What's the Frequency, Kenneth? - R.E.M. (acoustic cover)

R.E.M. song from the album Monster (1994); went to #21 in the U.S., #9 in the U.K. and topped U.S. Modern Rock Tracks on 9/24/94 for four weeks. The song is notable since it was the first song in history to debut at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.

According to Wikipedia, the title of the song is not original to the band, which guitarist Peter Buck explains in the liner notes to In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988--2003. It refers to an incident in New York City in 1986, where news anchor Dan Rather was the victim of an unprovoked attack by one or two assailants who, between beatings, would ask, "what's the frequency, Kenneth?" (although the phrase Dan Rather says he actually heard was, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"). One of the assailants has been since identified as William Tager, who attacked Rather because he thought the media had taken control of him. Furthermore, in a 2001 Harper's article ("The frequency: Solving the riddle of the Dan Rather beating") this incident was tenuously linked by Paul Limbert Allman back to the late Postmodern literary giant Donald Barthelme's writings, which contained recurrences of a character named Kenneth and in the text "Kierkegaard Unfair to Schlegel" asks, "What is the frequency?"

The phrase "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is also used in Daniel Clowes' surreal comic Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron; it is supposedly used as a formal greeting and a way to contact a mystical figure. The phrase occurs in "Final Transmission", the first episode of the 1986 TV series Crime Story. The Beauty Shop Slayer character blurts out the phrase amongst other non-sequiturs whilst slaughtering the customers and staff of a beauty shop in the opening scene.

band's official website: http://remhq.com/

intro: D, A, G (x2)
verse: A, D, Bm, G, A, D, A, G
A, D, Bm, G, A, D, Bm, E
prechorus: G, A, G, A
chorus: D, A, D, G, A, G, A (x2) D
bridge: Bm, A (x3), A, A, G, A

Category:

Music

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• rem
• r.e.m.
• what's the frequency kenneth
• acoustic
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• cover
• what's
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• frequency
• kenneth
• chords
• music
• REM
• R.E.M.

[11523chris]

Outstanding - really good

[lawgorhythm]

@11523chris thanks Chris. 

[hushthesky]

nice cover, great taste.

[lawgorhythm]

@hushthesky thanks for viewing and commenting, btw, impressive 'favorites' list you have on your page... seems we like a lot of the same music ;-)

[TheOffensiveGamer]

Nice version, mate!

[lawgorhythm]

@TheOffensiveGamer thank you, appreciate it. (sorry for the delayed response)

[estrellaazul1595]

:)



[hoherbass74]

Dude, just stop.