Green:
R.E.M.
Warner Bros. Records, 1988 (released November 1, 1988)
Producers: Scott Litt, R.E.M.
Engineers: Scott Litt, Jay Healy
Recording: Ardent Studios (Memphis, TN, US)
Additional musicians: Bucky Baxter (steel guitar), Jane Scarpantoni (cello), Keith LeBlanc (percussion)
TRACK LISTING:
- Pop Song '89
- Get Up
- You Are The Everything
- Stand
- World Leader Pretend
- The Wrong Child
- Orange Crush
- Turn You Inside-Out
- Hairshirt
- I Remember California
- 11 (UNTITLED)
R.E.M.'s major label debut, it follows the overtly political nature of their previous album Document with an equally political album, released on election day in the United States.1 However, it is not just a political album, but focuses on themes of love (!) and disillusionment. One gets the sense of a band trying to move beyond what was their accepted sound, and move into more complex music, while trying not to reject what made them popular in the first place--lyrical imagism and jangly guitars.
Green goes beyond the anger of Document into a sadder world--"World Leader Pretend" is a quieter meditation than, say, "Disturbance at the Heron House" or "Welcome to the Occupation." The only truely "hard" songs are "Orange Crush" (about Agent Orange, used in Vietnam, in which Michael Stipe's father fought), "Turn You Inside-Out" (about a cult of personality mindset), and "I Remember California" (a bitter commentary of hippie nostalgia in the 1980s greed culture).
Meanwhile, there are unexpected songs of tenderness, such as "You Are the Everything" and the untitled final song2, which repeats the often-used themes of loneliness and travel, common to R.E.M.'s songs since 1984's Reckoning. And then there's the poignant song "The Wrong Child" about a child who is an outcast (perhaps retarded or autistic) and can only make friends in his imagination.
But it is also one of R.E.M's most upbeat records, with songs like "Get Up" and "Stand"--fun pop songs with dubious meanings, and the surrealist lyrics and folk melody of "Hairshirt"--the band wouldnt' sound this upbeat again until... um...
Finally, while the album is called Green, the cover is orange. What's up with that? you say? Well, it simple/complex. The color orange echoes the title of "Orange Crush"--and thus refers to that wonderful chemical intended to deforest Vietnam and thus give the guerrillas no place to hide. A certain irony, of course. Frankly, the orange color also looks like a smog-filled sky, particularly in Los Angeles, which echoes "I Remember California." It also emphasizes the enviornmentalist cause of the band.
1. This fact is alluded to on the song "Pop Song '89."
2. The drum beat is actually played by guitarist Peter Buck. It was so simple, but so un-drummerlike, according to drummer Bill Berry, that when it was played live, Buck would sometimes have to take over the drums, and switch the guitar to another member of the band.