On Chronic Town.....

Saturday morning coffee with R.E.M. and their debut ep Chronic Town. This record has literally been hanging on my basement wall for a year or so. In that time, I've resurrected my turntable and have been listening to vinyl almost exclusively in the house. So throwing this on this morning has really transported me straight back to 1982, and in a good way. I bought this record based solely on the cover. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't...think Molly Hatchet. The color wash, combined with the gargoyle, and even the font for R.E.M. told me that this record was something different. Sure the guys on the back had some cool 80's haircuts, but titles like Wolves, Lower and Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars) didn't lead me to believe these were gonna be songs about Johnny and Jane.

Chronic Town starts off with 1,000,000. What does this guy keep repeating? Then the chorus of "I could live a million.....years." "Living....deadlier.....smarter too...." the rest is still undecipherable. Of course the internet helps us out with that, but do we really want to know? That was the draw hear. Listen again, listen again. Who were these mysterious people and why did they make me dance alone in my bedroom?

Stumble is next. Here the rickenbacher jangle debuts, creating the signature R.E.M. sound. This song too has the indecipherable repeating lyric, "barrrr....tannnnn?!?!" then the chorus "We'll stumble through the yard." Then another 4 bars of the melodic nonsense. Wow, this was a totally different listening experience, my main musical diet of the time being The Police, Squeeze, Joe Jackson and Devo.

Side 2 offered the Holy Grail of indie or college rock. Isn't this where it began? Three songs, Wolves, Lower, Gardening at Night (go ahead and sing it, the melody lives in your subconcious), and Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars). What memory does this run of songs conjure? Charleston, Illinois and a dance club called Mothers. This would be a couple years later, but I can plainly picture parking in a bank lot, walking across the street to Mothers with i.d. in hand, eighteen mind you, and stepping inside. Did they always(only) play R.E.M.? Who would be there? B.J., Cargill, Jim, and who else? Not sure. Probably only the four of us in any combination. But this was the place that solidified my love for the music I embraced the rest of my life. The idea that I wasn't the only person listening to Chronic Town and Murmur; that Boxcars only made me dance. What else do I hear in these memories? Costello, Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, db's, Split Enz, the Producers, Let's Active....on and on. Everytime I went there I found someone new. This was the equivalent satellite radio then. Live with other people. And thinking about it now, Adrian is nearly the same age now as I was then. Huh.

I don't have Chronic Town on cd. I think the reason why is that it's much too small. Chronic Town is a 12" record, not a 5" cd.