A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 4 Interview With R.E.M.

 

Peter Buck about Michael Stipe; ' He'd probably hate me for saying this. but he had a fairly ideal childhood, and to be an adult looking back for him, is something important. It's just a reflection on his personal past, coupled with the fact that, living in the South, you're not unaware of tradition.'

The main article in the N.M.E I've chosen to feature here. The interview with R.E.M. upon the first time they've acheived this status. Andy Gill's article is a hymn of praise to the band. Artfully and elegantly scripted,  it's first and foremost an effort to communicate ideas and make connections, to inspire the reader to join dots and go further themselves. An act of creation and connection.

The subject matter is just used as the point of origin by the writer and the band as a discussion point for enquiry which branches into any number of subjects. Michael Stipe and his relationship with his parents.Cinema and photography. America and it's search for meaning, The incomprehensibility of their early lyrics and their rationale and modus operandi. Their currennt direction. Storytelling.Where they stand in the tradition of narratives.

The heading of the article, The Eternal Return of R.E.M. is indicative of the casual but committed ambition of The NME in those days. A reference to Nietzsche's concept that time repeats itself infnitely and that everything will occur again in the same way, again and again.It's a concept at once terrifying and beautiful and it marries itself magically to what listening to R.E.M felt like for me at the time. Why I got completely lost in them.

Gill watches the band play in Newcastle. He tries to untangle their appeal. Their anti charisma. The Oxfam tatty dress sense, Stipe's persona of enigma and negation, his constant transformation in terms of appearance and dress. A refusal to project, an insistence of introspection and reflection. The band cast a spell in their first three albums as dense and impenetrable as the kudzu vegetation pictured on the sleeve of their debut album Murmur. It's still a mystery of how they managed to do it. A phenomenal achievement.

Gill pinpoints the essential timeless quality of the band. The 'atmospherics of nostalgia, and regret for something lost.' How it chimes with the Athens, Georgia music scene from which they've emerged and the cultural and literary heritage of the Deep South.

'Schlump is a good word to describe Peter Buck's onstage demeanour. Swaying and flopping hither and thither, and with a pronounced final split second drag of the hand across the strings, he's the closenst thing to Keef since Keef went missing in action, Watching him you know you're in the presnce of future guitar star. Does the prospect of imminent megastardom worry him?

'I'm more famous now than I'd ever like to be. What I'm really looking for ideally is that ten years down the line people will think we did something really incredible. Even if it's overlooked now  we will have done something that's so strong it will cross all boundaries. So that in ten years people will listen yo it like I listen to The Velvet Underground or the Doors or Muddy Waters.'

It's a wonderfully written article. Interspersed with comments from the band and descriptions of their music, sensibility and perspective. The texture of their early years and crucially how they demanded an interpretive input from the listener. The audience. The article is a model lesson on best practice.  How to write about music.