably - if you're a male or female medical student and have spent 5 months doing free blood testing outside supermarkets to raise money for your flight to a 3rd world country? To live there uncomfortably, to say the least, but more comfortably than others who grew up there?

[redmikeu2]

lol. perfect

[conjelo]

i caught the lyric sheet for this at oxyegen, happy times!!

[hotbookwrm]

mmmmmm, this song makes me alive.

[skillisme]

What a choon!

[MusicJew158]

amazing album!