Skip to main content

R.E.M. - Begin the Begin

Let's start 2018 with a bang.

R.E.M.'s Begin the Begin, a musical manifesto for personal activism, is a great place to start this year sonically. This was the lead song from 1986's Life's Rich Pageant and the first time that listeners could really discern Michael Stipe's lyrics. His eccentric mumble emerged from its abstract cocoon and transformed into something more pronounced, confident and explosive. Along with Stipe's strengthened howl, the band's music took on a more muscular tone. Bill Berry's drums rocked harder and Peter Buck cranked up the distortion.


The album was the first time that R.E.M. addressed political and environmental issues lyrically (Fall On Me, Flowers of Guatemala, Cuyahoga). Begin the Begin doesn't try to plant the seeds for a bloody revolution or take sides politically. Even Stipe recognizes his own inability to articulate solutions:

"Answer me a question, i can't itemize
I can't think clearly, look to me for reason
It's not there, i can't even rhyme, begin the begin"

Instead, Stipe warns of the danger of blindly following leaders and encourages us, as individuals, to recognize the power we have to make change.

"Silence means security, silence means approval
On Zenith on the TV
Tiger run around the tree
Follow the leader, run and turn into butter"

"Let's begin again like Martin Luther's zen
The mythology begins the begin...
Example, the finest example is you"

Maybe 2018 will be the year when many of us emerge from our cocoons and realize the power we have to create positive change in our communities, even as the world around us teeters on the brink of destruction. It's never too late to begin the begin.




Comments

Post a Comment

Trending Tracks

Joy Division - Ice Age

It's January 2nd. The temperature in Maine hovers between 10º and -10º F. We will be hit by a bombogenesis (weather bomb) on Thursday and Friday which will drop close to a foot of snow, followed by temperatures that could plunge 20 below. Meanwhile, the U.S. President has just responded to North Korea's most overt nuclear threat to date with a response akin to a mentally deranged joke -- the most unstatesmanlike exchange in U.S. history. Seems like the perfect moment to revisit  Joy Division's Ice Age : Ice Age was recorded in 1979, but unreleased until its appearance on the 1981 posthumous album, Still . The song is a great example of the bands early sound, driven by a frenzied post-punk beat and distorted guitars. Many listeners debate the meaning of Ice Age . Some argue that the song is a literal expression of Ian Curtis' Cold War anxiety. Others perceive it as a song about feeling disconnection (the disintegration of a relationship). It's not hard to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love & Rockets - No New Tale To Tell

This song reminds me of rolling aimlessly around the streets of San Diego in the backseat of Mona Rupe's Honda in 1992. Mona was my girlfriend's best friend. She had a license and she had adventurous taste in music. Rides with Mona provided the scenery for her gothic rock soundtrack. Among her cassettes were Peter Murphy "Deep," The Cure "Disintegration," Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine," and I think some Sisters of Mercy. I seem to remember that this Love and Rockets song was somewhere in the mix. Maybe we heard it on 91XFM, our local modern rock station that played the hell out of this song. It was never my favorite, but it definitely captures a space and time for me. The opening lyrics are sung by David J in that hushed, serpentine voice, over a perfectly mixed acoustic guitar. He draws you in and keeps you poised anxiously for the entrance of the drums. "You cannot go against nature Because when you do Go against nature It's ...
Post a Comment
Read more